By 23 Anchorage-area renters and homeowners
Updated: 1 minute ago Published: 30 minutes ago
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On May 17, the newspaper published an editorial titled “Council Redistricting Plan Needs More Public Input,” in which the writer took issue with the “HOME Initiative,” a bill under consideration by the Anchorage Council that would simplify the city's zoning and make it easier for landowners to build more types of housing in Anchorage, including duplexes and triplexes.
The authors praise the 1990s planning process that culminated in the city's 2020 Comprehensive Plan, and argue that “the Anchorage 2020 'vision' still works.” They argue that zoning regulations should direct development to “blighted,” or low-income, neighborhoods and to “urban cores” along major roads with high traffic, road pollution, road noise, and commercial activity. This so-called “targeted” approach is intended to encourage housing development in places where individuals and families do not want to live, while simultaneously discouraging modest, desirable development in many existing areas.
We do not believe this approach has been successful. The authors' revered 1990s planning process produced an extremely restrictive, complex, and cumbersome zoning system that was a serious failure and now threatens the health of our city. The current zoning regime is a hotchpotch of zones, “overlays” of now unknown origin, and arbitrary restrictions that make building in Anchorage's “urban core” and elsewhere difficult and uneconomical. Many parts of Anchorage remain much the same as they were 30 years ago.
Data on building permits bears this out. In 2001 (the year the city adopted its 2020 Land Use Plan), Anchorage issued 1,965 permits for new housing units, according to the federal Housing and Urban Development City Data System Building Permits database. By 2023, that number will be about 240, according to city records — a drop of about 88 percent. While construction is booming in other parts of Southcentral Alaska, Anchorage's exclusionary zoning is suffocating the housing market and creating a self-inflicted housing crisis.
This crisis has made rent prohibitively expensive and put homeownership out of reach for many. It is preventing motivated, hard-working people from relocating to Anchorage and forcing them to leave. It is eating away at our economy as housing eats up an ever-greater percentage of income. This is a major cause of Anchorage's homelessness epidemic, the harrowing scenes of which play out in our streets and parks every day.
A 2019 survey by the University of Alaska Anchorage found that 37% of students reported experiencing housing insecurity and 10% experienced homelessness. Anchorage cannot claim to be future-proof as long as our laws put the brakes on housing construction, forcing the very people who will make that future a reality to live in their cars or tents.
The Anchorage Council's mission is to solve problems, not treat as absolute truth limited interpretations of a decades-old planning process that has severely harmed our housing market. We, the undersigned, applaud the Council for seeking a solution to our housing crisis and urge it to make steady progress toward implementing that solution. Every day that zoning reform is delayed, it becomes harder to meet the housing needs of real people, and our city will fall further behind.
We reject the idea that we should fear duplexes, triplexes, accessory dwelling units, and other appropriate forms of development made possible by zoning reform. These types of housing are lived by our family, coworkers, friends, and neighbors, and we welcome them and are pleased to have them in our neighborhoods. Some of us live in these types of housing, and some of us would like to have these options in the future.
Anchorage can’t be a “Great Northern City” until it’s great for everyone, from students to new residents, first-time homebuyers to retirees. We call on other residents to support zoning reform and restore homebuilding and housing choice in Anchorage. The idea that sprawling, homogenous neighborhoods tinted amber by restrictive, exclusionary zoning codes are ideal for everyone is outdated. We need to stop looking back to the 1990s and instead look to the decades ahead. Our neighborhoods can be vibrant, welcoming and open to gentle, organic development that serves our residents and meets the city’s current and future needs.
Please join us at the June 25th Council meeting and let Council know your support for HOME through email (wwmas@muni.org), phone testimony or in person.
Erinn Barnett, Julia Bedell, Brandy Bowmaster, Drew Cason, Anders Carlson, Anya Depace-Protasel, Andrea Feniger, Jacob Gellman, Yarrow Griffith, Robert John Gustincic Jr, Michael Hannam, Lila Hobbs, Keelan Kenny, Nolan Klouda, Aneliese Palmer, Alaina Plauché, Jake Powell, Catherine Rocchi, S. Swammy, Eric Visser, Emily Weiser, Will Walker, and Paxson Woelber are Anchorage-area renters and homeowners who support efforts to reform Anchorage’s housing neighborhoods.
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