Decision delayed on downtown district

WASILLA — Business owners will have another opportunity to comment on the city’s proposed downtown overlay district during a joint planning session between the city council and the planning commission this month.

The Wasilla City Council voted 4-2 Monday meet with the city planning commission to discuss the downtown overlay district at 6 p.m., May 26.

The meeting was scheduled after as many as 20 business owners contested the proposed district and its rules for business.

Several questioned whether the planning commission had sought to engage local business owners, many of whom reside outside the city. Provisions included in the overlay district could eventually force some businesses to relocate elsewhere — the planning documents list numerous types of businesses, including storage services, “adult businesses,” and greenhouses — which would be prohibited from operating in the downtown. Others, like real estate agents would be required to locate in second story offices. In the event that a building was sold or more than a quarter of it was renovated, they would go before the planning commission.

That’s a deal breaker, said Barb Smith of Alaska Frontier Realty.

“According to the new overlay plan, if my landlord even replaces his roof, my businesses have to move because I’m on the first floor and I don’t fit the guidelines,” she said. “That means I’d be out of business. Real estate companies can’t function hidden away in a little second-floor property. We work hard as business owners and struggle through the lean times so that we can have our businesses. It’s unfair for the city to come in and say ‘You’re now out of business.’”

Other provisions of the district would require business owners to pay to remodel street improvements, but limit those improvements to pre-established standards, which irked some business owners. Business owners have said the required improvements would make the price of rental space cost prohibitive. Other business owners said they were concerned that the city would implement the standards with the present downtown, only to rewrite them after a state-managed traffic couplet for Knik-Goose Bay Road is constructed in a few years.

Planning commissioners told the city council that city-funded improvements weren’t feasible, and that waiting for the couplet to be introduced before enacting the district could prevent the city from asking the state to implement some district-compatible changes as a result of the construction.

“We had a couple of comments to allow the couplet to go through first,” said commissioner Jessica Dean. “I actually think that would be a bad thing. I think one of the reasons why we need to do this is because of the couplet. If we had strict standards that are going to be put in place, they would be required to comply with that when they put the couplet in. I think as a city we would like to not have to pay for as much of that ourselves. If it’s something we can get done with that couplet and not have to put the cost of the business up ourselves, that would be very beneficial.”

Council members generally said they were unwilling to sacrifice years of planning commission effort, but wanted the district constraints to be reasonable for business owners.

Contact Brian O’Connor at 352-2269, brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com, or on Twitter @reporterbriano.