As the Alder Top Village development moves through its design process, borough officials, the planning and zoning commission and members of the public will have the opportunity to shape what these new neighborhoods will look like.
At its April 11 meeting, the borough assembly unanimously approved the first reading of a rezoning for the subdivision, which will be built on the site of the former Wrangell Institute, a Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding school.
The assembly will hold a public hearing April 25 and could vote to amend or approve the rezoning at that meeting.
The proposed code would allow more spread-out, single-family homes in the northern portion of the property. The southern portion would be somewhat denser, allowing multi-family apartment buildings and small neighborhood businesses.
The area between Case Avenue and Zimovia Highway is also zoned for multi-family dwellings.
“It’s really reassuring to see that it’s moving ahead, albeit slowly,” Assemblymember Anne Morrison said of the new subdivision. Cleaning and grubbing of the site will take place this year; road and utility construction will follow in 2024.
The design is based off of a 2017 master plan that the borough developed through a series of public meetings in 2016, with the help of Juneau-based architecture firm Corvus Design. “The master plan evaluated constraints and with risks and costs, developed a subdivision based on community input and identified needs for a phased development approach,” the borough’s website reads.
The original plan included an Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program campus, which would have been a boarding school for rural Native children. However, the proposal did not receive unequivocal support from the statewide Native community. “There were objections and there were concerns,” said retiring Economic Development Director Carol Rushmore. “It didn’t seem viable.”
The recent master plan includes residential and small commercial areas, but no boarding school.
The planning and zoning commission is still discussing the possibility of allowing assisted-living options, tiny homes or accessory-dwelling units on the property.
The borough’s plan is to sell 22 lots in the first phase of the development.
The assembly and borough officials have not yet determined when lots will be available for purchase, but Borough Manager Jeff Good recommends waiting until the beginning of road and utility construction, at the earliest.
“I would like to see them on the market sooner rather than later,” said Mayor Patty Gilbert.
The borough is already planning to pay into a wetlands mitigation bank to compensate for filled areas of the Alder Top land. This means compensating for the loss of wetlands by restoring wetlands elsewhere. However, a small portion of the lots may come with additional wetlands mitigation requirements for whoever purchases them.
“Some of the area will be on that fill where the institute was actually located,” explained Rushmore. “As you get off that fill and move up the slope … there could be some lots that have wetlands on them.”
Assemblymember Bob Dalrymple recommended that the borough fully explain mitigation responsibilities to potential purchasers. “I think it would be really good to ask the Army Corps, when we’re ready, to fully explain to the future lot owners what their requirements are going to be,” he said, with “some sort of policy paper, or statement, or maybe a presentation.”
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