Wasilla weighs retail on land that partly floods

Wasilla wants to be a commercial hub, but this particular piece of land wants to be a floodplain. A developer is asking the city to green-light retail on 8 acres along Cottonwood Creek that partly sits in a 100-year flood zone and has no water or sewer — and the city's own plan says the land should stay residential.

That's the friction. RFN Properties wants the parcels rezoned commercial so it can market them to buyers, and the city's planners back it, pointing to Wasilla's push to grow as a regional retail center. But the site carries real baggage: part of it floods, serving it would take a 550-foot utility extension bored under Knik-Goose Bay Road, and the rezone runs against the city's own future land-use map, which calls the land residential. The Planning Commission recommended approval anyway, 4-1.

None of those problems have to be solved before the vote — the zoning changes on paper, and the flooding and utility questions get worked out only if someone actually tries to build. The council holds a final hearing July 27 before deciding.