Zoning: saving grace or 'socialist state' ploy?

Editor's note: This is the second in a series of articles to run each Tuesday in the Frontiersman that will explore zoning in general, the present zoning plan and how it may affect core-area property owners.

MAT-SU -- Is zoning needed? What are the consequences of not instituting some form of zoning? How did borough staff come up with this particular zoning proposal?

Some have called zoning the Mat-Su Borough's saving grace, while others maintain that it's a ploy to turn the borough into a "socialist state." Most people, however, agree that something must be done to direct the growth of the increasingly crowded core area in order to ensure neighborly harmony.

Are we living in a damn-the-torpedoes area of development?

Those who want to develop within the Valley must adhere to borough code, which has set in place a number of rules.

"There are already some land-use controls in place," said Mat-Su Borough Planning Director Sandra Garley. "The borough has had in place -- especially in the core area -- uses that have to have a conditional-use permit."

Conditional-use permits are required to set up a junkyard, an adult-oriented business, a tower or a racetrack, Garley said, and the list keeps growing.

In addition to conditional-use permits, the borough has a few special land-use districts set up, such as the Hay Flats Recreation Area, Nancy Lake Recreation Area and Denali State Park special land-use districts. There are also a number of zoning districts that have been created at the behest of residents, such as a cluster of houses zoned "single-family residential homes" in the Trunk Road-Parks Highway area and another cluster in the Kepler-Bradley Lakes area.

Several communities in the borough have taken it upon themselves to institute some form of planning or zoning as well. The incorporated cities of Palmer, Wasilla and Houston have zoning ordinances, all of which are traditional Euclidian zoning

ordinances. Unincorporated communities such as Sutton and Chickaloon have set up special land-use districts to provide order within their areas.

Is zoning needed?

Conditional-use permits have been addressing the matter for the past several years, and some would like to simply see the list of businesses or industries that require a conditional use permit expanded.

But Garley said there are inherent problems with addressing incompatible uses through conditional-use permits.

"That's a small list," Garley said of the list of conditional-use permits. "The problem with trying to handle land-use conflicts by having a list is … it really requires a crystal ball."

Not only do planners have to keep revising the list of conditional uses, Garley said, they have to imagine what new businesses may be on the horizon. To illustrate, Garley said she was working in the planning department of a city in the Lower 48 when someone came in and applied for a permit to operate a tanning salon -- a service that, 10 years ago, was relatively unheard of.

"If you're trying to regulate possible conflicts by creating a list of conditional-use permits, you will always be behind the curve," Garley said.

How did we get here?

In 1997, Garley said, the planning department was going through increasing pressure because of growth.

"There was a concern that trying to crystal-ball that list wasn't being particularly affective any more," Garley said.

At the time, as Garley understood it, the planning commission appointed a citizens' committee. The committee was given a copy of a model ordinance of flexible zoning, and was asked to make suggestions and changes.

The committee worked more than a year to modify the ordinance so it fit the needs of the Valley. When they were relatively satisfied, they took the document to the public.

That ordinance, she said, did have some zoning districts, but allowed two uses to be adjacent to one another -- a residential district and a light industrial district, for example -- as long as there was a suitable buffer between the two. The buffer would depend on the noise, traffic and other issues generated by the light industrial land user.

Garley displayed a 3-inch binder brimming with public comments. Hundreds of public comments on the initial draft zoning proposal were taken.

"One of the things that, I think, really caught the planning commission's attention … was that the flexible zoning ordinance that was being presented at the time was too complicated," Garley said. "There certainly was a group of people who said 'I don't want zoning at this time,' [but] the largest group of people said 'I don't know, I can't understand this.'"

So the planning commission went back to the drawing board and started looking at the framework for a Euclidian zoning proposal. Euclidian can be easier to understand and work within, simply because the rules are set and there is little variability.

After reviewing zoning proposals throughout the state and making use of documents such as the Core Area Management Plan to gauge the direction the plan should take, as well as how a map would look, the planning commission reached a point when they felt this proposal should be opened up for public comment.

The public comment closes today, but Garley said that simply means it's the last date comments will be compiled into one big binder, like the one previously mentioned, and handed out to planning commissioners.

"Cutting off the public comments just means … we'll make Xerox copies [of the comments] and distribute them to the planning commission a week before the [Feb. 4] public hearing," Garley said. "They'll have time to read … and think about them."

Comments will still be accepted, she said, but they'll be handed to the commission as they're received.

Copies of the ordinance can be obtained by visiting the borough's Palmer location, or they can be downloaded from the borough Web site, at www.co.mat-su.ak.us. Comments can be sent to the borough by e-mail at pgraham@msb.co.mat-su.ak.us or by mail at 350 E. Dahlia Ave. in Palmer.

Garley will provide an overview of the draft document for the borough's core-area zoning ordinance at the Greater Wasilla Chamber of Commerce's noon luncheon today at Mat-Su Resort. Program fees $3 for members, $5 for nonmembers.