This story has been updated with the Assembly’s votes approving the proposed ordinances.
Changes in development plans for lots of areas around town got the Juneau Assembly’s approval Monday night, with unanimous votes on three rezonings on North Douglas Island, three rezonings in the vicinity of Auke Bay and adopting a new Blueprint Downtown area plan.
All of the rezonings will increase development allowed on the lots involved, most of which range in size from 28 to 87 acres. The exception is a six-acre parcel of Pederson Hill, an area where housing development has been a multiyear and multistage process. The City and Borough of Juneau is the applicant for the changes as part of a citywide effort to make additional land available to developers to be determined for projects yet to be proposed.
Blueprint Downtown covers virtually every parcel of land and every aspect of life in a 613-acre section of downtown, with lists of recommendation actions in chapters focusing on subjects such as land use, tourism, recreation and transportation. It also addresses assumptions about future development, such as the building of another cruise ship dock.
All of the items were approved Monday with scant discussion by Assembly members and only a few public comments from residents. Among the most notable were an Auke Bay resident concerned a rezoning that moves a trailhead near her home will increase a problem with squatters in the area and a cruise industry activist who asked the vote on the downtown plan be delayed until the fate of a proposed private cruise ship dock there is known.
Increasing available housing is the dominant reason cited by city leaders seeking the changes, due to an ongoing acute shortage of residences. Officials say the need is likely to increase during the coming years with the homeporting of an icebreaker that may bring 600 people to town and the increasing threat of glacial outburst floods in the Mendenhall Valley.
The intent of the city’s comprehensive plan “supports rezoning…to accommodate Assembly housing development priorities including, but not limited to, housing for staff of the U.S. Coast Guard Icebreaker MV Aiviq and concerns about residences in the path of Mendenhall River flooding,” one of the rezoning ordinances states.
The other newly adopted ordinances contain similar language about the need for housing and the rezonings being compatible with surrounding land use.
Each of the rezoning ordinances is somewhat bureaucratic in wording with references to zoning designations such as D3 and D18, but the rule of thumb is higher numbers reflect higher allowable development/density levels. A rezoning in North Douglas using those two designations notes the area is currently D3 — and allows medium-density housing ranging from five to 20 units per acre — and changing it to D18 will allow high-density multifamily units.
Anticipating big changes for North Douglas
The three rezoning ordinances involving a total of nearly 200 acres in North Douglas are relatively small early steps toward possible wholesale changes in the area resulting from a second bridge linking the island to Juneau, a gondola at Eaglecrest Ski Area that could lure more than 100,000 visitors during the cruise ship season and a proposed private two-ship cruise port on Goldbelt Inc. land that could redirect a large percentage of cruise tourism activities away from downtown Juneau.
For now the rezonings are simply to pave the way, so to speak, for housing and other projects developers may propose as the area’s future develops, Dan Bleidorn, lands and resources manager for the City and Borough of Juneau, said during a Planning Commission meeting in October when members voted to forward the proposals to the Assembly.
“There’s a lot of unknowns here that will be worked on in the future,” he said. “There’s no definitive plans for development of these properties.”
Concerns were voiced by residents and some commission members during that meeting about the overall impacts to the area, as well as to specific lots considered more environmentally sensitive.
“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,” Gary Gillette, a North Douglas resident and former port engineer for the city, said while testifying against one of the rezoning applications at that meeting. “The roadway is currently at or above capacity, and it doesn’t feature a separated bike lane or sidewalks.”
But on Monday support for the three rezonings was voiced by Michael Riederer, a resident on an adjacent lot to one of the rezoning parcels.
“As a member of a longtime North Douglas family I have no concerns about the possible additional traffic burden and look forward to seeing new families in the neighborhood,” he said. “I support all the other rezones today as well as they aim to increase housing, one of the most important issues that Juneau is facing today.”
The three rezonings approved by the Assembly are:
• A total of 39 acres of CBJ land south of Grant Creek (about half a mile north of the Douglas Bridge) along North Douglas Highway to zoning district D18 instead of D3.
• About 87 acres of undeveloped land between Grant Creek and Eagle Creek on North Douglas Highway 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), allowing one to three residences per acre. “The proposed rezone is consistent with neighboring areas of Medium Density Residential in Bonnie Brae Subdivision,” the ordinance states.
