Zoning
RSSResidential, commercial, industrial zoning rules; variances; conditional use permits
A Chugach substation rebuild draws a neighbor's concern over transformers near a home
A Chugach substation rebuild in south Anchorage draws a neighbor's concern over two nearby transformers, with a hearing before the planning commission Monday.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min readAI
Bethel weighs a climbing fee to force action on empty buildings
A draft Bethel ordinance would make owners of empty buildings register and pay a fee that climbs the longer they sit vacant: $100, $500, then $1,000-plus.
by Alaska News1mo ago1 min readAI
Anchorage board vacates a Glen Alps public easement the city paid $130K to acquire
Anchorage's board gave a Glen Alps lot a public easement the city paid $130K for — over objections it's still access to big public land with few ways in.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min readAI
Landowner gets variance to split land off Wasilla-Fishhook Road
A landowner near Wasilla-Fishhook Road, a route to Hatcher Pass, got a variance to split his land after the state barred new lots from tying directly into the road.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min readAI
Kenai mayor moves to shield home value from city property tax
Kenai's mayor directed the city manager to draft a residential property tax exemption after residents said assessments are climbing faster than relief.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min readAI
A Northwest think tank has ideas for Anchorage housing
A Seattle think tank that advocates for denser housing is recommending Anchorage zoning changes, one of which the city already adopted in 2025.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min readAI
Wasilla resident gets gas station to study sidewalk on school bus route
A Wasilla resident got a new gas station to study building a sidewalk on a street where kids walk to the bus. The commission also OK'd a youth mental health facility.
by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 1mo ago1 min readAI
Anchorage Assembly weighs 10-year tax break for condos above shops and offices
Anchorage weighs a 10-year property-tax break for buyers of new condos above shops to spur housing, but critics ask whether the price cap lets it build much.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min readAI
Chugach seeks industrial zoning for its campus, dropping a buffer
Chugach wants to rezone its Anchorage North Campus to heavy industrial to match its use, dropping a green buffer meant for a highway that likely won't come.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min readAI
Anchorage may let buyers own a detached home outright where condos are now the norm
Anchorage may let buyers own detached houses outright in more residential zones — a change aimed at helping people dodge the financing hurdles of buying a condo. The Assembly decides.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min readAI
Anchorage would sell rights over its City Hall lot below appraisal
Anchorage would sell two private firms the right to keep part of the City Hall lot building-free — $80K under appraisal, for a downtown project not yet filed.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min readAI
Neighbors got the tower dropped from a south Anchorage substation rebuild
After a two-year fight, neighbors got Chugach to drop a 65-foot tower from a south Anchorage substation rebuild. A smaller fence-and-noise dispute is left.
by Melinda Communities.Newsadded 1mo ago1 min readAI
A Muldoon pot shop clears the park buffer, by measuring to the playground
A Muldoon Road pot shop clears the park buffer because the city measures to the playground, not the park line, 734 feet. Neighbors object; the Assembly votes Tuesday.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min readAI
Girdwood's park plans would move to Anchorage's standard public review
Girdwood loves its trails and ski runs, and an ordinance up Tuesday would run the town's park plans through the same public review the rest of Anchorage uses.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min readAI
A Fairbanks medical campus wants room to grow. Its neighbors want the buffer.
A Fairbanks medical campus wants to rezone for a bigger surgery center; neighbors and planning staff want to keep the buffer. The commission split 3-3 and punted to Aug. 11.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min readAI
Fairbanks planners reject York Avenue duplexes over the road to the school
Fairbanks planners voted 7-3 to reject eight duplexes on York Avenue, worried about density on icy sidewalk-less roads that feed an elementary school. The Assembly decides Aug. 6.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min readAI
Anchorage takes another run at its missing-middle housing rules
Anchorage takes a second swing at missing-middle housing, letting corridor owners opt into duplexes-to-townhomes. Last year's version stalled on neighborhood pushback.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago2 min readAI
Wasilla weighs a facility meant to keep Alaska kids in Alaska
A Wasilla facility aimed at keeping Alaska kids from being sent out of state for behavioral health care went before the Planning Commission Tuesday.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min readAI
On Aurora Street, water mains are in but the sewer stops short
A new lot split on Aurora Street marks the edge of Anchorage's grid: water mains are in, public sewer isn't, and getting sewer means paying to extend the main.
