Insurmountable opportunities

The Mendenhall Wetlands Refuge looking toward Gastineau Channel on Sept. 8, 2024. (Laurie Craig / Juneau Independent)

By John MacKinnon

I had the honor of being an Assemblymember in Juneau for 12 years, from 1989 to 2001. During that time, I worked with two different city managers, over 20 different and dedicated Assembly members and five different mayors. Like today, we dealt with many different issues, not the least of which included a tax cap, budget cuts, school facilities, housing shortages, transportation planning, mine development and tourism growth.

I’d like to flash back about 30 years to the late ‘90s. Dennis Egan was mayor and I had the pleasure of being his deputy mayor. Cruise ship tourism was growing, older downtown buildings were being rebuilt, new ones were being built, Greens Creek mine was expanding, the Kensington mine was fighting for permits, schools were crowded and the housing supply was short. The NMFS Auke Bay Lab had outgrown its 35-year-old facility and the University of Alaska was expanding, including their popular marine and fisheries program. Alaska’s illustrious US Sen. Ted Stevens, in his inimitable way, had secured an $80 million appropriation to construct a new lab facility, and federal land at Indian Point in Auke Bay was selected as the preferred site.

Indian Point was an ideal location for the new laboratory, with access to good salt water and potential as a port for their research vessels. But, as the name Indian Point suggests, some significant cultural sites made it impossible for the federal government to move forward with that location.

At our annual meeting with him, a frustrated Sen. Stevens told Mayor Egan and myself unequivocally that we had better find a different location for the lab or the $80-plus million would go to Seattle, along with dozens of jobs, and there was nothing he could do to prevent it.

We had a problem. Losing the Auke Bay Lab and the families of the employees would be a significant blow to Juneau, both economically and socially.  Lab employees were our neighbors and we had gone through grade school and high school with many of their children.

We were facing significant challenges, and we could have studied it to death. The pieces to the puzzle were there in front of us, and we had a decisive group in City Hall. The lab needed a new location with access to saltwater. The contractors who owned the quarry at Lena Point (SECON today) wanted a good gravel source. The CBJ owned significant gravel resources in Lemon Creek and most of the uplands between the Lena Point quarry and Glacier Highway.

Working on solutions and getting to yes, City Manager Dave Palmer and Lands Director Steve Gilbertson put together the three-way land swap for the new Auke Bay Lab to be built at Lena Point. At the same time, a new access to Lena Point from Glacier Highway was designed along with dozens of residential lots on either side of the road. What a win – the lab, employees and families stayed in Juneau, the university relocated and expanded its school of fisheries, SECON got their gravel, and about 50 homes have been built along the new access road. 

Fast forward to today. Once again, we’re faced with insurmountable opportunities: 

• Concentrated cruise ship passenger volumes at times can be overwhelming. 

• Juneau’s Urban Native Corporation, Goldbelt, has plans for a cruise ship complex on its land on West Douglas Island — remember there was once a golf course and housing planned for CBJ land there? 

• DOT is in yet another planning process for a second channel crossing. 

• We have the perennial housing shortage in Juneau, largely a result of available, buildable land.

We have a series of challenges facing us and a set of solutions that can echo what we did almost 30 years ago and provide a wide benefit for the city. 

Work with DOT to select the Mendenhall Peninsula alternative for the second crossing. Of all the alternatives, it makes the most sense – it has a good separation from the Douglas Bridge and can avoid most, or all of the Mendenhall Wetlands Game Refuge. CBJ owns most of the land between Glacier Highway and the tip of the peninsula. There are water and sewer utilities at the Glacier Highway access and potential for many residential lots with water and sewer. Rock excavated along the route can be used for the marine causeway across to North Douglas Highway and potential to improve the aircraft approach to the airport.

Cruise ship tourism is an important part of Juneau’s economy. In economic terms, it is an export — money from “outside” flows into our community, providing good jobs, business opportunities and revenue for the city. Cruise ship tourism is here and isn’t going away. Goldbelt’s proposed West Douglas development will alleviate the concentration of many of the cruise ship visitor impacts that have soured many residents, and provide even more jobs and business opportunities. 

Juneau is a great place to live and work. We either grow or we stagnate. We need to put the pieces of this puzzle together, get past our habitual sclerosis by process and productively and positively manage our growth.

• John MacKinnon is a former Juneau Assembly member and commissioner of the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities.