Land Use

Kodiak mayor breaks 3-3 council tie to advance $200,000 city lot sale

Kodiak Mayor Terry Haines broke a tie to advance a $200,000 city lot sale for shops and apartments near the airport.

by Walter AlaskaNews9h ago2 min read

Follows: Kodiak weighs selling a vacant city lot for a building with six apartments over six shops

Houston's data center moratorium can't reach land the state gave AIDEA, officials say

Houston's data center pause stops at city limits. The 6,800 acres the state is giving AIDEA start about half a mile past them, the deputy mayor says.

by Walter AlaskaNews13h ago2 min read

Kenai Airport Commission recommends council adopt updated plan for 376 city parcels

Kenai Airport Commission backed the city's updated 2026 Land Management Plan covering 376 city parcels, many tied to the airport fund. City Council has final say.

by Walter AlaskaNews15h ago2 min read

Kenai planners to weigh dropping park status from a lot that never became a park

Kenai's Ahlstrom Park has been a park on paper for over 20 years without ever becoming one. Planners vote Tuesday on whether to recommend dropping it.

by Walter AlaskaNews15h ago2 min read

Follows: Kenai parks commission to weigh dropping park status from Ahlstrom Park lot

Kenai planners weigh gravel pit dug below the water table off Beaver Loop Road

A gravel company wants to dig a pit off Kenai's Beaver Loop Road that could one day become a lake with room for houses. The commission takes it up Tuesday.

by Walter AlaskaNews15h ago2 min read

Wasilla planners move to ask the council to repeal its ban on housing in commercial zones

Wasilla's planning commission moved to ask the City Council to undo its ban on housing in commercial zones, and some members vented about being ignored.

by Walter AlaskaNews2d ago2 min read

State approves giving AIDEA 6,800 acres near Houston, a third of what it first proposed

The state approved giving AIDEA 6,800 acres near Houston free, a third of what it first proposed, and added a clause returning undeveloped land to the state.

by Alaska News2d ago3 min read

Haines draft would require permits for taxis and tours in the Chilkoot Corridor

Haines already paused new tour permits in its Chilkoot bear-viewing corridor. Now a draft would make taxis, Ubers and multi-day tours get permits too.

by Walter AlaskaNews2d ago2 min read

Haines Borough weighs what to do with 1,180 acres at Excursion Inlet

Haines Borough has about 1,180 acres at remote Excursion Inlet and is asking what to do with it: homes, a sale, timber or keeping it for public use.

by Walter AlaskaNews3d ago2 min read

Nome staff recommend denying Bonanza Fuel rezone and King Island tribal home variances

Nome planners recommend saying no to a fuel company's shop in a residential area and to fixes for a tribal home whose stairs crossed a lot line.

by Walter AlaskaNews3d ago2 min read

BLM proposes cutting public comment time on its major land plans from 90 days to 30

: BLM proposed cutting public comment on big land plans from 90 days to 30 and making full impact statements optional. It oversees 70 million Alaska acres.

by Maggie AlaskaNews3d ago3 min read

Anchorage Assembly sets Dec. 15 hearing on Chugach Electric heavy-industrial rezone

The Anchorage Assembly will hear Chugach Electric's request Dec. 15 to zone its Third Avenue utility yard heavy industrial, matching decades of utility use.

by Walter AlaskaNews3d ago1 min read

Kodiak weighs selling a vacant city lot for a building with six apartments over six shops

A Kodiak company wants six apartments over six shops on an empty city lot by the airport. The council takes its first vote on the $200,000 sale Thursday.

by Walter AlaskaNews4d ago2 min read

Seward-Tudor interchange rebuild estimated at $96.5 million

The state's draft design puts the Seward Highway–Tudor Road interchange rebuild at $96.5 million. So far, only the $5 million for design is approved.

by Walter AlaskaNews6d ago2 min read

Fairbanks borough officer to reconsider approving merger of 17 Salcha lots into one

A Fairbanks borough hearing officer will reconsider Nov. 19 his approval merging 17 Salcha lots into one 38-acre parcel near the Richardson Highway.

by Maggie AlaskaNews6d ago2 min read

Anchorage plan would let staff decide some cases that now get public hearings

Anchorage planners want staff, not public hearings, to settle some routine land-use requests. Now they've asked to push the first hearing to December.

by Walter AlaskaNews1w ago2 min read

State catalogs 1970s drill notes from 26,000 NPR-A holes to help find North Slope gravel

Seismic crews drilled tens of thousands of holes across NPR-A in the 1970s and logged what they hit. The state cataloged it to help find North Slope gravel.

by Maggie AlaskaNews1w ago2 min read

Anchorage sets Dec. 1 hearings on rezones for 44 townhomes and a Chugach utility yard

Anchorage set Dec. 1 hearings on rezoning 44 townhomes that sit on land zoned for shops and Chugach Electric's longtime utility yard to heavy industrial.

by Walter AlaskaNews6d ago2 min read

Follows: Anchorage Assembly takes up rezone for 44 townhomes sitting on land zoned for shops

Couple seeks five more years for their floathome in Camp Coogan Bay near Sitka

A couple wants five more years to keep their floathome moored on state tidelands in Camp Coogan Bay near Sitka. Comments to the state are due Nov. 18.

by Maggie AlaskaNews1w ago1 min read

Kenai land plan would auction part of the sports complex parcel for housing

Kenai's parks commission backed a plan to auction a corner of the sports complex parcel for housing. The memo doesn't say if it overlaps protected acres.

by Maggie AlaskaNews1w ago2 min read

Wasilla council weighs $73,865 more to finish its first new growth plan since 2011

