Minutes
Mid
John Weddleton, Chair, opened the
meeting at
The minutes for the November meeting were approved without amendment.
Chair’s Report: An ordinance has been proposed to amend the Anchorage Municipal Charter regarding Community Councils. It adds specific requirements regarding the bylaws. Tom O’Grady will compare the current MHCC Bylaws to the proposal and report at the next meeting. Tom Newins will do the same for HECC.
Treasurer’s Report: John Weddleton reported that the MHCC account has just over $1000. Tom Newins reported that the location and contents of the HECC account are unknown.
Assembly Report:
Janice Shamberg and Dick Tremaine
spoke on a number of upcoming issues.
·
When
the Park plan was modified to allow the ballfields in
Far North Bicentennial Park, the Municipality agreed to add land to FNBP
to "mitigate" the impact of building the ballfields. A December 10 deadline was agreed to for
identifying mitigation land. There has recently been a proposal to transfer
about 130 acres of public facilities land to the east of the Bragaw Extension. This land is surrounded by wetlands that
have been proposed as mitigation land for the wetlands lost to the Bragaw Extension.
·
Discussions
continue in Planning and Zoning on the Large Animal Ordinance. There is agreement on a lot of issues,
but key points of contention remain in limits on the numbers of animals and on
the size of accessory buildings relative to the primary dwelling.
·
An Assisted
Living Ordinance will be considered at the Planning & Zoning Commission
on January 10. At last reading, this
ordinance had a line restricting assisted living homes to areas with curbs and
gutters and sidewalks, which would eliminate most of South Anchorage. Are these restrictions appropriate? Will they simply drive operations
underground? Should these facilities
have Conditional Use Permits?
Kim Ross also reported on discussions on the Large Animal Ordinance. There are some who feel the limitation on the size limits on facilities for large animals is arbitrary: what if you want a small house and large barn? There are some who feel the size of the number of animals should be limited by the impact they create, not by acreage. The Planning Department feels these issues will be dealt with adequately by the existing health and Animal Control rules. There is no limitation on boarding horses, which is currently illegal (commercial function in a residential area), but prevalent.
It was moved and seconded that
combined community councils support the application for a grant for the
development of a Soil Conservation Handbook. The most immediate use of such a handbook
would be to assist horse owners in the preparation of Soil Conservation Plans
regarding pollution aspects. This passed
with 6 in favor, 0 opposed, and 5 abstentions.
John Weddleton reported on the
Parks Plan Update, which goes to the Planning and Zoning Commission on
January 10. According to MOA planner Thede Tobish, "this new
draft is not substantially different from the spring 2004 version--mostly
edits, corrections, clarifying statements, etc.--no changes to policies,
standards or goals." This is
disturbing because a combination of bad data (serious undercounts by 50% or
more of playgrounds, indoor ice rinks and pools) and the study's heavy emphasis
on comparisons with "benchmark" cities and their parks drags the
report towards a bias for developed parks and recreational buildings, even though
the city’s own surveys say that the citizens want more trails, not more
buildings.
Tom O’Grady reported on the first meeting of the community advisory group on potential routings for a high voltage powerline connecting the new South Anchorage Substation (between the Old Seward and King St. on East 100th Ave.) to the existing line along Abbott Loop. The east-west portion may be along Lore Rd, Abbott Rd., O’Malley Rd., or Huffman Rd. A copy of the first draft is available at http://www.chugachelectric.com/pdfs/projects/Revised_Route_Study17.pdf Note, this is a 22 Meg file.
Meeting Adjourned at 9:15 p.m.