OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD
Record of Proceedings

Anchorage Community & Economic Development Committee Meeting – August 7, 2026

Assembly & Committee Meetings — Friday, August 7, 2026
BodyAnchorage, Alaska
SessionAssembly & Committee Meetings
DateFriday, August 7, 2026
StatusNEW · FILED
Video Record
0:00 / 1:27:59
Transcript — Verbatim
0:31

Good morning, everyone.

0:32

I'll call this meeting of the community and economic development committee of Thursday, August 6th to order.

0:39

And we'll begin with member introductions, George Martinez.

0:45

And on the line, we have Member Brawley.

0:48

Yeah, yep, I'm here.

0:49

Thanks.

0:50

Thank you, Member Brawley.

0:52

Any other members?

0:53

I don't see any, but if there are, please identify yourself.

0:57

Excellent, thank you.

0:58

And we'll begin with our regular reports.

1:02

Just one note.

1:03

I think that uh note before we begin with our regular reports on the new business.

1:09

I expect that item C and D, I will skip those today and uh really have more focus on the other uh the other items I think missing Noodle is probably just require a lot of opportunity for uh discussion, and I'll hold those to another meeting.

1:28

There aren't any objections to that.

1:31

Then we'll begin with our regular reports, and I'll turn it over to Mr.

1:36

Dole, who is presenting on behalf of multiple uh departments for the municipality.

1:43

Good morning, Bob Dole, Director to Community and Economic Development.

1:47

Uh here on behalf, starting with development services.

1:50

The most visible items I think you're going to see from this department in the next week is the demolitions in progress at Big Timber and 4626 Tomsky Street.

2:00

Um these were uh if you go there now, you're going to see uh some trucks and activity there.

2:05

There's an extensive amount of hazardous material at both of these that have to be removed before we actually do the demolition next week.

2:12

These are interesting to us.

2:14

We've probably done about 20 demolitions in the last five years.

2:17

These are the first two that there's a substantial enough amount of hazardous material there that the contractors came back and uh identified it as a hidden uh problem with the original bid work going forward, but they're going forward on the second line.

2:32

You see East One TH, that's actually East 11th, referring back to 907 East 11th.

2:39

We know that property is having a significant impact on the neighborhood.

2:43

However, uh, we needed to go through certain processes so we could legally take action uh with uh the owner going forward.

2:52

Uh to minimize challenges with property transfers um with properties that sit on septic systems.

2:59

You can see development services has identified two new policies it has going forward.

3:04

We found these extra steps uh in looking at it is not value added, and frankly, the unnecessary cost and delay, which is why policy they were able to waive these case.

3:17

The new permit system is moving along, and we hope to be doing a demo of that at the C E D C meeting either next month or the month afterward.

3:25

Right now we're frankly trying to break it in terms of going in and testing in the test environment, the different ones we built to see what really happened, what's really going to do.

3:34

The Westmark renovation is permits been pulled over already.

3:38

They've done a lot of demo work.

3:39

Um, this is exciting because um it was long overdue.

3:44

Just where it was sitting, it's great for a downtown revitalization to have going forward.

3:50

Normally, when you do a uh building permit, the building doesn't move jurisdictions on you.

3:57

That is the building's fixed and the jurisdictions fixed around it.

4:00

That isn't the case with the South Central Foundation emergency department because the property is transferring from federal ownership to South Central Foundation ownership this month in mid-project.

4:12

That creates a host of problems in terms of it started permitting under one jurisdiction and finishes up and we'll issue the certificate of occupancy here under another.

4:22

So you take an 80 million dollar project that's going to grow into 300 million dollars over the different phases that presented some complexity.

4:30

It took us about frankly two months to work out how we're going to make sure this building meets the requirements for uh building safety that didn't start with our plan approvals.

4:41

Uh so that's been a challenge going forward.

4:44

What is kind of exciting, right also on the campus there, and you probably saw it on the way in.

4:48

The South Central Foundation crisis stabilization center now has a conditional certificate of occupancy.

4:54

So I think that is a huge uh plus up for our community, just a little biased there, but going forward.

5:01

Uh staff was uh we were a little thin on Monday.

5:04

Um our chief of uh plan review and our building official went out to the valley to meet with a couple modular housing manufacturers there.

5:15

Yeah, one of them has approached us for getting pre-approved plans that will meet our requirements to build inside the uh municipality of Anchorage, and they've already produced 70 homes this year for other places in Alaska.

5:27

So we think there's some opportunity there.

5:29

We're gonna work with them on that process to see what we work with look like.

5:33

Price is still around 250 a square foot.

5:36

Um, you can only go so far with labor supplies going forward.

5:41

Valuations continue to be strong this uh year.

5:44

We're about 20% have average, and we're about 360 home units built this year.

5:50

What's kind of noteworthy, we get a weekly valuation, which we can sign up anyone here who wants to see.

5:55

It's not hidden or anything.

5:57

And looking at uh there were two duplexes and a single family home.

