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| Submitted comments will appear below after staff approval. | |
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| Gayle Marban | 12/19/2007 4:47:13 PM |
| I am an avid trail user, my husband, 11 month old daughter and I are at University Lake and on the trails around it running, skiing when possible and viewing wildlife and trees whenever we can, which is usually about 5 times/week. We live only blocks away. I think this is a horrible idea to take more parks land and turn it into developed treeless areas. DO NOT DO IT. That is my opinion. Aren't there enough hotels in this town!!! Go somewhere else and build them. Tear down some ugly houses and build the hotels, don't do it on land that makes Anchorage an amazing city to live in. Building a hotel on APU land like that will make this city so much uglier. Thanks for reading and taking my opinion into account. | |
| Nicola Allen | 12/19/2007 12:22:55 PM |
| As a UAA student, former dorm resident and someone who uses the dog park frequently, I feel that the U/MED district is not the appropriate place for a large hotel. There must be other sites in Anchorage that would be better suited for a 162 room hotel with better access to amenities such as shopping and dinning. The proposed site on APU land is not close to any of these amenities and would be disadvantageous for the guests that stayed there. There must be other ways that the NANA cooperation can make money that would benefit the community such as: putting in apartments for students, a rec center or another soccer field. | |
| Thomas Obermeyer | 12/19/2007 10:18:46 AM |
| I adamently oppose this development on one of the few open spaces left in the city for a hotel on PLI lands usually reserved for schools and churches. This development will urbanize the area and create a private lake for Nana Development hotel users. This is clearly a "sweet-heart" deal. I would have less objection, had it been on university land for UAA or APU university users. I see little difference between this land use and handing it over to Hilton Hotel properties. This is enriching private pockets at public expense. Plans call for connecting the facility to the park, with sidewalks and a 26' paved fire lane. Users of the University Park Lake will have to leash their dogs and quietly walk past the Nana hotel visitors sitting on spotless park benches sipping mint julips and watching the sunset. This pastoral scene is an enormous unwarranted, unjustified, non-voter-approved gift to a private entity. We have enough hotels in Anchorage. One more near the hospitals and universities is not necessary. Nana Development has used up all its good will with this project which will remain long after the politians are gone. I have no doubt it will be completed, as it looks like Nana already broke ground without approval. This is just another seedy side of political influence. Such PLI land is priceless. The Assembly is alsleep at the stick. | |
| Mike Mitchell | 12/19/2007 7:38:20 AM |
| I oppose the application to P&Z for a conditional use permit for a 162-unit hotel on the APU campus adjacent to University Lake Park. This use is not appropriate under PLI zoning. In this district, AO 2007-141(S) requires that it be "demonstrated at the time of conditional use application that the hotel use is intended to have a permanent and significant programmatic affiliation with an academic use." This has not been demonstrated, as shown by the staff report stating that APU's degree program in hotel and tourism management, has been "defunct since 2002," that APU indicated that "they would need to study the demographics and perform a market analysis to determine if there would be sufficient interest in reactivating the program," and that UAA does not offer a degree in hotel and tourism management. To conclude that the AO 2007-141(S) standard has been demonstrated would make a mockery of this as a P&Z standard. If the hotel is allowed, it should be re-scaled and redesigned to fit the site and blend with the surrounding area. Size should be reduced: there is no demonstrated need for a 162-room hotel there, and a hotel of this size with 162 parking spaces is far out of scale for the site. It should not be allowed to use Municipal parkland for fire lane access, which is high-use, valuable parkland located near a lake and stream and designated as preservation open space. In addition to reducing size to fit the site, if a hotel is allowed there, substantial mitigation measures should be required, including increased setback and an appropriate architectural design of the structure. The 3-story Springhill Suites "prototype" would be an architectural disaster in this area. Shame on APU for proposing such a structure. Thank you for the opportunity to comment. | |
| Bill Sobers | 12/19/2007 6:27:15 AM |
| 1) As an avid park user I am concerned about the development of a hotel adjacent to University Lake. One of the great things about this city is the recreational opportunities available. 2) I understand the need for development but I question the need for another hotel. Do the demographics support it? There have been several hotels constructed in the last few years throughout Anchorage. | |
| TRACY SOBERS | 12/18/2007 10:13:39 PM |
| A hotel or any business in this somewhat isolated, treed open space is not appropriate for many reasons: there are no services(gas station, grocery or resturants) to support such a large hotel and this is a prime recreational area that should be developed in with that recreational purpose in mind. I strongly disaggree with putting any time of hotel in this location. Please other locations for this project. | |
| Tom Meacham | 12/18/2007 9:38:52 PM |
| It is difficult to believe that, less than one day before the public hearing on this proposal, no public comments have been submitted. it is quite obvious that the applicant has engineered the recent amendment to the Anchorage Zoning Code that will now specifically allow hotels in the PLI-zoned land of a university campus ("how conveeeenient...!") -- provided that a sufficient connection exists between the hotel and the provision of related academic courses, major fields, etc., in the university itself. That connection cannot be shown here. APU has not had a degree program in hotel and tourism management since 2002. UAA-Anchorage has no degree program in that field. it is always possible that nearby university students could land employment as wait-staff or bellhops. but this type of "career" track is clearly not what the new ordinance AO 2007-141 (S) requires. Thus, the proposal fails to qualify for conditional-use treatment under the very ordinance that was passed to allow it to occur -- because the clear requirements of a demonstrable academic (i. e., degree-track) academic program on the underlying campus does not exist. Unless and until this fundamental requirement of the ordinance has been met, the Planning Commission should not be spending its time considering this conditional-use application any further. One additional consideration is the question whether APU's land title permits it to lease a portion of its lands for commercial development; i. e., the proposed commercial hotel. Alaska Methodist University (now APU) received its campus lands for free by a conveyance from the United States under the federal Recreation and Public Purposes Act (R&PP Act). Under the requirements of that Act, the lands conveyed are to be used for public and non-commercial purposes, such as a university campus. There has been no showing that APU's proposed use of its lands for a commercial hotel are consistent with the requirements under which it received these lands at no cost from the United States -- or, if these requirements are no longer applicable, when they were lifted, and under what circumstances. The Commission should require that APU demonstrate clearly that it has legal authority under federal law to lease a portion of its campus for a commercial venture, notwithstanding the origin of these lands as federally-granted R&PP Act lands. | |
| Barbara Pepek | 12/18/2007 7:47:45 PM |
| NO NO NO--- This is not appropriate development for the university/ hospital area. Hotel rooms need to be on major roads such as Tudor or Northern Lights Blvd so taxis, busses (public and tour)can service this area as these activities are noisy. The campus is for students and faculty to use for classes, housing, and education-related events. If APU were to develop a 'hospitality' program they should have no problem with their students getting on the route 36 bus (which now comes up the hill) and going to the hotel rooms in back of the McD's off of Old Seward Hwy. That is where the students from the Bush stay now. I feel the campus is being used for commercial purposes as it is because of the 'Spinal Institute' at the bottom of the hill. I do not approve of such cross-purposes. | |