Municipality of Anchorage

The hockey association runs Anchorage's city rinks now, for $10 a year

The hockey association took over Anchorage's two city rinks in June for $10 a year. The old operator owed $360,000. The first big repair bill is Tuesday.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

The Port of Alaska's terminal design contract is up 50 percent and rising again

The Port of Alaska's Terminal 1 design contract is up 50 percent from 2023. Every year I got to come back for more, the port director says.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

An Anchorage officer killed a woman downtown, by the department's account

An Anchorage officer shot and killed a woman at a downtown apartment Aug. 18. The account comes almost entirely from the police chief.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min readFrom Aug 18

Anchorage grant would keep HIV testing and outreach going through 2027

A $114,470 state grant on the Anchorage Assembly's agenda would keep the city's offsite HIV education, counseling and testing running through June 2027.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Anchorage owns an aging arts center, and repairs keep outpacing the budget

A heating repair at Anchorage's city-owned performing arts center is running 71 percent over the budget the Assembly set for it back in May.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

An inspector cited Anchorage's ice rinks for safety valves a decade old

Safety valves at Anchorage's two city ice rinks were due for replacement five years ago. An inspector noticed. The fix is inside a $936,000 repair bill.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Anchorage's port cargo surcharge nearly triples to fund a rebuild

The surcharge on cargo through Anchorage's port nearly triples Jan. 1, the first step in paying for a $2 billion rebuild, and could hit $70 a ton by 2033.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

The mayor wants two more members on a naming commission that cannot meet

Anchorage's naming commission has five members and needs five to meet, so it hasn't. The mayor wants two more confirmed before it expires next month.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Two closed Anchorage school buildings head back to municipal hands

Two closed Anchorage schools, Abbott Loop and Campbell STEM, are set to return to the municipality, moving their fate from the School Board to the Assembly.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Anchorage wants 10,000 homes. Its zoning fight is over where they can fit.

Anchorage wants 10,000 homes in 10 years. Tuesday's zoning fight is over where they can go — because adding homes means letting familiar blocks change.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago7 min read

Anchorage weighs a five-year road-sweeping contract for Eagle River

The Anchorage Assembly decides Tuesday whether to hire Big Bear to sweep road shoulders in the Eagle River area, at up to $2.97 million over five years.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

A mobile home lot near Abbott Road could become business-zoned

A mobile home lot near Abbott Road would become business-zoned. Nobody objected, and a planner noted such changes can displace mobile-home residents.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Anchorage zoning board approves setback variance for Chandalar Drive home

Anchorage zoning board unanimously approved a variance allowing a Chandalar Drive home to keep an addition that has encroached 1.3 feet into the required setback since 1998

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Follows: Anchorage weighs a variance for a 1998 setback encroachment

Anchorage zoning board backs letting director approve bigger setback fixes without a hearing

An Anchorage board voted to let the planning director approve building encroachments up to 15 percent without a hearing, tripling the current threshold.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Anchorage Assembly schedules Hispanic Heritage Month health fair with Spanish-speaking staff

Anchorage Assembly is scheduling a health fair with Spanish-speaking staff and translation services for Saturday, Oct. 3, as part of Hispanic Heritage Month events starting Sept. 20.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

An ordinance would tighten oversight of Anchorage's staffing overruns

Anchorage's government has run past its budgeted position count five years running. Three Assembly members want future overruns to need the mayor's sign-off.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Anchorage weighs $2.8M state payment, most of it for winter shelter

Anchorage cut $1 million in contracted surge shelter beds when alcohol tax revenue fell short. State money would put them back ahead of winter.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min readFrom Sep 1

Anchorage marks Hispanic and Latino Heritage Month, now recognized in state law

Anchorage marks Hispanic and Latino Heritage Month for the third year, and the first under state law. Alaska's Hispanic history runs back to the canneries.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Anchorage Assembly takes up next year's budget priorities

The Anchorage Assembly takes up its budget priorities for the coming year Tuesday, along with two appointments to city commissions.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Free medical, dental and vision care comes to Sullivan Arena Sept. 19-20

