CBJ applies for permit exemption for HESCO barriers already installed, citing FEMA changes in April
- Mark Sabbatini
- Jul 16, 2025
- 6 min read
Updated: Jul 16, 2025
Federal agency invalidates installation plan with policy change, but local officials say they’re unable to get specifics due to Trump administration’s staff shakeup
This story has been updated to clarify and provide additional details about the types of flood-area maps used by the city for development and other purposes.
The HESCO barriers aren’t going anywhere, especially with another major flood possible within a few weeks. But city officials are applying for a retroactive permitting exemption for the barriers from the Planning Commission because of a federal-level policy change they say they’re unable to get sufficient information about.
The situation raises a multitude of legal questions about the presence of the barriers, insurance and disaster relief if a flood breach occurs, and the status of lawsuits and objections by some residents who’ve had barriers placed on their property and/or are being asked to pay for part of the installation costs. A Planning Commission meeting with an opportunity for public testimony about the matter is scheduled next Tuesday.
Installation of the barriers along a two-mile section of the river began in March and was completed earlier this summer, following a multi-month approval process involving city, state and federal agencies. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers provided the barriers and recommended the installation plan followed by the city.
But in April the Federal Emergency Management Agency notified the city the project didn’t meet certification requirements that local officials have long relied upon for floodplain development, said Jill Lawhorne, community development director for the City and Borough of Juneau.
"I think that not being able to use the policy that FEMA had approved for so many years for us really just threw a wrench into it for everyone, including the property owners," she said in an interview following a Committee of the Whole meeting by the Juneau Planning Commission on Tuesday night.
The commission rarely holds such meetings, but Tuesday’s was called to provide an overview of the situation in preparation for a regular Planning Commission meeting next Tuesday, when public comment and formal consideration of a Flood Zone Exception application by CBJ’s engineering department for the HESCO installation is scheduled to be considered.
A key concern, Lawhorne told commission members, is CBJ officials don’t know what is now needed to comply with FEMA’s certification requirements and have been unable to get answers from the agency’s Region 10 office whose territory includes Alaska.
"Due to current times there's really no one left at FEMA Region 10," Lawhorne said, referring to mass federal layoffs occurring under President Donald Trump, who has stated he wants to eliminate FEMA and have states take over disaster management. "I think we're down to a couple of staffers. We don't have the bench there that we used to have for assistance and so that's across the board just slowed us down."
The city, lacking clear information about FEMA’s change of policy and actions necessary for compliance, continued with the installation of the barriers given the short timeline to complete the barrier before another flood becomes a serious threat, according to documents submitted by Lawhorne and other planning staff to the Planning Commission before its meeting.
Questions sent by the Juneau Independent early Wednesday morning to FEMA’s Region 10 headquarters and the agency’s main office in Alaska did not receive a response as of midmorning.
The situation is not unique since the city has sought after-the-fact permitting exemptions for some work that has occurred following the record floods of the past two years, said Christine Woll, the Juneau Assembly’s liaison to the Planning Commission, in an interview Wednesday.
She said she wasn’t familiar with the details of the current FEMA situation until Tuesday’s meeting, but it appears to be an instance of "putting the safety of those affected kind of first and trying to navigate the regulations around it."
Lawhorne said the hope is the situation can be resolved by having the Planning Commission approve CBJ’s Flood Zone Exception application. When asked by a commission member about the potential consequences in the "unlikely" event the application was denied, she said cited concerns about maintaining Juneau's compliance with the National Flood Insurance Program.
"I don't feel that FEMA is necessarily out to be heavy-handed on this one," she said, referring to whether insurance program eligibility might be affected by the situation. "I think they know that we're dealing with a different situation here than anyone is really dealing with in the country, given the nature of it here with the glacier."
Similar action for other non-CBJ projects along the Mendenhall River occurring without proper permits has brought those projects into compliance with the insurance program, after those property owners were notified, Lawhorne said. But she acknowledged she doesn’t have all the answers yet about resolving the HESCO situation to FEMA’s satisfaction.
"Hopefully your questions will be answered and I don't have a better answer than that," she told commission members. "We're kind of operating in sort of unknown territory when it comes to the permitting side of it with FEMA."
Lawhorne, in the post-meeting interview, said the technical issue appears to be development work along the riverbank that relies on CBJ’s floodplain maps adopted in 2018. Until the recent change it was possible, for instance, to reinforce the riverbank by removing a certain amount of soil and replacing it with rock armoring, without relying on a remodeling analysis of the river to account for any floodway changes that have occurred.
"This spring, somehow, for whatever reason there was a reinterpretation when we brought up that policy and it wasn't supported any longer," she said. "So now any encroachment — including armoring, technically — seems to require the (hydrologic and hydraulic) modeling." The National Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRM maps) adopted in 2018, which are still used for floodplain development permitting and flood insurance purposes, are different than the updated flood inundation maps developed for and released by CBJ earlier this year, according to Lawhorne. She stated the inundation maps "are not formally adopted by FEMA, and do not update the National Flood Insurance Rate Maps."
The HESCO barriers are intended as a semipermanent levee for roughly the next decade while a more permanent solution to protect homes from glacial outburst floods is evaluated and implemented. A total of 466 property owners are being charged about $6,300 each to cover 40% of the installation and maintenance cost of the barriers provided free by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, with CBJ paying the remaining 60%.
A lawsuit filed in early April by two property owners claiming the city bypassed federal assessment and permitting requirements — involving the Environmental Protection Agency and Bureau of Land Management, rather than FEMA — remains active with a pre-trial conference set for Aug. 22. Scott Perkins, the attorney for the plaintiffs, said in an interview Wednesday the lawsuit has shifted since its initial filing to focus primarily on whether the barriers are an unlawful taking of property.
"My clients lost part of their land area to the barriers, and they lost a huge chunk of land areas to what the city is now treating basically as a flood control easement," he said. "And so as a government taking, my clients are due at least some form of compensation. This case has pivoted from them not being authorized to install the barriers to…we are due at least some form of compensation for this taking."
Formal objections were also filed earlier this year with CBJ by 117 of the 466 property owners to the establishment of a Local Improvement District (LID) that authorized both the installation of the barriers and charging the property owners for part of the cost. Some of the people objecting noted the city used an "opt-out" process for the survey — meaning a non-response by a property owner was counted as giving consent to establish the LID.
Lawhorne and Woll said it’s too early to know how such disputes might be affected by FEMA’s actions and CBJ’s application for a permit exemption. But Woll said one further concern is what FEMA’s lack of response so far might imply if the agency’s assistance is sought in the event another large-scale flood requiring disaster assistance occurs this year.
"I'm definitely concerned about how FEMA will be impacted and how they'll affect recovery efforts," she said. "My understanding is that the (Corps of Engineers) has been our primary federal partner on putting the barriers in and thinking about the long-term solutions, and my understanding is that they continue to be a good partner and pretty responsive. But I, like many, have concerns about what will happen if we reduce capacity at FEMA."
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.
