Wasilla should revisit housing ordinance option

Last week the Wasilla City Council narrowly nixed an ordinance that would allow a new kind of subdivision. As it was presented, the ordinance would give developers a choice that would allow more condensed housing units, but also would incorporate in the neighborhood a large community green space.

If the subdivision sits on 10 acres, then the subdivider could build homes on 10, one-acres homes, or in the case of the proposed ordinance, build a dozen homes on five acres and leave the remaining five acres for green space.

The ordinance not only gives developers an option, but it also gives homebuyers an option.

Alaskans love their space, but there are many people, particularly the elderly who don’t want a huge lot to care for and maintain.

Palmer and Wasilla both have neighborhoods where people live within spitting distance of each other, so it’s clear not everyone wants or needs acreages to be happy. Otherwise those neighborhoods and thousands of others across the nation would be empty.

And while many Alaskans have no use for all things environmental, there’s no reason we have to pave over paradise to make that point. What could possibly be wrong with having five acres out the back door where kids could have a pickup game of football or birds could nest and raise their young?

Some fear the ordinance would lead to unbridled housing density. Nobody wants that, but the fact is, the developer requesting the open-space option would have to go through the same planning scrutiny that the builder of any other subdivision has to go through. The public process would take over.

It’s becoming the norm in cities here and Outside to require subdividers to dedicate at least one lot to park space so the people living there can enjoy it for picnics or just for kids to go play in the snow without having to leave home. This ordinance takes that step one further.

Wasilla’s council should approve this option. That’s what the ordinance is, a choice. Nobody is mandating green space, but there are plenty of people out there who don’t need, nor want, an acreage. This ordinance would give them an option. Without choices, we would all be driving black, four-door sedans into cul-de-sacs facing another cul-de-sac facing yet another cul-de-sac.

If nothing else, the open space would give the city a place to pile snow. Then watch the sleds and toboggans come out.