March 2005
Agenda
O'Malley Elementary School
Thursday, March 17, 2005
SOCIAL TRAILS STEAM PARK PLANNERS
If you head off for adventure in Bicentennial Park and turn off the established trails to see what is there, you are ruining a park planner's day! Those footsteps you leave may be followed by another, then another and in a few years you have a little skinny trail going who knows where. That is a "social trail." These unplanned trails can develop in ways that create runoff problems and a proliferation of these paths frighten some people.
So imagine the surprise at a meeting of park trail users when park planners introduced a new map of Bicentennial Park trails with a nonexistent trail! The "Wolverine Trail" is clearly marked as a multiple use trail linking Chugach State Park's Prospect Heights Trail head with the Spencer Loop!
So what will happen here? People will get this map and travel out expecting this trail to be there. This is a recipe for plenty of social trails. Alternatively, park developers might hurry to build an identifiable trail to circumvent those social trails. This would presumably dump a multi use trail onto the "ski only" Spencer Loop. That could be a problem in some months.
An irony here is that the map was unveiled at a meeting of a group that presumably exists to create a well planned network of trails in Far North Bicentennial Park!
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CANDIDATES FORUM ! It's that time of year when the somber dirty snow gives way to the cheery colors of the political signs that sprout like dandelions throughout town. If you would like to learn more about the folks that plant those signs, come to a forum hosted by your local Community Councils and HALO (Home And Landowners Organization, Inc.). This year's Candidates Forum will be on Tuesday, March 22nd from 7 to 9 pm. at O'Malleys On The Green. This has always been a lively and well attended event.
The evening will feature Assembly candidates Chris Birch and Dick Tremaine and School Board candidates Thomas Lamb, Mary Marks, Rod McCoy, Russell Mjolsnes and John Steiner. Every candidate will share brief opening statements before being asked questions submitted from the audience. Candidates will be given time for brief closing remarks.
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HOW WOULD YOU SPEND $44.5 MILLION? Get an earful on the benefits of the Road Bonds up for a vote. A group of engineers and construction firms traveling under the banner "Anchorage Tomorrow" is supporting the upcoming Roads and Drainage bond. Dennis Linnell will plead the case for spending the $44.5 million. Road Bonds usually pass and it's not much money out of our pockets since folks further down the hill are the ones who pay the most.
The list of projects on our road bonds is typically long and offers vague information on what is actually planned. A vote for these bonds can be a leap of faith that it all makes sense! Take this opportunity to learn more from someone who knows the bigger story.
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ANCHORAGE POLICE DEPARTMENT representative Sgt. Cindi Stanton has twice made the Grand Tour of the numerous Thursday Community Council meetings from Chugiak to the Hillside.
We will add her officially to the agenda this month so you can come prepared to ask questions about crime in our neighborhood and how we stack up to the rest of the city. Sgt. Stanton has reports that show crime statistics by Community Council area.
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SITE PLAN FOR A CHURCH ON BARONIK We mentioned this in last month's newsletter and had it on the agenda but got no comments at that meeting. Since then, the few neighbors to this development have gotten active and are protesting the extent of the development. There are some substantive issues to address such as proper buffering, well and septic location and road wear and tear.
Harder to grab hold of is the "character of the neighborhood." People can oppose a development that is drastically out of character with the neighborhood. The case of this church is a puzzle. It is a huge development compared to the homes along Baronik. But it borders another church on O'Malley. And as we travel O'Malley, it is crowded with churches and related facilities. Looking at it that way, it is a perfect fit.
This church site is just outside our Council's borders so we've left the heavy lifting to the Huffman-O'Malley CC. Not that we won't deal with this kind of issue in the future. When the Council's boundaries changed a few years ago, we inherited from the Abbott Loop CC a similar issue with a church on Carlson Road off Abbott. These problems abound.
This kind of issue will be dealt with when we write the Hillside District Plan. The idea is that a proper plan would let developers know what would be expected so they won't get slammed after taking a few steps. And homeowners will know what they can reasonably expect.
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"DON'T CALL US, WE'LL CALL YOU," is the message a group of hillsiders got when we went to the Muni with a plan to jump start the Hillside District Plan a year ago. Well, they've come calling! Case 2005-039 changes Municipal Code by adding a section "Procedure for creating and adopting a neighborhood or district plan."
The main features are a description of who may sponsor a neighborhood or district plan, the process be which such a plan shall be created, reviews and adopted and the form and content of the plan. You can take a look at it at www.muni.org/zoning/index.cfm. Hit the Cases Online link and type in the case number.
The Planning & Zoning Commission will hold a public hearing on this on April 4.
This hit about the time Planning Director Tom Nelson announced that Joanne Contreras will be lead planner for the HDP. The bulk of the $100k budgeted will cover just a work plan. A first step wil be to define "Rural," then define a "Level Of Services" needed for a Rural area.
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UNDERGROUNDING ORDINANCE PASSED We've reported on this several times over the past couple years. The changes lightened the load on the utilities while offering hope that someday in the distant future, most utility lines will be out of sight. This is good news today, but the real party will be around the year 2055. See you then!
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WHY DO YOU LIVE HERE? We asked that question last month and got just four responses. The theme of all was summed up by one response "For the space, trees, and privacy."
It's not too late to respond. We'll store these up to help define "Rural" as the first step of the Hillside District Plan.
You can fax your answer to 349-8376 or email to john@weddleton.com.
Mid-HillsideBoard Members
John Weddleton -President 349-8370 john@weddleton.com
Brian Johnson -Vice President 345-5883 brian.johnson2@akanch.ang.af.mil
Tom O'Grady -Secretary 345-6948 ogrady@gci.net
Linda Perkins -Treasurer 346-2558 miniaturehorses@alaska.com
Kim Ross -Registrar 344-0333 kimross@alaska.com
John Jenkins 240-8609 laurieb@alaska.net
Shirley McGrath 345-1606 smcgrath@alaska.net
Mark Miner 336-2383 akminers@alaska.net
Lance Powell 346-2327 lwpowell1@juno.com
Hillside East Board Members
Tom Newins, President 345-8881 newins@gci.net
Bjarne Holm, Vice President robinholm@ak.net
Our next meeting is Thursday, March 17.
We meet at 7pm on the third Thursday of the month at O'Malley Elementary School on Rockridge off O'Malley. For more info see www.weddleton.com/CC