6:01

Each were under about mid 400s per door, under 500 grand a door, which shows um our builders are adapting too to a lower end of the market, also uh for where the price point where they can actually build and be effective at it.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Affordable Housing███████████████████████████████31%
Land Use Planning█████████████████17%
Engineering And Infrastructure██████████████14%
Public Works████████8%
Procedural██████6%
Economic Development██████6%
Transportation Safety██████6%
Public Engagement██████6%
Zoning████4%
Summary of Proceedings

Anchorage Community & Economic Development Committee Meeting – August 7, 2026

Note: The transcript identifies the meeting date as Thursday, August 6; metadata indicates August 7, 2026. This summary uses the supplied metadata date.

The Community and Economic Development Committee convened to receive departmental updates, hear presentations on two major housing initiatives, and discuss next steps. Director Bob Dole provided a wide-ranging report on demolitions, permits, library repairs, traffic engineering, and real estate activities. The committee then heard a detailed proposal for a land swap between the Municipality, HLB, and the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation (AHFC) to unlock two housing projects. Finally, Member Baldwin Day presented the Missing Middle Housing Opportunity Overlay (MHOP), a zoning tool aimed at accelerating housing production along transit corridors.

Discussion Items

Departmental Updates (Bob Dole, Director of Community and Economic Development)

  • Demolitions: Hazardous material removal underway at Big Timber and 4626 Tomsky Street; two of only about 20 demolitions in five years.
  • Development Services: New policies to waive unnecessary steps for septic system properties; new permit system demo planned for next month or the month after.
  • Westmark Renovation: Permits pulled, demo work begun; noted as boost for downtown revitalization.
  • South Central Foundation Emergency Department: An $80 million project (growing to $300 million) transferring from federal to SCF ownership mid-project – required two months to resolve jurisdictional issues for permits.
  • Crisis Stabilization Center: Received conditional certificate of occupancy.
  • Modular Housing: Staff met with manufacturers; pre-approved plans possible; price ~$250/sq ft.
  • Permit Valuations: 20% above average; 360 home units built this year; duplexes and single-family homes under $500k per door.
  • Planning/Zoning: Commission approved AO for unit lot subdivisions; wetlands plan update underway; comprehensive plan review contract with APA president planned (requires sole-source approval).
  • Library: Downtown library contract in place; Mountain View library closed after semi-car collision; water and public toilets expected within days; full repairs weeks; damage in six figures.
  • Traffic Engineering: Gaw Street temporary lighting; speed humps installed on several streets; department asked assembly to ban rain through mid-September for striping.
  • Real Estate: Teshlar property sold to CHOP for affordable housing (using existing foundation); RFPs received for archives and totem; Woodland Park Childcare RFP evaluated; HLB next week to discuss West End redevelopment and AHFC swap.
  • Public Art: Jury recommendations for Town Square Park and Inlet View; restoration of Tarmigan Elementary artwork underway.

Q&A on Departmental Updates

  • Member Wenday asked about comp plan review timeline (no set date; sole-source contract needed).
  • Member Parks (Sydney Scout) asked about insurance for library damage; Dole confirmed pursuit of recovery; damage >$100k; risk management and municipal attorney handling.
  • Member Brawley asked about field inspection delays; Dole reported plumber inspections full; structural inspector being backfilled; typically next-day inspections.
  • Chair Martinez asked about market demand for smaller homes; Dole noted real estate agents report unmet demand; ACDA’s housing study (by McKinley Research) due by Christmas will identify need by price point. Chair also raised speed reduction as economic development issue, requesting data from NACTO; public art preservation – referred to Graham Downey.
  • Chamber CEO McCart commented: interested in fleet drive-time impacts of speed reductions.

Land Swap: Block 102 and Tozier Tract (Mike Robins, ACDA)

  • Proposal: Swap Block 102 (downtown) from HLB to Municipality, and Tozier tract from HLB to AHFC.
  • Goal: Create two housing outcomes: workforce/market-rate mixed-use housing on Block 102 (up to 200 units per D Street plan) and first-time homebuyer housing on Tozier by AHFC.
  • Process: MOU signed; appraisals, environmental review, documents underway; ordinance introduction planned for September 1 with public hearing September 15; work session on August 28.
  • AHFC committed to public process for Tozier; HLB will conduct public process for Block 102.

Q&A on Land Swap

  • Member Brawley asked about valuation differential (Tozier ~$4M, Block 102 ~$5M); Robins explained ACDA is providing credits (shepherding process, possible infrastructure assistance, parking accommodations) to achieve parity. Brawley also asked about density expectations for Tozier; Robins said AHFC is focused on density, not single-family; land-use changes being pursued. Brawley requested written expectations.
  • Member Baldwin Day expressed concerns: low confidence in AHFC’s delivery timeline (last Anchorage development over a decade ago); need for rental housing per Agnew Beck analysis; Tozier area is a food desert; transportation safety on Tudor Road. Also questioned definition of workforce housing for Block 102. Requested AHFC present directly.

