[Music] okay we will call this November 6th meeting of the Planning and Zoning commission to order can I have the roll call please Andre Spinelli here Jared Gardner here Rica Krishna here Scott pulus here Jeff Ron here Brandy Eber Brandy Eber on the Daniel George here Jim Winchester Greg strike are excused and let me double check on Brandy she was on the bridge phone let me call you on the record again okay Brandy Eber Miss Eber can you hear me now I can hear you thank you okay think we will be looking for a motion to reorder the agenda to hear item f5a case commissioner Gardner are there any objections hearing none the agenda is reordered next uh motion to approve the October 25th minutes moved by pis seconded by Garder any corrections or discussion regarding the minutes hearing none the minutes are approved next item disclosures um commissioner pulus no disclosures um going down the line I will disclose that I'll will recuse myself from participating in case 2023-the through the chair two disclosures to make um first being that I was excused from um the October 2nd meeting when case 2023 z97 was first heard however I did listen to a recording uh of that hearing um and am prepared to participate the second disclosures are that I have uh prospective business interests uh not related to the cases we'll be hearing tonight but for case 0097 and 0019 with uh the petitioners representatives um again those matters um are not in relation but wanted to get that on the record as well and believe that I can remain impartial and should not be accused from participating tonight thanks commissioner George anything to disclose no disclosures thank you oh commissioner abber anything to disclose no disclosures all right and now we will move to unfinished business and I will hand the gavl to commissioner christna all right we'll take up unfinished business which is case 20239 7 um may we have the uh staff report if there is one uh uh thank you uh Madam chair um uh I'll just say that uh um at the last um meeting the commission um heard public testimony um closed the public hearing and uh made a motion to uh postpone the case uh to this meeting um in order for um planning department and uh the petitioner to um collaborate on a a special limitation requiring uh housing um with uh their requested rezone to B3 so um in the memorandum so just to remind everyone that the public hearing is closed uh but of course that the commission can call the uh uh petition's representative back up if you have any questions for him but uh it's now in a uh time when you'd make a motion for approval and uh so the the memo um the Department's written is um the public hearings closed the case was um uh postponed from the October 2nd meeting to this meeting the commission uh asked applicant in the department to develop a special limitation requiring residential development in the B3 um and um we've done that and um you can read um the agreed upon uh SL on page uh two of your packet under section two it um it reads quote the district requires a minimum of three residential dwellings uh the residential dwellings shall obtain a conditional certificate of occupancy prior to the issuance of a conditional certificate of occupancy for any other use so it's saying that you have to build the residential before you could get the commercial or institutional or Community use or any other use um that's how you you get away from having to Kick the Can down the road but it's written in a way that's flexible um has some flexibility for the um the property owner the Builder um that's what the commission asked for or struggled with um asked us for and we couldn't provide you on the spot um uh the SL there was one other um thing that I um was just thinking we had talked about um or what had been discussed by the commission at the last meeting was um four dwelling units but um that was based on sort of offthe cuff um thinking that that these three lots could hold four under the R4 zoning could hold uh could have uh uh four dwelling units because one of the Lots the one that's closest to Abbott roads a little bit bigger um but it's shy of being able to have two dwell units so if you're basing the number of units on the existing zoning the R5 only three dwelling units could be construed constructed on these three lots um currently so that um was some guidance that uh so so just to summarize the commission talked about an SL for four dwelling units um and you're reading here uh three dwelling units and the reason why it's three is because um the R5 wouldn't allow four um and that's the basis that we're using for the um the logic on on the number of units um be happy to answer any questions um you could call the can up if you have any questions but um hopefully we made it simple for you to just make a motion thank you commissioner Gardner thank you just a short I think procedural question for um staff or I guess any input from the commission but I think I may be Mis recalling but I think we had a motion to approve pending when we moved to postpone the case is that motion still live or do we need a new motion to approve um uh thank thank you for the question U Miss Lori do you do you recall if uh the the motion for approval um was then piggybacked on to postpone yes we'll just give Lori a minute to look that up thank you and I guess as a follow on question which maybe the answer would need to come from Lori too but the findings we had kind of started to make previously in that motion are those um are those findings would they still be captured um in anything we do today um yes after a motion is made anything um that is said uh that goes into the minutes and into the findings um that's right through the chair there was a main motion to recommend to the Anchorage assembly approval of the request to reone three lots from R5 to B3 district there was an amendment to add a special limitation requiring minimum of four units residential with an effective Clause that three properties be subdivided into one and I believe right that was voted down um commissioner Garner moved to postpone the vote to November to have an opportunity for the applicant to propose some special limitations that would work and that they would be comfortable with and address an interest in having some residential property included as well um we could include the findings for each of those in the minutes too so it sounds like we voted on the amendment which failed but the main motion is still pending I think in that case that yes staff um do you need a refresher um or you're good now uh is is that correct that the main motion is still pending yeah so um um um commissioner Krishna um the commission could vote on that motion and approve the rezoning um to B3 with no special imitation or someone could um make a motion for a special imitation and if they wanted to they could read the one written on page two commissioner Ron uh thank you to the chair hopefully I'm not getting too hard too far ahead of where the rest of the Commissioners are but I'd be happy to make that Amendment um so if Lor's ready for it um I would move to amend the main motion um to add special limitate limitation language uh as re the district requires a minimum of three residential dwellings the residential dwellings shall obtain a conditional certificate of occupancy prior to the issuance of a conditional certificate of occupancy for any other use that language is from page two Andor five of the tech memo we were provided yeah moved by commissioner Ron seconded by commissioner pis commissioner Ron would you like to speak to your motion uh thank you through the chair just briefly um I appreciate the additional coordination collaboration that occurred between the department and the petitioner um based on my review of the facts and findings as they were developing in the public hearing and and post discussion uh this to me appears to meet the concerns as they were addressed with respect to uh special limitation um so that's that's why I put the motion forward thanks commissioner Gardner um thank you I think just a clarification maybe commissioner um Ron can confirm since the the motion as has written I don't think precisely tracks the language provided in the packet and just to confirm that the intent and what we're voting on is the language as presented and when I say presented I'm sorry I mean I guess as presented in the packet thank you commissioner Gardner um through the chair I would agree with that statement the back half perhaps um needs some additional alignment so for the record I would um strike uh for any other use and replace that language with prior to the issuance of a conditional certificate of occupancy for any other use commissioner Ron are you still in the queue no is there anyone else wishing to speak on this motion hearing none we'll call for a vote Miss Eber how do you vote yes thank you that vote passes uh and with that we will move back to the main motion yeah is there anyone else wishing to speak to the main motion seeing none we'll call for a vote on that too and since it was already moved and seconded EAS uh I guess a procedural question for staff commissioner strike seconded the motion and he is not here today or he moved it okay um I think the commission proceeds yes it looks like we can vote now miss Eber how do you vote yes thank you that vote passes uh and we will now take a five minute break while we go to find chair spelli e procedure yeah okay oh okay um I'll start by reading the procedures by which the public may speak to the commission at its meeting one after staff presentation is completed on the public hearing items the chair will ask for public testimony on the issue persons who wish to testify will follow the time limits established in the commission rules and procedures a the partitioner including his or her Representatives will receive 10 minutes part of this time may be reserved for rebuttal B representatives of groups Community councils PT Etc will receive five minutes individuals will receive 3 minutes when your testimony is complete you may be asked questions by the commission you may only testify one once on any issue unless questioned by the commission any party of any party of Interest wishing to appeal shall first file with the planning director within seven days of the commission's decision made on the record a written notice of intent to appeal in accordance with AMC 21035 a4a commission recommendations to the Anchorage assembly are not appealable and with that we will begin the public hearing item case 2023-the thank you chair spelli this is a request to add the Girdwood Trails plan as an element of the comprehensive plan elements of the comprehensive plan are listed in Anchorage Municipal Code table 21.1 D1 comp of plan elements I pasted a portion of this table into the staff report just to make it clear where this would be added there are five criteria in code for evaluating comprehensive plan amendments the Planning and Zoning commission will make a recommendation tonight to the assembly and then the assembly will um make a final decision as to whether or not to add the comprehensive plan with uh their own public hearing at an assembly meeting Criterion a is met as their there are new issues needs and conditions for Trails since the 1995 Girdwood area comprehensive plan provided policy direction for Trails uh of note the 2021 aats nonmotorized plan does not include the Girdwood area Criterion B is met as the Girdwood Trails plan is consistent with other elements of the comprehensive plan Criterion C is met as the Girdwood Trails plan will not be D detrimental to public interest health safety convenience or welfare and criterias uh D and E Do Not Apply as the proposed amendment does not modify the comprehensive plan map I did receive one phone call today that asked for clarification on the process for individual Trail reviews uh however the department did not receive any public comments or agency comments in opposition uh the plan shows many supporting comments from individuals and Community groups including a resolution of support from the gwood Board of Supervisors as the department finds that all approval criteria for a comprehensive plan Amendment are met and receive no opposing comments the department recommends the Planning and Zoning commission provide an approval recommendation to the assembly to add the Girdwood Trails plan as an element of the comprehensive plan thank you okay the petitioner presentation good evening uh my name is Holly SPO Tores I'm here on behalf of the Girdwood service area um Kyle Kelly is here with me as well tonight and he can answer questions as well the Girdwood Trails plan is a concerted effort that brought the Girdwood Community together for a holistic conversation about the future of the trail system in Girdwood the trail plan is tended intended to be a 10 15-year guiding document for the community local Trails organizations agencies and elected officials that defines the Girdwood Trails Network and identifies Trail projects that are supported by the community it's a framework that includes Community develop values vision and goals that local officials and managers and organizations can use to make both investment decisions and project decisions okay over the course of the existing condition analysis and stakeholder engagement which is really the first half of the plan um following five themes emerged Girdwood residents highly value access to Trails the Girdwood trail system should be Equitable and balanced the Girdwood Community wants to improve connectivity and access to Trails sustainable Trail management and maintenance is important and project approval processes should be streamlined okay one of the themes I want to get into in a little bit more detail is um the Girdwood trails should be Equitable and balanced throughout the project we talked a lot about the level of difficulty on Trails management of allowed uses on Trails the range of opportunities for all people on the trail system a balance of the different Trail classifications throughout the system and areas where there's more primitive Trails okay so how does this plan do this the second part of the plan is really what gets the work done in the plan okay you'll find a proposed Trail m m Network that's on the screen along with a list of proposed projects I'm not going to get into the detail of all those but we can if needed throughout the discussion so the go um the projects work to achieve the vision and goals of the Girdwood Trails plan and specifically address major themes identified through the stakeholder engagement that I just talked about specifically the two themes that work to implement the plan are improving connectivity and access and improving the balance and diversity of the trail system so how does that plan how does the plan do that So the plan makes recommendations for proper management and funding of existing Trails so before this plan um the Girdwood Trails committee provided a lot of guidance for that but now they have a community approved document that helps them do that into the future the plan identifies specific areas for mountain biking trail development this is one thing that improves the diversity of Trail experiences in Girdwood by defining areas where this is um appropriate and suitable um providing specific areas for mountain bikes will provide users with an exceptional Trail experience tailored to mountain biking while reducing user conflicts on other multi-use Trails the plan also provides a series of new trails that will improve the balance of Trail classifications within the gwood trail system we heard a lot about the the trail user experience um between ranges of class one and class 5 and the proposed plan balances out the classifications available to Trail users and then how this plan improves connectivity and access um you'll see on the list of projects Bridges Trail heads and new Trails um Glacier Creek is a significant barrier in uh through the middle of the valley to it prevents users from getting back and forth across so it proposes is multiple new um Crossings across Glacier Creek Trail heads with a range of amenities improve access um and allow users to get into the trail system from both existing new points and from new points spreading the use more equitably throughout the valley and then new Trails um new trails are proposed to improve access to the trail system and the new trails impr the functionality of the system by completing smaller and larger loops and connecting to neighborhoods and Community facilities and providing safe and authorized youth routs that avoid trespass and with that I'll stop and save the rest for rebuttal thank you um we have some questions from the commission commissioner Krishna I think my question is for staff um it really is just a clarification about the words comprehensive plan Amendment um so correct me if I'm wrong but um are we looking at uh adding this Trail as an element of the comprehensive plan because uh Trails plans aren't automatically identified to be one of those for example if this was a neighborhood plan we wouldn't necessarily be looking at a comprehensive plan amendment is that correct we'd just be looking at adopting it and recommending its approval um and then also I'm looking for a clarification of um whether this is uh this plan has not already been adopted by the assembly correct so we are actually looking at the adoption of this plan and its inclusion in the comprehensive plan as an element is that generally correct um commissioner Krishna through the chair so I I just looked at I had chapter one where that table is so to answer your first question there are some District plans that are listed here so um the hillside District plan uh one of the most recent ones is the ourtown Anchorage downtown or our Downtown Anchorage downtown district plan so even if this was a district plan it it would still be added to this table uh since this table covers all all sorts of individual freestanding plans but they're all elements of the comprehensive plan the rationale is in code it refers to things being consistent with the comprehensive plan and so that covers all of these plans so for instance if we get a development downtown that we're looking to be consistent with the comprehensive plan we would not only check the the official document that's the comprehensive plan but we would also check the the downtown district plan since it's covered as an element of the comprehensive plan if that makes sense hopefully um and then your second question what was your second question I I think the petitioner uh uh indicated that um that yes we are looking actually to review and recommend adoption of this plan as part of our actions here tonight yes the that is correct um yes this is not a plan that has been adopted yet so this would be this would be a new plan to be adopted thank you okay seeing no further questions is there anyone from the public that wishes to testify hello please state your name for the record my name is Guy Wade and I'm going to represent the Girdwood Board of Supervisors is that Wade yes sir w a okay go ahead sure my name is Guy Wade I'm elected member of the Girdwood border supervisors and the current Parks and Rec supervisor thank you for the opportunity to let me speak and support the Girdwood Trail plan case number 2023 0119 to start with with I believe the plan is extremely well written and includes all the elements the planning department requires per code AS required there are many valid reasons for the amendment as listed in the application the 1995 Girdwood area plan is approximately 30 years old the Girdwood Trails plan identifies several issues needs and possibilities that the 1995 plan does not address for example with the new residential and Commercial development proposed in Girdwood the Girdwood Trails plan will serve as a guide to preserve existing Trails build new Trail connections and ensure that Community Trail connectivity is considered along with the new development we see and have seen an increased use of popular Trail heads such as the Virgin Creek Trail Head this plan identifies trail head and parking improvements to better serve visitors who want to use the trails in Girdwood Valley and reduce the impact on the residents I should also mention the increase in summer and winter bicycle use this plan provides a mechanism to reduce user conflicts on our trail system I have listed a few elements that Merit the planning Department's consideration improving this plan the plan itself contains many other elements to support the need for this amendment and depending on who you ask the answer will vary because it is such a diverse group that use our trails and this leads me to my final point Point as has been stated before the development of this plan is really a holistic approach to the community supported document as with any decision by committee few if any get exactly what they wanted but almost everyone got what they would consider fair and Equitable for the good of our Valley the application list various public engagement strategies that were employed and of all these and all of these played a role in developing this document I would like to speak to the final engagement process that took place from November 2021 to October 2022 during this time 16 regular and special meetings were held that included involvement with over 200 community members these meetings went through each plan Amendment and regularly took over two hours long the public participation remained strong during the entire process this shows the passion that the residents in Girdwood have for their Trail system and their willingness to compromise and work towards a greater goal so at this time I would like to again Ask the planning department to approve case number 2023-the of plan amendment to add goodwood's Trails plan as an element of the comprehensive plan thank you thank you I have no questions anybody else wishing to testify good evening my name is Deb essic I'm a resident of Girdwood and I'm here to support approving the Girdwood Trails plan as an element and adopting it to the comprehensive plan I'm also Vice chair of the gero trails committee president of the gwood Nordic ski club and one of the co-race directors of the gwood trails Marathon on so it's no wonder that trails are one of my favorite aspects of gwood like many people I've participated in all these meetings that guy referred to all the forums the subcommittees the open houses during this past three years of this plan's development and I feel the resulting plan encompasses a true path forward why supporting our values I'm so impressed with the amount of hours that Holly and Kyle spent reading and incorporating the hundreds and hundreds of comments and opinions of the gwood residents it was not an easy process but it was vital to establish a written guide of our Vision Values and goals to identify our current trails and develop a Trails plan that serves the common good that serves the community's health and creates Gert as a worldclass outdoor recreation destination especially as we are on the new Alaska Traverse trail system the order of the goals listed in this Trails plan is key they're listed as plan conserve develop maintain and sustain note that conserve is listed before develop we have a rich history in gwood of utility transportation and Mining routes that create our trail system and that we've highlighted around the valley with this plan approved the trails committee and local nonprofits can now move forward with projects that connect our Trails protect our wetlands and provide access to our unique backyard wilderness most folks can name about five to seven trails in gwood but in fact there's 33 trails and due to wayfinding apps and increased tourism and a growing population they need our help they're not a secret anymore they need a plan cataloging them in this comprehensive Trails plan is essential to protect access develop much needed Trail heads and parking increase connectivity and outline the diverse experience of all users I am confident that this living document will be printed because we're a little old school in Girdwood it'll be the backbone of future Trails meetings it'll be coffee stained and scribbled on and highlighted and torn and dogeared guiding us forward in our future decision- making connecting our community and creating stewardship for future Generations thank you thank you anybody else wishing to testify good evening my name is Julie Raymond yakobian I'm a longtime participant in the gwood trails committee and was deeply involved in the Girdwood Trail plan development process for several years I'm here today to ask that you not recommend the trails plan to be added as an element of an amendment to the comprehensive plan the process of developing this plan was one of the most dysfunctional I've ever witnessed or had The Misfortune of participating in much of the process of developing this plan was distressing and included constantly reinvented processes meant to serve the desires of certain user groups and to exclude others it included harassment of members of the public it included violations ethics violations by the Girdwood Board of Supervisors as was determined by the board of Ethics it included mun staff without explicit authorization disbanding a community body with disastrous results this plan is not inclusive of all Community needs and desires that were raised repeatedly and in good faith and which involved significant compromise simply stated and I don't believe this is debatable this plan does not serve the whole community and its process was morally andle legally flawed your body should not endorse adding to a comprehensive plan a document that is based on such poor process untransparent actions and M Municipal ethics violations in which by the way the plan before you has never undergone a full public review and comment period which the public was promised this current version of the plan as opposed to a previous version that the diverse subcommittee appointed to this project help create has stripped and erased significant work supported by many members of the community that earlier version Incorporated desires for