Tuesday "Holtan Hills" Meeting Comes on Heels of Construction Complications

A board for required state documentation goes neglected. A Stormwater Pollution Protection Plan for the project is no longer listed on the state Department of Environmental Conservation's website. (Photo by Soren Wuerth)

By Soren Wuerth

TNews Editor

When city planners and the developer of a contentious "Holtan Hills" subdivision come to town Tuesday they will likely face questions on a construction project plagued with mishaps.

From the beginning, construction of an access road off Hightower and near the school saw issues. A worker on site said a water main, installed decades ago, was not identified. Then, the construction company, GMC, ran into refuse from a forgotten dump.

The finding, testing and disposal of decades-old garbage set the project behind by at least a week.

And, recently, local police have been called to monitor the road after close calls and fears of pedestrian accidents by construction vehicles.

Girdwood Fire Chief Michelle Weston wrote on Facebook that she raised concerns at a Girdwood Board of Supervisors meeting about "commercial vehicles traveling down the center line and swinging into opposing lanes of traffic." She and others said they personally witnessed dangerous situations near the school involving children and construction vehicles. 

There have been no flaggers and few safety precautions sought by municipal officials, nor GMC despite calls by local officials. 

A spokesperson for the Municipality said in late July a traffic study was determined by the planning department to be unnecessary and that a traffic control plan would be "submitted and available for public review prior to disturbance and reconstruction of (affected) portions of Hightower Rd."  So far, no such plan has emerged.

And even though contractors have worked extensively near the road and bike path to patch in gas, sewer and electric utilities, the municipality has not followed through on its commitment for safety measures on the bike path, a section of which was partially torn up and diverted. 

A box for streetlights. How tall, how bright, and how many lights are questions that may arise during Tuesday night's meeting. (Photo by Soren Wuerth)

"A traffic control plan will be further developed once the construction schedule gets closer to (the) bike path and road demolition so utilities may be connected to mains along Hightower Rd. Temporary chain-link fencing is currently onsite to delineate the active construction zone," the Muni's spokesperson wrote in July.

Chain link fencing has not yet been erected. Instead, flimsy, plastic, orange fencing is the only border along a temporary gravel path at the edge of Hightower.

 Meanwhile, communication with the city, limited to email, has been hampered by a slow response time to questions. When the Anchorage Assembly put out a bid for a community liaison a year ago, it received no applications. The situation has left many in the community, including Girdwood's assembly member, to question early promises of transparency.

Tuesday's meeting is public and mandatory for the developer, Connie Yoshimura. 

Since the public land disposal was first proposed, the community has been unequivocal in its opposition to the project, a multi-million dollar partnership between Yoshimura and the municipality. Many residents fear that homes built in the more than 60-acre subdivision will be too expensive for a local workforce desperate for housing. 

After hearing from hundreds of residents, the Anchorage Assembly voted in 2022 to "indefinitely postpone" the project. It resurrected the ordinance almost two years later, with little prior notice, and reversed its decision.

Yoshimura told the Anchorage Daily News last week she sent 600 invitations to the local community, but few local residents have reported seeing them in mailboxes. 

Concerns by GBOS members about the Tuesday meeting—its timing, its disassociation from regular community board hearings, and possible meeting code violations—have all been ignored by the municipality. 

"The Holtan Hills project has been bedeviled by numerous examples of special treatment and process short-circuits during the prior administration. Opting for the most restrictive form of a 'community meeting' is a disappointing step, although not surprising one," GBOS co-chair Mike Edgington wrote in a letter to the planning department earlier this month.

The public meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, 5 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. at The Meadows Community Center (aka Chapel of Our Lady of the Snows) at the end of Northface Road west of Alyeska Resort's hotel.

A runner on the wide access road near Girdwood School. (Photo by Soren Wuerth)