Mid-Hillside and Hillside East
Community Councils

Anchorage, Alaska

Community Councils are a great forum for promoting the interests of your neighborhood. On this page you'll find information on topics currently of concern to the neighborhood.

If the title of a topic listed below is blue, click on it to go to a page with more information.

If you have other concerns or can provide information, please pass it on! If you'd like to take part in tracking an issue, your help is welcome. Let us know!

This website was maintained through the end of 2005. More current information is now posted at www.communitycouncils.org. The Mid-Hillside and Hillside East pages linked from there are now the official pages.

Sections of this site will be updated sporadically.

ZONING LAWS (TITLE 21) UPDATE
The Municipality is rewriting the Zoning Laws (Title 21) to better organize them and to bring them into conformance with the new Comprehensive Plan. These rules will guide the growth of our city for decades.

These rules cover many many things you do on your property. They limit the number of cars, how you cover up stuff in your yard, how many pets you have .... The Municipality is actively seeking input from people like you. Your Community Council is just one way to be involved with this.

Click here to read the comments your Community Council prepared in srepsonse to the first draft in late 2005. (Our comments were considered in writing the second draft that was released in early 2006. Most of our comments were reflected in changes in Draft 2. In February, we submitted comments that restated the points we made that did not result in changes and we added a comment regarding the new requirement that driveways be paved. That clearly makes no sense on the many Hillside roads that are dirt.

Information from the Municipality is posted at: www.muni.org/planning/prj_Title21.cfm

More information is posted at the Anchorage Citizens Coalition website: www.accalaska.org

Hillside District Plan
The Anchorage Comprehensive Plan requires that several "neighborhood" plans be written. The Plan for our area is called the "Hillside District Plan." When will this plan be written? How will it guide future development? That's largely up to you!

The HDP has funding commitments for $1.8 million (Yow!) and the ball is rolling as of March 2006.

Park Plan Update
Anchorage's Parks Plan was approved by the Assembly in April 2006. It took three years for the plan to weave its way through the process. Take a look at : http://www.muni.org/Planning/prj_ParksPlan.cfm . If that link crashes, go to the Parks Department site and look around a bit, it'll be there somewhere.

For comments on some points relevant to the Hillside Area, click here.

In May 2003 we sent out a survey to develop our area's comments for the update to Anchorage's Parks Plan. We got 22 responses. Bicentennial Park and Chugach State Park are used the most by respondents and most thought they were in good condition. Ruth Arcand Park and Forsythe Parks get a lot of varied use, too.

The trail along Birch is the most used but there's some grumbling about the frost heaves. Another north-south trail along Hillside is desired and would get lots of use, too.

For the survey details, click here.

We have set up a special page for the DeArmoun Road Phase 2 issue. On March 29, 2006 this project was taken off the Long Range Transportation Plan. This page presents a good example of what can happen when a few people get motivated.

Homeless Camps in Anchorage
This is a city-wide problem. This page is a presentation of the issue as it unfolds in a series of emails starting in the Spring of 2003.

If pictures don't do it for you, on January 2, 2004 there will be a Tour of Homeless Camps. Meet at the Assembly office 10 AM to Noon.

Capital Improvement Projects
Every Spring, Community Councils are asked for a list of projects to be considered for future construction. Our requests get thrown in with projects from all over town. Some make it to final list, others drop off. Some projects on the list may not get done.

Getting a project on the list is just one step. If you believe something really needs to be done, be prepared to make some phone calls, go to the public meetings and generally lobby for your project. All around town there are individuals who make things happen. You can, too!

For a list we submitted for 2003 click here. It's an Adobe .pdf file.

Road Service Areas
Most of the Hillside area roads are maintained by the neighborhood, through Local Road Service Areas, Roads Service Areas and through informal agreements among neighbors. The system works well, but there are occasional signs that we may be in for a change.

On December 16, 2003 the Assembly passed a series of ordinances to remove Limited Road Service Areas from the tax cap. This will allow them to set their own road taxes. The MOA tax cap was adjusted accordingly so there is no change in taxes to those who live on the flatlands.

Ordinance 2003-161--Reducing municipal tax revenue Cap by excluding funds raised by LRSAs (limited road service areas), essentially removing LRSAs from the Tax Cap. Approved unanimously

Ordinance 2003-164--Reducing municipal tax revenue Cap by excluding funds raised by CBERRRSA (Eagle River road service area) removing CBERRRSA from the Tax Cap. Approved unanimously

Resolution 2003-385--Revising the 2004 General Government Operating Budget to increase funding for LRSAs and CBERRRSA. Approved unanimously

Click Here to see the MOA attorney's November 18 opinion that LRSA spending should be outside the tax cap.

Wildfire
There is an real danger of a wildfire in the Hillside area. There are several reasons this danger is so high, including the abundance of dead spruce from the spruce bark beetle epidemic.

That's a picture of the firestation on O'Malley. Let's hope you never need it!

Hooligans at Huffman Road!
The neighborhood on Huffman on the downhill side of Hillside Drive is very nice. Spacious houses on large lots. Views of the mountains and the city below. And nagging problems with illegal dumping and underage parties!

Terrace Estates
There has been a proposal to rezone the sand pit on the east side of Lake Otis between O'Malley and Huffman. The rezone requests housing density far greater than the surrounding neighborhoods. The rezone also includes a "Residential/Office" zoning that allows commercial development. This is way down the hill from us so you may think it will have little impact on you. It might even be a good idea and potentially a very nice development.

So what's the fuss? Click on the Terrace Estates to learn more.

Community Council Boundaries
Every 2 years, the boundaries of Anchorage's Community Councils are supposed to be reevaluated. That task has slipped by a few decades, but was eventually done in the Fall of 2003. Both the Mid Hillside and Hillside East CCs expanded their boundaries.

Antennas

Antennas at Near Point? Is this a choice between a nice view of the mountains or a clear television reception? This location may be outside of our council are, but the antennas will be visible from here. We may also face a similar effort to site an "Antenna Farm" in our area.

As cell phones proliferate, so will the antenna towers they need. Where can these antennas be placed? Can there be one in your back yard? When an antenna is required, your Community Council will be notified and you will have some say in where it goes.

Notification of Zoning Issues
Community Councils can only be effective if we are given information in time to act on it. There has been an ongoing discussion about how much time is needed.

Bus Service

Bus Service is an on again- off again thing on the Hilliside. Ridership is sparse and we are not where near the population density needed to make it financially feasible. That leaves bus service in our area an easy target for budget cutting.

TRAILS

We had a request for support for lighting ski trails north of Service High. At our April 18,2002 meeting the majority voted in support of the project.

Hit TRAILS to learn more.

Back to Top