An ordinance that would allow the Juneau Planning Commission to approve controversial facilities if the city manager deems them in the public interest failed by a 6-3 vote.
City Attorney Amy Mead explained at Monday’s Juneau Assembly meeting that “essential public facilities” would get special consideration when opposition is fierce. Some examples offered included homeless shelters, wastewater treatment plants or drug rehab centers, all of which could prove contentious with neighbors.
Some on the Assembly said they understood the reasoning but feared it could be misused.
“We’re giving ourselves too much power that would in some ways would go beyond some of the other powers that we might already have,” Assemblyman Loren Jones said.
The concept was proposed by the city manager after efforts to move Rainforest Recovery Center off the Bartlett Regional Hospital campus stalled last year. Sobering centers aren’t listed in the land use code making it difficult to move the facility elsewhere.
The draft offered at Monday’s meeting had been significantly revised. Earlier versions gave the city much broader authority. But Assemblyman Rob Edwardson argued it still went too far.
“If we use this it will be after there’s been a great deal of public process and the public has already determined that they don’t want something,” Edwardson told fellow Assembly members by telephone, “and then we’re going to come back and say that they’re wrong.”
Three Assembly members voted for it: Mayor Ken Koelsch and Assembly members Jerry Nankervis and Mary Becker; none spoke up before voting.
The ordinance could be brought back for reconsideration.
