Alyeska Unveils Expansion Plans at Town Hall

Resort owners hope to use public land for housing

By Soren Wuerth

TNews Editor

Alyeska Resort's owners laid out a sweeping vision for Girdwood's upper valley Thursday night, one of a "village", parking lots, recreational facilities, a conference center, a daycare center and other amenities.

About 150 people attended the meeting which was billed as a "town hall" meeting held amid platefuls of cookies and snacks in the weathered Sitzmark Bar, with its indigo paisley stained glass ceiling and worn, burnished booths.

Pomeroy CEO Ryan Pomeroy said the purpose of the town hall was to get feedback from the public and "feel it's a part of" the company's plans.

A poster showing Alyeska's overall development plans (Photo by Soren Wuerth).

"We really want to take the time early in this process to engage with the community, listen, learn and ultimately grow this place. I don't think I want to be modest about that, that's what we want to do," Ryan said.

The public presentation, which required an online sign-up, followed earlier focus group meetings with local officials.

Alyeska owner, Pomeroy Lodging, said his company's planners "dusted off" projects considered by former Resort owner John Byrne in a nearly 20-year-old master plan for the Resort's holdings.

"It became clear to me really quickly short of a good Lotto Max ticket, I was probably not going to build a lot of things on this plan, but I did think there is good opportunity to expand and grow and enhance the offering here at Alyeska," Pomeroy said.

A "village" near the resort would be built in phases, said architect Jeff Kovel of Skylab, a Portland-based firm. Phase one will require 24 months, he said, with a second phase requiring up to 10 years to build.

During his part of the general presentation, Kovel showed slides of concepts for "Alyeska Village", Moose Meadows, and Glacier Creek.

"The general idea is we want each one of these three villages to have unique themes. You can go to each one and have a different experience," Kovel said.

The idea for the main village, nearest to the Alyeska Hotel, is "creating a canyon within canyon". For Moose Meadows, a workforce housing plan would resemble a "frontier town" with porches and commercial space for local business.

"We're still get our arms around [planning in Glacier Creek area]," he said. "We started looking at historic images of encampments and different ways to make architecture that tries to preserve as much as the landscape as possible."

He said he hoped to see "floating walkways", or boardwalks, in the Moose Meadows. "We love the idea of community, and that Little Bears would be an anchor tenant. There's a mix of housing here. There's an idea of workforce housing that can evolve as people evolve."

While presenters at five stations spread out across the restaurant discussed general plans housing, a recreational center, a multi-phase "village", and improvements to the mountain, it was a plan to develop virgin forest on public land in the upper valley that drew the largest crowd.

The "Glacier Creek Community" proposal would encompass land north of the Resort and Girdwood Airport.

A poster at that station showed the upper valley, a portion of Heritage Land Bank land encircled with a dashed line and the words, "diverse housing," "ski lodge", "forest living", "pulse lift" and "event lawn", among other features.

So far, no land use plan has been conceived for this area, said Ryan Laurie, an asset management director for Pomeroy.

"This is a blank canvas. No studies have ever been done. Nobody has ever looked at it for development," Laurie said. He said Pomeroy is working through the same process Holtan Hills went through for a disposal of the public lands for development. Holtan Hills, a proposed land disposal on the west side of Glacier Creek that was indefinitely postponed by the Anchorage Assembly in February but has since taken steps to potentially revive the land deal.

Laurie said Alyeska planners have conducted a housing analysis and two tracts of land under consideration would accommodate, together, up to 500 housing units.

He said the housing units would be restricted to disallow short term rentals.

"We would not allow Airbnb or Vrbo or any of those," he said. Laurie said wasn't sure how many units would be needed to satisfy Girdwood's demand for affordable housing.

Meanwhile a road that would lead into undeveloped land along Glacier Creek would be expensive and involve wetland permits, Laurie said.

A cacaphony of voices filled the space and some later complained on Girdwood's Facebook page that it was too loud inside to hear questions posed to presenters.

Others said the presentations were short on details.

Architect Jeff Kovel, of Portland-based Skylab, describes design elements for Moose Meadows (Photo by Soren Wuerth).

"I would have rather have presentations not spread over five areas," Brooke Lavender said at the town hall. She later wrote she didn't "feel like many of the questions I had were answered with much clarity and it was hard to hear."

Ken Waugh wrote that the breakout sessions were "either mobbed so you could not get close enough to hear or the background noise made it difficult" and that he would have preferred a presentation with an opportunity for questions.

Lavender said at the meeting she worried what might happen if the plans fall through and the resort were to be sold. "The next person who buys it, are they going to follow these same plans," she asked.

What's next, how much the development will cost and whether public land will be transferred to Alyeska were questions not addressed.

When asked to respond to questions, Ryan Pomeroy declined.

"We'll issue a press release about the evening, but we didn't invite any media. You're a local person and we want to be respectful but that's not the purpose of tonight," he said.

But the presentation stirred many to speculate.

Following the main presentation, one longtime Girdwoodian turned and summarized, "That was the easy part."