Wasilla shapes vision

WASILLA — When word got out that Wasilla’s former mayor was running for vice president a couple of years ago, the international press descended on this once-obscure Alaska town like grizzlies on salmon.

“They came through here willy-nilly and so many would say, ‘Where’s downtown Wasilla?’ And I’d say, ‘Look out the window. I guess you made ‘er,’” Wasilla Mayor Verne Rupright said earlier this month about the city’s lack of a strong central core. “Eventually, we’d like to see this area become more of a traditional town center like it used to be.”

How to make that happen is beginning to take shape in a recent draft of the city’s updated Comprehensive Plan, a broad overview of goals and objectives that will help guide city planners, residents and local businesses as Wasilla continues to grow over the next decade.

The trick is balancing rural residential with commercial property, maintaining the town’s historical charm and allowing for future growth in ways that attract and retain businesses to ensure viability as a city.

Wasilla City Council and the Wasilla Planning Commission are holding a joint meeting on the Comprehensive Plan at 6 p.m., Jan. 11, 2011, at the Curtis D. Menard Sports Center. They’re hoping residents will join them as they look into the city’s future as a thriving economic hub for the Valley.

It’s been nearly 15 years since the city’s first comprehensive plan was adopted in 1996, and since then the city’s population has exploded from about 7,000 residents to nearly 11,000 within city limits alone, city officials say.

“The city has expanded and developed like a blockbuster going off in the last 15 years,” Rupright said. “I’d like to see it have more of a town center again, where people can park and walk from one store to another and visit the post office and library — the way it used to be before the Parks Highway expanded and everything started to spread out.”

More than a year ago, the city hired local design and consulting firm USKH to help city leaders conceptualize and prioritize the future. They held public workshops and conducted surveys to gauge residents’ needs and preferences.

In a random sample of 1,750 Wasilla households in which 352 completed the survey, issues rated as “very important” to respondents were:

• Improving roadways and transportation – 65 percent.

• More employment opportunities – 60 percent.

• Increasing public safety – 43 percent.

• Improving utilities/infrastructure – 39 percent.

• Maintaining community identity and quality of life – 43 percent.

• Managing future growth and development pressure – 45 percent.

• Maintaining neighborhood’s residential character – 33 percent.

• Improving parks, recreation, and open space – 32 percent.

• Improving walking and biking trails – 33 percent.

• Expanding school services – 37 percent.

• Having more affordable housing – 32 percent.

• Increasing downtown revitalization – 23 percent.

• Increasing historic preservation – 19 percent.

When asked how important promoting population growth was to them, 45 percent rated that as “not important,” with only 17 percent indicating it is “very important.”

The survey also found that 74 percent of respondents think the city should enhance connectivity between streets and that 68 percent believe the city should maintain downtown vitality.

On Dec. 3, USKH and city planners released preliminary draft recommendations for transportation, land use, downtown, community assets, economic vitality and intergovernmental coordination.

Transportation priorities include providing for streets and highways that promote mobility, connectivity and access; providing a streets and highway network that supports economic development and growth; supporting the city as a transportation hub that provides connecting highways, commuter rail and expanded air service; and providing a local street network that enhances residents’ quality of life, among other things.

Land use priorities include encouraging development opportunities that support the city’s role as a regional commercial center and to continue to expand the city’s borders to allow economic development and growth, among other priorities.

During Tuesday’s Wasilla Planning Commission discussion on the draft recommendations, Commissioner Daniel Kelly Jr. expressed frustration over the broad nature of the document.

City Planner Tina Crawford explained that goals and objectives are written broadly to give them flexibility so they can be revised as needed. She said action items developed later by the city council would be more specific.

“You wouldn’t want it to be too broad because you wouldn’t get anything done,” Kelly said.

Commissioner J. Dan King said it would be up to the private sector to make investments and do the work necessary to revitalize the city.

“The comprehensive plan is a goal, not a regulation,” King said. “It’s just a guide.”

Kelly said he hopes the city council will provide enough constraints to future businesses to ensure they blend in with the town’s desired atmosphere – whatever that might be.

“If you don’t put some constraints on it, you’re putting out a worthless document,” Kelly said.

Crawford reminded the commissioners that the document is only a draft and that the big picture should become clearer when they meet with the city council on Jan. 11.

Planning Commission Chairman Alvah Clark Buswell III said Wasilla’s main geographical constraints are its two lakes and railroad tracks.

“We have to design everything around those three obstacles,” Buswell said. “Those three items make this a unique situation in this town.”

For more information on Wasilla’s Comprehensive Plan, go to the city’s website at cityofwasilla.com and follow the links to the plan documents.

Contact K.T. McKee at kate.mckee@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.