Zoning
RSSResidential, commercial, industrial zoning rules; variances; conditional use permits
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 AlaskaNews1h ago2 min readAI
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 AlaskaNews11h ago2 min readAI
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 AlaskaNews1d ago2 min readAI
Juneau code allows six hens. A Silver Street family is asking for 230 animals.
Juneau allows six backyard hens. A homeowner is asking for up to 200 chickens and 30 other farm animals, and neighbors are pushing back on the scale.
by Walter AlaskaNews3d ago2 min readAI
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 2d ago3 min readAI
Homer economic commission to finalize short-term rental recommendation to City Council
Homer's Economic Development Advisory Commission finalizes a short-term rental recommendation to City Council on Tuesday after a five-month review.
by Melinda Communities.News3d ago1 min readAI
Kenai man says a gravel company mislabeled a salmon stream on his land
A Kenai man says a gravel company mislabeled a salmon stream on his property to avoid a 50-foot buffer — and dug up that buffer without permission.
by Walter AlaskaNews5d ago1 min readAI
Three Sterling streets end at the river, and the neighbors have had enough
Three Sterling streets dead-end at the Kenai River on public easements, and neighbors report trespass, human waste and an armed confrontation.
by Walter AlaskaNews5d ago1 min readAIA 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 AlaskaNews6d ago2 min readAI
A gravel company can dig below the water table on Beaver Loop
A gravel company can dig two pits below the water table on Beaver Loop Road, over a neighbor's objections about his wells and the noise.
by Walter AlaskaNews6d ago2 min readAI
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 AlaskaNews5d ago3 min readAI
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 AlaskaNews5d ago2 min readAI
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 AlaskaNews5d ago2 min readAI
Port of Alaska advances a new substation to power its next cranes
The Port of Alaska is building a new substation to power its next-generation cranes — and it has to be running by 2028, or the cranes can't operate.
by Walter AlaskaNews6d ago2 min readAI
Anchorage board weighs dropping a shared-driveway rule for two Lake Otis lots
Anchorage Platting Board hears a request Wednesday to let two Lake Otis Parkway lots have separate driveways instead of sharing one.
by Walter AlaskaNews6d ago1 min readAI
North Slope Borough Assembly raises lot density to four homes in zoning code rewrite
North Slope Borough Assembly voted 9-0 to allow four homes per lot instead of two, aiming to address a shortage of 637 housing units across the region.
by Walter AlaskaNews1w ago2 min readAI
New flood maps would end mandatory flood insurance for thousands of Fairbanks properties
New flood maps would pull 2,343 more Fairbanks structures out of the high-risk zone than they add, ending mandatory flood insurance for thousands.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1w ago2 min readAI
Kenai Elks Lodge RV spaces get a city permit after years without one
Kenai Planning and Zoning Commission approved a conditional use permit for six RV spaces at the Elks Lodge that operated without one for years.
by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 6d ago1 min readAIAnchorage legalized triplexes. Now it wants to drop their landscaping requirement
Anchorage legalized triplexes in 2023 and barely got any. Next it wants to drop their landscaping buffers, which some neighbors say screen the density.
by Walter AlaskaNews1w ago2 min readAI
Cook Inlet Housing Authority asks Anchorage Assembly to make design-standard pause permanent
Anchorage paused its multifamily design rules in 2025. A housing developer wants the pause made permanent; neighborhood councils want it narrowed inste
by Walter AlaskaNews1w ago2 min readAI
Anchorage's park rezone meets the Knik Arm bridge route
Anchorage wants a park where the state wants a bridge. The port land rezone is the newest round in a Knik Arm Crossing fight going back decades.
by Walter AlaskaNews1w ago2 min readAI
Abbott Loop rezone drew 223 notices and no comments; hearing is Oct. 6
Anchorage Assembly takes its first vote Tuesday on rezoning a 0.27-acre Abbott Loop lot to allow denser housing, shifting from five to eight dwelling units per acre.
by Walter AlaskaNews1w ago1 min readAI
A Craig bakery-cafe wants to pour beer and wine on Friday and Saturday evenings
A Craig bakery-cafe wants to become a fenced beer garden on Friday and Saturday evenings. The drive-through would close while the beer is pouring.
