Chugach State Park
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Anchorage Assembly takes up rewritten Chugach access board plan Tuesday
The Anchorage Assembly resumes its public hearing Tuesday, Oct. 20, on a proposed board to advise the city on Chugach State Park access projects, a plan its sponsors rewrote this fall to reserve two seats for people with experience on neighborhood road boards next to the park.
The ordinance, from Assembly Chair Anna Brawley, who represents West Anchorage, and Vice Chair Daniel Volland, who represents North Anchorage, would create a seven-member board appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the Assembly. It would advise on projects for the Chugach State Park Access Service Area, known as CASA, which voters created in April 2023 to pay for roads, trailheads and parking leading into the park. Property owners across the Anchorage Bowl and Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson pay into it. The board would have no land use authority.
The question has been who sits on it. An informal working group has shaped CASA spending so far, Alaska News reported in July. When the Assembly took testimony in August, residents, road service areas and community councils split over whether the people shaping park access projects should be recreation advocates or the neighborhoods beside the trailheads, and the Assembly voted 12-0 to put off a decision, Alaska News reported. "The underlying conflict that this is going to surface will not go away until we resolve it," Volland said then.
The rewrite, which Alaska News first reported Oct. 3, narrows two of the board's four resident seats. The original version opened them to anyone living in a limited or rural road service area, the neighborhood districts that maintain their own roads. The new one requires people who serve, or have served within the last 10 years, on the board of a road service area bordering the park, and the two can't sit on the same road board at the same time. The other two resident seats go to residents of the Anchorage Roads and Drainage Service Area. All four must show Chugach recreation experience over the past five years and firsthand knowledge of multiple access points.
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Stories on what’s next
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Latest
October 2026
Anchorage plan narrows road service area seats on Chugach board
Anchorage Assembly narrowed who can fill two Chugach State Park access board seats to current or former road board supervisors instead of any road service area resident.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
September 2026
Registration permits open Friday for Chugach mountain goats after drawing hunt falls short of quota
Chugach goat hunters who struck out in the drawing get another shot: Unit 14A registration permits open Friday after drawing hunters took just 7 of 12 goats.
by Bill AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
Anchorage approves a bigger paved lot at the Basher Trailhead
Anchorage approved replacing the Basher Trailhead's 16-space gravel lot with a paved 52-space one, ending a year-long fight over its size.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min read
Anchorage weighs paving and expanding the Basher Trailhead lot
Anchorage would pave and expand the 16-car Basher Trailhead lot to 52 spaces. Staff back it but warn it could draw more cars if parking isn't priced.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
Two bulls close the bow-only moose hunt at Eklutna Lake, with hunters still out
Two bulls came out of the Eklutna Lake country and the bow hunt is over. That is roughly half a ton of meat taken off a herd of about seventy.
by Bill AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
Anchorage trails plan keeps Muldoon trail but drops JBER from its name
Anchorage kept the Muldoon trail in its revised plan but dropped JBER from the name after the military base cited security concerns during public comment.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
August 2026
A $1.5 billion Seward Highway rebuild goes to public comment Sept. 22
The state wants to rebuild 20 miles of the Seward Highway as a four-lane divided road for more than $1.5 billion. Public comment opens Sept. 22.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read
A proposed rule would presume national forest roads and trails are open unless the Forest Service documents a reason to close them
A proposed rule would presume national forest roads and trails, including in Alaska, are open unless the Forest Service documents a reason to close them.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
More from Chugach State Park
USDA proposes lifting roadless rule protections on Tongass and Chugach
USDA proposes ending the 2001 Roadless Rule on Alaska's Tongass and Chugach forests, opening 9.3 million acres to potential road building and logging under local forest plans. Comments due Sept. 21.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read
A resident wants Anchorage's Chugach park-access board rewritten to give locals more control
Anchorage's Chugach park-access board would give paying residents a 4-of-7 majority, but one resident wants it tilted even further toward locals.
by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 2mo ago2 min read
The state is drilling test holes for a Seward Highway fix, as a bigger $1.5 billion plan draws fire
The state is rebidding a routine Seward Highway drilling job, but the real fight is a $1.5 billion rebuild up the road that critics call oversized.
by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read
Who controls Chugach access spending: trail advocates or the neighborhoods next door?
