Wasilla planners attach traffic study, sidewalk review to Parks Highway gas station permit

A convenience store and gas station approved for 1451 W. Parks Highway must complete a state traffic study and ask the City of Wasilla whether a sidewalk can be built along West Nicola Avenue. The Wasilla Planning Commission added both conditions on July 28 after a resident testified about children walking that street.

The Planning Commission is scheduled to adopt the written decisions for that permit and for a youth behavioral health facility at its Aug. 11 regular meeting. The proposed decisions carry an effective date of Aug. 11 and set out the findings and conditions attached to each approval.

Jamie Bliss, a city resident, told the commission that the speed limit on West Nicola Avenue is 25 mph, that pedestrians there regularly adjust to vehicle traffic, and that the street serves as a school bus route. She said she was particularly concerned for young children given the anticipated increase in traffic.

Commissioner Carolyn DeYoung moved to amend the main motion to require the traffic analysis and the Public Works coordination. That amendment passed 5-0, as did the main motion as amended.

Scott Jones, architect for Valley Country Store and Prism Construction, said the traffic analysis was already underway at the direction of the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities. The 11,144-square-foot store sits on about 5.94 acres between the Parks Highway and West Nicola Avenue. The project required a conditional use permit because its gross floor area exceeds the 10,000-square-foot threshold set in the Wasilla Municipal Code for commercial uses in the Commercial district.

The traffic study and sidewalk coordination are the last two of seven conditions in the written decision. The other five cover permits, paving, snow storage, signs and trees. The applicant must obtain water, sewer and driveway permits before a land use permit is issued. It must pave or otherwise surface the first 40 feet of aisles and driveways next to paved roadways. It must submit a revised site plan showing snow storage of 25 square feet per parking space, and obtain sign permits before installing commercial signage. It must also verify that enough healthy existing trees remain along the West Nicola Avenue frontage to satisfy the buffer landscaping standard, with supplemental planting if not.

The Parks Highway is a principal arterial, and auto-oriented commercial development along it continues to expand next to residential streets such as West Nicola Avenue.

On July 28, the commission also approved, 5-0, a 21,700-square-foot outpatient behavioral health facility at 600 N. Lucille Street for Denali Family Services. JJ Harrier, the organization's director of development and communications, said it serves 70 to 80 Mat-Su youth annually and turns away about 10 a week for lack of capacity. No member of the public testified on that application.