Anchorage Daily News
Published: November 2, 2005
A majority of Anchorage voters still want the Coastal Trail to be extended south of Kincaid Park, results of a recent poll indicate. That's a desire that conflicts with a vote last week of the Anchorage Assembly.
Fifty-seven percent of registered voters interviewed favor extending the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail out to Potter Marsh, according to a survey published in September by Craciun Research Group.
The survey was conducted for consultants drafting a new long-range transportation plan for Anchorage. Consultants CH2M Hill wanted a neutral point of view -- "a poll that really says what the people think," said Jean Craciun, of Craciun Research.
Views on the Coastal Trail offered the most striking contrast between what voters surveyed said they want and the Assembly's action. The poll also revealed support for improving the Lake Otis Parkway-Tudor Road intersection, told how many cars people own, and offered voter insights on other transportation issues.
"On the Coastal Trail, my take on it is that in the city, people care about that very much," Craciun said.
The existing Coastal Trail travels 11 miles mostly along the coastline from downtown to Kincaid Park. Transportation planners are considering a plan to continue it about an additional 12 miles to Potter Marsh.
The Assembly, which voted Monday and Tuesday of last week on its long-range transportation recommendations, urged that the Coastal Trail extension be deleted from the list of trail projects.
Assembly members say they are recommending against the Coastal Trail extension because of the cost and because it would require taking private land to build.
Dave Dittman, another pollster who has conducted Coastal Trail surveys in the past, points out that if the cost of the trail extension were included in the question, fewer people would be likely to support the trail extension.
The Craciun survey asked questions of 600 randomly selected voters, with an extra portion of Eagle River residents so their views could be separated out.
Eagle River voters, with 51 percent "somewhat" or "strongly" favoring a trail extension, liked the idea the least, while west-siders from downtown, Spenard, Turnagain and Sand Lake were most in favor.
In 2003, a poll by Dittman Research showed the same percentage supporting the south extension -- 57 percent -- with highest support in West Anchorage.
Assemblyman Chris Birch of South Anchorage said he based his opposition to the project on a need to protect private property. "I don't think anybody among us would be of the view that taking private land for a recreational community interest is something that should happen."
Birch said he plans to sponsor a new city law that would make it illegal for the city to take private land for "leisure activities."
On another controversial topic, three-fourths of those surveyed by Craciun want to add lanes to make traffic speed up through Anchorage's most notorious clogged intersection, Lake Otis Parkway and Tudor Road.
The Assembly recommended a delay of several years for new turn lanes at the intersection.
But that may not actually conflict with what the public wants, according to Craciun.
The Assembly voted to wait on adding lanes until after two other road projects that will take some of the traffic away are finished: an extension of Bragaw Street from Tudor Road to Abbott Road and extension of Dowling Road between Lake Otis and the new Bragaw.
"My impression is (adding lanes is) being put on hold, not going away," Craciun said.
"It's just common sense," said Assemblyman Dan Sullivan, who asked for the delay. "We're fixing Lake Otis and Tudor by developing routes that take people away from Lake Otis and Tudor."
If the Assembly thought alternative routes would provide more benefit, "I would agree with them," Dick Cattanach, executive director of the Associated General Contractors, said in an interview.
Cattanach participated in an advisory committee for the long-range transportation plan and has long been active in local issues.
"I've been in Alaska for 30 years, and it seems to me we've been looking at Lake Otis and Tudor for 30 years. If there were easy solutions, they would have already been done," he said.
Pollster Dittman asked a different question about Lake Otis and Tudor in a survey last summer:
"As far as roads and traffic in Anchorage are concerned, which do you feel should be the highest priority to solve the traffic problem at Lake Otis and Tudor -- build more turn lanes at the intersection or building and connect other roads in the area to provide alternate routes?"
In response, 65 percent said to build alternate routes and 17 percent said to add the lanes.
"This was a case of priorities," Dittman said Thursday. "Clearly alternatives are more important than having turn lanes."
Craciun said her results showed the percent that favor adding turn lanes while Dittman's question asked those interviewed to make a choice.
City road planners are advocating both solutions.
Among other results of the Craciun poll:
• Eagle River residents interviewed own more vehicles, with 2.1 per household compared with 1.8 for the rest of the city.
• 12 percent of Eagle River voters said they regularly walk or bike somewhere on business, compared with 20 percent of the rest of the city.
• People are generous with state money. Asked what means of raising additional revenue for maintaining roads, trails and buses they would "least object to," this was the top choice: "using a portion of the state surplus to establish a road maintenance fund that would produce annual earnings."
Adding taxes or fees was less popular.
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Daily News reporter Rosemary Shinohara can be reached at rshinohara@adn.com or 257-4340.