Most of the residents of the Juneau neighborhood hit hardest by annual glacial outburst flooding, don’t want to pay for a portion of a buyout program that would allow them to leave the flood zone.
Eighteen homes on View Drive are located beyond the temporary levee the city built to protect most other neighborhoods last year and many were slammed by the record flood in August. The federal government has offered to cover three-quarters of the cost for a voluntary buyout program that would demolish the homes and turn the land into a park.
The City and Borough of Juneau sent an informal poll to residents of View Drive last month, asking whether they would be willing to pay the other 25% for the program using hundreds of thousands of dollars from their home payouts. If all properties participated, the total program would cost an estimated $25 million total.
But, of the fourteen property owners who responded to the poll, just two wrote that they are interested in shouldering the cost to get out. It is unusual for the Natural Resources Conservation Service, the federal agency in charge of the buyout program, to sponsor a buyout for one or two properties.
At a Juneau Assembly committee meeting on Monday, members did not decide whether to move forward with the buyout. Instead, they asked city staff about creative ways to pay for the program that wouldn’t require landowners to shoulder the burden and decided they would discuss the program with residents.
City Manager Katie Koester said she would have looked into other ideas months ago if the Assembly had told her to.
“(If) you gave me that direction and said ‘I want you to deprioritize other things that you’re working on, because this should take your political capital and this should take your creative thought,’ then I think with time, I think we would certainly give it a solid try,” Koester said. “I think it’s very difficult with the short timeframe.”
Denise Koch, the city’s Engineering & Public Works Director, said many of the poll respondents commented that they were disappointed the city asked them to pay. But she said time is of the essence. Typically, NRCS implements this program — start to finish — in less than a year. Koch said the agency would require it to be done before the next glacial outburst flood expected this summer.
“If we’re going to proceed with this project, we have to, you know, get people out of their homes before August of 2026, and that’s really not that far away,” Koch said.
She said that if the city decides to go ahead, the next steps would be to formally ask residents whether they will participate, appraise the properties that move forward and negotiate those values with the owners — at which point they could still decide to back out.
Assembly Member Christine Woll said this will be a tough decision for the city to make.
“Maybe this is simple as: this is dead in the water, no one wants to do this,” Woll said. “CBJ can’t pay that 25% — I think that’s what we decided when we asked for this poll — and the homeowners can’t either.”
But Woll said that because the program is confusing, she wants to have an informal discussion with homeowners before deciding. The Assembly plans to hold a private meeting with city staff, a couple Assembly members and View Drive residents soon.