large built trails and mountain biking areas and trails along with desires to maintain undeveloped natural spaces to sustain wildlife habitat and ecosystem services to provide desert diverse experiences in nature to serve a purpose for future generations and to most importantly serve serve the whole Community by enshrining a variety of user experiences in the plan the plan Before You Now does not serve the whole Community but in instead serves as a vehicle to facilitate the transfer of public funds into the service of private interests and some of those private interests just happen to be the same ones not properly disclosed by Girdwood supervisors it was expressed by many people throughout this process that it only mattered to them that this plan serve their own interests Girdwood Board of Supervisors members have implicitly and at times explicitly supported the perspective by wanting any plan instead of a good plan one of the supervisors during the meeting that approved this plan said this plan should have the community stamp of approval but it doesn't in conclusion good planning serves the entire community and this plan does not meet that basic standard this plan disenfranchises a large number of people in Girdwood and throughout the municipality if your body recommends to the assembly that this document be added as an element of the comprehensive plan you only serve to further degrade this process to ignore violations of ethics and to support lack transparency community service thank you I I have questions commissioner Krishna please go ahead yeah she would like to hear the rest of what you had to say I'm sorry could you say that again yeah do you have anything else that you wanted to say when your time ended I think I was just going to reiterate that I would ask you not to recommend this as an amendment to the comprehensive plan thank you can you spell your last name please yep it's Raymond r a y m o n d hyen y a k o u b i a an um are there any oh commissioner Ron has a question thank you through the chair um and thank you for your testimony tonight um I appreciated hearing what you had to say um and would like to learn a little bit more about about some of that um you mentioned um uh my interpretation that members of the community not all members of the community are served by this plan um could you give more information some examples of um member types that you feel aren't aren't served by what we have before us today yeah through the chair thank you for the question um I'm the only one here toight representing this user group um partly because many of my neighbors and fellow residents um simply just could not take the length or toxicity of this process anymore but there are there is a significant group of us that are very invested in protecting natural spaces throughout our community spaces that include Trails but include primitive trails and as you can see in the plan before you there are spaces set aside for mountain biking trail building for example um specific Trails as well as specific areas that in the future may have mountain biking trails within them and there was uh a large effort within the community to include spaces like that for primitive Trails um for conservation for wildlife habitat for future generations and um through a whole series of circus like reconfigurations of the process to make things go one way as opposed to another um all of that was removed from this from the plan you have front of you the plan that came prior to this uh was a much better compromise that I truly believe served all members of the community it had lots of things in it that I didn't personally want but was not opposed to um because it served everyone um but in the end this plan before you again it has not gone through a full public comment period in Girdwood the comments you see in your packet are comments on a previous version of the plan not the plan in front of you um yeah and yeah I'll leave it there there thank you commissioner Krishna has another question yeah could you elaborate on what you mean by saying that this plan hasn't gone through a full public review period yeah so the large appendix of comments that you can see in your packet is from a previous plan um those comments were taken and major substantive revisions were made to the plan including removing all mention of natural spaces all discussion of natural spaces all natural spaces um from the plan itself and we were promised as the public that that new substantially significantly revised version would go through a public comment period um which never occurred thank you but um just to clarify the the plan that we've are have seen here today has which is the final version um has been out for public comment as as per our procedures nope the previous plan that you see all the comments from had a public comment period I can't remember the exact time length of it um but a specified public comment period where people wrote in comments those comments were then reviewed and then substantive changes were made to the plan which now sits before you today so um and again the Girdwood Trails committee and the public in Girdwood were promised that that Revis it's a blue line plan the previous was a red line plan not to get into those details but the Blue Line plan which is um that the final plan um never underwent a full public comment period like we were promised um I would like to just say that this hearing is a full public hearing that is noticed to the public written testimony can be accepted as well as the testimony you're giving tonight so this could be considered the public comment period Well the community of Girdwood certainly didn't know that they could come here tonight and comment on every single change that had been made between the versions of the plan I came here today to make a recommendation that you do not recommend this go forward to the assembly which is a wholly different kind of public comment than I would give if I was giving you comments on each section of the plan and what had been removed and changed and this is not what we were promised we were promised a public review period of the document itself like we had for previous versions okay thank you I see no more questions is there anybody else wishing to testify good evening my name is Brian ran Bernett I've been lucky enough to be participating in the trails culture in Girdwood for well over 20 years as a resident of Girdwood and I have very fond memories as a young child skiing on some of our first trails in Girdwood such as the 1969 Junior National Nordic trail that was built to host a pretty significant event at elesa I'm here tonight to speak in support of this plan before the community Girdwood has a real vibrant Trail culture it's well attended meetings of the Girdwood Trails committee Friends of the trails and Girdwood Nordic Ski Club these groups help manage the trails within the community Trails connect our community that is for sure our inventory of trails support Adventure that they allow us to engage nature and endless opportunity for physical enjoyment of the outdoors now what we need is a plan to move forward with that will will allow us to help plan for operations and opportunities of a growing community and a growing outdoor culture our community came together to craft this plan we have been meeting on it for years and years and um there was significant public process in it this plan represents what most of our community wants in the way in in the ways of trails and how they are managed there has been again there has been significant public process Girdwood should certainly be a trail Town trail-based recreation anchors Healthy Communities trail-based Recreation uh and systems enhance our land values and the quality of our life I respectfully request that Planning and Zoning adopt this plan as presented so it may be included in an comprehensive plan moving forward I appreciate your time this evening thank thank you see no questions is anybody else wishing to testify on this matter good evening uh for the record my name is Chris shy s c u tte uh I'm a local resident but also uh for profession I'm in the uh community and economic development field uh my comments tonight on the gwood area plan uh proposal is that I want to recognize the fact that this plan did an excellent job of weaving an important factor that often gets left out in our Planning and Zoning conversations particularly around comprehensive plans and that's the role of the economy in supporting our communities our neighborhoods and in this case Girdwood um of all the 50 states in the US Alaska may have the lowest population density but we certainly have the greatest amount of acreage and other opportunities to get outside and enjoy