by Walter AlaskaNews1w ago1 min readAI
Anchorage developer says fire lanes cost his 58-unit project 15 homes
Fire lane requirements cost an Anchorage developer 15 potential homes. The city faces pressure to ease building rules to meet housing goals.
by Walter AlaskaNews1w ago2 min readAI
Port of Alaska seeks road realignment for Chugach Electric substation
Anchorage Platting Board will vote Wednesday on letting the Port of Alaska shift an unbuilt road so Chugach Electric can build a power substation on port land.
by Walter AlaskaNews1w ago1 min readAI
Homer's zoning rewrite gets its first public hearing Wednesday
Homer's Planning Commission takes testimony Wednesday on a zoning rewrite. An earlier draft drew 905 comments and two petitions with about 600 signatures.
by Walter AlaskaNews1w ago1 min readAI
Anchorage may let its planning director redraw wetland maps as wetlands shift and dry up
Anchorage may let its planning director redraw wetland maps as wetlands shift and dry up — a faster fix in a city with thousands of acres of wetlands.
by Walter AlaskaNews1w ago1 min readAI
Eagle River lot could shed 2002 limits at a Sept. 15 hearing
Anchorage Assembly will hear Sept. 15 whether to remove 2002 building limits from a 1.04-acre Eagle River commercial lot, allowing broader business use.
by Walter AlaskaNews1w ago1 min readAI
Anchorage moves to clarify its wetlands permitting, though some say it doesn't go far enough
Anchorage is moving to clarify how property owners navigate wetlands permitting after the feds stopped issuing blanket permits, though some say gaps remain.
by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago2 min readAI
Mat-Su voters will decide whether the borough can build roads anywhere
Mat-Su voters decide Nov. 3 whether the borough can buy right-of-way and build roads anywhere in its boundaries, across road service area lines.
by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago2 min readAI
Anchorage would drop landscaping buffers for three- and four-unit homes
Anchorage would drop landscaping buffer requirements for three- and four-unit homes. The current rule calls for a 15-foot planting bed with trees and shrubs.
by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 2w ago1 min readAI
Sitka may rewrite its rules for second homes on residential lots
Sitka's planning commission takes up a draft rewrite of its accessory dwelling unit rules Monday. The draft does not say which direction it goes.
by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago2 min readAI
An Auke Bay quarry can now work Saturdays again, under a renewed permit
An Auke Bay quarry can work Saturdays again under a renewed Juneau permit, though blasting, drilling and crushing stay off-limits on weekends.
by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago1 min readAI
South Slope Drive owners learn Monday what the sewer will cost them
Homer owners on South Slope Drive find out Monday what they owe for sewer. Past city sewer assessments have run past $11,000 for a single parcel.
by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago2 min readAI
Kodiak rezone would raise Cliff Point lot minimums to five acres
Kodiak Island Borough Assembly opened a hearing on rezoning twenty Cliff Point lots to require five-acre minimum sizes, reducing how many homes can be built there.
by Bill AlaskaNews2w ago1 min readAI
Anchorage will decide whether two Eagle River properties can drop old development limits
Anchorage decides in September whether two Eagle River properties can drop decades-old limits, one to allow apartments, one to free up a business lot.
by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago2 min readAI
Girdwood petitioner seeks stream setback variance for house and bridge
A Girdwood developer seeks permission to build a house and bridge closer to a salmon stream than borough code allows. The Zoning Board hears the case Oct. 8.
by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago1 min readAI
Anchorage approves a Muldoon Road marijuana store, over a dispute about how close it sits to a playground
Anchorage approved a Muldoon Road marijuana store 8-3, over objections about how close it sits to a playground and whether a stricter state buffer applies.
by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago1 min readAI
Anchorage is weighing a trade of land it just bought for $2.35 million for four downtown parking lots
Anchorage is weighing a trade of land it just bought for $2.35 million for four downtown parking lots, over a state objection and around competitive bidding.
by Walter AlaskaNews2w ago3 min readAI
Eagle River hillside lot could lose the development limits set in 2002
Eagle River limits set in 2002 on a 34 percent slope would come off Tuesday. A neighbor says the storm drains there already ice over the intersection.
by Walter AlaskaNews3w ago1 min readAI