Girdwood Area Plan Update Committee
October 12, 2017
6 to 7 pm, Girdwood Community Room
Minutes
The mission of the Girdwood Area Plan Update Committee is to fund and complete a transparent, inclusive review of the Girdwood Area Plan to guide Girdwood land use in an orderly and understandable process that is respectful of all views.
The mission of the Girdwood Area Plan:
“Guiding Girdwood land use: creating a framework for the future development of Girdwood.”
1) Call to order, 6:07PM Lewis Leonard, Co-Chair
2) Introductions and Welcome
3) Agenda Approved for October 12, 2017
4) Minutes Approved from September 28, 2017 Meeting
Announcements:
Old and New Business:
5) Public meetings and Outreach
Health Fair Oct 7:
Sam Daniel, Mike Edgington and Diana Livingston attended booth
Input cards were picked up, 16 were returned.
Mike Edgington started pilot survey, which has a few responses and is available on the GirdwoodAreaPlan.com/org websites. Group discussed this survey more under item #6 later in the agenda.
HLBAC update
Diana Livingston attended as HLBAC Commissioner, retiring from her commission after this meeting.
Lewis Leonard attended as GAP Update representative, and provided history report on planning efforts and this plan.
Mike Edgington attended as well, as Land Use GBOS Supervisor and GAP representative.
Commission meeting at 4PM was attended by general public as well.
New board members on HLBAC are Ron Tenny and Brad Quade, both are property owners in Girdwood.
· HLBAC Discussions included:
43 acre parcel of undeveloped land past Sproat. HLB is only in discussion regarding this parcel, no decisions have been made. They are considering HLB developing the land for sale (handling development of roads, utilities).
· Girdwood Nordic Ski Club multi-use trail
· Girdwood Mtn Bike Alliance
· Sewer Right of Way easement for AWWU in Holton Hills subdivision
· Sales of land that the USFS building is on at the end of the lease term. In early discussions with USFS on this. The parcel includes land on the other side of Alyeska Highway, which most likely the USFS would not be interested in purchasing.
· HLB Wetland Bank
· Commercial zoned land for sale at the end of Egloff Road (across from Library). Interest has been received in parts of the parcel, not the entire area. Discussed partial sale of the platted land.
Rotary meeting Nov 16 7PM at Challenge Alaska
Future outreach opportunity. Dale Goodwin and Lewis Leonard indicate interest in attending, along with Diana Livingston.
6) Data Collection Update
Review of information available on the MOA Open Portal – MOA website not on line, so this element was tabled.
Girdwood Area Plan Update website: www.girdwoodareaplan.com
Girdwood Area Plan Update Committee Agendas and minutes are available on line: http://www.muni.org/gbos
Mike Edgington introduced that he has created a short survey to test effectiveness of on-line survey. Feedback from table at Health Fair was that people wanted to respond electronically.
Survey is basic at this time, asking where people live, work, and their housing situation. Other questions are 3 things that they like most, 3 things that need to be solved, and how they think Girdwood will change in 10-20 years. Last page is demographics – gender/age and opportunity to add email address if they want to participate in other info gathering later. These questions came from the 2007 survey and had significant responses at that time.
Group discusses whether they should advertise the survey. Decision is to move the survey so that it isn’t available to the public yet. Group wants establish that the survey questions are going to provide substantive answers and there may be additional questions to ask. There is concern about maintaining credibility of survey if it changes substantially over time, and land use is typically a controversial topic in Girdwood.
GAP committee will receive a link and can take the pilot survey to test the questions and have a friend take the survey. People who take the survey will receive a message at the end that this is a pilot survey, and that the final survey will be launched soon.
Other upcoming outreach opportunities include: Community Thanksgiving, Sports Swap, Holiday Bazaar.
GAP needs to decide how to present themselves at community gatherings.
Ideas are: Ask me about the Girdwood Area Plan
Get article in both papers to introduce the project.
GAP also needs to consider methods for gathering input:
Survey, response cards, video
Once launched, public input will be on-going throughout the plan effort.
7) Review of on-going efforts:
Update on project funding and budget (Diana Livingston)
Diana emailed preliminary budget to committee, anticipating cost of $80-$100,000
Diana suggested that the GAP needs a logo, this is to be discussed at the next GAP meeting.
Website status and URL (Janice Crocker)
Updates ongoing, currently survey updates.
Lewis will discuss changes to format with Janice directly.
Timeline (Diana/Mike)
Timeline needs to be updated with longer term for MOA approval process. Group to discuss goals and target dates at the next GAP meeting.
8) Comments from the committee
Dale Goodwin commented that she though the concept of “What do you think Girdwood will be like in 2040?” was a good opener for GAP. Committee adds discussing a tagline to gain interest in the plan at the next GAP meeting.
Diana Livingston says that 2020 has a grantwriter who would like to attend the next meeting. Group adds Linda Soriano at the beginning of the next meeting agenda.
9) Establish assignment for next meeting
Several items have been noted:
Grantwriter presentation
Survey: Committee members take survey and provide input on what else should be asked;
MOA Open Portal use for data collection
How does GAP represent project in public outreach? Consider Tagline & Logo
Timeline goals and target dates
10) Tentatively booked future meetings
WED Oct 25 6PM
WED Nov 15 6PM
WED Nov 29 6PM
THU Dec 7 6PM
THU Dec 21 6PM
Adjourn 7:00PM