Developer lobbies for Palmer street light variances

PALMER -- Anchorage-based Spinnell Homes has been negotiating with the city of Palmer for a variance to city planning codes for a new subdivision that isn't part of the city yet, but will be next year if Palmer's annexation plans are approved by the state. Palmer code allows developers to get water service early if it's part of an agreement to be annexed in the future. That part of the code is new, and so far Spinell is the second developer to take advantage of it.

The new subdivision is called Hidden Ranch and is to be built just south and west of Brittany Estates in the hills on Palmer's west side. Spinell wants a variance that allows fewer street lights than current code allows, and the Palmer council refused to add the variance to the annexation agreement last Tuesday night.

"I'm very much in favor of large lot subdivisions, but I want them to be safe large lot subdivisions," Council member John Combs said before the council voted unanimously against the variance.

Spinell engineer Eric Hohmann has discussed the issue twice at meetings of the council. Hohmann said the market demand in the Valley is for large lots, and Hidden Ranch is planned with a minimum lot size of one-half acre. The company has already received variances from storm drain requirements and other parts of Palmer's street planning codes.

At a meeting last April, Hohmann told the council that the street light variance was important for the economics of the project and that one alternative is to build a smaller lot subdivision.

"We don't want to build another Brittany," Hohmann said at the time.

Brittany estates was subdivided in 1985 by the Aleut Corporation, according to the Mat-Su Borough assessment offices. Spinell is currently building houses in Brittany on the few lots that remain vacant-- it's a place where houses are going up in between houses.

The company's owner Chuck Spinelli said he purchased lots in Brittany at a cost of about 25 percent of their development costs and is able to sell houses in the dense neighborhood because of those savings.

"The biggest challenge in the Valley is the values," Spinelli said.

Brittany was developed on small lots and was meant to fit Palmer codes. But all of that work was done prior to the late-1980s real estate crash, and the subdivision is just now filling up. Properties changed hands at inflated values here before the crash, but they don't all return to market value in the same fashion or at the same speed. That's part of the reason Spinelli says property values are the biggest challenge for developers -- in fact he said values are a bigger challenge than dealing with the local regulations.

"I think Palmer has been easier to deal with than the Municipality of Anchorage," Spinelli said.

Spinelli's company has built more than 1,300 homes since it was formed in 1987, according to the Anchorage Home Builder's Association Web site. Spinelli is confident that things will work out for Hidden Ranch. He said the subdivision will look a lot like Equestrian Acres on the Palmer-Wasilla Highway.

"I think it's going to go. It's just sort of a learning process out there as to what's got to happen," he said.

For his part, Hohmann told the council he will be back with more detailed information about how the company plans well-lit streets with fewer light poles.

"There is a way of changing the optics on the fixtures," Hohmann said at last week's meeting, "I do apologize. I don't have engineering in place to show the light optics at this time."

Some council members are eager for that information.

"If Palmer is going to succeed as a community, then we have to diversify the housing base," council member Brad Hanson said. "We are not a healthy community with only 7,200 square foot lots."

Wayne Whaley of Wasilla-based Denali North Engineering is the surveying contractor for Hidden Ranch. Whaley said developers can face similar hurdles in Wasilla.

"They need to change their code sections to be able to develop apples and oranges," Whaley said.