Anchorage Assemblyman Kevin Cross, embattled in his own community for being the primary architect of a rewrite of the planning document governing development of housing and commercial buildings in Anchorage, has started switching gears.
After getting pushback from residents in Chugiak and Eagle River, communities that have their own land use plan protected by state statute, Cross has called for a meeting with the community councils of Chugiak and Eagle River to discuss “Comprehensive Plan and Housing Future in the Chugiak-Eagle River Community.”
The meeting is Wednesday, Aug. 16, from 6:30 to 8:30 PM in Room 170 of the Eagle River Library Building.
Cross is the sponsor of an ordinance that tears up the current land use plan for the city and borough from Chugiak to Girdwood and replaces it with essentially two zones — housing and not housing. That means density, which is pat of a drive to create “diversity, equity, and inclusion” in Anchorage.
In the early draft of the ordinance, “density” was named as a good attribute to aspire to in 13 sentences. In a later draft, the word was crossed out and replaced with “simplified.”
The original AO is at this link.
The stealth-changed document is at this link.
Those who support Cross’ density-equity ordinance say it will solve the housing shortage in Anchorage and that it will grow more diversity and inclusion. They say it will lend itself to better use of public transportation like buses, which are currently underutilized in Anchorage.
Those opposing Cross’ plan say that density won’t allow emergency vehicle street access during winter, when snow piles up on residential streets. Vacant lots and open spaces are used in winter for snow storage. They also point out that during the passage of the Title 21 comprehensive plan decades ago, Chugiak, Eagle River, and Girdwood were carved out as unique communities with their own plans.
The entire process has been a legislative learning curve for Cross, who is a successful real estate broker elected to the Assembly to represent Chugiak and Eagle River. He has been caught on recordings saying that he plans to make the changes in spite of what his own community council thinks.
“I’m nobody’s bitch,” he told a group of realtors, when describing how he plans to light a match to the entire land use plan. He also said the Title 21 plan would be unrecognizable once he gets through with it, according to recordings played on the Amy Demboski Show.
But he apparently is ready to have a conversation with those community councils in his district and may present to them a new plan that addresses their concerns before the matter is taken up by the Anchorage Assembly again later in August.