nature that's what brings a lot of people to Alaska and certainly that's what keeps a lot of families uh like mine in alas in Alaska um when surveyed by uaa's uh CED community and economic development um division they found that a majority of alaskans really rely on these opportunities to engage with nature in Outdoors um as one of the primary reasons why many families choose to stay in Alaska um locals and visitors uh spend a lot of money uh on equipment to get outside um as it snows today and I think about the UN ungodly amount of money I'm going to spend on fat bikes this winter um certainly that resonates with me um this uh local uh economy or spending money locally helps circulate throughout the rest of the economy so money spent by visitors and tourists enjoying our outdoor economy um benefits the community at large um in state I find these numbers staggering but from the UAA um CED uh the number of instate Comm consumer spending related to outdoor recreation activities is almost 3.2 billion annually that's 3.2 billion now granted that number is Statewide but it underscores the importance of outdoor activities and access to outdoor activities for our local economy um I want to also highight that in Girdwood in particular an area that is blessed with tremendous outdoor activities um over half the jobs in Girdwood fall into that economic sector um uh tourism Andor outdoor recreation Etc um so in recognition of the importance of economy and making our communities healthy and safe to live in I do want to highlight that um I find that this plan does a fantastic job of recognizing that impact on the economy and that the findings and recommendations of this plan will support further economic economic activity for Girdwood and for the state at large so with that I would encourage the body to pass it and that's it thank you thank you all right um just to be sure nobody else wants to testify see none we will um go for the rebuttal so we will just take questions commissioner Ron uh thank you the chair if you could please speak to the process around um public review draft um to final thank you you want do that sure um so initially we through the process uh created a draft document that we put out to the public and we gave a period of public comment and through that we received close to 2,000 comments that we deciphered and then we Holly and I uh Incorporated those into it and we created uh what is known locally as the redline plan so we made Redline changes to the original plan um through that process we did have areas like um uh areas for permited Trails mountain bike different things um and we presented that to the G tra committee ger Trails committee was really our body that we worked with to come up with the final draft and uh through that they rejected that Redline plan and so in order to keep the process moving and getting to something of a final plan we asked for the um committee members which is anybody who's attended one meeting and is a resident of gwood there's stipulations um could submit uh amendments that they would like to see to the plan to take us to another draft that we could bring before the the body and through that they presented us a whole oh I think we received close to maybe two dozen um uh amendments and then we went uh one by one through each one of those amendments had public process where people could talk about them and I think maybe a dozen ended up getting accepted um and the other dozen got rejected and with that we created the redline document um and then with the red line document oh excuse me Blue Line document it was a second version version two um we presented that forward uh at the same time we were contending with gb's requests to get the plan completed a g Board of Supervisors and the budgeting requirements with that and so um at the point once we got done uh approving all those amendments we took that final Blue Line document to uh the trails committee and they voted to accept it um which at time then we took it to the gwood land use committee and that went through a two-month process so it had a hearing and then a public um testimony um and then it passed there and gwood land use is one person one vote so if you're a resident you can come vote anybody can attend so some meetings we got 10 some meetings we got two um but that went through a process and then we took it to the gwood board supervisors and at the gwood boys supervisors um there was a a Amendment to the main motion to pass to have a two-e public hearing uh period where people could submit public comments about this Redland plan and then that would become a appendix we wouldn't respond to them but we would put them as appendix in the plan and that failed uh 1 to four um and it went back to the main motion and it passed 5- Z by the GB can you state and spell your name for the record yes uh Kyle Kelly k y l e last name Kelly k l ke l l y and I'm the gwood service area manager for the Municipality of Anchorage um commissioner Gardner thank you for that kind of explanation of the process there I'm I'm curious there was a comment um about an understanding of a promise for further review of what I gather would have been the Blue Line draft and what was your understanding of how um that blue line was communicated to the public and and and maybe how what the perception was that that um or what the understanding may have been as to the ability to comment further on that draft uh well we did present it uh you know we we gave the final version to the gwood um Trails committee for review and through that there was a public comment period in that time um we did uh send part of that was when we went to the gwood Board of Supervisors uh question was given to them um shall we consider uh doing a public review period with this uh we presented them with the financial uh uh needs for it to happen um and at that point that's when the amendment was voted down to go for uh extended public comment period uh through that but uh through it we did go through three bodies that uh reviewed the document before it was finally approved by the gr board supervisors and commissioner pus so there's the concern about the natural space designation and I don't completely understand it kind of sounded like it was people wanted this designated so they could put bikes Trails on it but then they wanted some people didn't want it can you guys just kind of explain that process and that concern from your side what you saw yes so there was through the uh original development of the plan there was zones to become natural spaces and they would be limited to uh uh Trail development no larger or no l higher than level two uh which would be pretty primitive itive no mountain bike so non- mechanized use um and it would just basically keep keep more of a very rural standard of trails uh in that um and through the public uh comment period uh we saw a lot of people uh felt that was a land use designation and they felt that was Trail the trail plan wasn't meant for that they meant they felt like the gwood area plan should handle that um so our recommendation through staff was to turn it into uh areas for primitive trails so those areas would just be limited what type of Trail development we could do there it didn't delimit what the land use was going to be it just with the trail cor area couldn't be more than level two and no mountain bikes allowed on it or mechanized bikes um I see no further questions with that we will close the public hearing what is the will of the body commissioner Krishna would you like to State your motion while we wait for a second sure I move in case 223-1199 we heard from the petitioner um about a substantive and extremely involved public process um certainly from the am addendums to this plan and the appendix you can see um truly an immense amount of public input more than we see in many neighborhood plans I believe um and uh won't speak to the specific content but I will um maybe note that this is a recommendation and there are opportunities for further content changes to be made by the assembly anyone else wishing to speak to the motion commissioner Ron uh thank you uh through the chair um appreciate commission the previous commissioner's comments in supporting the motion I as well intend to support the support the motion uh would like to acknowledge the work done by the parties um uh to uh put forward the plan that has been developed um on a personal note I had the my first opportunity this last fall to attend a Middle School cross country race in Girdwood uh perhaps the most fun race I got to attend All Season uh given the setting and the community atmosphere that that went went around it so hopefully I'll get get a chance again soon to attend another race if not participate