Sitka St. Park Problems

Commenting tips: Keep Parkway Alternative D out of Sitka Street Park and adjoining wetlands. Treat the entire parcel as a park.

When is a park not a park?

North of the Chester Creek Trail, extending to 15th Ave., is a 65+ acre parcel known as Sitka Street Park. In its northeast corner is a playground, sledding hill, volleyball court, pavilion, and parking lot, maintained by Anchorage Parks & Recreation. It's a popular place for community parties and family gatherings. Setting aside the disadvantages of moving a highway close to a playground, let's consider the rest of the parcel. It is public, undeveloped land--forest and wetlands--contiguous with Eastchester Park and the greenbelt.

Here we're looking into the wetlands that flow south to Chester Creek:

Here's how the same spot might look with Parkway Alternative D (this is a photo of MLK Drive in Anchorage):

DOT would not consider this an impact to a park! While the Municipality of Anchorage owns this land, it is administered by Merrill Field, and is considered a "community use area" or "runway safety zone."

Parks get some protections under federal rules called Section 4(f). That doesn't mean they can't get turned into highways, but it makes it a little harder to do so. The DOT study has given the playground area of Sitka Street Park "likely Section 4(f) status," but not the 60+ acres of green space, wildlife habitat, water resources, and other valuable assets of parkland. Parkway Alternative D is planned to go right down the center of this parcel, at ground level.

Here's the parcel, with the projected highway alignment overlayed:

And here's how it looks to the DOT (the same as Merrill Field):

When you submit a comment to DOT about Parkway Alternative D, please mention this parcel as well. You can call it "undeveloped land south of 15th" or "Sitka Steet Park including its adjoining wetlands," or however you want to describe it. You can also request that DOT treat the entire parcel as if it were Section 4(f) parkland.