- A beautiful day at Eaglecrest.
Photo by Rosemarie Alexander.
More than 1,000 responses have been received to an online survey about Juneau’s Eaglecrest Ski Area. Coupled with an earlier telephone survey of Juneau residents, the results are part of the master plan process underway by the Eaglecrest Board of Directors.
The surveys were conducted by McDowell Group research firm. Principal Jim Calvin says the board now has a strong benchmark for understanding what the community thinks about the city-owned ski area.
The survey was online late last fall, after a random telephone poll of 449 Juneau residents. That survey showed that 45 percent of all Juneau households use the city-owned area at least once a year.
Calvin says a draft plan will be available to the public at the end of the month for feedback, including a public meeting.
“And then we’ll work with the board, and based on community feedback, develop a final master plan that will be ready to hit the street sometime early to mid-April,” Calvin says.
The master plan will include development priorities of Eaglecrest users and the rest of the community as well as what consultants McDowell Group and SE Group have said about the feasibility of various proposals.
Calvin says he hopes the final master plan becomes a useful tool for the board of directors as it responds to developers’ proposals and city officials’ requests to increase revenues.
“There are no easy answers for Eaglecrest in terms of its development. Any of the development opportunities you look at have important cost implications, whether it’s development of a trail network, not much operations and maintenance costs with trails, but big upfront costs. Same thing in terms of lighting for night skiing or operations of terrain parks,” Calvin says. “So it’ll be the challenge for the board to take what is in the master plan and try and prioritize what to do next.”
Click here to link to the survey results.
