Heritage Land Bank outlines 2025 work plan: Holt Hills sales, Potter Marsh park transfer, Girdwood priorities

Tiffany Briggs, real estate director, and Emma Giboney, land management officer for the Heritage Land Bank (HLB), presented HLB’s 2025 work plan to the Committee on March 6 and said the plan will be introduced to the Anchorage Assembly in April. HLB staff described a year-long public and advisory commission review process that included a 45‑day public comment period, eleven submissions and eighty individual comments summarized by staff.

HLB staff said the bank currently manages over 12,700 acres of municipal land and described several projects HLB flagged as priorities. The Holt Hills development in Girdwood — roughly 60 acres the assembly authorized for disposal in 2024 — was replatted into five tracts, and tracts 1 and 2 were conveyed to a private developer in May 2024. HLB also highlighted the Water Marsh Watershed Park project: staff said HLB transferred about 100 acres adjacent to Potter Marsh to the Parks Department in an in-kind contribution that helped acquire an additional 200 acres; the resulting 300 acres are now managed by Parks and Recreation with a conservation easement held by Great Land Trust.

HLB listed several Girdwood priorities for 2025: continuing implementation of the Girdwood Trails Plan (adopted as an element of the Anchorage comprehensive plan in 2024), work on the Girdwood Industrial Park (staff said a recent feasibility study recommended subdividing remaining portions into four smaller tracts), and renewed interest in increasing access to Chugach State Park from HLB parcels. HLB staff said they received a recent letter of support from GBOS for an option to subdivide the industrial park and that they would continue coordination with local nonprofits and agencies.

Other projects noted: a proposed nonprofit cemetery by Alaska Natural Burial on HLB Parcel 256 in Rabbit Creek (staff said the project has local community-council support); activity to activate the Third and Ingram site in partnership with ACDA; and a potential new lease for the former Salvation Army detox building (the Clithero Center) near the west end of the airport, which HLB staff said was vacated in April of last year and may be leased to a nonprofit for similar services. HLB staff told the committee HLBAC held a public hearing in February and passed a resolution recommending assembly approval of the 2025 work plan.

Staff said the work plan is scheduled for assembly introduction on April 8 and that an assembly work session may precede a hearing if requested. Committee members asked about airport-area HLB parcels and whether HLB would conduct additional inventory work to identify land for housing; staff said HLB will apply inventory and parcel-assessment approaches used in Girdwood to other parts of the municipality.

Ending: HLB staff urged committee members to review the work plan before the April 8 introduction and offered to answer follow-up questions; staff said they will submit the assembly packet and HLBAC-recommended amendments prior to introduction.