This story will be updated following a Thursday night meeting of the North Douglas Neighborhood Association focusing on residents’ concerns.
North Douglas remains one of the most remote locations on Juneau’s road system despite its close proximity to urban fixtures such as the airport and decades of development talk. But that appears likely to change drastically within the next few years, to the concern of residents there worried about losing more than just their peace and quiet.
The announcement last week of a planned private cruise port with a two-ship dock and a recreated historic Tlingit village on the west shore of the island’s northern half as soon as 2027 is the most recent of a trio of projects that each will redefine the area’s character. A gondola at Eaglecrest Ski Area within a couple of years — operated by the co-developer of the cruise port —and the long-proposed second crossing from the island to Juneau that may become reality within a decade are also likely to result in a flurry of year-round activity.
So on Tuesday night, when the Juneau Planning Commission agenda featured four proposed rezones of North Douglas property that will allow more development there — with the City and Borough of Juneau as the applicant seeking the changes — neighboring residents of the properties took notice.
“In the worst-case scenario for Douglas Highway we could be looking at over 6,000 residents out there and probably nearly as many cars that would be added to the road,” said Gary Gillette, a North Douglas resident and former port engineer for the city, while testifying against one of the rezoning applications. “The roadway is currently at or above capacity, and it doesn’t feature a separated bike lane or sidewalks.”
The city’s comprehensive plan implemented in 2013 states “that any substantial increase in traffic to North Douglas Highway should be accompanied with substantial improvements to the highway, including separated pedestrian and bike pathways,” he added. He said he’s aware of no such plans by the state or city for the two-lane road.
“I understand the need to increase housing, but if we do it and put people in harm’s way that’s not a service to the community,” Gillette said.
The four North Douglas rezoning requests are merely part of a citywide effort initiated by the Juneau Assembly at its retreat last December, Dan Bleidorn CBJ’s lands and resources manager, told planning commission members. He also noted there were three other rezoning requests on the meeting agenda for different parts of town.
“The Assembly at its retreat gave staff and the city manager direction to evaluate city property holdings for areas that we could up zone in order to think about future disposal or future development,” he said. “And so we went through the 2016 Land Management Plan, which is adopted by the planning commission as part of the (comprehensive plan), and in that plan every single city property is listed and mapped.”
Expressing the most concern among the planning commission members about the rezoning applications was Nina Keller, who in addition to questioning impacts of development in certain areas asked why the applicants are being pursued now when the city’s comprehensive plan is in the process of being fully updated for the first time in more than decade.
“It will be figuring out what a community wants, what a community needs now versus 11 years ago,” she said. “And will it not look into also where those things should be built? So if right now this property would be rezoned, developers would come in with ideas, they would potentially buy it and want to develop it, based on the 11-year-old comprehensive plan, (and) they could do so. But if we update the plan we might figure out ‘Oh, this is maybe not what we need or want.”
In response, Jill Lawhorne, CBJ’s community development director, said the comprehensive plan has been amended since the original draft to reflect some updated assessments. Also, she emphasized, Juneau needs to be looking 20 to 30 years ahead with that plan and is facing circumstances many municipalities aren’t.
“I can imagine other communities where it wouldn’t make sense to move forward with these rezones, knowing that a comprehensive plan is on the horizon,” she said. “But these are challenging times here, incredibly challenging when it comes to housing and we know it’s a three- to five-year process. And frankly, we don’t have that much buildable land. We’re not like another community that just has vast open space, green space, gray space, whatever it may be for opportunities.”
The seven rezoning applications on Tuesday’s agenda were submitted to CBJ’s Community Development Department in July, with public meetings held in September to get public input, Bleidorn said.
“There’s a lot of unknowns here that will be worked on in the future,” he added, including specific projects and developers who might be interested in the rezoned properties.
“There’s no definitive plans for development of these properties,” Bleidorn said.
In determining the proposed rezoning classifications, “we mainly looked at the properties that were adjacent to it because we wanted to try to match zoning as much as possible to create a cohesive map that makes sense as far as zoning goes,” he said.
Three of the four rezoning applications were approved for submission to the Juneau Assembly by the commission by a 6-1 vote, with Keller opposed. One application was rejected 6-1 due to concerns about the size of the parcel involved and its location in the vicinity of Fish Creek, with Mandy Cole casting the dissenting vote.
Rezoning applications approved by the planning commission include:
• A total of 39 acres of CBJ land south of Grant Creek to zoning district D18 instead of D3 (higher numbers reflect higher development/density levels).
• About 87 acres of undeveloped land north of Grant Creek to D15 instead of D3. An applicant memo notes the “rezone is consistent with the adjacent zoning district.”
• A total of 66 acres uphill of 6101-6615 North Douglas Highway to D3 instead of RR (rural reserve).
Rejected by the planning commission was an application to rezone about 77 acres in the vicinity of Fish Creek on North Douglas Highway to D3 instead of RR.
Residents meeting Thursday to discuss concerns
The North Douglas Neighborhood Association is scheduled to meet from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at Juneau Makerspace, at 3915 North Douglas Highway, to discuss the status of the second Juneau-Douglas crossing, tourism development, rezoning proposals and other concerns.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.
