The Anchorage Assembly on Tuesday night near-unanimously rolled back a recently enacted safety buffer between the Government Hill neighborhood and new tanks for storing fuel and other hazardous materials at the Port of Anchorage, though such facilities must still pass a public review before being built.
Downtown Assemblyman Christopher Constant and city officials said the goal was to strike a balance between economic expansion at the port and public health and safety. Some neighbors wanted the buffer to stay.
In other business, the Assembly authorized year-round use for emergency cold-weather homeless shelters in downtown Anchorage for the next two years, but affirmed, on a suggestion from Constant, the time extension was only temporary to move people to housing. The vote was 7-3, with Assembly members Constant, Amy Demboski and Eric Croft voting "no," and Assemblyman Fred Dyson absent.
[Read more: Anchorage's emergency cold-weather shelters may soon be open year-round]
The Assembly also sharply cut city permit fees for small-scale food vendors of "cottage foods" like baked goods, jams and jellies. At the start of the meeting, the Assembly directed the city to study whether Anchorage can provide health insurance benefits to the survivors of police officers or firefighters who die in the line of duty.
[Read more: New 'cottage food' rules could make it easier for people to get into the business]
A lengthy discussion unfolded among Assembly members and city officials about junk yards in Anchorage after two residents came to the meeting to complain about filthy, abandoned properties in their neighborhoods. Several Assembly members said they were frustrated that the city couldn't do more to combat private properties that could be considered health and safety hazards, let alone eyesores.
Assemblywoman Amy Demboski asked city manager Mike Abbott for an analysis of existing local public nuisance laws. She said she wanted to know why the city couldn't use those laws and whether there are other options.
Just before that, the Assembly voted 9-1 to support the fuel storage ordinance, with Assemblywoman Suzanne LaFrance the only "no" vote and Dyson absent.
The ordinance came from the administration of Mayor Ethan Berkowitz, where officials wanted to make it easier to build new fuel storage tanks than the city's recently overhauled land use laws allow.
The new land use laws, which took more than a decade to write, called for an extensive review as well as a 1,000-foot buffer between new fuel tanks and residential districts. The Berkowitz administration called the provisions an "unintended consequence." Officials indicated the rules could constrain economic growth at the port and affect the speed of safety upgrades.
But at a recent Assembly meeting, residents said the new safety buffer and extensive public review weren't unintended at all. They said it was the kind of government protections they've wanted for years.
A compromise introduced by Constant kept the public review intact but deleted the safety buffer, a return to the pre-2014 land use laws. The final version does allow an accelerated review of plans in a case of a safety fix.
LaFrance, who represents South Anchorage but has lived in Government Hill, said she wasn't convinced that removing the safety buffer was in the public interest. But Demboski said no one meant to hamper economic development and safety upgrades at the port.