Assembly postpones decision on multi-family housing

PALMER — The Mat-Su Borough Assembly postponed until Tuesday final decision on what to do about regulations on so-called “multi-family” housing developments.

“I’d sure appreciate a few days to think through this in a little bit more detail the actual effects and to get some input from the planning commission,” assemblyman Steven Colligan said March 19 in successfully moving the ordinance change to the Tuesday meeting.

The regulation change has something of a twisted past at the borough assembly. It began as a pair of competing ordinances. One of those, proposed by assemblyman Vern Hatler, would have tightened rules to do away with developments like the infamous Felony Flats cabins at Mile 49, Parks Highway. The second, proposed by assemblyman Darice Salmon, would have gotten rid of multi-family regulations altogether.

What came to the assembly table was a compromise between the two, loosening regulations in some areas and addressing Felony Flats in another section of the code.

The sticking point, though, seemed to be with potential changes to the number of units allowed on a 40,000-foot parcel before more stringent regulations kick in. The regulation on the table put the number at five.

Salmon said he would like to change that number to 12, but worried he wouldn’t get a lot of support. People don’t build five-plexes, he said. In his 28 years of experience in the real estate game he’s found that developers build four, six, eight and 12.

“There are no five-plexes in the Valley,” he said. “Someone please amend it to a number that does work.”

He said that fears of sparking multiple future Felony Flats developments were unfounded. The flats were the flats because they lacked even basic facilities like water and sewer. The code only allows quality housing.

“I reiterate to my assembly members, this is quality affordable housing. What does that mean? It means it has septic facilities, it has well facilities it has power running to it,” Salmon said.

He also argued that the debate is one of property rights.

“The private property rights of an individual to do as they please transcends the fear of the party whether they be an individual or a majority,” Salmon said.

But assemblyman Halter said he was opposed to any increases in the upper limit on housing allowed without more stringent regulations.

“I’m opposed to any density change at this point in time,” Halter said. “It would basically make this ordinance null and void.”

Null and void, he said, because the vast majority of developments would be exempt from the bulk of the regulations.

Contact reporter Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.