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