Reconnecting Fairview
Get Involved!
Community residents are invited to participate in team building, workshops, networking, and neighborhood projects to make Fairview a safer, more connected, and vibrant neighborhood.
Reconnecting Fairview
Safe streets and walkable neighborhoods should be available to everyone in Anchorage. If you’ve seen the sidewalks in winter or heard about recent collisions and pedestrian deaths, you know that all to often Fairview gets left behind. It’s time to change that.
Help achieve Fairness for Fairview by reconnecting the community. Comment on the future of the highways that run through our neighborhood. The Gambell-Ingra corridor serves as the connection between the Seward and Glenn Highways, but it is a dangerous, high-speed corridor. It does not have to be this way.
On February 28th, 2023, the Fairview community was awarded a Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program Grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation. This is the first-ever Federal program to reconnect communities previously cut off from economic opportunities by transportation infrastructure. There will be many community projects in throughout 2023+ for this effort. See our press release here.
- Learn more about what the neighborhood wants to see in the future of the Fairview from our community workshop: Solving Scenarios for the Future of Fairview Summary Report (April 2023)
Purpose of Reconnecting Fairview
The Fairview community seeks heal the Gambell-Ingra Corridor by revitalizing and improving safety within it through economic analysis, active transportation traffic modeling, responsive greenway design and robust public engagement that includes civic dialogue and visualization processes.
Anchorage, AK, is a sub-arctic community located on the eastern side of Anchorage’s urban core. The Fairview neighborhood is divided by a high-speed highway couplet, including four north-bound lanes on Ingra Street and four south-bound lanes on Gambell Street. In 1965, the city explicitly acknowledged the highway connection in Fairview would “cut the neighborhood and create an island two blocks wide by ten blocks long.” The couplet has led to decades of disinvestment and safety and health impacts in Fairview.
The project is led by NeighborWorks Alaska (NWAK) in partnership with the Fairview Community Council (FVCC), focused on community-led solutions.
You can watch a short clip on this here:
More articles “in the news” in 2023 on our Reconnecting Fairview efforts:
- 2/28/23 KTUU: Anchorage Neighborhood to receive $537k federal grant to “reconnect” community
- 3/29/23 Alaska Public Media: Connecting the Seward and Glenn highways scarred Fairview. Now, lots of agencies want to make it right.
- 4/30/23 Anchorage Daily News: Highways connecting in Anchorage’s Fairview have long marred the neighborhood. Renewed efforts aim to fix that.
- 4/30/23 KTUU: Fairview community working together for safety near highways
- 5/19/23 KTUU: Alaska DOT hosts workshop to solve Fairview pedestrian danger
- 5/25/23 Anchorage Daily News: OPINION: Why planners routed a highway through Anchorage’s Fairview neighborhood
Seward to Glenn Highway Connection: Gambell & Ingra Streets
What is a PEL?
The Alaska Department of Transportation (DOT) is leading a Planning and Environmental Linkages (PEL) study for the highway connection for the Seward and Glenn highways, including 5th & 6th Avenue and Gambell & Ingra Streets.
“PEL studies are a collaborative and integrated approach to transportation decision making that considers environmental, community, and economic goals and impacts.”
For more information on the highway study, visit: www.sewardglennmobility.com.
Our Goals
Make Fairview whole. Correct the wrongs that have been inflicted on Fairview, like disinvestment, unsafe roads, pollution, and more.
Put environmental justice first. Address ongoing environmental injustices, including health and economic inequities.
Shape our future. Enact Fairview’s community vision in the 2040 Land Use Plan & Fairview Neighborhood Plan.
Revitalize Fairview.Improve economic conditions, strengthen community resilience, improve health outcomes, and advocate for a more livable Winter City.
Reduce the highway’s impact. Be innovative with options, like the Fairview Greenway, three-lane road diet, and more.
Safety for all. Include pedestrian, bicycle, and transit users at every step.
Better public engagement. Improve outreach by working with residents of all backgrounds. Meet us where we’re at.
Image from the Gambell Street Redevelopment Study.
An Alternate Future
What do you want to see along the Gambel-Ingra Corridor in the future? Starting in February 2023, the PEL Study Team is reviewing “alternatives” that could be built along the corridor. Here are some comments to consider to meet the neighborhood’s goals:
- The safety and connectivity of the neighborhood will make a better corridor for all roadway users.
- Prioritize pedestrian safety along the corridor with safe, wide sidewalks, safe crosswalks, and slower vehicle speeds.
- Include safe separated bicycle facilities along the corridor.
- Restore the main street-feel on Gambell to revitalize the neighborhood.
Fairview Community Resources
PEL Postcard 5/22
This postcard was mailed to all Fairview residents in May 2022 for the Seward Glenn PEL public hearing.
Seward Glenn PEL action alert 6/22
This action alert shares some of the Fairview neighborhood's goals for the PEL public comment period
Reconnecting Fairview 10/22
Fairview is working on neighborhood revitalization through community-led highway redesign
Seward Glenn PEL flyer 11/22
This flyer shares the Fairview neighborhood's goals for the PEL process.
Fairness For Fairview window sign 1/23
You can print this on a 8.5x11" paper to put in your window.
Reconnecting Fairview press release 3/23
See our grant announcement here
The AnchorED City Podcast 6/10/24
Listen here!
Resources for Seward-Glenn PEL (April 2024)
The Seward to Glenn Highway Connection Planning and Environmental Linkages (PEL) Study has a public comment period until April 7th, 2024. As the community reviews the potential highway connection alternatives, below are comment letters for reference:
- Municipality of Anchorage Planning Department memo on the Seward-Glenn PEL LRP_SewardGlennComments2024
- AMATS letter on the PEL alternatives AMATS Letter_on_PEL_Alterantives (draft as of 3/1/24)
- AMATS Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee BPAC PEL comments (prepared for TAC meeting 4/4/24)
- AMATS Community Advisory Committee CAC PEL comments (prepared for TAC meeting 4/4/24)
What is the MTP 2050 alternative?
Visit this interactive map and zoom in on Fairview. This is from the “Metropolitan Transportation Plan 2050.” This option includes fifteen projects, including these highlights:
- Complete Street projects for 5th and 6th Avenue, Gambell Street, Ingra Street, and 15th Avenue. That means removing a lane, slower speeds, and protected pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure.
- Removing utility poles on Gambell Street sidewalks and increasing lighting.
- Moving port freight traffic to Whitney Road with road upgrades also on Ocean Dock Road.
