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| Kate Sandberg | 7/11/2024 1:21:32 PM |
| Dear Planning and Zoning Commissioners: I have resided in Girdwood full-time for 22 years and 27 years in Anchorage before that. I write without having seen what the MOA departments said lately about the 2024 Girdwood Comprehensive Plan, but my two points are these: 1. Girdwood has worked for 18 years to get a revised comprehensive plan that is now 29 years old. Two MOA administrations killed our efforts, once in 2009 and then in 2017. If we had been able to revise the plan before 2024, the zoning would now reflect our community's changes in priorities. In 2006, during Mark Begich’s tenure as mayor, I was asked to be on a sub-committee to revise the 1995 Girdwood Area Plan or GAP. By 2006, it was obvious that the land use and zoning were out of date. There was not going to be a golf course. And there was never going to be a ski operation in the Four Corners or its support facilities in the staging area—the zoned Resort piece of land now under contention north of the airport. Thede Tobish and Linda Brooks from the MOA Planning Department came to Girdwood on a regular basis and sponsored a large community survey that showed a definite change in community priorities since 1995. But Dan Sullivan’s administration killed the funding in 2009. The revision was dead. After Sullivan left, Berkowitz’s administration supported a new revision in 2015, and another Girdwood GAP Committee worked on it for several years until MOA decided neighborhoods should do their own comprehensive plans. The second effort was dead. The non-profit Imagine!Girdwood was formed in 2017, and its committee has now completed our Girdwood Comprehensive Plan. Therefore, it is clear that Girdwood never had the chance to revise its 1995 plan until 2024 because of previous MOA budget decisions. The concomitant zoning never had a chance to be addressed. 2. The 1995 zoning does not begin to reflect 2024’s priorities, but 1995’s zoning is ruling decisions now by the Planning Department and HLB. I am particularly afraid for our 2024 open space designation north of the airport. From watching the P and Z meeting concerning the Alyeska Resort revised plan, it appears that the current Planning Department and HLB are eager to use antiquated 1995 resort zoning to benefit the coffers of MOA and a company instead of letting Girdwood residents decide for themselves how to use the MOA land north of the airport. Known as the Enchanted Forest, this area is the heart of our winter sports system, thus our commitment to open space. It has wetland meadows, forest, slightly rolling hills, and quiet. It contains the major winter path that is accessed from Moose Meadows, the Nordic Loop, and snowcat trail. The forest will have two more new major trails within it if we can keep the open space. Pomeroy, the resort company, plans low-density houses in this area that will be single-family homes; therefore, they will cost far beyond what normal Girdwoodians can afford. The access will not be convenient and will dictate these be second homes. For Pomeroy to say that our trails can be interspersed with houses, roads, and traffic is disingenuous. This land can be better used for the health and well-being of the many rather than a few to fill MOA coffers. I urge you to consider the needs and desires of the community first; the two administrations that thwarted our revision attempts, which made it impossible to change the zoning; and the lasting effect using 30-year-old zoning could have on today’s Girdwood community. I urge you to keep the Girdwood Comprehensive Plan’s open space designation north of the airport. | |