Ship Creek Multi-Modal Transportation Plan: Project Description

Project Description

The Ship Creek Area has enormous potential to promote economic health and a high quality of life for the Anchorage area. In the Ship Creek basin, Anchorage has its greatest concentration of diverse land uses, each with important economic functions, and growing inter-modal transportation-related needs. The city’s critical marine, rail, and freight trucking services operate adjacent to the pedestrian, auto, and business activities of the downtown business district. The Ship Creek valley is also a hub of seasonal recreation and tourist activities, and is adjacent to Anchorage’s most historic residential neighborhoods.

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The key stakeholders and citizens will determine whether the various interests and needs can be blended together into a vibrant, mixed use urban center that points Anchorage and the state towards a prosperous new millennium. Residents and businesses in metropolitan areas all around the country are rediscovering the benefits of living, working and doing business in urban areas. Numerous successful downtown revitalization efforts mix uses in new ways, place residential units next to industrial uses, focus retail shopping around multi-modal transportation infrastructure, and use natural resources as major amenities to spur development.

This project must also be mindful of the area’s history. Following the earthquake of 1964 many of the stakeholders have made various attempts to plan for and develop the area. While some progress has been made, the untapped potential of Ship Creek is vastly greater than its present situation, and an improved circulation system is the catalyst to facilitate future development. In spite of the fact that the various stakeholders have competing interests in Ship Creek, there appears to be consensus on the need to address transportation opportunities and constraints in order to promote economic development and growth in the area.

There also appears to be a great deal of agreement among the stakeholders coalescing around the basic land use plans that have recently been presented by the major land owners within the area. The various stakeholders have collectively helped to craft land use plans promoting mixed use development on the south side of the creek and strengthened industrial uses on the north side to enhance existing industrial operations. This general consensus on the proposed land use framework is a critical component in the planning process because the future transportation system will be based on land uses already in the area. It will be essential for this effort to build upon the consensus that exists by providing an effective, open and fair decision making process that gives the opportunity for all interests and values to be heard and treated with respect as different transportation alternatives are evaluated.

A successful project outcome depends on focusing, to every extent possible, the limited time and financial resources that are available on creative problem solving and communication techniques to find the win-win solutions that build a critical mass of support among the major stakeholders. This is the basic premise upon which the project is founded. The various on-going planning efforts within the Anchorage Bowl must be coordinated and pulled into this process and agreement on a multi-modal transportation plan is the last major piece of the puzzle before major change can begin to occur in the Ship Creek area. The success of this project will be singularly measured on whether such agreement can be forged and such a plan adopted and implemented.

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