The Planning Commission rejected one proposal to rezone about 77 acres in the vicinity of Fish Creek on North Douglas Highway to D3 instead of RR, due to concerns about the area’s popularity with outdoors enthusiasts as well as the wildlife in the area.
Expanding availability in Auke Bay
The three proposed zoning changes in or near Auke Bay were less controversial during Planning Commission discussion. They cover a total of about 67 acres in areas a few miles apart.
The most intensive development proposal involves a total of 28 acres on three lots uphill of 11900 through 12170 Glacier Highway, with most of the area rezoned to D15 instead of D3 for housing purposes. One of the lots would be rezoned to allow relocation of the Spaulding Meadows Trail parking lot and trailhead development.
That is a concern for Heather Carpenter, who said her family’s home is next to the bottom of the trailhead that gets used daily.
“There’s not a day we don’t see a car there that also comes with squatters,” she said. “In the last week we had a car that was parked there for several days with lights on at night. In the last year one of our neighbors found a handgun on the trail. If the trailhead is moved farther up it will be even harder for police to monitor that area for squatters.”
Carpenter also said she feels public comments also didn’t get full consideration before Monday’s meeting, including one she submitted to city planning officials that inadvertently was left out of the official report presented to Assembly members. Among the other issues she has raised is the increasing risk of landslides in Southeast Alaska and “if this area is rezoned and developed are we setting up an area that’s not considered for landslide (insurance) coverage?”
In response to an Assembly member’s question about the trailhead concern, CBJ Lands and Resources Manager Dan Bleidorn said “if this rezone is successful the first thing that we’re going to consider is that trailhead.”
“That trailhead was already flagged because it is very heavily used and at times it’s unsafe with cars parking along the streets,” he said. “So that trailhead is our first priority.”
The other proposed ordinances for the northern part of Juneau are:
• Rezoning about 33 acres at 15700 Auke Rec Bypass Road, north of 15700 Glacier Highway, to D3 instead of RR.
• Rezoning about six acres on Pederson Hill at the end of Karl Reishus Boulevard to D10 instead of D10SF a relatively minor change in land-use status which “would make the parcels consistent with the surrounding areas and allow for multi-family development, with a conditional use permit for major development,” according to the ordinance.
Blueprint Downtown
The blueprint for downtown Juneau has been in the works since 2018, with the Planning Commission last April approving a draft that was turned over to the Assembly for consideration and approval.
“The Commission added a recommendation to encourage a stronger focus on housing with preference language for projects involving housing downtown,” City Manager Katie Koester wrote in a memo to the Assembly.
Subsequent discussion by Assembly committees also resulted in the plan being considered as an ordinance that’s more permanent and formal rather than a resolution declaring goals and intent.
The blueprint covers the area from the Rock Dump about a mile south of the Goldbelt Tram to just past the two downtown harbors on Egan Drive, an extension both further south and north than previous studies of what’s considered downtown Juneau, according to the document. More than 100 actions are recommended in the plan, with the following five listed as the top priorities:
• Provide an adequate supply of various housing types and sizes to accommodate present and future housing needs for all economic and age groups.
• Establish an integrated tourism management program.
• Stimulate year-round business vitality and reduce vacant storefronts.
• Fund and staff a dedicated entity to advocate for downtown Juneau, be a positive and energetic source for the long-term revitalization of downtown and launch Main Street, or similar program.
• Complete the Seawalk and Harborwalk.
Objection to passing the blueprint in its current form was voiced by Karla Hart, a longtime tourism activist who said the vote should be delayed while the status of a private cruise facility proposed by the Huna Totem Corp. is decided. A conditional use permit issued by the Planning Commission survived a legal challenge by Hart, with the Assembly now expected to consider a lease proposal for Huna Totem during the coming months.
“You are adopting something that further cements permission to build a dock,” she said. “However, it does not provide the community with the protections that we need from the dock, such as dock electrification. So it’s premature to do this with the cruise ship stuff involved.”
Municipal Attorney Emily Wright, in response to an Assembly question, said approval of the downtown blueprint isn’t “a yea or nay on the next steps” for the Huna Totem project.
“That fifth dock is still fully up to the Assembly (and) has to go through the process,” she said.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.