on Trails there so good work um and thank you um I will say that I too intend to support the motion even though I do have some hesitation about any talk limiting mountain biking on primitive Trails because those are my favorite kind um call a question Miss Eber how do you vote yes thank you motion passes next order of business can we have the staff presentation for case 20 23-01 125 uh yes thank you Mr chair um if uh commission members recall this item was scheduled for the October 9th meeting and then was postponed um Anchorage Municipal Code title 21 does uh Grant the power to recommend uh to make a recommendation to the Anchorage assembly of the CIB and the CIP for Planning and Zoning commission and uh the commission has been provided all of the documents uh for this item and with that I'm going to turn it over to my colleagues um that can provide the commission with a presentation and answer your questions this evening I'm ready for you yeah thank you um good evening members of the Planning and Zoning commission um uh my name is Lance Wilbur I am the executive director of uh economic and Community Development uh uh pretty much the Departments that out in the permit Center I'm here tonight to share with you the proposed post 2024 to 20 um uh uh Capital Improvement program there as um Ryan mentioned the uh the planning zoning commission has a responsibility to review the capital Improvement budget and program and make recommendations to the assembly um the reason I'm here is uh as Ryan mentioned um uh when a request was made that we have a presentation on October um in October I suggested that the planning department could work through it we had some staff changes so I'm here to help you tonight you guys are a little behind the ball but I think I'm going to catch you up the Departments that report to me are the public works department so project management engineering the traffic department maintenance and operations um and obviously Community Development I have some familiarity with the the bond program and so my previous so those of you who haven't I haven't met I'm going to give you a little bit of a rundown of the capital program itself so um with me tonight I've got Steven Reus from um Parks and Recreation and Courtney Peterson who is my new um Public Works Administration and finance manager um Courtney previously worked in OMB so I think between the three of us we can answer any questions on process and projects um kind of where we are in the process right now is for those who are not familiar we typically reach well we do reach out to community councils in March of every year we seek requests of projects and we ask them to submit those nominations To Us by May the departments then review those and then about in July we make a recommendation of a list of projects we send those to the administration from all of those departments and then as they are preparing a um consideration of all of those projects that's what creates the proposed Capital Improvement budget and the six-year program of all kinds of funding sources typically the requests from departments are focused on the upcoming Bond but it also includes a lot of requests for State funds and so we'll talk a little bit about about that where we are in the process is the Planning and Zoning commission has gotten this one it's already in front of the assembly for public review and public hearing and they are I think their second public hearing is actually tomorrow night and they are scheduled to act on this Capital Improvement budget and program on the 21st of November um as in your packet the capital Improvement budget includes about $190 million in total 55 of that is on bonds I'm going to focus primarily on the proposed Bond projects I think in your packet you've not only received the book itself but you should have received a map um and what I'm going to do is take first start off with the memo that the planning department put together dated October 9th and talk a little bit about some of the the projects they have a bullet here for Community Development um and and go down this list also in your packet you should have received a memo from um the Office of Management and budget that has a little bit more detail about each of those individual projects and I am going to kind of walk through those for the bonds that we have a total of 46 different projects from a variety of departments project management engineering traffic maintenance the library police fire um and I will um I'll highlight uh the ones I think are probably the ones that might be of interest to this commission and some of those that have been of interest to the commissions in the past and certainly if you have uh in your review if you have questions on any particular project I can um try to address those so what I'm going to start with is the memo that's dated October 9th to Ryan yel from Office of Management budget it's about a six-page memo and it has a list of all of those projects so Mr chairman I'm going to walk through that that uh memo and then highlight some of the key projects and if you have questions we'll go from there I wasn't planning on going through all 46 but I think there's a couple of them I'd like to highlight that sound good fantastic okay so if you look on uh page three of the memo or page one of eight from the management and budget office the top of it starts there's the first one it starts with fire and then this list of projects include is um commiserate with the map that you have and I'm just going to go down in order um in honor of commissioner strike since he's not here tonight for those of you um who might have been aware in the past commissioner strike has always been interested on how come we bond for vehicles particularly why do we bond for um ambulances or police cars or things like that and I want to talk a little bit about that um we do bond for and have bonded for uh uh police ambulances and fire trucks in the past the fire department is not looking for new um engines or uh trucks in this one but they looking to replace ambulances generally what we're trying to do is we keep the frame and replace the Box in this particular case I think they have two complete buys that they want to do so this would replace two complete ambulances one of the things that I'll mention when we bond for while we issue a 20-year bond for pretty much all of these projects for things like an ambulance or a police car their depreciation happens faster than 20 years or faster than 20 years so we retire that debt faster so we manage the debt to retire it when the um equipment meets its useful life which in an ambulance is about 7even years so it's a little different for a fir Tru it's a little different for APD Vehicles it's a lot different for Road or Park Improvement which particularly 20 or longer years so um that is why uh we do bond for uh fire trucks the other one I want to mention on this one here if you look at um Fleet replacement um as you were looking in the capital Improvement budget you will notice that Fleet replacement in all categories bonds fa fed State and other is $10 million so for perspective the bond amount is going to be roughly $1 million the state request is about five the federal request is about two and the other is about a little more than two for perspective if you look at across of our all of our Fleet our heavy equipment our uh APD Fleet and our general government it's almost 70% depreciated that means 70% of the fleet in all three categories is beyond its useful life so um we are in the need to make some changes in the past we have been spending most of our resources that we do receive and we don't generally receive this much we spend it primarily on APD Vehicles occasionally we'll use some on a grater or a sander and occasionally some light duty equipment but um when you look at the list if you have questions about that we have about a million doll bond that would be for um APD Vehicles General government Fleet or heavy equipment um and then in the other category we take part of our operating budget and we do buy vehicles which is about $2.3 million it's a it's a big number for Fleet and so um it's because the condition of our Fleet is aging rapidly um I just want to point out on the last the bottom of that first page the Ada improvements what we do here is we have missing Ada pieces or pieces that are not meet and curtain 88 standards um we pick up those improvements last think this construction season we did roughly 40 or 43 of them so um if you turn to page two the one I want to point your attention to is uh S3 which is the downtown signals on Fourth Avenue the reason I want to point this one out to you it's one of the many projects in the capital Improvement budget where