The earliest of Vision Fairbanks’ implementation pieces are intended to set the stage for economic development and revitalization downtown. The first of those implementation pieces has been decided and the second is soon to come. On June 16, 2010, the FMATS Policy Committee unanimously voted in support of initiating an environmental process to study the feasibility [...] Read More

Ten months ago, when the FMATS Policy Committee decided that the Cushman and Barnette bridges would be one-way facilities in accordance with the 30-year-old Illinois Street Project, it looked like the restoration of those streets to two way traffic flow to revitalize downtown was as good as dead.  And there was reason to believe that [...] Read More

15,650 autos rolled through downtown daily in 1980.  Today, only 14,750 make the trip.  Factor-in Borough-wide population growth over the last 30 years, and the decline is even larger.   Attracting people downtown is the obvious cure to declining downtown visitation.  The FMATS Policy Committee will decide this week whether or not public infrastructure will play a [...] Read More

It’s nice to have a crane downtown.  It means construction, creation, jobs – and a new bridge, new investment in downtown’s transportation infrastructure.  The Barnette Bridge will connect to a new Terminal Street intersection immediately to the north when that intersection is built next summer.  If completed according to plan, these new investments will serve [...] Read More

One-way bridges will work poorly with the two-way streets needed for downtown’s revitalization, according to Kittelson & Associates, a consultant to the City of Fairbanks.  Sometime very soon, the FMATS Policy Committee will need to decide if they will continue with that plan, or endorse a different one.  If strongly encouraged to do so, the [...] Read More

The Fairbanks Metro Area Transportation System (FMATS) will soon decide whether or not to restore two-way traffic to Cushman and Barnette streets. Doing so is a catalyst to economic development, a significant and historic change to encourage revitalization.    Vision Fairbanks assessed how people and their automobiles move within and through downtown. Are the movements good for commerce and [...] Read More

Vision Fairbanks is not yet market-driven revitalization. It is a political process to set the stage for economic development. Coming almost two years after the Plan’s adoption, a series of votes and decisions by the City Council, Borough Assembly and FMATS will reveal our civic leaders’ attitude to economic development downtown.    New Zones: On April 19, the City Council [...] Read More

On Monday, April 19, the Fairbanks City Council endorsed Resolution 4410, a government-to-government communication to the Borough about Ordinance 2010-09, which proposes to create new zone types in Borough code.  The Resolution, sponsored by Mayor Strle and Councilwoman Bratcher, passed without amendment on a 4-2 vote, Council members Roberts, Gatewood, Eberhart and Bratcher in support, [...] Read More

  On Monday April 5 the City Council postponed a vote on Resolution 4410, a government-to-government communication to the Borough about Ordinance 2010-09, which proposes to create new zone types in Borough code.  And at midnight on Tuesday April 6, the Planning Commission also postponed a vote to advance Ordinance 2010-09 with recommendations to the Borough [...] Read More