ANCHORAGE  PROPERTY RIGHTS & LAND USE ISSUES

September 2003 - Is Alaska's urban center finally waking up to the public costs of oppressive zoning and property rights restrictions?  

From 6/05 - Struck out links are now dark:  Hands-off Private Property - A new group sprung up to fight the latest round of land use controls.  See their full page ads    Mat-Su Valley News links: Smart Growth  Enemies of Alaska!  Green Watch  Delphi Technique

DATE COMMENTS
   
9/11/21 The Economist - How to turn NIMBYs into YIMBYs - Tweaking economic incentives might help boost housing supply - 
8/31/17 Municipality of Anchorage - Streamlining Development Process - "BendonAdams Report"
   
4/4/15 The Economist - Urban land - Space and the city [cover] - Poor land use in the world’s greatest cities carries a huge cost - Comments 
Land-shackled economies - The paradox of soil - Land, the centre of the pre-industrial economy, has returned as a constraint on growth - 
These are excellent but may be behind a paywall.  See this review:  Space and the City - Special edition of The Economist - Stephen R Miller
2/2/13 Proposal for an Anycity LAND USE CONTROL and business regulation SUNSET REVIEW COMMISSION by Barry Klein, free market activist, Houston, TX
7/21/07 Paula Easley - Anchorage Daily News - Make Anchorage an opportunity city - New zoning and design standards are being considered to guide development in Midtown. With that in mind, I wondered if recent findings of well-known demographers and urban studies experts -- Wendell Cox, Joel Kotkin, Richard Florida and Randal O'Toole -- might apply to this important area...Houston, most reviled for its lack of zoning, qualifies as an opportunity city. It is said to have the highest living standards and lowest living costs of any large metropolitan area. (Someone earning $100,000 in New York can attain the same living standards in Houston on only $42,110.) Houston is unique in its reliance on voluntary deed restrictions to keep most land-use rules focused at the neighborhood level, thus avoiding the oppressive "culture of government control."
6/28/05 Lawmakers target eminent domain - LIMITS: Representatives, Assembly members seek to protect Alaskans' property - By ROSEMARY SHINOHARA - Anchorage Daily News - A Supreme Court decision last week [Kelo v. New London] that will give governments broader rights to take private property has stirred up several state and local lawmakers in Anchorage, who are already drafting legislation they say would protect private-property owners in Alaska.  State Rep. Bob Lynn, R-Anchorage, said the decision permits "judicial thievery."  "I read about the case in the newspaper and was actually appalled," said Anchorage Assemblywoman Janice Shamberg.  The Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, ruled that the city of New London, Conn., could use government's power of eminent domain to take 15 homes in an old residential area. They stood in the way of a project to build office space, a hotel, some new homes and a walkway along a river. Private developers would lease and build the new development.  Shamberg and Assemblyman Allan Tesche held a news conference Monday at City Hall to announce they are introducing an ordinance at today's Assembly meeting to make sure the taking of private property in Anchorage is limited to land that will actually be used by the municipality or the public.

Assemblyman Chris Birch, who was standing in the back of the room for the Shamberg-Tesche event, said later that he had started working on a similar measure over the weekend.  "I certainly do support it," Birch said. "I don't think the government should be entitled to take property from one private citizen and hand it over to another private citizen."  He said the city might need to change the municipal charter instead of just passing a new law to limit the use of eminent domain in Anchorage.     More:  Institute for Justice   
9/23/03 Editorial - Anchorage Daily News - Site condo controversy - Worthy ordinance has problem that can be easily fixed - The so-called site condo ordinance headed to the Anchorage Assembly tonight has set off a firestorm among some local builders.  Yesterday the Daily News editorializes against the high cost of housing, today they endorse tightening land use controls.  Will they ever get a clue?
9/23/03 LISA DEMER - Anchorage Daily News - Begich asks group to reveal itself - MYSTERY: Members blast site condo proposal in radio, newspaper ads - Mayor Mark Begich is calling for the mysterious group Hands-off Private Property to reveal who is behind its high-profile campaign to kill a proposed development ordinance.  The group has blasted the measure, aimed at toughening rules for site condos, with a barrage of newspaper and radio advertisements in advance of today's public hearing before the Anchorage Assembly.
9/22/03 Editorial - Anchorage Daily News - High-cost housing - Anchorage can do a better job of making housing affordable to all - At minimum wage, a resident would have to work 95 hours to pay that rent and still have enough to cover other household expenses.  And yet...the Daily News didn't draw any conclusions from the fact that zoning restrictions, burdensome building code restrictions drive up the cost of housing.  Will they ever connect the dots?
9/12/03 PAUL JENKINS - Anchorage Daily News (Voice of the Times) - Single-family zoning in jeopardy - These folks are planning an end run around zoning laws crafted to protect your property rights...Why should people who bought their homes under existing rules be robbed of their neighborhoods?...Somebody in the real estate business want to line their pockets at your expense?  COMMENT: This piece from a conservative columnist raises a peculiar issue:  How can it hurt property rights to loosen a land use control?  
9/10/03 LISA DEMER - Anchorage Daily News - Assembly tables apartment proposal - HOUSING: Ordinance would allow homeowners to build, rent units within their own houses.  COMMENT:  This is very interesting because the ordinance is sponsored by one of the most liberal, pro big government Assemblyman (Doug Van Etten).  What is going on?  Is he trying to loosen land use controls to give the average property owner a break?  Or is this part of a "densification" plan to bring Portland Oregon type zoning regime to Anchorage?  
2/12/03 ROSEMARY SHINOHARA - Anchorage Daily News - Land use rules undergoing review - REWRITE: Denver company outlines set of proposed new laws - 

OTHER   

JoelKotkin.com - Make Anchorage an opportunity city

http://www.muni.org/planning/index.cfm 
http://www.muni.org/iceimages/Planning/Anch_Landuse_changes_V5_11x17.pdf 

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/columnists/steigerwald/s_535992.htm 

http://www.catostore.org/index.asp?fa=ProductDetails&method=&pid=1441366 

http://americandreamcoalition.org/penalty.html 

http://americandreamcoalition.org/overpriced.html 

http://ti.org/antiplanner/ 

For More Information Contact:
American Land Rights Association
Tel: 360-687-3087
FAX: 360-687-2973

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