Assembly hesitates to move forward with View Drive flood buyout as residents count days until next outburst
- Jasz Garrett
- Feb 25
- 6 min read
Assembly members decide to invest time in receiving input from residents who feel unheard in what has been called a confusing process by both sides
By Jasz Garrett
Juneau Independent
The Juneau Assembly is postponing a decision on participating in a federal disaster buyout for View Drive.
Assembly Member Christine Woll, during a Committee of the Whole meeting on Monday, made a motion to direct city staff to host a neighborhood meeting with up to three Assembly members present.
“I’d feel more comfortable that we were going down the right path if there was a bit more of an informal conversation,” she said.
But the project is on a timeline: it is intended to be completed within 220 days of the National Resources Conservation Service receiving federal funding for the buyout project, which was confirmed last November. The buyouts for the Mendenhall Valley neighborhood would be through the Emergency Watershed Protection program.
Woll’s motion came after Assembly Member Maureen Hall said homeowners told her the process has been incredibly confusing. She asked if there could be another opportunity to answer their questions. While the project is voluntary for property owners, it requires formal commitment from the City and Borough of Juneau to proceed.
“We do have this essentially time-is-of-the-essence problem again,” CBJ Engineering Director Denise Koch told the Assembly. “If we’re going to proceed with this project, we have to get people out of their homes before August of 2026 and that’s really not that far away.”
The recovery buyouts are used to reduce threats from flooding and erosion when other options are not cost-effective or beneficial. Some View Drive homes have been repeatedly flooded with major damage. The HESCO barriers installed downstream were found to be ineffective for View Drive last year by city engineers and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
“We still don’t think HESCOs are a good fit for View Drive and neither does the Army Corps,” Koch said.
EWP granted the authority to provide the city — as the local sponsor — with financial assistance for the program. NRCS is providing up to 75%, while the local sponsor is responsible for 25%. The total project cost is $25 million, which was determined through an NRCS damage survey report last summer. The city asked 18 View Drive property owners if they would be willing to pay for the 25% through informal ballots, with a response deadline of Feb. 16.
“It is very hard to ask people to walk away from their life investment at a loss,” said Assembly Member Nano Brooks.
Koch noted even if CBJ does not pay the 25% non-federal cost share, there are still costs associated with property management for these projects. Dependent upon the project cost per property, the non-reimbursable CBJ costs to carry out this project will likely average $50,000 - $100,000 per property.
Of the homeowners polled, 11 declined when asked if they would participate in the property buyout program with the expectation of paying the 25% cost share. Two homeowners checked that they were willing to pay the project cost share associated with their property, and one gave an unclear answer by selecting both yes and no.
“Of the two yeses, one is a property that has been subject to severe and repetitive flooding,” Koch said. “The other is a property that is on the high side and has not flooded.”
She said it’s likely NRCS may only cover the home that has experienced repetitive flooding, meaning there could be only one home willing to participate in the project. This would still be allowable under the buyout program.
“They’re typically buying out hundreds of homes,” Koch said. “The homes are generally not as expensive as the homes that we’re talking about.”
She said it is unusual for the program to allow a buyout project for fewer than 20 homes, but the neighborhood is in a unique situation with no other option. If homeowners decide to opt in, it would be Alaska’s first EWP buyout project.
The city can request an extension of the timeline, although NRCS will expect the participating homes to be purchased and vacated before the 2026 glacial lake outburst flood. The program will also expect that flood hazards be mitigated before this year’s outburst, which has occurred in August for the past three years, breaking records each time.
The city is expected to have a final decision no later than mid-March, according to a city memo.
“If CBJ were to participate in this program, we would sign an agreement with NRCS, then the next steps would be a formal and binding process where CBJ would have to ask the View Drive residents if they were interested in participating or not,” Koch said.
View Drive residents submitted comments with their informal ballots, including disapproval of the city's request for individuals to pay the 25% cost share, inability to do so, a preference to invest instead in protecting their homes, and a desire for additional information to inform their responses.
In an interview on Tuesday, View Drive resident Angela Smith said she felt frustrated with her ballot, which estimated an $320,000 apprasial.
“We told them on the comment that we’re very interested in a buyout, but we have a loan from the past flood, so we didn’t have that money in hand,” she said.
The assessed value included on informal ballots was used as a proxy for appraised value, according to a city memo. The EWP program would use the appraised value before the 2024 flood, which is likely higher. If individual property owners disagreed with their official appraised value, they could back out of participating. The rough estimations given in the informal ballots were preliminary and ranged from $200,000 to $500,000 per property.
The project is more than the cost of the homes themselves, including environmental assessment, demolition and restoration. Properties that enter the buyout program would remain in conservation easement and be ineligible for redevelopment.
Smith said she hopes there can be negotiations and clearer communication with city leaders in future discussions.
“It is really painful if they just say, ‘We are out of time,’ or ‘We can not come up with any of this amount,’” she said. “Here we are in February now. There are these many days left and we have these decisions to make. It’s very, very important for us to know if the city can absolutely do nothing.”
Smith said she wondered when residents would be given the chance to give formal statements.
In an email on Monday, Ashley Heimbigner, a CBJ spokesperson, wrote the View Drive buyout program has not been included on a regular Assembly meeting agenda since October. She said residents are invited to provide public testimony on non-agenda items every Assembly meeting, and CBJ staff have also been conducting direct outreach to impacted homeowners and residents.
“In this direct outreach, residents have been encouraged to contact the Assembly directly with any questions or comments they may have about the project and assembly decision-making,” Heimbigner wrote.
Smith said she has not received direct outreach from city officials. The buyout project was determined as the neighborhood’s likely only remedy in July 2025.
“I heard them say, ‘I don’t know if the residents really want this,’” she said. “We’re sitting here wondering if they want it.”
She said the only alternative to the buyout program appears to be to move everything out of her house, evacuate and “see what happens.”
Smith added that even people downriver with temporary flood mitigation will experience this kind of fear after a new worst-case flood scenario was shared at Monday’s meeting — a crest of 22.5 feet. Last year’s flood broke a record at 16.65 feet, and about four feet of silty water swamped the Smiths’ garage, along with 10 inches inside the house.
“I think the rest of the meeting was a feeling of shock and people being stunned,” she said. “It’s going to affect so many residents.”
She said she is counting down the days until the next flood.
The Army Corps of Engineers recently reversed its course on studying a lake tap for Suicide Basin, which had been selected as a preferred long-term solution last December. In discussing View Drive, the Assembly noted this alternative of draining the basin over time would protect the neighborhood and much of the Mendenhall Valley.
Koch said she recognized the gravity of the situation, acknowledging “it is really difficult” for everyone involved.
“My heart goes out to the residents of View Drive,” she said.
• Contact Jasz Garrett at jasz@juneauindependent.com or (907) 723-9356.
