Commerce is required by Alaska State law to conduct a program of research, training, and technical assistance to coastal resource districts necessary for the development, implementation and maintenance of district coastal management plans under AS 46.40.

As part of its technical assistance to coastal districts, Commerce awards and manages Alaska Coastal Managment Program (ACMP) grant funds.

In Fiscal Year 2005 (FY 05), the Division of Community and Regional Affairs (DCRA) awarded and administered grants to 27 coastal districts, which includes both municipalities and coastal resource service areas (CRSAs), totaling nearly $800,000. The grants are awarded to the coastal districts for the purpose of implementing their local coastal management programs. FY 05 grant awards ranged from $38,250 for large boroughs, to $17,800 for small boroughs, to $6,000 for cities.

Grants for Special Projects are also awarded to coastal districts. Special Project funds are used to update district coastal management plans and to complete projects that improve local implementation of district programs. In FY 05 and FY 06, the entirety of Special Project funding has been used to support amendments to district coastal management plans to bring them into compliance with the new ACMP regulations and statute. In FY 05, Special Project funding to coastal districts totaled $900,000.

In previous years, Special Project grants have provided funding for enhancement projects such as:

• Mapping of subsistence use areas in the Cenaliulriit CRSA.
• Thorne Bay Watershed Management Plan.
• North Slope Borough Aerial Photo Project
• Clover Pass Coastal Development Plan (Ketchikan Gateway borough)
• Middle Susitna Archaeological Survey & Inventory
• City of Pelican Waterfront Plan
• Revising the Northwest Arctic Borough’s coastal policies based on a recently completed community-mapping project.

Other ACMP program activities undertaken by DCA staff include:

• Reviewing and commenting on draft district plan amendments.
• Assisting in revisions to the Model Implementation Chapters for district coastal management plans.
• Organizing regional and statewide ACMP workshops.
• Developing a website on Non-Point Source Pollution Ordinances in Alaska
• Managing a project that resulted in the completion of a new set of profile maps for the communities located in the Northwest Arctic Borough. This project was awarded
• Project of the Year at the 2001 Alaska Surveying and Mapping Conference.

For more information about DCA’s Coastal Management activities and community planning assistance opportunities contact:

Sally Russell Cox, Planner
Division of Community and Regional Affairs
Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development
550 West 7th Avenue, Suite 1770
Anchorage, AK. 99501
Phone: 269-4588 Fax: 269-4563
E-mail: Sally.Cox@alaska.gov

or

Peter McKay, Planner
Division of Community and Regional Affairs
Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development
P.O. Box 110809
Juneau, AK. 99811-0809
Phone: 465-5550 Fax: 465-4761
E-mail: Peter.McKay@alaska.gov