Muldoon Residents Push for Community Park

Community envisions a gathering place, with bike trails and soccer fields

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By Lauren Maxwell
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Story Created: Aug 17, 2012 at 7:33 PM AKDT

Story Updated: Aug 17, 2012 at 7:46 PM AKDT

ANCHORAGE - You don’t have to look further than Muldoon Road to see what some would describe as urban sprawl. The northeast part of town is filling up fast with some of the densest housing allowed. Some who live and work there said a Muldoon Park or Town Square should be part of the plan.

Stu Grenier is on the Northeast Community Council Board. Grenier is heading the effort to turn a 29-acre parcel owned by the city into a park. It’s land that used to be the site of the Alaska Green House property.

In addition to a community-gathering place, Grenier envisions bike trails and soccer fields.

“You could have community gardens or places to walk dogs,” said Grenier. “A lot of people have suggested a skateboard park too.”

But where Grenier and others see a park, the city may have a different plan.

In a few months city engineers will re-route a meandering stream that runs through the property.
Fish and Game determined months ago that the stream needed to be shifted to make it easier for salmon to pass through.

But some suspect the work is also being done to make it easier to sell the property to a developer.

The parcel is zoned for commercial development as well as residential. There is also land set aside for a park, 13 acres, but the plan is to set that towards the back of the parcel.

Grenier said that’s not acceptable, he wants the park visible from Muldoon road.

“You have to put the park where the people are,” he said. “I mean if we are just strip malls then that’s all we are, a strip. If we have a townsquare we have a sense of community.

The city said there has been no decision yet on what will happen with the property, although the stream re-route is going through.

A public comment period on the parl issue ended in July and there has been nothing scheduled yet with the Anchorage Assembly.
 

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