- Areawide Assembly
- Jeff Jones
- Nano Brooks
- Ella Adkison
- JoAnn Wallace
- Paul Kelly
- Emily Mesch
- Laura Martinson McDonnell
- Ivan Nance
- Michele Stuart-Morgan
- Dorene Lorenz
- District 2 Assembly
- David Morris
- Christine Woll
- School Board
- David Noon
- Britteny Cioni-Haywood
- Paige Sipniewski
- District 1 Assembly
- Alicia Hughes-Skandijs
- Joe Geldhof
Age as of Oct. 3, 2023
59
Family (immediate/those you live with)
Chris Wallace
Occupation
Realtor
Previous relevant experience or community involvement
Many years as president, vice president, and parent volunteer at Glacier Valley and Riverbend schools. Served on the SE board of RealtorsHighest level of education
Some college, technical schoolDo you support ballot proposition 1?
No
What's your favorite spot in Juneau?
So many…but I really love Treadwell mining trail in Douglas
What makes you a good candidate for the Juneau Assembly?
I’ve lived in Juneau for 40 years, so I know the community and I know the good and the bad about the community – I guess I should say maybe the hard things and the easy things. It’s a great community, but we do have our struggles with housing and it’s expensive to live here. So I feel like I have some ideas and skills that might help with some of those issues.
The city is asking voters to fund a new city hall through a $27 million bond. What are your thoughts?
I am against a new city hall at this time, mainly because the voters just voted it down in October. I feel like no should be no for now, and I also feel like we’re going to have a lot of commercial space opening up in our town in the next year or two that could also be good options. But I feel like for now, it needs to be a no.
Do you think the city should limit cruise ship tourism? Why or why not? If so, how?
I think the current limit we have of six ships per day is a good number, and I also think that we do a really good job of managing tourism through the organizations we already have set up. Is it perfect? No. But I think Juneau is so lucky that we have tourism.
What do you intend to do about Juneau’s housing crisis?
I feel like the housing crisis is due to a very difficult permitting process. I think we need to open up density in our community and allow people to build more apartments and, if you have a large lot, make it easier for them to build a bungalow home. I feel like that’s where the key is to building more housing. We’ve got to build more, period. More housing. Apartments, accessory dwellings, and if we do that, it will solve the problem. But we’ve got to make it easier for people to do it.
City-hired experts produced hazard maps for avalanches and landslides — how should the city balance responsible development with the needs of community members already living here?
I feel like disclosure is key in those areas. I think the city should not adopt more maps. We need to do like we’ve always done – I’ve been in real estate for 17 years – we advise people that they’re in that zone, but we don’t want to make it so these zones are so scary that homeowners can’t resell their properties, and that’s kind of right now where I feel like it’s gone. We just need to advise people that these are hazardous zones, but it’s no different than being in a flood zone. People still want to live in those areas, so it’s all about disclosure.
What do you think is the most important issue facing Juneau right now?
For me, the most important thing, and one thing I feel very strongly about, is we have to make it more affordable to live here. Our property taxes are so high, and it’s making it hard for the young kids, my kids, my grandkids. It’s making it hard for those middle-income folks to live here between property taxes, utilities. I really want to look at how we can lower some of those costs to keep young families here.