Anchorage delayed creating a board to steer Chugach park-access spending, as neighborhoods and trail advocates split over who should control it. The Assembly decides Oct. 6.
by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read
A $1.5 billion Seward Highway plan pits safety against the Turnagain Arm viewshed
A $1.5 billion Seward Highway rebuild has split Anchorage — the state says it's a safety fix for a deadly corridor; a coalition of critics says it's a highway-widening project that would scar Turnagain Arm.
by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read
July 2026
Anchorage wants a public board to steer its Chugach access money — and set qualifications for who runs it
Anchorage wants to turn the informal group steering its Chugach access tax money into a formal board with defined expertise — one that vets trailhead and road projects in public rather than privately.
by Walter AlaskaNews3mo ago2 min read
Brown bear injures hiker on Bear Valley trail above south Anchorage
A brown bear injured a hiker on a social trail above Bear Valley in south Anchorage on Saturday, prompting Fish and Game to post warning signs and urge hikers to travel in groups and carry bear spray.
by Maggie AlaskaNewsadded 3mo ago2 min read
Hikers take two days. Crow Pass runners do it in hours
The Crow Pass Crossing sends 150 runners 23.5 miles across glaciers, brush, and a cold river Saturday, with no aid stations. Hikers take two days; the fastest finish in about three hours.
by Walter AlaskaNews4mo ago1 min read
About Chugach State Park
Chugach State Park is a state park on Anchorage's eastern edge in the Chugach Mountains of Southcentral Alaska. Trailheads such as Flattop, Glen Alps, Eklutna Lake and Basher, and routes like Crow Pass and Bear Valley, draw hikers, runners and skiers.
How access to the park is paid for and governed is a recurring question, as Anchorage decides who sits on a board steering the tax money for trailhead roads and parking and how large trailhead lots should be. Trail-use rules such as limits on e-bikes, hunts for mountain goats and moose, and encounters with bears are also part of its stories.
The park borders Hillside neighborhoods and communities such as Eagle River, Chugiak and Girdwood, and its access questions often divide trail advocates and nearby residents. Projects at its edges, such as the Seward Highway along Turnagain Arm and avalanche control near Girdwood, touch it as well.
More from Chugach State Park
June 2026
A Chugach e-bike rule became a fight over who belongs in the backcountry
The Chugach reminded everyone e-bikes can't use hiking trails. The comment section promptly declared war.
by Walter AlaskaNews4mo ago2 min read
Basher parking plan rises after city estimate showed need for more
Bashing in Basher, but can't unbash what's been bashered.
by Walter AlaskaNews5mo ago2 min read
May 2026
Chugach Electric wins easement for power line at Community Park Loop
Chugach Electric won an easement from the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority to realign a power line at Community Park Loop in Anchorage.
by Alaska News5mo ago1 min read
Assembly Approves $64.8M Bond Appropriation for Capital Projects
Anchorage Assembly unanimously approved $64.86 million in bond funds for roads, fire protection, parks, transit and other city projects on May 12.
by Alaska News6mo ago1 min read
April 2026
Commission Approves Explosives Storage Site for Avalanche Control
Anchorage Planning Commission unanimously approved an explosives storage facility near Girdwood for avalanche control, pending Assembly rezone vote May 12.
by Alaska Newsadded 6mo ago3 min read
Assembly rejects resolution seeking larger Basher Trailhead parking lot
Anchorage Assembly rejected a resolution to expand Basher Trailhead parking from 45 to 60 spaces, voting 5-6 over whether it should override the administration's design work.
by Walter AlaskaNews6mo ago3 min read
