Land

I am chair of the Assembly Lands Committee. This year we will update the Borough Land Management Plan, and part of that is our "Land Disposal Plan" - meaning what city land might be sold. For years one of the main cries in Juneau has been “not enough land.” There is truth to that lament. We are surrounded by the Tongass and much of the non federal land in the Borough is wetlands or mountainsides. The shortage of land is said to contribute to our lack of affordable housing. There are some who say the city should sell off its landholdings to the private sector to address the affordable housing issue.

Like everything else, this is not a simple issue. Here are a couple points to consider. There is a considerable amount of private land that is already in the hands of private sector owners who choose not to build because they apparently do not see the profit in it at this point. I have often felt that Hugh Grant is a good weather vane for the market. He owns a lot of land – and he is an active developer. His development off Loop Rd/Keegan Dr – just before the turn to Back Loop has many empty lots, and his land a bit further out Loop Road is undeveloped, as is the land above Fred Myers. Another Developer – Duran – has not built houses on his Vista Del Sol development on Glacier Highway next to Glacier Gardens. There is nothing wrong with that – it is just an indicator that there is not great demand. There is the chunk of land between Kodzoff and Cinema Drive that has remained undeveloped. A planned development of the gravel pit land out at Montana Creek stopped several years back. Totem Enterprises has not been able to find investors willing to invest in North Douglas to create a golf course development. And when the Borough recently tried to sell some its land at Lena Loop – a large number of lots did not sell.

My point is that there is a significant amount land already in private hands and it does not seem that availability of land itself is the solution to the issue of affordable housing. We probably need to contract with one of the low income developers or to work with a land trust that focuses on affordable housing or some other alternative that guarantees that the land is used for lower cost housing.

The Borough does own land in several places that might be able to be developed in this fashion. There is some “Under Thunder” land out Loop Road in the Valley. There is some land above DZ and there is some land on what is called Pederson Hill on the North side of Veterans Highway past Brotherhood Bridge. These areas are next to sewer and water, and close to other city services and transportation routes. Our goal is to find ways to ensure that housing built on those parcels will actually be “affordable” to moderate income families.

These are some of the issues that will frame our discussion as we look at updating our Land Management Plan.