Topic

Borough-Wide Comprehensive Plan Update

The Borough-wide Comprehensive Plan helps shape the future of the Mat-Su Borough through goals, strategies, and actions that guide the community’s physical, social, and economic development. Local governments seek to build great communities through policies that support the people who live there, enhance the opportunity for economic prosperity, enhance the character and quality of the shared places, and provide safe and efficient pathways that connect everyone to where they live, work, and play. Developing a comprehensive plan builds trust by facilitating a robust public outreach process that connects the MSB to the concerns and ideas of residents across the borough. Once completed, the comprehensive plan will provide a shared vision that guides land use actions and policy decisions for the next 20 years.

---

Comprehensive Planning Pillars

In order to put the comprehensive plan into action, we need some goals and strategies to guide us. These goals and strategies will all fall under one of the six Planning Pillars listed below. These pillars are themes that reflect the responsibilities that the Mat-Su Borough has to its residents. 

Guiding Growth through Compatible Land Use Decisions

Being the best community to live, work, and play in does not happen by accident. This is why the MSB is responsible for guiding land use and development in a way that protects all residents’ property values and personal rights. We also have to do this in a way that gives our businesses and job creators a sense of security in their investments while considering our populations’ varying densities! This pillar will provide strategies for the MSB to minimize land use conflicts, such as a pig farm in the middle of a highly populated subdivision or an industrial park next to a school playground so that residents and businesses can feel secure in their investments and maintain the quality of life they’ve come to enjoy.

Prioritizing Economic Development

Local governments have certain tools and powers they can leverage to help build community wealth and prosperity. The MSB is projected to see a continued increase in population, but without job sector growth, residents will continue to need to look for livable wage jobs outside the borough. This pillar will provide measurable economic development strategies as well as goals for communities to look to as they continue to grow and develop their own town sites and economic hubs. As a government, our primary tools for supporting private sector growth are land use planning and investing in public infrastructure. These along with incentivizing development through programs such as C-PACE and other "carrots" will be the focus of this chapter. 

Delivering High-Quality Services

The MSB plays a big role in the day-to-day lives of residents. We operate libraries and schools, build roads, and plan for public facilities like firehouses and ambulance bays. We help spread information when natural hazards like earthquakes and floods happen. We groom ski trails and maintain trailheads that connect us to our outstanding recreation opportunities! Delivering high-quality services is really what being a local government is all about, so we need a plan that is going to help us make sure we are focused on the right goals so we can continue meeting the needs of all residents. This pillar is meant to connect the comprehensive plan to the day-to-day services that the MSB provides for its residents. This includes developing levels of service guidelines, as well as diving into the different needs of remote, boundary, and urban communities.  This chapter will focus on what it means for the MSB to integrate its values of accountability, customer focus, dedication, integrity, responsiveness, and teamwork into policy decisions and program management.

Providing Safe, Equitable, & Efficient Transportation Choices

The MSB does A LOT of transportation planning! As we should - our ability to get from place to place safely and efficiently has a big impact on our quality of life. The components of this chapter are meant to provide overarching transportation goals that connect the current planning efforts in transit, bike and pedestrian planning, and the Long-Range Transportation Plan to long-range land use planning.  This chapter will work to connect the comprehensive plan to the future of transportation planning with the Metropolitan Planning Organization, Mat-Su Valley non-profit transit providers, and generally laying out goals to promote safety, mobility, and increased choices for drivers, pedestrians, bikers, and everyone in between. 

Protecting Natural Community Assets

MSB residents are linked to the natural world in ways that are very unique to this region. We have world-class hunting, fishing, hiking, skiing, snowmachining, rafting, and more right out of our backdoors. The components of this pillar are meant to bring consideration to all the ways that our natural systems support quality of life in the MSB. This includes policies for preserving ecosystem services, incorporating public spaces into development standards, recommendations for ways the MSB can support the sustainable development of its natural resources, and secure safety from fire, flood, pollution, and other dangers through hazard mitigation planning. 

Healthy, Thriving Mat-Su Residents

This pillar is the culmination of all that came before it. A healthy and thriving community comes from public investment in safety, roads, land use, services, and natural assets (to name a few). The comprehensive plan, at its core, is meant to enhance community wealth and well-being by guiding the Assembly and Borough Departments so they can make policy decisions that benefit all MSB residents. The components of this pillar are meant to look at what the quality of life looks like for residents of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough. It will provide goals that promote the health and general welfare of all borough residents, such as job training and workforce development, food security, place-making policy, and ensuring our growing communities work for residents of all ages and abilities.