Eviction of Telephone Hill residents is still on track for Oct. 1, following a meeting in which the City and Borough of Juneau Assembly heard public comment.
At the Monday meeting, resident Bruce Simonson stood before the Assembly and a crowd of attendees protesting the demolition of Telephone Hill.
“I ask folks in the audience here to stand who want the assembly to postpone its current action for Telephone Hill until a credible plan and viable project has been contracted?”
Almost the entire crowd rose from their seats.
CBJ owns Telephone Hill. Its plan is to evict the current residents by Oct. 1 and demolish the existing houses to make way for higher-density housing. Monday’s meeting was the last regular Assembly session before that eviction deadline, KTOO reported.
During public comment, nearly two dozen attendees spoke out against developing Telephone Hill. Many criticized moving forward with the evictions and demolition before securing a developer. Some viewed it as part of a pattern of fiscal mismanagement by the Assembly. Others urged the Assembly to wait until after the Oct. 7 municipal elections, saying newly elected officials could change the city’s direction.
The state purchased the land in 1984 and transferred ownership to the city in 2023. In February 2024, the Assembly voted to move forward with a demolition and development plan for the hill.
“It is bold, it is scary, it is expensive,” Assembly member Alicia Hughes-Skandijs said. “It’s a huge leap of faith,” Juneau Mayor Beth Weldon echoed later.
Hughes-Skandijs and Weldon acknowledged the failure of CBJ’s past affordable housing developments, including Pederson and Ridgeview.
“We’re doing everything but standing on our head to try to solve the housing crisis, and this is just another one of those things that we’re trying,” Weldon said.
Although Telephone Hill development was not on the meeting agenda, the Assembly could have voted to rescind the eviction notices, though no action was taken to do so.
First, CBJ must conduct “destructive testing” for hazardous substances, such as asbestos, in the houses, according to City Manager Katie Koester. Demolition bids will be solicited in October and November under a $5.5 million site-preparation budget.
Weather permitting, Koester said, demolition will start in December.
