Proposed Zoning Consolidation Scaled Back in Anchorage

Anchorage Assemblymembers have scaled back the zoning consolidation proposed by the “Housing Opportunities in the Municipality for Everyone” (HOME) an initiative that previously would have reduced the number of residential zoning district’s in the city to one.

Anchorage Assembly members Meg Zaletel and Daniel Volland have revised the proposed zoning changes into a more “targeted” approach, according to a paywalled article by Alex DeMarban for the Anchorage Daily News.

“The new proposal would still sharply reduce the city’s residential zoning categories, from 15 to five, but it would be based on land-use categories spelled out in the 2040 land-use plan adopted six years ago,” writes DeMarban, citing a document published ahead of an assembly meeting scheduled for August 22.

Instead of combining all residential zoning into one district, as proposed in the earlier version of the HOME initiative, the revised proposal “would only apply to the Anchorage Bowl, not Eagle River and Girdwood,” adds DeMarban.

“The original proposal would have shrunk the city’s residential zones to essentially one category, divided only by areas with city-provided plumbing and areas like those near the Hillside that use wells and septic systems,” adds DeMarban. “It also proposed a 1 1/2-year process to rewrite residential sections of Title 21, the land-use code, a period critics said was far too short.”

More details on how the revised HOME initiative reflects the vision laid out in the city’s 2040 land use plan are included in the source article.