$25M passenger fees proposal includes $12M for seawalk, $3.5M for waterfront restroom shelter
- Mark Sabbatini
- Apr 3
- 4 min read
Public comments accepted until May 3 for draft CBJ plan that also lists $802,000 for public Wi-Fi, new funding for Juneau Mountain Rescue due to past searches for missing visitors
By Mark Sabbatini
Juneau Independent
A continuation of changes to the downtown cruise ship dock area including $12 million for replacement work and an extension of the Juneau Seawalk, and $3.5 million for a waterfront shelter with restrooms, is proposed in this year’s plan for about $25 million in Marine Passenger Fees.
Public comments are being accepted until May 3 for the draft plan, which allocates the $13 in total per-passenger fees collected during the cruise ship season. About $21.5 million from 1.7 million passengers is expected to be collected, similar to last year, and this year’s proposal includes unspent funds from previous years.
Other major proposed items include $1.7 million for police support; $972,000 for ambulance/EMS services; $908,800 for maintenance of the seawalk, open space and restrooms; $802,000 for free public Wi-Fi, and $750,000 for water systems upgrades, according to a March 26 memo by Alexandra Pierce, tourism director for the City and Borough of Juneau.
Having unspent funds available is one of the reasons why the proposed total for the seawalk — including $9 million to extend it and $3 million to replace the Taku Dock section — is so high, Pierce said. City leaders are hoping the seawalk will eventually connect all downtown cruise docks, but say the full extension will likely cost $20 to $25 million and take a few years to complete.
"We always can use more money for capital improvement projects — they’re never-ending, and the seawalk is going to be a money pit for a very long time," she said. "It's an old structure and it's going to need major maintenance as well as expansion."
The new shelter and restroom facility is intended to address a longtime need, Pierce told Juneau Assembly members during a Finance Committee meeting Wednesday.
"Every year since I have been in this role we have had a request for more restrooms downtown," she said. "It's definitely an identified need. We have also received several requests for shelters for cruise passengers to get out of the rain. I know that anybody who parks in the Marine Parking Garage can relate to the number of people that are backed up the stairs in order to get out of the rain while they're waiting for their tour to depart."
Another major allocation is about $927,000 to Travel Juneau, including about $615,000 for a crossing guard program and the rest for a visitor services program. Pierce said Travel Juneau has traditionally used volunteers for its visitor services program downtown, but "this is an anomaly."
"Other ports in Alaska and around the world do not typically use volunteers, and with the decline in volunteerism following COVID and just the volunteer core that Travel Juneau has kind of aging, they have really struggled to fill those volunteer positions," she said. "They have had to close the visitor center on certain days. The Visitor Center is ‘Zone A’ vital infrastructure for meeting passenger services, and we need to have them staffed and we need to have them open."
The "Zone A" reference involves how CBJ is allowed to use the passenger fees — which are meant to improve tourism services and cover costs related to visitors’ impacts — under a 2019 legal settlement with Cruise Lines International Association.
"Under the settlement agreement, fee usage is dependent on proximity to the ship and determined by a mapped area," Pierce wrote in her memo. "We are able to use passenger fees in Zone A for services and infrastructure. In Zone B, we are required to discuss passenger fee usage at an annual meeting with CLIA. Projects outside Zone B are also subject to consultation with CLIA."
For instance, the new waterfront shelter is in Zone A. An extension of the seawalk is in both Zones A and B. There is also an areawide category for items such as police and emergency medical services that extend beyond downtown.
Included in this year’s areawide proposals is $200,000 for Juneau Mountain Rescue, which made a first-time request for funding following searches for several missing cruise ship passengers during the past few years, according to Pierce.
"As people may remember there were a number of lost cruise passengers last summer, mainly in the area around the tram," she told Assembly members. "It did put a lot of burden onto our volunteer-run rescue program nonprofit, and so when they came to the staff and asked if this would be something that could be considered we asked them to estimate how much it would cost to offset that."
Comments submitted during the review period will be presented to the Assembly Finance Committee for review May 6. The full Assembly will consider the committee's recommendations as part of the city’s budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1.
Projects and people supported by Marine Passenger Fees will be alongside other city and private projects during this year’s cruise ship season set to begin April 27. Among the other projects in the development stage are a $10 million rebuild of Marine Park that began a month ago and a megaplex with a "flying theater" a company plans to open nearby next summer.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.
