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Planning? The Hillside?

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That's right. One of the most unfettered parts of Anchorage is the first where city planners, consultants and citizens are creating a district plan to guide population growth and development in coming decades.

There are some good reasons:

• Much, if not most, of the undeveloped space in the Anchorage Bowl is there;

• A lot of that open space is in steep, hard-to-develop areas where new construction can cause big problems for homeowners downhill;

• The Hillside is growing at a faster clip than the rest of Anchorage, and another 10,000 to 15,000 people may move in, adding 5,000 homes to the 8,500 already there.

WATER NO PROBLEM

This new plan -- it's still only a draft, but the first public comment period on it closes Monday -- grew out of a bigger citywide comprehensive plan adopted in 2001 -- Anchorage 2020.

The draft and dozens of supporting documents span hundreds of pages and an array of hot-button issues faced by Hillside homeowners and developers.

A few: Where to build roads and how to pay for them; lot sizes and housing density -- the "elbow room" factor many people cite as the reason they moved to the Hillside in the first place; how to design and build new subdivisions so that they don't send streams of storm and seasonal runoff downhill to bedevil the neighbors; where trails and trail heads should go and how to provide access and parking for people from all over the city who come to use them.

And, of course, there's the question of water and sewer facilities for all the homes already there and those yet to be built.

When people first started working on the "Hillside District Plan" about two years ago, some suspected it was just a subterfuge for sneaking city water and sewer utility lines up to Hillside homes that for the most part have gotten along just fine on individual water wells and sewage septic systems.

"That was the rumor," said John Reese, a former state judge, longtime Hillside resident and head of the citizens advisory committee helping the city and paid consultants put the new plan together.

"And another one was, when we'd get public water and sewer we'd have tiny lots all over the Hillside -- 'Tiny Lotville.' Nobody on the Hillside wanted that."

There's little thought now of pushing water and sewer lines much beyond where they already are on the western lower edge of the Hillside, according to Reese and Tom Nelson, head of the city's planning department. And Reese said there's no need.

"We've got a lot of water and we don't use much of it at all," he said.

Some city officials were worried about water quality, but Reese said advisory committee members -- especially Wayne Westberg, a geologist and water well driller -- worked hard to prove that's not a problem.

"He and another (committee) member collected all the (water quality) data and proved there really is no ... problem on the Hillside and everybody ought to just shut up about it," Reese said. "So at least in the draft we had our hand in, the on-site stuff about water and septic is accurate, and it really wouldn't have been if we hadn't been in their waving our arms."

COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT?

People who live in other parts of the city might never understand, Reese said, but Hillside residents are resistant to commercial development to the point they would rather drive four miles to buy a bottle of milk than put up with a small grocery store on the corner.

"If you need a diaper, you go down to Mabel's and borrow one or go down to town," Reese said. "Of the discussions at the public meetings, those were the most heated, and there wasn't anyone really promoting commercial development."

"I think this plan very solidly says, 'don't do it,' " said John Weddleton, another member of the advisory committee who also serves on the Anchorage Planning and Zoning Commission.

ROADS AND TRAILS

Most of the Hillside is outside the Anchorage Roads and Drainage Service Area -- the part of town where people pay taxes to build and maintain streets.

Instead, many Hillside neighborhoods have created smaller "service areas" and tax themselves to maintain their roads. But much of the Hillside, maybe 40 percent, lacks even that. There, neighbors look after their own roads.

"You get up as early as possible and get your plow cranked up," said Reese, who lives in one of those areas. "If you're first you get to plow the road. If you're second, you don't have to."

But there are problems, too.

In neighborhoods in the upper Hillside near and inside Chugach State Park, hikers, bikers and skiers can overwhelm rural roads and trail-head parking lots. Because those places are outside the parts of town taxed for road maintenance and outside smaller Hillside road service areas, there's not much the city can do, said Weddleton and Nelson.

A solution might be to create a new or expanded service area "that has the ability to make capital improvements, do more than clearing snow, but actually be able to build new roads, drainage systems," Nelson said.

Those improvements would be paid for with property taxes, and people would have to vote themselves into the service area and agree to pay the taxes.

DRAINAGE AND GLACIATION

Some developments already are causing problems for neighbors just down the hill. Rain and melting snow runs off roofs and down into the lower areas, rutting roads and turning driveways into icy glaciers.

"Right now if it snows or rains, most of the water goes into the ground except where there's development," Reese said. "There it goes over the roof and on down."

The spillover can damage streams and fish spawning areas as well as causing problems for people. New design standards and drainage requirements might help.

"It's really expensive to build storm sewers, but there are things you can do," Reese said, including homesite "rain gardens" to collect runoff instead of letting it pour downhill.

The draft plan advocates keeping as much natural vegetation in place as possible and designing new developments with "infiltration areas" like rain gardens to catch runoff rainfall and snowmelt.

SOME MAJOR PROPOSALS

The Hillside plan lists dozens of recommendations and alternatives for coping with new growth. Some of the bigger ones:

• Creation of a new, bigger service area to fund, build and manage roads and drainage improvements, or a separate, stand-alone entity to just manage drainage and watershed problems financed by fees charged to landowners.

• Expanding the city's tax-supported service area for parks to include the entire Hillside and about a mile east into Chugach State Park. The city would market bonds to finance new improvements for park access, parking and maintenance.

• New, city operated programs to monitor and protect well water and wastewater treatment systems. While on-site septic systems work well for the most part, there are some areas where neighborhood wastewater systems might help, Reese, Nelson and others said. Instead of separate septic systems for each home, wastewater from several homes where soil conditions are dicier might be pumped into a single septic system. The draft plan estimates such an oversight program might cost about $300,000 a year.

• Expanding city building permit regulations and requirements to include the southeastern third of the Hillside that currently is outside city oversight. Like the new or expanded service areas, expansion of the Anchorage Building Safety Service area would have to be approved by Hillside voters.

• New, more extensive requirements for developers building on steeper slopes and at higher elevations, including buffer zones between projects, drainage plans to reduce or mitigate runoff, and plans for open spaces and connecting roads and trails.

WHAT'S NEXT?

City planners and consultants will take comments, suggestions and criticisms submitted about the plan in writing and at workshops and revise it again. Although the official deadline is Monday, comments received for the next couple of days will also be considered, said Chris Beck with Agnew Beck Consulting, one of the firms hired to work on the plan.

The next draft will go to the Planning and Zoning Commission, which will hold more public hearings about it in a few months -- probably in February or March.

The planning commissioners, including Weddleton, will study the plan, maybe make some changes, and then send it on to the Anchorage Assembly, which will have the final say probably sometime next summer.

To find out more about the Hillside District Plan, look for it online at www.hillsidedistrictplan.com. The site also has information about who to contact for more detail, and how to submit comments.

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