Zoning

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

A Haines ordinance cuts more code than the commission voted to change

Haines commissioners voted to trim one sentence of the land-use code. The draft ordinance deletes far more, including a clause nobody voted on.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min readFrom Aug 20

Two Fairbanks rezones could take 32 lots to 99 dwelling units total

Fairbanks is being asked to upzone two residential corridors in five days. Together they would take 32 lots from 34 units up to as many as 99.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Kodiak's manager wants to sell lakeside land. Its planners say keep it.

Kodiak's borough manager applied to sell land near Beaver Lake. The borough's own planning staff recommend keeping it, calling the ground too wet to build.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

Mat-Su moves to lease Port MacKenzie land to an antimony company

Mat-Su is moving to lease 42.78 acres of port land to an antimony company. The commission that recommended it published no minutes or vote count.

by Walter AlaskaNews2mo ago3 min readFrom Sep 1

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 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 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

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 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

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.News2mo ago1 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

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

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 AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min readFrom Aug 26

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

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 AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

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

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 AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min readFrom Aug 12

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 AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min readFrom Aug 12

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 AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

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 2mo ago1 min read

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 AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

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 AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

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 AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

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 AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

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 AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

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 AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

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 AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

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 AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

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 AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

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 AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read

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 AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

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 AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

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 2mo ago1 min read

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 AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

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 AlaskaNews2mo ago2 min read

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 AlaskaNews2mo ago1 min read