What will Anchorage look like in the year 2040? City planners say it’s a question we need to start asking ourselves right now if we want a healthy future.


Anchorage planners say by the year 2040, it’s possible the city will have as many as 60,000 new residents and 40,000 new jobs. Where those people will live, work and play is the question a new Anchorage Bowl land use planning map tries to answer.


Municipal associate planner Jody Seitz said the plan aims to show where more growth in the city is likely to occur and the best way that planning can accommodate that growth.


“If you are actually planning where you want things, the idea is you can do things more efficiently,” Seitz said. “You can take advantage of where people are living and concentrate certain types of development, so you can have efficient transit, so you can retain the beautiful green areas that people love about Anchorage and also you can carry forward the values that people expressed that they want in Anchorage 2020 plan.”


The public is invited to learn more about the planning map at a meeting on Wednesday evening at the University of Alaska Anchorage Consortium Library. It will run from 6 p.m. to 8:30 pm.


You can also find more information on the planning division’s website.