Bond monies are provided to match a federal uh contribution and typically it's 80 to 80% federal or 90% Federal and you'll see that at the end when I spoke uh speak on Transit um the other one I want to point to on this page is s six which is downtown lighting and Signal upgrades this one you will see if this was a 10-year CIP this thing would be 12 years long um our downtown signal system is aging and it's costing us roughly 5 to8 million a block to replace it this particular project um we are coordinating with the block 41 development there block 41 is where Fourth Avenue Theater Key Bank the developers got some work going on this year so we're we're bonding for it in 24 so we're ready to go in 25 so we're not waiting on the 25 bond to get it done it was timed that way so that's a $4 million number on page three I think the one I want to point out here is um a $2 million for roads and drainage and service area we've got about 420 Mi of storm drain system in Anchorage and a lot of it is really old for those those of you who are um Engineers designers and working on roadways you know that a lot of our storm draam system is aging a lot of times we'll use these funds to replace um where we had recently at Darbar we'll had a collapse Culver or collapse Culver underneath the road we use these funds um to address those immediate needs as well so I want to point that out and then on page four probably the one that's predominant here is a West Anchorage snow disposal site so we have a snow disposal site that would be um located at off of International Airport Road um for those of you who where the the large uh uh uh private parking lot is at the corner of Minnesota and international our Street Maintenance Northwood uh section is right there if you go behind that if you drive down Minnesota and you see all those tour buses parked on your on your right as you're driving down the road the snow dump site would be on the other side of that so it's it's um this $5 million is half of the money we would need to build it it's a roughly $9 to 11 million snow dump site all our snow dump sites are at capacity and frankly we've lost a couple snow dump sites in the in the last decade which puts a strain on the other ones that we have and in in West Anchorage we are really in need of a snow dump site so that's um the design has been done the permits have been acquired we're just looking for construction money to get it done and then on page five um I'm not going to I want to point out one uh key Trails project is the Tony noos uh Coastal Trail to ship Creek Trail connection this one here is um about $1.5 million to match a federal aid so um that's an important project the next two road projects 36th Avenue and 42nd so 36th Avenue will be repaving Lou or uh repaving 36 from latou to Lake Otis we did it from Old Seward to louche we're going to keep going to the east the next one is probably the 42nd Avenue is the largest funded Road Project we have in the cup homing Bond it's uh going to be roughly $8.6 million we're going to be rebuilding 42nd Avenue from Lake Otis all the way to Florina which is pretty much all the way at the end um this 8.6 will get us from Lake otus to Piper so we're going to need in the future to go the extra three blocks to the east um a few more uh and then I'll ask a couple for questions we're going to be repaving Dowling Road for those of you who drive Dowling Road between Elmore and Lake otus we were able to put a patch on it this year um so we'll be repaving that one next year and then Northern Lights Boulevard from Lake Otis to bgah we're going to be repaving that next year with the bonds and um I think the last two I'll mention is traffic calming we've got a $500,000 request for traffic calming it's probably one of the most popular requests that we get from Community councils um the assembly when we brief them on this they asked why are we not asking for more money and the reason is is that we received 1.5 or $2 million in state Grant funds last year so they've got a lot of money and a lot of work ahead of them so asking for more money for Bond projects um that is why we didn't uh up that amount for here and then as I mentioned earlier one of the benefits of many projects including Transit it's I think it's an a nine uh the municipality basically puts in a dime and the FEDS bring in 90 so for the transit it's about 1.8 almost $1.9 million and they're going to get 12 million in or 11 million in from federal aid so a lot of the other projects that you see on this list are projects that are programmatic we see them every single year flooding and glaciation um alley Paving intersection paving lights those things are um they're projects all over town and again these are projects only within the um Anchorage roads and service drainage area only within artsa you will not see projects in Eagle in here um you will not see projects uh on the bond or you will uh not on pretty much on the hillside or in Girdwood because it's in those service areas um Eagle River and Chugiak they have their own service area you will see funds in there for State Legislative requests and some allocation of their fund balance uh for parks and for roads so overall the 55 million Bond $55 million bond for the ones that the administration had proposed would capture all of those the road element would be around 47 the parks is a little under three and then um the facilities is is uh roughly $2 to3 million so Mr chairman there's just one closing comment I'll mention it's not related here in case you are reading about it in the newspaper um there are two Bond proposals being proposed by the assembly that were not brought forward by the administration one of them is for public restrooms I think the assembly is going to be considering that tomorrow night it's $12.5 million to bond for public restrooms um in M the other one is a bond proposal to make improvements to chugat uh chugat State Park last year the voters created a brand new service area that would then allow um a bond to be proposed to provide project improvements to access chugat State Park they could be road improvements parking lot improvements and the like those the administration hasn't proposed though I can't can't speak to them but um uh I think we were more involved because we were asked on the uh chugat park access but not on the public restroom so with that if there's questions on these and again I apologize that we weren't available on the 9th you guys are a little behind the ball um if you uh and we'll improve to make it better for you next year thank you uh commissioner Ron uh thank you to the chair uh Mr Wilbur thank you for uh coming tonight and giving the presentation that you did appreciate the level of detail that you provided uh for me it was it was just right my uh my question isn't about any particular number uh or project uh specifically as propos as proposed but it's around proportion and when I when I look at those numbers uh the largest of them is roads and traffic um simple math shows me about 85% of the proposed Bond budget is in that single category um can you talk to me a little bit about um the thinking that went into the prioritization um specific to how and why money gets allocated understanding that you know roads and traffic are expensive right our city needs to move um but it's seems to be perhaps um uh from one glance uh inequitable in terms of the money spent on roads versus other forms of transportation um through the chair commissioner Ron I will do my best um generally the way this works is uh departments uh all the Departments provide a list of projects generally in priority order we submit those to the administration the administration gets their executive team together and they make basically two determinations one is What's the total amount of bonds that we want to issue and that's based on a variety of metrics and then the other is how do they want to divvy it up and um I can tell you that um our list was much longer than this I'm sure parks and recx was much longer and Facilities was a lot longer um so it's really administrative call it's a it's a decision by the administration how they came up with a certain percentage for each one um I do know that in in many of their um uh analysis or their thought process is how much are we going to be spending on categories of projects and how much are we going to be spending on bonds because sometimes if you just looked at the categories the money may be coming from another place not just for Bond so um I can't I can't give you a clearer or different answer than that but that's my experience how it's done thanks that clarification it's helpful um commissioner chrisna sure I'll ask about some specific projects um you know there is a