Comprehensive Plan Update
City of Wasilla, AK
Public Planning Workshop #1
7-15-09

Assets and Opportunities

Constraints and Threats

(A number notes priority votes by persons present at the meeting)

• Great People
• Energy – People want to be here

• Great potential:
  Downtown museum is an asset (1)
• Parking is an issue

• Great place to live (1)
• Not much needed to improve the town

• One of the greatest cities in Alaska
• Assets:
• Sports center
• Biking is okay
• Transportation is good
• Opportunity for more (1)
• Recreation
• Kroc family foundation ( Coeur d’Alene Idaho) & Iditarod Partnership

• Potential (1)
• Potential for Manufacturing and retail (1)
• We are working to solve issues
• Cottonwood Center Development
• Library, Museum, Theatre combo would be a catalyst (6)
• Wasilla is a hub
• Landscape policy
• Recreation Plan in progress
• Peace of mind
• Diversity
• Housing affordability

• Tourism (2)
• Natural resources
• Cultural resources

• Flowers planted and maintained by the city
• City should buy land for future city assets (2)

• Wasilla is family friendly: many opportunities

• Need indoor sports facility (1)

• Congestion (1)
• Lack of Jobs
• Lacks identity (4)
• Looks like a strip mall
• Appearance of: (2)
• Buildings
• Streets – traffic
• Walks
• Detracts from Economic Development potential
• Needs Sprucing up
• Library
• Bike paths/walks
• place to gather
• Need for Crosswalks
• Need economic diversity (1)
• Locate Library on main street with theatre
• Lack of identity/personality (1)
• Financial Resources (5)
• Are people willing to pay for quality of life?
• Enforcement of Landscape Policy
• Need gateway entrances to town
• Lack of “Sense of Place”
• Need more Families
• Need more Professionals
• Need better Maintenance of roads and walkways
• Land use mistakes have been made
• Need sidewalks, curbs and drains (4)
• Need water/sewer improvements
• Need better traffic circulation
• Need land use ordinances
• Long commutes for many: Wasilla is a bedroom community
• Economic development (4)
• Natural resource-based
• Downtown parking
• “Where is downtown?”
• Local mass transit
• Need bike planning, routes, bike racks, etc.(1)
• Have not followed plans (1)
• 96 comp plan
• Parks Highway splits town (1)
• No follow through on plans
• Railroad splits town
• Multi Modal plan (1)
• City should expand the city boundary with land for the next 50 years (1)
• Location of shooting range should be reconsidered (1)
• Need work/jobs:  will solve many issues (1)
• Need commuter alternatives (1)