Planning and Zoning Commission holds various public hearings

The Wrangell Planning and Zoning Commission met last Thursday evening, May 14, to hold several public hearings on various items.

The meeting opened with a discussion on the proposed relocation of a submarine cable. Communications company GCI is seeking to relocate an underwater fiber optics cable, which runs from Ketchikan to Wrangell, to a new landing location on the island. This is because the Southeast Alaska Power Agency is planning to conduct submarine electrical line work where GCI's cable currently lands, near City Park. It was recommended by the commission, according to Aleisha Mollen with the city, that a proposal to relocate the cable to the Shoemaker Bay Park area be approved.

The first public hearing of the meeting was over a preliminary plat review of the Johnson/Harrison Subdivision. According to the meeting's agenda packet, Johnson Construction and the Harrison family are seeking to purchase land behind their properties from the Alaska Mental Health Trust. This survey and replat would subdivide the trust property and combine the purchased land with the existing lots. This preliminary plat review was approved by the commission.

There was also a preliminary plat review of the subdivision of Lot 2 of Trust Land Survey 2018-11. This was requested by Brett Woodbury, who is seeking to also purchase land from the Alaska Mental Health Trust. This preliminary plat review was also approved by the commission.

After these plat reviews, the commission considered a conditional use permit request from Leif Larsson. Larsson is closing on the purchase of Lot 7BB and Lot 8BB of the Larsson-Buhler Replat, according to the agenda packet, and he was requesting the permit for a single family residential dwelling, a guard quarter trailer, and for storage of goods and equipment on Lot 7BB. The commission decided to approve of the conditional use permit, on all items except for the security trailer. According to the agenda packet, this is because a previous office building in the area is currently being used for residential dwelling, and should be adequate to provide security for the storage area.

The commission then considered a request for a contract zone modification from Don Glasner. Glasner was seeking to modify the contract setback requirements for a recently approved storage building. In a letter to the commission, Glasner wrote that after reviewing the approved location for this building, it was discovered that its proximity to two other structures on the property of Harbor View Storage would make it difficult to back boat trailers into the garage bays. He wanted the commission to allow the new building to encroach on the offset area by about 5 feet at the building's left rear corner, and 10 feet in the right rear corner. The commission, however, denied this proposed modification.

The final item on the agenda was a variance application request from Laurie Brown, who was requesting a height variance to allow an addition of a garage and two stories to her house. The requested variance, according to the agenda packet, would be up to a height of 30 feet, or a 5 foot variant. The commission decided to postpone its decision until the next meeting, wanting to wait for additional information.