Talkeetna Council forms committee to look at Downtown SPUD

A new committee of Talkeetna Community Council, Inc. will be tasked with looking into the Downtown Talkeetna Special Land use district in the coming months.

At each of the last two meetings of the Talkeetna Community Council board of directors, concerns have been raised over the historic status of Downtown Talkeetna. The most recent discussion was spurred by the renovations taking place at the Denali Brewpub on Main Street. According to Denali Brewing’s general manager, Sassan Mossanen, the current remodel will improve the building and eventually allow for some deck seating on the roof. He says that the remodel is being done with materials and techniques that will make the building fall more in line with a historical aesthetic than it does right now.

Some community members, as well as the Talkeetna Historical Society, have expressed concerns that there currently are no regulations on how new construction must look. The current Special Land Use District, or SPUD, has restrictions on height, footprint, and other factors, but historic qualities such as rooflines and materials are guidelines, not rules. As Talkeetna grows, some fear that the historic aesthetic of the town will be lost. In addition, they say that Talkeetna’s historic district status could be at risk.

One option that garnered support at the most recent community council meeting is local review of building permits. The catch is that the Mat-Su Borough does not currently require building permits the way it has in the past. Asking the borough to resume the permitting process is on the able.

According to TCCI chair Whitney Wolff, the borough planning department’s recommendation was to form a committee to gauge the community’s desire. At its last meeting, the council did that. Currently, no meeting dates for the new committee have been set.