Zoning board to decide Girdwood home's request to build inside stream setback

Anchorage's Zoning Board of Examiners and Appeals decides Thursday evening at the Loussac Library whether Alyeska Serendipity LLC can build inside a stream setback at 158 Northland Road in Girdwood.

The owner would rebuild the existing house east of the stream and add a garage with an accessory dwelling unit to the west, joined by a foot bridge over the stream. That means building 4 feet 6 inches into the 25-foot stream setback for the house and 14 feet for the garage, plus 5 feet into the garage's front and side setbacks.

The house was built in 1975, before Anchorage adopted stream setbacks in 1985, and the owner, who bought the property in 2021, can rebuild in the same spot, according to the staff report. Stream setbacks cover about 61% of the lot, the application says, and the stream splits what's left, leaving only 325 square feet buildable without crossing it.

Staff found the stream creates an undue hardship the owner did not cause. But the Planning Department recommends denying the stream setback and bridge requests, saying a smaller or shifted design could reduce the encroachment, though utility easements and power lines limit those options. Staff support the garage's front and side setbacks.

Most neighbors who wrote in oppose the project. Will and Adrienne Brennan, who live across the street, wrote that the bridge could act "as a dam during flood events." Larry Segal, a building contractor who has lived nearby for 25 years, wrote that he has seen silt building up in the pond. West neighbor Justin MacDonald said he could accept the garage's narrower setback if it spares mature trees along the shared property line.

In a letter, Jennifer Wingard, co-chair of the Girdwood Board of Supervisors, asked the board to fully vet neighbors' concerns and to recognize "the petitioner's work over the last 2 years with the Watershed Department." The staff report says the board of supervisors itself did not comment. The city's Watershed Management Services worries bridge pilings could erode the stream bank but does not object to the house or garage if native vegetation near the garage is kept.