Telephone Hill residents call on city to consider new information, halt evictions scheduled Oct. 1
- Mark Sabbatini
- Aug 16
- 4 min read
Rally participants say plan to demolish historic homes, build apartments is based on incomplete and inaccurate data about stability of neighborhood’s landscape
By Mark Sabbatini
Juneau Independent
Telephone Hill residents facing eviction in six weeks say they aren’t giving up yet, claiming new information shows the city’s redevelopment plans are based on incomplete and inaccurate information.
Demolition of 13 residences in one of Juneau’s oldest neighborhoods is set to begin shortly after the Oct. 1 eviction deadline as part of a plan to build mid-rise apartments with about 150 total residential units. Redevelopment plans have been in the works since 1984 when the state purchased the land to build a new Capitol building. The existing homes are rentals on property transferred to city ownership in 2023.
A rally Saturday by about 50 people, including some residents of the hillside neighborhood, sought to call attention to what participants called errant redevelopment decisions by city leaders. Speakers also discussed actions that might get Juneau Assembly members to change their minds despite a "final" 7-1 vote in early June approving the evictions.
"The way to stop it is by educating the Assembly," said Mark Whitman, speaking during the start of the rally as participants gathered at Marine Park. "What they're going to do is end up embarrassing themselves. They're taking on this huge project and they don't have a clue what they're doing."
One of the main claims Saturday — which rally leaders said they plan to discuss with Mayor Beth Weldon on Monday — is the neighborhood only has about an acre of land that is stable enough for development. The city, in a December request seeking companies interested in a development feasibility study, stated it is seeking to develop two acres of the neighborhood.
Participants trekked to the top of Telephone Hill while carrying signs, hoping to catch the attention of pedestrians and motorists.
Susan Clark, speaking to rally participants at the end of the walk, asserted there are various problems affecting the stability of sites beyond the top of the hillside that are not included in redevelopment proposals crafted by a city-hired designer during the past couple of years.
"When you cut all those off, we have left 1.1 acre that is buildable land," she said, adding her information is based on a discussion with a surveyor recently visiting the area and other sources. She said widening the main road through the area, as proposed in the redevelopment plan approved by the Assembly, will reduce the amount of developable land to 0.8 acres.
Beyond that claim, rally participants hoping for a reversal of the Assembly’s decision cited the $9 million projected cost of demolishing existing properties and building an access road. Clark noted city leaders are proceeding with that plan while claiming financial hardship. Recent actions by the city include holding back 60% of grant funding to organizations this year pending the outcome of two tax-related ballot measures officials said could result in up to $12 million a year in lost revenue.
"So I'm here to say we have $9 million that could help all those things be supported," Clark said.
Many of the participants reiterated familiar arguments made for years about the neighborhood’s historic character, putting longtime residents out of their homes in a tight housing market, and skepticism about the affordability of the new apartments planned on what city leaders consider premier downtown property.
The city’s feasibility study request notes the development project should include affordable housing under an official definition of 80% Area Median Income, creating or preserving open space, and being "attractive to mixed-income groups, including the local workforce and senior population."
Assembly members favoring the project have stated while they sympathize with the concerns of residents who don’t want to be forced out of longtime homes in a neighborhood they have affection for, those residents also have been long aware of the intentions to redevelop the area.
Roald Simonson, who lives in one of the homes at the top of Telephone Hill, told others at Saturday’s rally the city’s plan for the neighborhood "has the potential for being, I think, an immense civic sorrow of what has happened here that will last for a generation or two."
"I'm going through this, describing this — and maybe this ship has sailed — to point out a sort of more fundamental thing about this property which has existed because it was set aside 45 years ago and it's kind of a glitch in the matrix," he said. "Towns don't have rock-solid, undeveloped hills in the middle of them — anywhere. We do."
(Disclosure: Susan Clark is the wife of Jim Clark, a member of the Juneau Independent’s board of directors.)
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com at (907) 957-2306.
