Cars zoomed past the wooded land that surrounds Grant Creek off North Douglas Highway on Tuesday morning. It’s located just a few minutes beyond the bridge from downtown Juneau.
The area was quiet — nothing but a few single-family homes sat nearby and only a handful of people walked past on the shoulder of the highway. But soon — that could all change.
On Monday, the Juneau Assembly approved rezoning more than 200 acres of city-owned property to increase the housing density in those areas. It includes land north and south of Grant Creek and west of the Bonnie Brae and Blacktail Subdivisions on North Douglas. They also approved rezoning some land in the Auke Bay area.
“These resolutions today are actionable steps that will help address the housing shortage in Juneau and allow the community to grow into the cultural and economic hub that’s needed to create lifelong residents in Juneau,” said Michael Riederer, a North Douglas resident.
Riederer lives adjacent to one of the rezoned lots and testified in favor of all the rezoning approved by the Assembly at the Monday night meeting.
“As a member of a long-time 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.
Rezoning the land to have a higher density means more units can be built there than what was authorized before, so more people can live there.
It’s just one way the Assembly and city are trying to incentivize developers to build more housing in the borough. That’s especially needed as a U.S. Coast Guard Icebreaker is slated to be homeported in Juneau, bringing more residents to town in the coming years, and as annual glacial flooding of the Mendenhall River threatens homes in the Mendenhall Valley.
“The market is stuck,” said Dan Bleidorn, the city’s lands and resources manager, at a previous meeting on the topic. “Part of this like a multiple-zone-change scenario is to try to get multiple types of city property ready for development or disposal at a future time when plans can be worked on.”
Not everyone is on board with the idea.
Auke Bay resident Heather Marlow said she was concerned about landslides and whether people in the rezoned lots could get insurance for their homes if they happened.
“As many of you are aware, the area in Southeast Alaska has seen landslides yearly for several years,” she said. “If this area is rezoned and developed, are we setting up an area that’s not considered for landslide coverage?”
During previous meetings on the topic, other residents expressed concerns about the increased traffic more housing could bring to the North Douglas area and the lack of access it has to emergency services.
“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,” said North Douglas resident Gary Gillette during a Planning Commission meeting in October.
He asked the rezones on North Douglas be stalled until a second crossing from Douglas Island to Juneau is built. That plan is likely years away from even breaking ground.
Though the Assembly approved the rezones, it doesn’t necessarily guarantee developers will want — or be able to afford — to build there. High interest rates and the cost of materials continue to be barriers for many developers from breaking ground on new projects.