Juneau Assembly discusses natural and Assembly-made disasters
- Guest contributor
- Feb 27
- 3 min read
By Kim Metcalfe
I watched the Juneau Assembly’s Feb. 23 Committee of the Whole meeting because a discussion of Telephone Hill was on the agenda, only to watch in amazement as city Engineering and Public Works Director Denise Koch told the Assembly that the glacial outburst flooding (GLOF) expected in the coming years could affect huge swaths of the valley that were not affected last year.
She said the GLOF was at its crest of 16.65 feet lake stage/42,000 CFS (cubic foot per second) in 2025, and because there is a high level of certainty that the GLOFs will get bigger over the next decades, the city will prepare the HESCO barriers for the possibility of 118,000 CFS (22.5-foot flood level) in the future. Koch said scientists studying other glaciers say the mechanisms for conveying the water get more efficient over time. Koch referred to the flood maps as “sobering,” and said “GLOFs tend to, as they mature, look more like flash floods.” The flood maps showed water crossing Riverside Drive, the Mendenhall Loop Road, into the Dredge Lake area, and as far as the Mendenhall wastewater treatment plant. The area near the airport could also be affected, as well as the Duck Creek drainage.
Koch was followed by City Manager Katie Koester who had even more sobering news. Koester told the Assembly that communications with the Army Corps of Engineers had gone from regular check-ins with the Corps multiple times a week to none. Koester said they inquired why the check-ins stopped, and at a subsequent meeting, “they rescinded all of the direction they had previously given to pursue a lake tap as the selected alternative and basically said that they would continue to support flood fighting in the area for an undetermined amount of time.”
The Assembly took a break and returned to the business of the day, to discuss demolishing Telephone Hill. It was a strange pivot, from the possible destruction of entire Mendenhall Valley neighborhoods due to a natural disaster to a self-imposed disaster of the destruction of a downtown neighborhood.
City Manager Katie Koester briefed the Assembly on a range of incentives the CBJ is prepared to offer a developer in order to build much needed housing in Juneau. The incentives range from giving the land to a developer, a delayed purchase of the land, and tax abatement (up to 12 years). She said that there is a March deadline to apply for federal low-income assistance. The city will have to remove hazardous materials, complete a plan for demolition of existing homes, design a bid package, reserve funds from the affordable housing fund for grants or loans, and re-plat the area for maximum-density housing. The plat can’t be finalized until the road is realigned, which Koester said, has not yet been funded. She also said that disposal of hazardous materials from the demolition could be a third of the cost estimates.
When speaking about the RFQ (request for qualifications) process from potential developers, Koester said, “It’s important to note that this is not like a bid, a traditional procurement process, where we design something and then ask, you know, a bunch of different contractors to tell us how much it would cost. Because remember, we’re not paying for this. Our product that we want is not cost-based. It’s based on a desired outcome and a level of incentives that we are willing to provide.”
We’re not paying for this? Does the value of the land and the millions of dollars of prep work the city will do not enter into this? Do incentives like low-interest loans or outright grants and 12 years of tax abatement cost us nothing? Do the homes that the city currently owns and receives value from count for nothing? We’re not paying for this?
The property on Telephone Hill is, in my opinion, some of the most valuable property in town. It is view property, it is in the heart of downtown, it is a magnificent park-like area that our local elected leaders are poised to pay millions to give away. The Assembly prefers high-density housing. Perhaps a contractor will propose a building like the one in Whittier, so all the displaced homeowners in the Valley can move downtown.
• Kimberly Metcalfe is a life-long Juneau resident who opposes the destruction of Juneau’s historic Telephone Hill neighborhood.
