Fairview vs. Greenbelt?
- deanbpotter
- Feb 1
- 2 min read
Updated: Feb 12
Commenting tips: Alternative MTP 2050 provides near-term improvement for Fairview. Alternative C permits investment in Fairview and doesn't plow through parks.
One of the goals of the DOT's study is improve livability in the Fairview neighborhood, where Gambell and Ingra Streets currently carry traffic between the Seward and Glenn Highways on 4-lane arterial streets. Poor street design and prioritizing vehicle mobility has led to detrimental effects in Fairview, including noise, safety, and geographic barriers.
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Moving these same problems from one city asset to another--out of a neighborhood into a park--does not solve anything. Nor does it provide immediate, tangible relief for Fairview: any of the DOT's "new build" plans are years away from completion and face uncertain technical, funding, and litigation challenges. That's why this corridor has been studied for decades without resolution. The lack of certainty has damaged Fairview. As long it's possible that a new highway will bulldoze swaths of the neighborhood, investment in homes and businesses stays away.
There are alternatives under consideration by the DOT study that provide near-term improvement for Fairview, long-term certainty that permits investment, and don't require building a highway in one of Anchorage's finest assets, our greenbelt.
First, the MTP 2050 alternative would quickly reduce the lanes on Gambell and Ingra from 4 to 3, and permit safety improvements for pedestrians and other modes of transportation. There are plenty of examples of busy 3-lane arterials in Anchorage that support viable commercial and residential development. MTP 2050 would also build a parallel, pedestrian-focused "greenway" street on Hyder, providing an alternative route for neighborhood mobility. This plan received the greatest proportion of favorable public comment in the study so far. It doesn't require hundreds of millions of dollars in a state that has fiscal challenges already.
Second, Alternative C provides the same traffic capacity as Parkway Alternative D, but does so by tunneling under a corner of southeast Fairview, leaving the neighborhood above and the parklands untouched. This is where we can put a line on map and say: "When the time is right for a big project, this is where we'll do it." Not in a neighborhood and not in a park.
Above and below: new residential and mixed-use development is not antithetical to busy, arterial streets (C St and I St in Anchorage).
