OPINION: Parking ordinance shows how we can unite for a better Anchorage

Last week, Anchorage joined dozens of cities nationwide that have removed parking mandates to support more housing, productive uses of our valuable real estate, and create a more connected community. Cities like Buffalo, New York; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Toronto, Ontario; Jackson, Tennessee; Lexington, Kentucky; South Bend, Indiana; Ann Arbor, Michigan and others have done similarly.

The ordinance began as a bipartisan effort, led by myself and my colleagues, Assembly members Kevin Cross and Forrest Dunbar, in consultation with the Municipality of Anchorage Planning Department. We recognized that planning staff had dedicated significant time and community outreach on their original draft and we wanted to push the initiative to go further, while utilizing their expertise. Graciously, they agreed to work with us and convened multiple meetings. Along the way, we constantly identified the spaces where we had common ground and worked to find solutions that supported our shared vision, whether that was in conversations we had with the planning department, with community stakeholder groups, or with each other.

As we began the conversations in our community, we realized that we had a broad, diverse coalition and unlikely bedfellows of stakeholders who supported the vision for Anchorage to eliminate parking mandates completely. A few truths were clear to us at the outset, and we communicated them strongly throughout the process:

1. Eliminating parking mandates would not eliminate existing parking inventory.

2. Businesses, builders and developers are already incentivized to have available parking to ensure that their goods and services are accessible, but they should be the ones making the decision about the amount provided. I, myself, am an example. As the owner of a clinic located in downtown Anchorage, where there have long been no parking minimum mandates, I choose to provide parking for my employees and patients.

3. There are valid concerns about street maintenance and snow removal, and we remain committed to addressing those issues, but a continued pattern of excess, unused parking is not the solution to those problems. Policy goals of the passed version included making housing and commercial development more affordable, giving designers and developers and business owners more flexibility, removing parking mandates as a barrier to adaptive re-use of vacant properties, prioritizing connected and beautified spaces over empty swaths of pavement, and accommodating multimodal travel. To this end, parking mandates were eliminated citywide, modest amounts of bicycle parking and storage are now required, and ratios of required ADA-accessible parking spots were increased when parking is provided.

In all of our conversations, I heard the community say they wanted a more connected city. As I reflect on the passage of AO 2022-80(s), I recognize two major themes. The first is that, in addition to travel by car, there is a strong desire in our community for access through a wide variety of modes of transportation — whether it’s creating more pedestrian boulevards, traffic calming measures, protected bike lanes, more robust public transit or even the idea of commuter rail throughout our community. Safe infrastructure that does not confine you to a car can provide you with more opportunities and a greater sense of freedom.

The second throughline is that it’s not only the infrastructure of a city that creates connections or divisions — it is also how we show up and do the work. Throughout this process, we committed to open and transparent communication between our core group and our stakeholders. This allowed us to show up in good faith to create a final product that captured the diversity of our group and allowed us all to make compromises, so that, in the end, it felt like we all gave a little, but we all gained a little.

I am thrilled that our colleagues joined us, and that we unanimously passed AO 2022–80(S). Additionally, the mayor communicating his support of this ordinance reminded us that we have a lot of common ground and there is more that unites us. There has been strong divisiveness over the past few years, and it can sometimes feel easier to identify the areas where we are at conflict. We know we won’t always agree on every idea. However, just think what more we can accomplish if we begin to work through compromise, find areas of harmony and collaborate in good faith toward solutions that will help grow our city.

Daniel Volland is an optometrist and small-business owner. He represents North Anchorage on the Anchorage Assembly.

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