Opinion: Communities know what is best for their community

By Emma Kramer

The Holtan Hills Development is a poor use of public lands and it may lead to adverse effects on all MOA taxpayers. The public record shows that the proposal is not supported by the Girdwood community,  additionally, it’s socially and fiscally irresponsible and will exacerbate our current socio-economic  issues. 

These issues include: only a single road in/out for evacuation, limited access to food and family services, lack of progress in our Girdwood Industrial Park, limited trash collection, STILL NO RECYCLING, lack of shelter for folks experiencing homelessness, variable electricity and wastewater capacity issues, and SEVERE housing shortage with trends in the wrong direction, and no incentives to stop.

Communities know what’s best for their communities. Resort towns need planning and areas of higher density workforce housing. This has been proven in Crested Butte, Vail, Whitefish, Telluride, Aspen, Tahoe and more. Building million-dollar homes on accessible community lands that become VRBO rentals will exacerbate our housing problem. 

I moved to Girdwood in 1999. Since then, my husband and I have built our home, off-grid, up Crow Creek Rd, raised two kids, and ran two businesses. In my 24 years, I have never seen the local Girdwood economy so strained. We’re not wanting for demand. The problem is that we can’t supply the demand that there is. 

Instead, local businesses are forced to run with high turnover, low staffing, and undertrained employees, which in turn, elevates their stress levels and affects their productivity and service quality. We desperately need workforce housing, as well as deed restrictions on any new construction on public lands like HH. 

We could greatly benefit from STR regulations that help mitigate Girdwood’s dark home problem and keep the income from local STR permits to support our community. We’ve been having these conversations for over two years, but we have to share this again with the Assembly because we have not been clearly heard. 

We are not NIMBYS, we are YIMBYS. We’re saying YES to high density housing in our backyards. We’re saying YES to affordable housing in our backyards. We’re saying YES to more housing for our teachers and first responders, and our service workers and senior citizens. We’re saying YES to development in the GIP, which doesn’t even have electricity, even in one of our main plow guy’s lot. Girdwood is almost 50 years old, we are not growing in a way that supports our local economy or our community. The percentage of full-time Girdwood residents has dropped to 20 percent, so, on a street of 10 homes, only two of 10 homes are owned or rented longterm by locals. 

That is the hollowing out of a community. That is a local economy overburdened with demand and under-equipped to supply.

Just a decade or so ago, we were being named in all the lists of ‘Best this” and “Best that,” and we can see the results of these high rankings. Now we are at a crossroads. 

While our voices may not be so many, compared to the entire MOA, everything that the 200-plus Girdwood residents showed last winter at the Assembly meeting, and all of the public comments, cannot be ignored. The public record clearly shows that the HH proposal is not supported by the Girdwood community. 

It is also clear that the Girdwood community is solutions-oriented and highly motivated.

It’s time to vote this proposal down and move in a direction that’s sustainable, financially sound, and follows recommendations from GBOS, LUC, Girdwood Housing and Economic Committee and the Girdwood community. 

Please tell Assembly members to vote no on Holtan Hills. On behalf of 2,000 Girdwood residents and 20 Anchorage community councils, we can’t grow this fast in this direction.