Transit Center site selection study that's in the works right now I'm wondering if that is uh it's obviously not on the bond for this year um I I always find the transit items to be a little bit you know Area Wide right um I'm wondering uh what's the proposed funding mechanism uh for that project in the future um through the chair commissioner Krishna I would my S my um I think what's going to happen is public transportation is going to seek one of two Avenues one of them they're going to seek federal funds to make those improvements and in many other jurisdictions they do that through a public private partnership it's not generally all with um the agency um I don't see it's not in the six-year look but my guess is it'll be a a federal request um probably a grant above the general allocation in which they receive and the best way to do that is once you have a site selected then you can put in a stronger application rather than we think we're going to relocate and we think it's going to be here and we think it's going to be this much so um if I there's something different than that I'll make sure that I let uh director Acton no thank you and I do have a follow-up question and maybe this is my version of Greg's question that I ask every year which is about reinvestment Focus areas um we look at the the circles on the map uh in in this uh map that we receive every year and um maybe I'll just leave it out there and just ask uh how the department thinks about reinvestment Focus areas and if there is a proposal in the works to bring forward some sort of um tax incentive package or some other um mechanisms to uh Implement those rfas I'll I'll get it started um in Community Development um from the administration's perspective at least from the Department's perspective we haven't we're not um sort of ruled that out but I could also say that we probably haven't taken a lot of um effort to create a tax incentive for those those particular are there's a lot of um a lot of work already in place to give um if you have deteriorated a deteriorated area and then get tax abatements in those but to provide a specific um tax incentive inside the Redevelopment areas they currently do not exist uh commissioner Ron are you back in the the que no I'm not commissioner George through the chair thank you um thank you for the overview this evening I appreciate as well the level of detail that you've you given it to us and allowed us to delve where we are most interested um I had a couple of areas I wanted to um ask you about uh the first is the snow dump site uh item um is the land that's being proposed for this site uh dedicated Park land and would it require a Citywide vote to undedicated if that's the case um through the chair uh commissioner George it's not dedicated Park okay thank you um next question I've got uh through the chair is um I see that the police department uh building on Elmore is slated for uh heating system replacement um I know this is kind of small potatoes but um is there not a maintenance and operations line for things like boilers in various um facilities budgets it just I've seen this before where we will bond for something like a boiler system and it um It just strikes me as something that has a natural service life and um maybe if you can elaborate a little bit on that um through the chair commissioner George excellent question um so in the case of the boilers the for those of you who um the APD building on El Elmore was built in 1983 um we need replace basically the entire heating system which is going to be about half a million dollar um and then the roof is going to be roughly a million dollar even though the and the design is already done but to your point we do um we do have a a regular Maintenance and Service program but at some point the entire system needs to get redone and we have a lot of buildings that were built in the 80s and we can't find parts and there's the maintenance is just they're beyond their useful life and so and the APD is is one of those facilities we have a couple more there sort of in line as well but very good question thank you thank you if I could just follow up on that it just it seems almost a philosophical um concern you know we've got many many municipal buildings I don't know exactly how many I wish I knew something like that off the top of my head but 164 thank you that's you're welcome impressive thank you so 164 buildings that have roofs and mechanical systems and and um safety features and parking lots and all these different things that um have a natural useful depreciable life about them um I don't see all of them coming before us is it just a judgment call as the big ones do and the small ones don't or maybe you can talk about that um through the chair yes thank you so we do have a list of improvements and you will see in the maintenance and operations section under which is mostly facilities U we have a long list of uh requests for uh roofs boilers uh large um uh Capital Investments inside those uh um those facilities there you know that we have some at the Deno some at The Egan some at the pack some at fire stations um but most of our request currently right now is under State funding for those receips but we do have a list and the priority is um based on three things one um the facility maintenance staff they know the facilities very well they can they know which ones they can um you know uh maybe a 10 or $50,000 investment will hold it off for you know three or five years where it doesn't matter how much we're putting in and some of it we just got to replace it just I mean we replaced a roof at bearing Street where we had a roof on a roof and water between the two roofs and at some point you just got to take it all off and do it so um yeah thank you and through the chair my final one I wanted to touch upon tonight um one that's uh even smaller but is near and dear to my heart uh is alley Paving um I had the great experience of serving as a chair of a community council years ago and uh this was one of the issues that came up um and we were successful in having uh some alley Paving done in our community and um I guess it was through through that experience we learned that they don't uh underground utilities and as a requirement when that is done and so that seemed like a missed opportunity um to spend you know that kind of a municipal resource at the time I think a lot of it was state funded but now I think it's an ongoing Municipal expense and just to to spend that kind of money and not collocate or um try and incentivize the utilities to Underground when I know a lot of them have an undergrounding Plan and there's a an undergrounding sir charge that's charged by the regulatory it's approved by the Regulatory Commission as a charge on most folks bills and I just um I would encourage using these dollars when we can get the most bang for the buck thank you um are there any further C uh questions seeing none what is the will of the body commissioner George would you like to State your motion through the chair I move in case 2023 d1125 to recommend to the Anchorage assembly approval of the proposed 2024 Capital Improvement budget and the proposed 2024 to 2029 Capital Improvement program he we are just oh we have a seconded by commissioner Gardner commissioner George would you like to speak to your motion just briefly I want to um commend the administration for putting together what is uh admittedly an austere proposal compared to what we've had in years past you know we don't enjoy tremendous amounts of state capital budgets like we used to and they certainly are dealing with many competing needs um just the roof example and the boiler example 164 buildings that need these things and we're getting one of them this year um you know my observation is that the Lion Share of this money is federal and state and um we've got to figure out how to best spend it and I think the department is doing a good job of that um and I would just leave it there and encourage anyone else to share their uh findings as well anyone else hearing none we'll call the vote Miss Eber how do you vote Yes thank you uh that motion passes and we will are there any commissioner comments General comments commissioner Ron thank you through the chair just briefly wanted to uh say thank you to the depart department for um recommending participation or attendance in the housing Summit and activities that occurred last week found um uh listening in on Friday to the summit at UAA was very informative it's available on YouTube and would recommend other Commissioners as they have time if they didn't participate to go back and and listen to some of that stuff thanks and uh looking for a motion to adjourn moved in second in we are out of here a