# Assembly Votes Down Resolution Demanding 60 Parking Spots at Basher Trailhead

The Anchorage Assembly voted 5-6 Friday 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 decision to reduce the planned parking from an original 80-100 spaces to 45 spaces in the current 65 percent design. The project is funded through the Chugach State Park Access Service Area bond that voters approved.

Assembly Chair Christopher Constant, who sponsored the resolution, argued the reduction violated the public's expectations when they voted for the bond. "The reality is there is no coming back to it to expand the project later," Constant said. "We do not have the money to come back and redo projects that we did until 20 or 30 years from now."

The administration defended the design change as the result of a public process. Chief of Staff Suzanne Fleet-Green said the municipality received feedback during a month-long survey that informed the 65 percent design. "We tried to balance concerns for safety, concerns across the municipality that we heard in comments, as well as improving access to this side of the Chugach," Fleet-Green said.

Assembly member Daniel Johnson opposed the resolution, calling it an inappropriate assertion of assembly authority. "When the assembly states that we will not approve a contract for the construction, we will effectively try to stop this project," Johnson said. "That in my mind feels like the more likely to support the will of the voters position for us to take."

The assembly amended the resolution before the final vote, striking a section that would have threatened to withhold funding if the final design did not include sufficient parking capacity. The amendment passed 9-2.

Assembly Member George Martinez urged colleagues 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.

Municipal engineer Kent Colhase confirmed the municipality did not conduct a formal traffic study for the project. He estimated the difference between 45 and 60 spaces would generate about 120 additional car trips per day.

The 65 percent design includes provisions for future expansion of 15-20 additional parking spaces, though Colhase said building the expansion later would cost more than constructing 60 spaces initially. The cost difference between 45 and 60 spaces now would be $200,000 to $300,000.

Assembly Member Kameron Perez-Verdia said the resolution felt like an inappropriate assembly intervention. "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 project will proceed with the 45-space design. The administration said it would review no-parking signage along Basher Road based on safety considerations rather than neighborhood preferences.