# Assembly Rejects Resolution Demanding 60 Parking Spots at Basher Trailhead

The Anchorage Assembly voted 5-6 Saturday against a resolution that would have required the administration to increase parking at the Basher Trailhead from 45 to 60 spaces.

The resolution sought to override the administration's community-driven design process. Public input reduced the parking lot from an originally planned 80 to 100 spaces to 45. Voters approved the project through the Chugach Access Service Area bond.

Assembly members split sharply on whether to insert themselves into the design process at the 65 percent completion mark. The assembly first voted 9-2 to remove a section that would have threatened to withhold future funding if the final design did not meet the assembly's parking requirements.

Assembly Member Felix Rivera, who introduced the resolution, estimated the project would generate roughly 120 additional car trips per day with 60 spaces versus 45. A public testifier said the estimate was relatively accurate but noted the municipality did not conduct a traffic study on the project.

Assembly Chair Christopher Constant said the reduction from the original plan felt like a failure to deliver what voters approved. "The suggestion that this is right-sizing the scope is absolutely missing the mark," Constant said. "60 was the compromise, and now we are at 45, and it came out of nowhere."

Constant warned that future expansion would be unlikely. "We do not have the money to come back and redo projects that we did until 20 or 30 years from now," Constant said.

Assembly Member Meg Zaletel opposed the resolution. She said it would override a legitimate public process. "There was a genuine effort to balance a broad range of concerns from a broad range of stakeholders across the community in coming up with this design," Zaletel said.

Zaletel said the resolution would effectively kill the project if the assembly disagreed with the final design. "To me, it effectively states that if the design is not what the assembly wants, we will kill the project," Zaletel said. "I certainly will not support taking a sledgehammer to a project simply because it does not conform to my individual preferences as an assembly member."

Assembly Member George Martinez said constituents in his district asked him to intervene, but he encouraged them to trust the community process. "The difference between following a process and then being heavy-handed is the difference between what this resolution is attempting to do in a very heavy-handed way versus recognizing that there was a process and there was a change as a result of the process," Martinez said.

Martinez noted that more than half of survey respondents called for something smaller than the 35 percent design mark.

Vice Chair Anna Brawley raised broader questions about who decides how public lands are used. "Who are our public lands for?" Brawley said. "It is troubling to me that everything seems to break down in this town when we say where, and when it has to do with people who do not live in an area who are accessing that area."

A public testifier said the administration tried to balance safety concerns, community input, and improved access to Chugach State Park. She said the 65 percent design includes planning for a future expansion if the initial 45 spaces reach capacity.

The public testifier defended listening to neighborhood comments. "I think we should also focus on how we want to proceed under CASA with the process and who we listen to when, and I think for the durability of CASA, we need to be very careful to not stop listening to the comments and neighborhood comments," the public testifier said.

She noted the project is one of five parking areas along Basher Road. Bond funding also supports trail improvements at Lost Cabin Trail and wayfinding at Stewart's Trail.

The public testifier said expanding from 45 to 60 spaces now would cost $200,000 to $300,000. Building a 15-space expansion later would likely cost more due to mobilization and other construction factors.

The 65 percent design plans went out for review on March 30, at least a week before the bond election. The public survey that informed the design was open for one month.

Assembly Member Kameron Perez-Verdia said the resolution felt like an overstep. "It feels like an overstep of the assembly to weigh itself in at this point in the process, and then also to threaten to not pass if it does not go this way," Perez-Verdia said.

The resolution failed with assembly members Rivera, Constant, Brawley, Zaletel, Assembly Member Anna Vohland, and Assembly Member Karen Bronga voting yes. Martinez, Perez-Verdia, Assembly Member Daniel Volland, Assembly Member Randy Sulte, and Assembly Member Scott Myers voted no.

The project will proceed under the administration's 45-space design. The administration has authority to add parking in a future phase if demand warrants expansion.