Dozens of residents expressed plenty of ideas about future possibilities for Telephone Hill at an initial public open house to consider the redevelopment of the area Wednesday, but many said they don’t feel they made a connection with officials overseeing the project.
The meeting allowed residents to answer survey questions using their phones and see the collective results in real time, all preserved for officials considering the redevelopment in the months ahead. But the tactic frustrated many of the dozens of people who filled the room expecting a more personal discussion about the historic downtown neighborhood.
“I just want to say I appreciate that we have this, but after going through all of COVID, to come back and I feel like this is all being funneled through phones when we have this precious opportunity to communicate openly,” said Mark Whitman, a Douglas resident. “There’s a wonderful gathering of human beings here. I would love to hear what they have to say and not just see what’s clicked on phones.”
Clarise Larson / Juneau Empire A switchback ramp leads up to Telephone Hill Park downtown Wednesday evening.
The open house Wednesday night was billed as the first public meeting in deciding the fate of the 2.5 acres of developable land in the center of downtown, which the city acquired from the state in March after the land and people living there had been in a state of limbo for nearly 40 years. The state’s intent when it bought the land in 1984 was to develop it for a new Capitol building, but now city leaders and consultants are evaluating a wide range of potential residential, commercial and other uses.
Residents did get a chance during the second half of the two-hour meeting to talk in small groups at tables and offer their collective opinions to the meeting’s leaders about what they envision for the area. But that came too late for Joshua Adams, a resident born and raised in Juneau, who left the meeting when the groups were told to mark individual maps of Telephone Hill with small green and red stickers upon which people were told to write “opportunities” and “challenges,” respectively.
Adams said he had hoped to speak before leaving early for another appointment, explained his concern is “our government no longer listens to the public when it comes to matters of district planning.”
“The real discussion about Telephone Hill was never intended for a public meeting,” he said. “It is taking place behind closed doors where important decisions are being made in an echo chamber of licensed professionals, consultants and public officials.”
Courtesy / City and Borough of Juneau This is a map of the Telephone Hill area.
The overview at Wednesday’s meeting is part of the initial project orientation phase, said Jason Graf, a consultant for the Oregon-based design agency First Forty Feet, which is working with city officials on the redevelopment project.
“We’re creating a base map of the project area that hasn’t been done in a long time,” he said. “We’ve been studying land use, zoning, historical documentation about the site, assembling that and, of course, meeting with you in this community engagement…In August we’ll start developing concepts and alternatives, and (continue) through September and October. And we’ll come back to you during that time frame to share what those concepts might be.”
A master plan is scheduled to be submitted for review and approval to the Juneau Assembly by November.
Among the results of the instant surveys during the first half of the meeting (not including audience members without cell phones or who didn’t respond):
— 17 live downtown, 12 were scattered throughout eight other parts of town, with no more than three living in any of them.
— When asked for two or three words to describe Telephone Hill, “historic,” “greenspace,” “neighborhood” and “opportunity” were the most frequently used words.
— When asked what Telephone Hill should be an extension of, 12 respondents opted for historic downtown, six the existing neighborhood, and one apiece voted for the waterfront and the Aak’w Village District. The favored choice, with 16 votes, was “district with its own identity.”
— When asked what Telephone Hill’s own identity should be, 14 people voted for residential neighborhood, eight apiece for hilltop town and city in the park, and five for other.
— When asked to rank six potential uses for the area being proposed, the collective votes in order were multi-family housing, public gathering, other, retail/commercial, office and parking.
For Whitman, who wanted to hear what others at the meeting had to say, his stated wishes when he got a chance to speak for his table were greeted with a warm round of applause.
“What has been done on Telephone Hill has been a wonderful thing for several generations,” he said. “And whatever we decide to do we hope that we can make something that several generations forward will be seen as a wonderful thing. It’s the last green oasis and our challenge is we feel a kind of sense of despair when we look at the track record of what the city’s done. It’s like the last place of refuge where we’re not getting trampled by incredible numbers of people that invade our community.”
Concerns about grand-vision development plans went beyond the emotional ties people have to the existing area. Jesse Hay, who has in recent years snow-plowed portions of the area where the state has official buildings, said the difficulty of access in winter is just the beginning of the challenges the city and other redevelopment project officials don’t seem to understand yet.
“The access thing is definitely its own thing,” he said. “But to try to do high-density anything up there, what you’re going to have to do to upgrade your utilities. I mean, just to get water up there and stuff like that. And how do you get public safety up there? Ambulances can’t come up through the parking garage Fire trucks certainly can’t come up through the parking garage.”
Hay said he’s also dubious about project officials who cite affordable housing as a possible element within the redeveloped area.
“You build anything up there and it’s gonna get fair market value, and you’re probably looking at $750,000 for housing,” he said. “That’s not affordable. So we need to be realistic about what that space is going to do.”
Numerous residents said they simply favor an “as is” approach for the area.
“I think it should be a historic landmark district,” said Paige Bridges, a longtime local resident.
She said after the meeting she has been involved in previous preservation projects downtown and sees Telephone Hill as another potential cause.
“I’m kind of energized because some of us might organize to save Telephone Hill because of the meeting here,” she said.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.
