Zoning
RSSResidential, commercial, industrial zoning rules; variances; conditional use permits
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 AlaskaNews2w 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 AlaskaNews2w 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 AlaskaNews2w 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 AlaskaNews2w 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 AlaskaNews2w 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 AlaskaNews2w 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 AlaskaNews2w 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 AlaskaNews2w 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 AlaskaNews3w 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 2w ago1 min readAI
Anchorage 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 AlaskaNews3w 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 AlaskaNews3w 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 AlaskaNews3w 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 AlaskaNews3w 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 AlaskaNews3w 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 AlaskaNews3w 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 AlaskaNews3w 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 AlaskaNews3w 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 AlaskaNews3w 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 AlaskaNews3w 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 AlaskaNews3w 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 AlaskaNews3w 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 3w 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 AlaskaNews4w 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 AlaskaNews1mo 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 AlaskaNews1mo 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 AlaskaNews1mo 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 AlaskaNews1mo 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 AlaskaNews1mo 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 AlaskaNews1mo 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 AlaskaNews1mo 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 AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min readAI
Juneau denies Chilkat Vistas hillside plat after approval falls a vote short
Juneau's planning commission denied a hillside subdivision over landslide risk, two years after the Assembly struck landslide rules from the land use code.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min readAI
A Sitka nonprofit seeks to bend the rules to build more housing
A Sitka housing nonprofit is asking the city to waive parking and allow smaller lots so it can fit more homes on a lot on Halibut Point Road.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min readAI
A Muldoon pot shop passed city rules, but a tribal youth program cites stricter state rules
A Muldoon Road pot shop passed city rules, but a tribal council says a stricter state youth-center buffer should block it. No one has settled which controls.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min readAI
A Midtown hotel vacant since a 2019 fire seeks approval to serve alcohol
Anchorage Assembly votes Tuesday on a liquor permit for the Courtyard by Marriott Midtown on A Street, with no public opposition filed so far.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min readAI
Anchorage commission backs Eagle River rezone over two neighbors' objections
Two Eagle River neighbors are fighting a rezone that would lift 2002 building limits on a lot they say floods and moose use. The Assembly hears it Sept. 15.
by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 1mo ago2 min readAI
A commission wants tougher riverbank protection than the developers asked for on a proposed Chena RV park
A Fairbanks commission wants tougher riverbank rules than a proposed Chena RV park's developers, and staff, sought — over how much to guard the water.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min readAI
Anchorage planning commission approves Chugach substation rebuild over neighbor's objection
Anchorage planners approved Chugach Electric's Campbell Lake substation rebuild despite a neighbor's objection to transformers 25 feet from their home.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min readAI
Petersburg planning commission to vote next month on one-year data center ban
Petersburg's Planning Commission votes September 8 on a one-year data center ban while the borough drafts permanent rules.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min readAI