Wasilla weighs a facility meant to keep Alaska kids in Alaska

Alaska has long sent children out of state for behavioral health care it can't provide at home. A proposed Wasilla facility is built to bring some of them back, and it went before the city Planning Commission on Tuesday.

Denali Family Services is seeking a conditional use permit for a 21,700-square-foot outpatient youth behavioral health center at 600 N. Lucille St. The organization has framed the project around cutting out-of-state placements for Alaska kids, the practice of sending children to Lower 48 facilities when in-state options run short. City staff recommended approval, with routine conditions on utilities, fire certification and driveway design.

The permit shared the agenda with an unrelated application, a convenience store and gas station on the Parks Highway, also recommended for approval.

The records available as of publication, the city's public notice and the meeting packet, cover only the applications and the hearing. They don't show whether the commission approved, denied or continued either permit.