The Assembly is asking for $30 million to spur new housing development projects they say need essential infrastructure improvements to be viable.
The Anchorage Assembly is asking the Legislature for $30 million to spur new housing development projects at more than two dozen sites that need essential infrastructure improvements to be financially viable.
“This is a kind of one-time investment that provides tons of dividends,” said Assembly Chair Christopher Constant, who sponsored a The measure updates the city’s “legislative program,” the municipality’s annual wish list to state lawmakers for items they want funded by appropriations in the capital budget. In recent years, amid low oil prices and declining state budgets, capital spending has drastically shrunk, and with it the ambitions of the city’s legislative program. Recognizing the enervated funding landscape, Anchorage officials have steadily narrowed down their requests mainly to money for construction at the Don Young Port of Alaska, arguing that the needs are not only overdue but crucial to the entire state’s economic health.But then in February, the Trump administration began bombing Iran, sending global energy markets into disarray and prompting the price of oil to levels high enough that Alaska lawmakers are discussing how to handle “The State of Alaska is projected to experience a significant, unanticipated revenue increase due to elevated oil prices driven by global conflict, with estimates indicating up to approximately $1 billion in additional revenue for 2026–2027," Constant wrote in his resolution. “Periods of elevated state revenue present a limited and strategic opportunity to make one-time capital investments that yield long-term economic and community benefit.” The Assembly’s proposal to seize that opportunity: Pay for infrastructure improvements that have stalled residential development projects all over the municipality.The Assembly resolution identifies more than two dozen parcels it calls “high-impact opportunity sites where infrastructure investment would directly enable housing development.” Among them are Powder Ridge, the former Carrs-Safeway grocery store on Gambell Street, the site of the Regal Totem theater and a large parcel in Midtown generally referred to as the Archives site, along with a number of smaller lots in residential neighborhoods. Land in Midtown once slated to be the Alaska site of the National Archives. Photographed on Thursday. “stranded parcels,” land slated for new projects but requiring costly “off-site” construction work like sewer-line extensions, bringing roadways up to code or adding street lighting. In Anchorage, shouldering the cost for that kind of construction falls on developers, some of whom have complained that they make most projects prohibitively expensive, especially much-needed middle- and low-income housing. “Why does this matter? Well, because we’re kind of running out of land that has infrastructure to it. That’s the easy pickings,” said Shaun Debenham, a local developer. “We’re in this catch-22 because they’re the only lots available, but the lots have a lot of off-site construction requirements.”Homes in the Powder Ridge subdivision on Nov. 2, 2023 in Eagle River. One example of this is a giant project slated for Eagle River, the Powder Ridge development, which proponents have said could add as many as 1,000 units of residential housing. Butin large part because of pipes: specifically, who will pay to extend water and sewer lines to the undeveloped tracts. Under Alaska’s regulatory requirements, public utilities including Anchorage’s water company cannot finance infrastructure projects that serve potential future customers. So backers have been looking for funding sources other than passing the costs along to the eventual property owners, raising the ultimate housing costs in the process. “Whenever you’re digging and laying pipe, it gets expensive,” Constant said in a phone interview Wednesday. “Anything we can do to bring down that cost is something.” A view of the Chugach Mountains beyond land at East Third Avenue and Ingra Street. Photographed on Thursday. Constant noted the projects are spread all over the municipality, including almost every state legislative district. “It’s a scalable ask, meaning if the Legislature has the funds for all of it, great. But if they only have so much, great, do less,” he said.Though the Alaska Department of Revenue this month projected more than $500 million in previously unanticipated funds through the end of the fiscal year, there are already many demands on those funds — including for education, the Permanent Fund dividend and previously requested capital projects, including for schools and the University of Alaska.Officials in Anchorage have taken a number of steps in the last year to spur new residential development, citing the municipality’s housing shortage and rising costs. Working with partners on the Assembly, Mayor Suzanne LaFrance has called for adding 10,000 new housing units within a decade, backing measures like a“Additional money towards infrastructure improvements — like roads and utilities — will help lessen development costs and incentivize more construction," the mayor’s communications director Nora Morse said. Constant said he was hesitant to speculate on how much money lawmakers might include in a potential capital appropriation, but that he was “feeling pretty optimistic” about the prospect that some funding will come through the request. The outgoing Assembly chair, who has just over a month left in office, said he didn’t like opportunistically coming up with ideas for how to spend potential money Alaska is receiving as a result of violence and turmoil abroad, but that he’d sprung into action drafting the proposal to make “the best of a bad situation.” “The reality is, we have to be prepared to tap into the resources the moment they become available,” Constant said.Zachariah Hughes covers Anchorage government, the military, dog mushing, subsistence issues and general assignments for the Anchorage Daily News. Prior to joining the ADN, he worked in Alaska’s public radio network, and got his start in journalism at KNOM in Nome.Several historic oil spill sites in Alaska’s Prince William Sound are now deemed safeTrump interrupts Cabinet meeting dealing with Iran war and rising prices to talk about Sharpies
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