The zoning of your residential property in the Anchorage Bowl might be about to change. You will not be notified individually, even though our codes require it.
Why? Because an ordinance (2024-45), if passed by the Assembly on May 7, will change the Title 21 code allowing them to do this. The term “rezone” will be replaced with the term “conforming amendment” to the zoning map. Other major changes that will occur to our land-use codes are too extensive to adequately explain here.
Several Assembly ordinances have been introduced over the months to change zoning in a well-meaning attempt to increase housing. Few disagree that we need more attainable housing.
However, while zoning may help in the long-term, it is not a quick fix, nor the only solution.
Our property is likely the largest investment we have, but we are being shut out of a meaningful public process in the name of expediency. Even if zoning is changed, it will not produce more housing quickly, so why not give the public what is required — time.
Zoning is complex. Few of us understand it. The ordinances are coming up fast; but new ordinances should never be passed hastily if our legal right for input is diminished and the professionals, planners who know best how to effect changes legally, are written out of the process.
Yet the public hearing before the Assembly on May 7 will do just that. Ordinance 2024-45 was introduced on April 23. This two-week window, while legal, does not allow community councils time to reply. It’s doubtful many residents even know about it, let alone can digest its magnitude.
If the Assembly truly believes their rezoning ordinance will produce more housing, then shouldn’t they welcome a process for the public to understand it and provide input?
— Dianne Holmes
Anchorage
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