Brooke Corkery and Patrick Corkery, Appellants v. Municipality of Anchorage, Appellee.

Summary

The Alaska Supreme Court affirmed the superior court's decision upholding the Municipality of Anchorage Zoning Board's denial of a variance for the Corkerys. The Court held that laches is unavailable to plaintiffs seeking a variance, that the variance provision requires substantial compliance with each of the seven statutory standards, that "exceptional or extraordinary physical circumstances" refer only to natural land features, and that any alleged procedural error involving a municipal attorney's memo was harmless, precluding a trial de novo.