Wasilla's growth plan dates to 2011. The council Monday considers paying DOWL $73,865 more to finish the new one, which goes to the public in January.

by Walter AlaskaNews1w ago2 min read

Wasilla's first new growth plan since 2011 heads to public comment in January

Wasilla is rewriting the plan for how the city grows, its first since 2011. Residents get to weigh in on a draft in January. Density is still undecided.

by Walter AlaskaNews1w ago2 min read

BLM cuts more than 5 million acres from Alaska's extra statehood land claims

BLM cut more than 5 million acres of Alaska's extra statehood land claims Tuesday, opening land to the federal subsistence priority and potential mining claims.

by Maggie AlaskaNews1w ago2 min read

Petersburg Assembly advances pause on some data centers, rejects a wider one

Petersburg's Assembly advanced a pause on some data centers through September 2027. A push to pause all of them, closed-loop or not, failed on a 3-3 tie.

by Walter AlaskaNews1w ago2 min read

Assembly chair drafts ordinance to cut 24 of Anchorage's 51 comprehensive plan documents

Anchorage's comprehensive plan fills a suitcase, and eight parts can't be found. The Assembly chair now wants to repeal 24 of its 51 documents.

by Walter AlaskaNews1w ago3 min read

Juneau could sell Indian Village lots to Tlingit & Haida below market value

Tlingit & Haida applied to acquire four city-owned lots in Juneau's Indian Village, and city staff want the Assembly to weigh selling them below market value.

by Walter AlaskaNews1w ago3 min readFrom Sep 4

Anchorage planners seek delays on three hearings, including Tudor interchange

Anchorage planners asked to push three Nov. 9 hearings into December. It would be the second delay for the Seward Highway-Tudor Road interchange review.

by Walter AlaskaNews1w ago1 min read

Palmer airport plans to ask FAA to approve golf course rent of at least $114,000

Palmer's airport chief wants FAA approval to raise the city golf course's rent on airport land from about $15,000 to at least $114,000 a year.

by Walter AlaskaNews1w ago2 min read

State gives final OK to dropping two public easements on a Harding Lake lot

DNR finalized the Sampsons' bid to vacate two public easements on their Harding Lake lot. A 50-foot utility strip stays, and a final survey plat is due in two years.

by Maggie AlaskaNews1w ago2 min read

Seward moves toward transferring Jesse Lee orphanage cemetery to the Qutekcak Native Tribe

Seward takes a first step Tuesday toward transferring the Jesse Lee Cemetery, which holds burials from a former orphanage, to the Qutekcak Native Tribe.

by Walter AlaskaNews1w ago2 min readFrom Apr 13

Whittier council to discuss buying railroad land in closed session Nov. 17

Whittier wants to buy about 85 acres in town from the Alaska Railroad. The council discusses it behind closed doors Nov. 17, and the price hasn't been released.

by Walter AlaskaNews1w ago2 min readFrom Oct 20

Mental Health Trust OKs old-growth logging above Hollis' historic Wolf Creek Boatworks

The Mental Health Trust approved a timber sale with 800 acres of old growth on the hillside above Prince of Wales' historic Wolf Creek Boatworks.

by Maggie AlaskaNews1w ago2 min read

Planners say Missing Middle overlay fits Anchorage's comprehensive plan

Anchorage planners say the Missing Middle overlay fits the city's comprehensive plan, a plan they also say contradicts itself. The Assembly gets the final word.

by Walter AlaskaNews1w ago3 min read

State approves 25-year renewal of College Road lease, with rent to reset to market value

The state approved renewing the 1971 lease under the Alaska Fun Center on College Road for 25 years. The rent, about $4,000 a year, will reset to market value.

by Maggie AlaskaNews1w ago2 min read

State proposes 320-acre Dalton Highway gravel site near the Ambler road's start

The state wants to open a 320-acre gravel site at Dalton Highway Milepost 165, about four miles from where the Ambler road would start. DOT gets the first load.

by Maggie AlaskaNews2w ago2 min read

Fairbanks planning staff back data center pause and urge a 40,000-square-foot threshold

Fairbanks borough planners back the mayor's pause on big data centers and want it to reach smaller ones, starting at 40,000 square feet instead of 50,000.

by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago2 min read

Follows: Fairbanks borough mayor proposes pause on large data center permits through 2027

Kenai parks commission to weigh dropping park status from Ahlstrom Park lot

Kenai wants to drop the park label from a 2.32-acre lot to help redraw a 1955 subdivision with largely unbuilt roads for homes. Parks panel weighs in Nov. 5.

by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago2 min read

State plans to sell DOT 50,000 cubic yards of rock from a Lowe River quarry

DOT wants 50,000 cubic yards of rock from a Lowe River quarry near Keystone Canyon. When it opened for Alyeska in 1983, some rocks came out 10 feet across.

by Alaska News2w ago2 min read

BLM switches White Mountains and Steese to winter snowmobile rules after snow arrives

BLM switched White Mountains and Steese to winter rules Wednesday, opening trails to snowmobiles under 1,000 pounds. Rules run through April 30, though some trails remain unmarked.

by Maggie AlaskaNews2w ago2 min read

Follows: BLM pushes White Mountains winter season to Nov. 1 for lack of snow

Fairbanks' new comprehensive plan won't ban data centers, despite calls for one

Fairbanks' new 20-year plan won't ban data centers, though many comments asked it to. Planners say a ban there is legally problematic; rules would come later.

by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago2 min read

Follows: Fairbanks borough mayor proposes pause on large data center permits through 2027