Free medical, dental and vision care is available to anyone at Anchorage's Sullivan Arena Sept. 19 and 20 — no ID, insurance or income required. Come early.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 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

An Anchorage housing ordinance does more than its title says

Anchorage's shop-house ordinance would also shrink the minimum commercial lot to about 2,700 square feet. The city says it outgrew its own title.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Anchorage Assembly has one meeting left before a transit safety deadline

Anchorage has one meeting left before a federal deadline to fix its transit safety plan. Assaults involving security staff rose by half last year.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Anchorage Assembly ordinance restores parking permit rule its planning commission voted 8-0 to cut

Anchorage's planning commission voted unanimously to drop a parking lot restriction. The Assembly sponsors put it back in and will take it up Oct. 20.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Anchorage weighs who decides when cold-weather shelter opens

An Anchorage ordinance up Sept. 15 would let the health director decide when emergency shelter opens, replacing the current 45-degree trigger.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Anchorage could shrink its minimum lot size by two-thirds under a pending ordinance

Anchorage could cut its minimum single-family lot to a third of current size and let buildings cover 70 percent of it. The hearing is Sept. 15.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min readFrom Jun 9

Anchorage clears a substation plat on quake-prone Port ground

Anchorage approved a plat for a new Chugach Electric substation at the Port on ground its own maps rate as highly likely to fail in an earthquake.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min readFrom Sep 2

Follows: Port of Alaska seeks road realignment for Chugach Electric substation

Anchorage auditors flag a gap in Assembly travel approvals

Anchorage auditors found signed approval on all 38 Assembly trips but could document a second 2025 step on only one of 15. A broader review is now underway.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago3 min readFrom Sep 1

Follows: Fifteen Anchorage Assembly members will have their spending accounts examined in a 9-2 vote

Federal grant will test a Yup'ik healing framework against homelessness

Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness won $450,000 to serve Alaska Native households facing homelessness through case management and traditional Yup'ik healing practices through August 2027.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

A housing-zoning fix has stalled for months before Anchorage's appeals board

A housing-zoning fix has stalled before Anchorage's appeals board since spring — set aside twice — even as the administration pushes housing as a priority.

by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 2mo ago3 min readFrom Jun 11

Follows: Anchorage's planning director could approve bigger encroachments alone

Anchorage canceled five assessment appeal sessions over the summer

Five Anchorage assessment appeal sessions were canceled over the summer while the backlog stretched toward November. A report ordered in February is overdue.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

Anchorage paid to expand the crime center, then put off the rules

Anchorage funded a $598,998 crime center expansion the same night it postponed the public hearing on rules meant to govern that center.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Planners urged cutting the overlay's R-1 height break. The sponsors kept it.

Anchorage planning staff told the sponsors of a housing overlay to drop its special height rules for single-family zones. The sponsors kept them.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago3 min read

Anchorage's next mayor to earn about $183,000, a 26 percent raise

Anchorage's next mayor will make about $183,000, a 26 percent raise — though it won't take effect until whoever wins the April 2027 election.

by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 2mo ago1 min read

A fourplex would install no landscaping under this Anchorage ordinance

A builder putting four homes on an Anchorage lot would install no landscaped buffer under an ordinance up for public hearing Oct. 6.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Anchorage police force falls hardest on Alaska Native residents

A review found Anchorage police use force disproportionately on Alaska Native residents, more than comparable cities — and likely overstated what they've fixed.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago4 min read

Anchorage's planning director could approve bigger encroachments alone

Anchorage's planning director could approve setback encroachments three times larger than now allowed, without the public hearing a variance requires.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Anchorage weighs a variance for a 1998 setback encroachment

A house on Chandalar Drive in Anchorage has stood 1.3 feet inside its required setback since 1998, and the city is being asked to let it stay.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Anchorage would trade away land it bought five years ago for $2.35 million

Anchorage would trade away land it paid $2.35 million to buy in 2021, before its own study of the site is finished and over a state objection.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Some Anchorage homes went a month without running water last winter

Some Anchorage homes went a month without running water last winter. Frozen lines hit triple the usual number, and thawing them is the customer's expense.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min readFrom Aug 20