Committee Agrees to Plat Land in Lower Girdwood Considered for Housing Development

Land eyed for housing along Alyeska Highway. (Photo by Soren Wuerth)

By Soren Wuerth

TNews Editor

An Anchorage land bank has set its sights on more forested wetlands for subdivision development in Girdwood, this time along a bluff it calls "Orca Mountain View".

The city's Heritage Land Bank, which owns most of the valley's undeveloped land, wants to plat three tracts totalling nearly 70 acres along Alyeska Highway north of Ruane Road. The majority of that land, between Alyeska Highway and Glacier Creek, would be set aside as open space leaving 13.5 acres "suitable for residential development", according to HLB. 

Local officials, meanwhile, hope they can work in a "public/nonprofit partnership" with HLB to build affordable housing on the nearly half-mile long strip of forest.

A proposal to approve HLB's platting of the area passed a sparsely-attended Land Use Committee Monday night in a 7-5 vote. 

That land "could house many, many folks there", said Ryan Yelle, of HLB. He added, however, "in terms of exactly who's going to be developing it, under what terms, those decisions are far from it, this is going to be a multi-year process to develop this tract. I'm hesitant to speculate on specifics about it because we just don't know at this point."

Critics of HLB's platting proposal said development of the forest would mean more drainage into a flood-prone watershed  below. A pond and California Creek drain through plastic culverts below Ruane Road. 

The floodplain can be temperamental. Four years ago, storm water overwhelmed the culverts causing Ruane Road to collapse and stranding water utility operators. Kyle Kelly, Girdwood's service manager, said the culverts will likely be replaced in 2027.

City land along Alyeska Highway includes 13.5 acres in Tract 2. A platting proposal is under review for a subdivision HLB calls "Orca Mountain View” (Graphic courtesy of MOA/HLB)

"Once we start taking down those big trees, they hold a lot of water," said Patty Wilbanks, who lives near the forest. She and others said the portent of additional water moving downstream could mean trouble for Old Girdwood that lies at the base of the valley's floodplain.

Yelle said HLB would collaborate in a watershed study with the community and stormwater runoff depends on the type of development. 

"We do have a regulatory process we have to follow for all land disposals, but I don't want to put the cart before the horse here," Yelle said. "We're not really discussing disposals. We haven't decided on the mechanism of disposal at this point. We are simply doing a platting action to help further those discussions. ...it's all up in the air at this point and those discussions are on-going."

An HLB powerpoint states access to utilities and Alyeska Highway may pose challenges and "public sewer may have difficulty achieving gravity flow to adjacent service lines."

As far as the remaining 67.5 acres of land in the area, much of which is submerged wetlands, "If there were to be an interest from the community to have that area rezoned for residential use, it would already be tracked out and it would a lot easier to accomplish that without having to go through another replat to create that tract," Yelle said.

Both critics and advocates of HLB's plan cited mistakes made during planning of the controversial "Holtan Hills" development. 

The forest on the right side of Alyeska Highway, just past Ruane, extends nearly a half mile. (Photo by Soren Wuerth)

"We're trying to work with the municipality to make sure that the community ultimately has control of how this is distributed so this does not turn into another Holtan Hills," said Matthew Schechter, who said other land investigated by a Girdwood housing committee has gotten "pushback". 

The group considered smaller, more "economically viable" parcels for housing that would have fewer impacts, said Brett Wilbanks, a former chair of the Girdwood Housing and Economic Committee. 

"If we're going to look at doing the big one, which is what Ruane is, this definitely warrants a discussion on stormwater issues," Wilbanks said. "We've seen the glaciation that's happened all along the highway. There's no stormwater system, there's real concern in the lower valley. ...There were no studies done for traffic when Holtan Hills dropped and look at what's happening now."

Members of Girdwood Inc. and the GHEC urged the Municipality to convey the land to the Girdwood Community Land Trust. The Girdwood Board of Supervisors voted 4-0 in August to urge HLB to subdivide the land for an eventual private-public housing development.

"We're trying to figure out a solution to build more affordable, dense housing and we know there are issues with water and they can be a constraint, but let's go through the process and find what's feasible and not shut this down," Schechter said. 

He said there is a meeting next week with municipal officials to determine whether and how the land could be allocated to a community land trust.

Platting of the land is included in HLB's five-year work plan. 

Brian Burnett, a member of the Girdwood Board of Supervisors, put the decision more bluntly:

"It is simply a matter of getting the surveying done, so it's a known quantity."

Brice Wilbanks, however, said the community needs to exercise caution.

"This is 13.5ish acres. For reference, Holtan Hills Phase 1 is 16 acres. So, this is a massive section of land that's being proposed to be eventually dissolved," he said. "I see a one-percent chance that this parcel would end up in any potential community land trust and doesn't just get disposed of and sold to a private party. At the end of the day, there are trust issues between us and the Municipality of Anchorage and HLB."

Water slides over Ruane Road during a storm in late October 2021. (Photo courtesy of Girdwood Volunteer Fire Department and Rescue)