by Maggie AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min readAI
South Anchorage rezone would allow industrial use in a residential area
A 3.8-acre South Anchorage lot could be rezoned from homes to heavy industrial. No project's been named yet — and that's what neighbors will want to know. Hearing Aug. 3.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min readAI
Chugach wants to trade a planned greenway for heavy industrial zoning
Chugach Electric wants to erase a planned greenway near downtown Anchorage and rezone the land heavy-industrial. City planners say yes; the Assembly decides.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min readAI
Cordova clears the way for Copper Brewing's 101-square-foot expansion
Cordova's Copper Brewing needs 101 square feet of city land for one more tank. The planning commission checked the snowplow routes and said yes.
by Walter AlaskaNews1mo ago1 min readAI
Anchorage Platting Board to weigh Girdwood plat note removal Aug. 5
Anchorage Platting Board will vote Aug. 5 on removing a vegetation screening requirement from a Girdwood lot, which would free space for multifamily housing at 116 Kami Circle.
by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 1mo ago2 min readAI
Anchorage may let duplex owners sell half the house and its land
Anchorage may let duplex owners in single-family zones sell one unit and its land as its own lot — more housing, plus questions about running a split lot.
by Walter AlaskaNewsadded 1mo ago1 min readAI
Sitka moves to fix its late-night ride problem
Sitka has few cabs, no Uber, and a hard time getting anyone to the airport. The city is rewriting its 1990s taxi rules to fix that.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min readAI
A Parks Highway gas station, ahead of the state's traffic review
Wasilla may approve a new Parks Highway gas station before the state finishes deciding whether its driveway onto the highway is safe.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min readAI
Juneau quarry seeks bigger blasts and longer hours through 2036
Juneau's Planning Commission will decide July 28 whether to let Stabler Point Quarry in Auke Bay blast bigger, run longer hours, and operate through 2036.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min readAI
Juneau commission to review Chilkat Vistas Phase IV plat for seven Robbie Road lots
Juneau Planning Commission will review a proposal July 28 to create seven single-family lots on Robbie Road, completing a development cap set by a 2018 settlement agreement.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min readAI
Mat-Su Platting Board approves Primrose Point Phase 4 preliminary plat despite unresolved driveway questions
Mat-Su Platting Board approved Primrose Point Phase 4 subdivision despite unresolved driveway access for five lots, deferring the question to a later engineering meeting.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min readAI
Anchorage proposes tax break for mixed-use buildings with owner-occupied units
Anchorage proposes a 10-year property tax break for developers who build or convert mixed-use buildings with at least four owner-occupied units priced at or below $496,746 each.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min readAI
Kodiak commission votes 4-2 to rezone Cliff Point lots to conservation district
Kodiak planning commission voted 4-2 to rezone six Cliff Point Estates lots to conservation district, raising minimum lot size from 2 to 5 acres and reducing how many homes could be built there.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min readAI
Kodiak Borough holds public hearing on Ouzinkie tsunami shelter rezone
Kodiak Island Borough Assembly held a public hearing July 16 on rezoning an Ouzinkie parcel to house the community's tsunami shelter and tribal offices.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min readAI
Fairbanks subdivision stuck in limbo since 2018 seeks fourth extension, citing owners' divorce
Fairbanks Platting Board will decide July 15 whether to extend a subdivision's approval for a fourth time, after the owners' divorce halted road work needed to finish the eight-lot Nalak Subdivision.
by Maggie AlaskaNewsadded 2mo ago1 min readAI
Fairbanks weighs doubling a rec area and shifting trail approvals to staff
Fairbanks may nearly double the Isberg Recreation Area to 740 acres — and let future trails get built through staff review instead of public hearings.
by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min readAI
Kodiak developer's conservation rezone draws a refuge objection
A Kodiak developer wants to rezone 20 lots into six under a Conservation District; the neighboring wildlife refuge is raising objections. But what don't the feds raise objections about?
by Maggie AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min readAI
Anchorage Assembly to consider beer and wine permit for golf simulator on Old Seward Highway
Anchorage Assembly votes Tuesday on beer and wine sales at Mulligan's golf simulator on Old Seward Highway, with the administration recommending approval.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min readAI
A Petersburg cell tower proposal died without a second
A Petersburg cell tower plan died the quietest death possible Tuesday — nobody would even second the motion to approve it.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min readAI
As federal wetland protections recede, Anchorage rewrites its own rules
After the Supreme Court pulled federal protection off more than half the nation's wetlands, their fate now falls to states and cities — and no state has more wetlands than Alaska.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min readAI
Anchorage moves to allow homes on commercial land
Anchorage wants to let you build a house on commercial strip-mall land — the latest zoning tweak in its long slog toward 10,000 new homes.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min readAI
A 'conservation' rezone on Kodiak's coast draws a federal warning
A landowner wants to rezone Kodiak coastline to "conservation" — but the wildlife refuge next door warns the change could still harm the protected waters just offshore.
by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min readAI