Missing Middle Housing Opportunity Overlay (MHOP) – Member Baldwin Day

  • Problem: Housing supply shortage; JBARER recapitalization requires 2,500 homes in 6 years; 2012 analysis predicted under-building; Anchorage built only 34% of projected housing; 7,000+ households overcrowded; 487 homes for sale (≥2 bedrooms).
  • Goal: Build on prior reforms (ADUs, duplexes, etc.) by adjusting dimensional standards within the multifamily tax incentive map (aligned with transit corridors from comprehensive plan).
  • Community feedback: Fear of change, concerns about parking, snow removal, aesthetics; support from those wanting more housing options.
  • Change forthcoming: Limitation so new standards cannot be used for single-family homes.
  • Public hearings: September 15 and October 6, 2026.
  • Director of Planning noted the right-of-way management study is complete and online.

Key Outcomes

  • No formal votes were taken.
  • The committee will hold a work session on August 28 to further discuss the land swap details.
  • Ordinance authorizing the land swap is expected to be introduced on September 1 with a public hearing on September 15.
  • MHOP will have a public hearing on September 15 and continued hearing on October 6.
  • Chair Martinez directed staff to provide data on speed reduction and economic development for a future discussion.
  • The committee received updates on member and public concerns (insurance recovery, inspection delays, food access, transportation safety) to be addressed in subsequent meetings.

Meeting Transcript

Good morning, everyone. I'll call this meeting of the community and economic development committee of Thursday, August 6th to order. And we'll begin with member introductions, George Martinez. And on the line, we have Member Brawley. Yeah, yep, I'm here. Thanks. Thank you, Member Brawley. Any other members? I don't see any, but if there are, please identify yourself. Excellent, thank you. And we'll begin with our regular reports. Just one note. I think that uh note before we begin with our regular reports on the new business. I expect that item C and D, I will skip those today and uh really have more focus on the other uh the other items I think missing Noodle is probably just require a lot of opportunity for uh discussion, and I'll hold those to another meeting. There aren't any objections to that. Then we'll begin with our regular reports, and I'll turn it over to Mr. Dole, who is presenting on behalf of multiple uh departments for the municipality. Good morning, Bob Dole, Director to Community and Economic Development. Uh here on behalf, starting with development services. The most visible items I think you're going to see from this department in the next week is the demolitions in progress at Big Timber and 4626 Tomsky Street. Um these were uh if you go there now, you're going to see uh some trucks and activity there. There's an extensive amount of hazardous material at both of these that have to be removed before we actually do the demolition next week. These are interesting to us. We've probably done about 20 demolitions in the last five years. These are the first two that there's a substantial enough amount of hazardous material there that the contractors came back and uh identified it as a hidden uh problem with the original bid work going forward, but they're going forward on the second line. You see East One TH, that's actually East 11th, referring back to 907 East 11th. We know that property is having a significant impact on the neighborhood. However, uh, we needed to go through certain processes so we could legally take action uh with uh the owner going forward. Uh to minimize challenges with property transfers um with properties that sit on septic systems. You can see development services has identified two new policies it has going forward. We found these extra steps uh in looking at it is not value added, and frankly, the unnecessary cost and delay, which is why policy they were able to waive these case. The new permit system is moving along, and we hope to be doing a demo of that at the C E D C meeting either next month or the month afterward. Right now we're frankly trying to break it in terms of going in and testing in the test environment, the different ones we built to see what really happened, what's really going to do. The Westmark renovation is permits been pulled over already. They've done a lot of demo work. Um, this is exciting because um it was long overdue. Just where it was sitting, it's great for a downtown revitalization to have going forward. Normally, when you do a uh building permit, the building doesn't move jurisdictions on you. That is the building's fixed and the jurisdictions fixed around it. That isn't the case with the South Central Foundation emergency department because the property is transferring from federal ownership to South Central Foundation ownership this month in mid-project. That creates a host of problems in terms of it started permitting under one jurisdiction and finishes up and we'll issue the certificate of occupancy here under another. So you take an 80 million dollar project that's going to grow into 300 million dollars over the different phases that presented some complexity. It took us about frankly two months to work out how we're going to make sure this building meets the requirements for uh building safety that didn't start with our plan approvals. Uh so that's been a challenge going forward. What is kind of exciting, right also on the campus there, and you probably saw it on the way in. The South Central Foundation crisis stabilization center now has a conditional certificate of occupancy. So I think that is a huge uh plus up for our community, just a little biased there, but going forward. Uh staff was uh we were a little thin on Monday. Um our chief of uh plan review and our building official went out to the valley to meet with a couple modular housing manufacturers there. Yeah, one of them has approached us for getting pre-approved plans that will meet our requirements to build inside the uh municipality of Anchorage, and they've already produced 70 homes this year for other places in Alaska.

SUMMARIZED BY OPENPUBLICA AI
TRANSCRIPT VIA PUBLIC VIDEO
openpublica.com