In Final Hearing, Anchorage Commission Rejects Girdwood's Housing Concerns On ‘Holtan Hills’

"Holtan Hills" developers Connie Yoshimura and Brandon Marcott appear Monday to defend their petition to build a contentious and sprawling subdivision in Girdwood's rainforested valley near the school. (Photo screenshot of video recording of Planning and Zoning Commission meeting.)

By Soren Wuerth

TNews Editor

Saying its hands were bound by the Assembly, an Anchorage commission denied recommendations by Girdwood officials to mollify development plans for the controversial "Holtan Hills" project. 

Community members on Monday told the Anchorage Planning and Zoning Commission 

that the new homes will be too expensive for local residents and warned of significant environmental impacts should the project move forward as designed. 

Mike Edgington, a co-chair of Girdwood's Board of Supervisor, brought four recommendations from the community, including one asking for the commission to stipulate owner occupancy requirements. The Anchorage panel brushed off that concern, however, siding with city planners who promoted the "Holtan Hills" project and saying they were legally bound by an Anchorage ordinance passed two years ago.

"Girdwood needs housing at all income levels," said Daniel McKenna-Foster, a senior planner and contributor to Girdwood's Comprehensive Plan, alluding to a cost "rainbow" of housing desired in the valley. He cited the recently-updated area plan, which includes housing tracts behind the school, as justification for the "Holtan Hills" development. 

But Girdwood needs homes for people who work in the community, Edgington said, and "Holtan Hills" will supply "less than a dozen" given local housing market trends.

"The original sin of this whole project is that it never considered the need for occupied housing in Girdwood and made the mistake that private development solves that problem," Edgington said. 

He said later though the meeting was the last opportunity for public comment, GBOS can offer remarks on the project as a service area board. The commission and planners deflected demands for short-term rental restrictions and the offer of two lots for community housing to later decisions of a homeowners association.

"My frustration is that there were several aspects of details we were told by legal department that nothing could be changed. We can't do it now, we can't do it later. It seems a little like a bait and switch," Edgington said.

Other concerns submitted by GBOS included a "dark skies" preference for reduced street lighting, that trail relocation costs would be deferred to the developer and that a road into a cul-de-sac be kept public. 

Brandon Marcott, an engineer working for "Holtan Hills" developer Connie Yoshimura said they have limited street lights on other projects and didn't see "dark skies" as a problem, though it would depend on city code and the amount of lighting needed for children to walk to the nearby school.

A slightly-altered street sign marks the entrance to "Holtan Hills. (Photo by Soren Wuerth)

Downstream Impacts to a Failing Levee

Local business owner Amanda Tuttle said the project lacks environmental planning and fails to account for impacts on the community's infrastructure. 

Paved roads speed and increase the amount of surface water flow into creeks which has downstream effects. Tuttle said the railroad trestle in Old Girdwood is more than a 100 years old and a levee abutting Glacier Creek hasn't been maintained or repaired since 1984. 

Water from 62 square miles of temperate rainforest feeds into two drainages exiting into Turnagain Arm, she said. There are two bridges beneath which Glacier Creek flows.

"The failure of one of [the bridges] is the failure of them all," she said. "The consequences will be devastating locally, statewide and nationally," Tuttle said, adding that "the levee is failing. It cannot handle any more upstream development, especially a large-scale one."

"I would love to see this board say, 'Hey guys, we need some more information,'" Tuttle said.

A request by Girdwood's GBOS to delay development until a land use plan is either updated or renewed was turned down by municipal attorneys. Developers maintain that a 20-year-old land plan, called the "Crow Creek Neighborhood Plan" is still in effect. 

"It's the master plan. It's still in place. It doesn't expire," McKenna-Foster said. Girdwood officials have argued that the plan hasn't been followed.

Responding to environmental concerns, Yoshimura, later told the commission a wetlands delineation has been conducted. Yoshimura also agreed to pay for the relocation of the historic Iditarod Trail, which would be partially razed for the construction of home lots. 

Poetic Testimony

Saying her past testimony fell on deaf ears, local realtor Krystal Hoke said she had prepared a poem this time. 

"So here we are at P&Z, wondering if you'll even have the discussion of what could be helpful to the community or is it all a foregone conclusion?" one of Hoke's stanza's asked. "If we tell you there won't be places to live unless you make a difference by the conditions you give?"

Yoshimura, the developer, later took the microphone to read "letters of interest" she said she received from housing prospects. 

"These are not a poem," Yoshimura said, "these are real quotes and comments from letters of interest." 

Of the 135 letters Yoshimura said she received, 34 were from people with Girdwood addresses. 

Should "Holtan Hills" be developed, home prices are expected to be lofty. Yoshimura said in a past meeting the cheapest house would likely cost at least $500,000.

Unless someone appeals the Planning and Zoning Commission's decision, development could begin this summer, Yoshimura has said. 

Construction of "Holtan Hills", according to workers, could mean years of clearcutting, blasting, excavating, and bulldozing of old-growth temperate rainforest in the center of the valley.