New shelter site for Juneau Animal Rescue at $10/yr. OK’d by Assembly

Fundraising to design and build facility on eight acres of city land along Crazy Horse Drive is next step, JAR executive director says

A red marker indicates the access point for land owned by the City and Borough of Juneau that Juneau Animal Rescue is seeking to use for its new shelter. (Google Maps satellite image)

By Mark Sabbatini

Juneau Independent

Leasing eight acres of city land for $10 a year to Juneau Animal Rescue for its long-sought new shelter facility — which the organization hopes will become a multi-agency "campus" for animal services — got final approval from the Juneau Assembly on Monday.

JAR has been operating its current facility at 7705 Glacier Highway since 1984. Officials have been seeking a new site in recent years, stating the current one lacks sufficient shelter space to meet demand, the building is deteriorating and a 2021 inspection shows the facility doesn’t meet national standards.

The 35-year lease for the undeveloped property along Crazy Horse Drive allows a one-time extension for another 35 years, and can be cancelled if the property is not used for its intended purpose during an 18-month period. City administrators state the fair market value for the property is $3,000 a month, but the far lower annual rate in the agreement with JAR is warranted since a public service is being provided.

The Assembly approved the lease with little discussion during a meeting Monday night at Centennial Hall, although Assembly Member Paul Kelly asked why JAR sought eight acres of land for the lease, since parcels of differing sizes were considered during previous discussions.

Kevin Ritchie, a JAR board member. told the Assembly the size and location of the parcel — near the Southeast Alaska Food Bank — are based on current and anticipated future uses by his organization and possibly others.

"Number one, we're not necessarily good neighbors in terms of noise and so we try to have a buffer around us," he said. "But the big thing is that is extremely wet property that is going to be very expensive to develop, but the mounds that were placed there by the city back in the ‘60s actually make really nice walking trails for dogs and so for very little money we can develop these walking trails ourselves."

Also, Ritchie said, discussions with other animal agencies are taking place with an eye on making the new JAR facility a multipurpose facility much like the Dimond Park facilities are for people.

"We're looking at over the next 20 years developing more internal dog parks and facilities for animal agencies," he said. "The Juneau Kennel Club has expressed interest in doing some development further down the road and so on. So making sort of a campus, but inside the area bounded by the mounds."

The City and Borough of Juneau allows leases “to a private, nonprofit corporation at less than the market value provided the disposal is approved by the assembly by ordinance, and the interest in land or resource is to be used solely for the purpose of providing a service to the public which is supplemental to a governmental service," according to an ordinance cited in the memo to Assembly members.

The next step is a heightened effort to raise funds for the design and construction of the facility, JAR Executive Director Rick Driscoll said after Monday’s meeting. Some fundraising and preliminary design work has been occurring over the past years as shelter officials have looked ahead to a new facility, but Driscoll said official Assembly approval of the land for the site "was the first big step."

"It's hard to convince people to support and fundraise for a new shelter if you don't have a spot to put it," he said. "We've kind of been reserved in taking that formal next step to go out to the community until we had a place where we could say that's going to live."

• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.