Community Planning Fails in Assembly

A proposed resolution for community planning options failed in this week’s Mat-Su Borough Assembly meeting. 

The proposed resolution allowed for three different options that community councils could use to develop community plans. Those plans could then be used to develop Special Use Districts, or SpUDs. Without SpUDs, there would be no way to enforce the community plans.

Option one would leave it up to a community council to formulate the plan, with only a little input from Borough staff. Option two would have relied on Borough staff to provide some input, but largely left the bulk of the work to the councils. Option three, which was the only one supported by the Planning Commission, would have a board appointed by the Mayor and Assembly to formally work through the planning process. A community council would be involved, as would many other representatives, including businesses, from the community.

Many residents in the Knik area spoke against allowing the Community Council to formulate the plan on their own. Business owners in the Knik area say they have no vote on the Community Council because they are not residents. State regulations require that voting members of community councils be residents of their council area. The Knik Community Council has initiated a community plan and is waiting for direction to move forward. 

Assembly members were interested in updating the language, but most wanted to ensure that the community led the effort. Ultimately, the Assembly voted against the resolution, leaving the community planning process in limbo.