Planning staff announces new code-enforcement technician, recent assembly ordinances and clerk hire

Planning Department staff briefed the Fairbanks North Star Borough Planning Commission on several administrative items during the July 8 meeting.

Staff reported that at the June 26 assembly meeting the assembly unanimously adopted two ordinances the commission had acted on: a central business district ordinance that allows ground-floor residential through the conditional-use process, and an organized-veil facility ordinance. Staff thanked commissioners for their work and attendance at the assembly meeting.

On staffing, the assembly approved a new full-time code-enforcement technician to assist the borough’s two current code enforcement officers. Staff said the borough’s code enforcement caseload “has hit an all time high” with about 550 open code-enforcement cases and described the technician role as a position without citation authority that will perform field inspections and back-office complaint intake and public communication to free officers for field enforcement work.

Staff also introduced Aurora Marhenke as the incoming full-time clerk who will take over planning commission duties. Finally, staff reviewed near-term meeting scheduling: the commission has no items currently scheduled for July 22 if today’s items are acted upon; conditional-use and work session items are likely for August 12 and August 26; commissioners were told the comprehensive-plan work session is likely to be set for September and that a calendar update will be provided as the department posts staff reports.

These administrative items were delivered as part of the meeting’s messages and communications; no formal vote was required.