『Wetlands, Red Tape, and the Truth About "Breeder Box" Homes | Connie, Mike James and Guest Speaker Daniel McKenna-Foster - 045』のカバーアート

Wetlands, Red Tape, and the Truth About "Breeder Box" Homes | Connie, Mike James and Guest Speaker Daniel McKenna-Foster - 045

Wetlands, Red Tape, and the Truth About "Breeder Box" Homes | Connie, Mike James and Guest Speaker Daniel McKenna-Foster - 045

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Joining the conversation is Mike James, a 25-year Senior Vice President of the Commercial Real Estate Division at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Alaska Realty, and a lifelong Alaskan.This episode is a deep dive, not a highlight reel, and it covers more ground than the title lets on. I sat down with Daniel Mckenna-Foster from the Municipality's Planning Department to talk through the update to the Anchorage Wetlands Management Plan. We explored why so much of Alaska development runs into red tape long before a shovel hits dirt. We also talked about why I still, to this day, call certain split-level homes "breeder boxes."Episode Breakdown:What Actually Counts as a Wetland in Anchorage?There are really two different definitions in play. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers defines a wetland as "waters of the United States" under federal jurisdiction. Separately, the Anchorage Wetlands Management Plan has its own definition and its own regulatory map, more like a zoning layer than a federal designation.The two usually overlap, but they can diverge. A site can fail the federal test and still be fully protected locally, or vice versa.Until a few years ago, the Municipality actually held a general permit that let it make some federal wetlands determinations directly. The Army Corps declined to renew that permit around 2021, so Anchorage lost that authority for lower-class wetlands.The A, B, and C Wetland Classifications, ExplainedAnchorage still uses a local A, B, and C classification system for wetlands, separate from federal jurisdiction. Class A is the most sensitive and is rarely developable at all, something like an actual lake is extremely difficult to fill.Class B wetlands can be developed, but a project above a certain size has to go through the Watershed and Natural Resources Commission for review and mitigation.Class C wetlands are the most flexible: a developer can typically get a straightforward permit and move forward with mitigation, without the added commission review.Anchorage's official wetlands map is more than 10 years old, and wetlands boundaries genuinely shift over time, sometimes because of climate change, sometimes because of something as random as a broken water pipe creating a low point that later got mapped as a wetland.What Is a Wetlands Bank, and How Does the $75,000 Fee Actually Work?A wetlands bank is essentially a trade-off system. If you're developing in an area where a wetland already isn't very functional, paying into the bank funds the protection of a healthier wetland elsewhere, in perpetuity. Instead of trying to preserve a small, degraded pocket in the middle of a developed area.Great Land Trust is the main wetlands bank both the Municipality and private developers use in the Anchorage area, though Heritage Land Bank, a municipal entity, is also involved in assembling and holding some wetlands-related parcels.I shared my own experience developing Huffman Timbers, where I had to pay $75,000 into a wetlands bank to develop a portion of the property classified as wetlands.Daniel was candid that there isn't a precise, published formula for that number today. The Municipality has generally followed the Army Corps of Engineers' methodology, which weighs how much water a wetland holds, how functional it is, and how it fits into the larger drainage system.Giving developers real clarity and certainty on cost before they commit to a project is one of the top priorities of this update.Daniel pointed out that some of Anchorage's most unrecognizable former wetlands prove how much has changed: Blueberry Lake, near Benson and Northern Lights in Midtown, was a real lake decades ago and is completely gone from the landscape today. On the flip side, the Target-anchored redevelopment at Sea Street and 100th shows wetlands can be incorporated well: that project kept some wetland area as part of the site's landscaping instead of paving over it entirely.Federal vs. Local: The Two Different Wetlands Rules You're Actually Dealing WithThe Army Corps of Engineers regulates "waters of the United States" under federal jurisdiction. The Anchorage Wetlands Management Plan protects wetlands based on local drainage and community value, which is a related but separate interest.A site can be a wetland under one definition and not the other. Daniel used Blueberry Lake as an example: it likely wouldn't qualify as a federally jurisdictional water today, but it would absolutely still be protected under the local plan because of the drainage function it performs.Getting an official federal jurisdictional determination from the Army Corps currently takes 18 months or longer, which is part of why this update aims to give developers a clearer sense upfront of which path they're on.The Due Diligence Steps Every Developer Should Take Before Buying LandStart with the Municipality's GIS wetlands layer to see if a parcel is mapped as a wetland, whether it's a single-family lot or a 20-acre commercial site.If the map ...
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