Anchorage Assembly welcomes Black History Month, discusses new development design

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Anchorage residents voiced their support and concerns Tuesday night on suspending housing design standards that have been proposed in the Anchorage Assembly, which ultimately voted 9-2 to suspend the standards.

The piece of legislation — Ordinance No. AO 2024-104 — in summary, seeks to temporarily suspend residential design standards for multifamily developments submitted between 2025 and 2027.

Members of the public gave varying comments on the ordinance, from support to opposition — some even voiced changes they would like to see made to the ordinance.

“I would much rather have abundant housing that I think is ugly than not enough housing,“ said Anchorage Resident Emily Weiser during a public testimony. ”So I support pausing the aesthetic requirements that are included in this pause for this ordinance.”

“For me, as a previous engineer, I’d go ‘what?,’” said Anchorage resident David Earhart. “So that’s just my comment that this is kind of a general statement there. And I assume that structural or seismic area things like that are not going to go away. So I think it’s when this is presented that maybe someone says these things will stay in place and not get some of us a little concerned.”

In addition to AO 2024-104, the Assembly had a busy agenda filled with several funding appropriations typical for the beginning of the new year, and appointments to several municipal positions.

The meeting began with a larger than usual number in attendance as many went to welcome and officially recognize February as Black History Month, which included a dance presentation of Sankofa Dance Theatre, a West African dance troupe in Anchorage.

The assembly also recognized Rev. Dr. William Greene for his 70 years of service to the city, state, and country. Rev. Greene was a veteran, civil rights leader, and former president of the NAACP in Anchorage, he passed away on Jan. 9, 2025.

Anchorage also gained two new voters at the beginning of the meeting, as the Assembly’s youth members were registered to vote — bringing recognition to a student-introduced resolution calling for an annual student voter registration drive in Anchorage’s schools.

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