Girdwood Land Use Committee

Meeting Minutes of May 11, 2015

Agenda Item LUC 1505-01:

Call to order at 7:05 by Bob Dugan

Agenda Approved for May Meeting with corrections to dates	8-0

Minutes Approval for April Meeting	8-0

LUC Officer reports: Just completed meeting with GBOS regarding Community Council status. This item comes up later in the LUC Agenda and will be discussed at that time.

Agenda Item LUC 1505-02: Presentation

Alyeska Highway Project presentation by Sean Holland, State of Alaska DOT

Presented at Trails Committee meeting last week and gathered comments

Challenge is to squeeze larger bike path into existing Right of Way, fix embankment along highway so that it’s not as steep.

Alyeska Highway paving project was delayed by 1 year to accomplish both projects at one time. Highway re-paving has limited budget and scope of work is fairly tight within the parameters of the project. Bike path work is state-funded at $3 million.

Bike path from Crow Creek Rd to RR overpass :

10’ paved, 1’ shoulder on each side

Fix sight lines by sweeping path closer to highway at collector intersections

Alyeska Highway
Reduce lanes from 12’ to 11’ each

Reduce shoulder from 6’ to 4’ on each side

Narrower lanes achieve traffic calming

Slope from highway into ditch will be flatter grade

4’ shoulder is within design parameters for Class A bike riders (experienced road bikers)

Brian Burnett states that at Trails Committee the following comments were also provided:

Concern about alignment with intersections: dogs, kids getting so close to roadway.

Sean says that sweeping path closer to the road is the best way to have cars notice them as they are already stopping for traffic there. The farther away bikes are from traffic, the less noticed they are.

Gravel on bike path from drainage off mine roads

Make sure we’re taking full advantage of Right of Way

Decrease speed limit to 30MPH?

Concern about construction during Forest Fair 2016

Possible to bury utilities?

Sean says that work on upper part of Alyeska Highway will fix ditching and drainage as there is now many years of erosion clogging parts of the existing ditches.

Sean Holland also presented information on fixing cross walks at Hightower/Egloff and Timberline roads. Many public comments received on this on-going issue. Preventative maintenance funding has limitations, but DOT recommends:

Painting center island into highway midline in both directions

Painting crosswalk on both sides of adjoining roads

Add portable sign Yield to Pedestrians that sits in center of road in both directions*

*Funding has been found for this, and Girdwood should have the signs in about a month

Girdwood Land Use Committee Meeting Agendas and minutes are available on line: http://www.muni.org/gbos

Agenda Item LUC 1505-02: Public Comment

None

Agenda Item LUC 1505-03: Committee reports:

Trails Committee Report (Brian Burnett)

Last meeting was May 5 at the US Forest Service building Sean Holland presented, as discussed

Hiked lower part of Iditarod National Historic Trail

Working on identifying project scope for $17,000 matching grant for work on this trail.

Next meeting is Tuesday, June 2 in the Community Room.

Girdwood Area Plan Review Committee (Lewis Leonard)

No report, no change in status

Cemetery Committee (Tommy O’Malley)

No report.

Old Business:

Agenda Item LUC 1504-04: Zellmer Townhouses, 2nd presentation, seeking LUC motion of non-objection for Conditional Use Permit for 4 unit townhouse building on Taos Road. Presentation by Marco Zaccaro, Z Architects.

Marco Zaccaro presented plans for Zellmer Townhouses, 4 units at 180 Taos Road to be built by Josh and Beth Zellmer, who moved to Girdwood last year. Previous similar but larger project was approved for construction on this site. Concerns at that time had to do with blocking views of uphill neighbor. Design has been changed and project does protect light and views of neighbors.

Drainage: Existing swale on North side, adding swale and ditch to South side. All are metered and then drain to existing ditching on Taos.

Parking: Each unit has 2 spaces, 1 additional for overflow

Snow removal: site plan exceeds required snow removal area

Motion:

Girdwood Land Use Committee does not object to issuance of a Conditional Use Permit for the Zellmer Townhouses project at 180 Taos Road, as presented on May 11, 2015.

In favor:	8

Opposed:	0

Motion passes

Agenda Item LUC 1502-08: Review of LUC Operating Principles as they relate to Girdwood Community Council responsibilities.

LUC updated GBOS at the Work Session on 5/11/15 at 6PM regarding the decision at the April LUC meeting not to seek to have LUC operate as the Girdwood Community Council.

Next steps are:

LUC and GBOS to review their Operating principles and address inconsistencies between them and provide clarification on how to handle disagreements between them.

Girdwood to initiate change in charter to allow Girdwood voters to opt for GBOS representation instead of Community Council. Add language to clarify developers responsibility to attend/present at LUC and GBOS.

Add language to state commitment of GBOS to reflect the voice of those people who are within the MOA but not part of the Girdwood Road Service Area (ie Crow Creek Road neighborhood).

Girdwood vote on change in charter in April 2016.

If Crow Creek Subdivision wants to have separate voice, they could start a community council for their neighborhood.

Expect to see draft proposition language in coming months.

Agenda Item LUC 1503-07: Discussion of Law Enforcement in Girdwood.

Trooper pull out 1/1/16 due to budget needs.

Special meeting held earlier this evening, May 11 to discuss progress of Task Force and draft resolution to send to Governor, Dept of Public Safety, Mayor, Assembly, Police Dept and Public Safety Commissioner, deputy commissioner and Alaska State Trooper Colonel Cockrell. Resolution requests that Troopers stay in Girdwood, and that we figure out a way to pay for their Girdwood Service. Also requests delay of departure of troopers to June 2016 so that Girdwood has time to identify and vote for solution if troopers must go.

Task Force is scheduled to meet with Municipality representatives on Monday to continue conversation and discuss scenarios that Girdwood could consider and vote on.

Brian Burnett asks if there is interest among Girdwood’s representatives regarding this issue. Kyle responds that Hawker and Geisel are aware of the issue and have stated there’s not much sympathy for Girdwood at the Legislative level regarding this.

New Business:

None

Meeting adjourned 7:48PM