Housing

Housing

According to a 2012 Juneau Economic Development Council report, the capital city needed to add about 700 fair market homes or rental units and nearly 450 subsidized rental units to achieve a healthy housing market. What can the Assembly do to encourage new housing development that meets the needs of Juneau residents?

Maria Gladziszewski

The Assembly can do several things to encourage housing. One of them is to increase the density along corridors that are served by public transit and that have city sewer and water, and encourage infill in those areas. That’s an area that I’m deeply familiar with from my time on the Planning Commission and it is something the Assembly can do today. While I was on the Planning Commission, I helped shepherd through several of those density increases that we sent to the Assembly for their action. So that’s one thing the Assembly can do. And I know that there are some new housing units coming along just permitted recently in the Douglas area on Vista Drive.

The other thing the Assembly can do is work to get on the market flat developable land. Again, as a former Planning Commissioner, I know too well that land for industrial uses and commercial uses particularly are in very short supply. If there was, for example, some young entrepreneurs who wanted to start, say, a brewery right now, they would have a difficult time finding land to do that. We need to get some more flat, developable land and West Douglas is one good opportunity for that.


Norton Gregory

For the last five years I’ve worked for Tlingit-Haida Regional Housing Authority, and for the last four-and-half years I’ve served on the Juneau Affordable Housing Commission. And between the two positions I’ve gained a lot of experience in our housing industry.

One thing that’s occurring right now at the Juneau Affordable Housing Commission, working with city staff and the city Assembly is we have a (Request for Proposals) that’s out for a Housing Action Plan. It’s the belief of the Juneau Affordable Housing Commission that the Housing Action Plan is going to be the roadmap for Juneau’s future in regards to housing. It’s quite possible that we have all the resources we need in our community, but we need a plan to pull all of those resources together, and also to utilize all of the other reports that have already been conducted on our community and our housing situation. And the Housing Action Plan is going to be the plan that hopefully ties all of that information together to help us find a solution in Juneau.

There’s been a lot of good work that’s been going on in housing here in Juneau. The organization that I work for, the Tlingit-Haida Regional Housing Authority, operates tax credit units. Those are rental units with the option to buy and we’re going to start exercising that option to sell those units to our tenants in 2017. So what that does is the tax credit housing provides an affordable mechanism to provide housing in our community. And Tlingit-Haida Regional Housing Authority has agreed to sell these units to the tenants after an initial 15-year compliance period is over. So not only does the tax credit housing provide affordable housing for our community, but it also helps tenants to build equity into a home, whether it be a starter home or a home that they choose to live in for a long period of time. They’re already building equity as tenants, so once those homes are conveyed to the tenant and they actually go out and get a mortgage loan, they’ll be helping to increase our tax base being that they’ll be new homeowners. So that’s beneficial both to the tenant and the community, as well as affecting our city budget.


Tony Yorba
For every thousand people that move to town, you’re going to need another 250 or so housing units of whatever type. Just more beds. Since that report, I’m not sure how many additional people have moved to town. Maybe 2000, 3000? I’m not sure. Over the last two years, I think that we’ve about maybe 200 housing units permitted. I’m not sure (it’s) even keeping up with current demand. In other words, it’s getting more and more critical. So, one of the big things is to reduce the cost of living (and) the cost of home ownership not only to the developer, but also to the buyer. That’s the big thing. I don’t have any particular silver bullets how to do that. There are some really great minds in this town, both in the private sector and the public sector.

One of the things I really do bring to the table is a lifelong ability to listen and communicate. That’s what I think we need to do as an Assembly. And, God bless them, they have been doing that. They have been willing to listen to ideas. You have a great (Community Development) Director down there in Hal Hart who has really been motivating people to look at new ways of planning housing. I think that has been a really good change in maybe what was a historical past in which there was a reputation of the Borough being maybe difficult in getting housing through. Now, I get the sense that it has really become a partner in helping to achieve that goal of additional housing.


Jesse Kiehl

We’ve got a couple of things that we’re working on and that we need to hold the course on. We have been talking with developers and people who build housing about what their needs are and what their perception is of the things the city controls – permitting processes, cost of permitting – those sorts of issues. And builders have generally been reporting that environment with the city is pretty good, and when they bring forward issues we’re working to address them.

We are also working to sell parcels of city land in two areas. Near (Dzantik’i Heeni Middle School) we have a subdivision of city land in six parcels that would be the right size for apartment building type developments. Some might go to affordable housing developers. Some might go to market rate housing developers. The Army Corps of Engineers permit comment period for a little bit of fill that would be necessary for that has closed. There were no negative comments received, so we’re hopeful we’re going to get that permit and be able to move forward. Closer to Auke Bay, Pederson Hill rises above Auke Lake. The city has just done a rezone of land there, and has some money from the past set aside for putting a road in and some utilities in to do a disposal of city land there. We have some that would be zoned appropriate for apartment type developments, and some that would be zoned for fairly dense single-family homes. That would be the same density of development you might see on the Flats downtown. So, we are continuing to move forward on those.

The other thing we’ve done is allow for more housing units per acre in all of our commercial zones, in our mixed use type zones – and I’m grouping a bunch together there. And that’s working too. We’re starting to see more permits come
in for people adding apartments above various types of buildings or some denser development.

Juneau’s never going to have lots and lots of land. The vast majority of the land the city owns is on steep slopes, with no road to it, no water to it. So we can’t afford in Juneau, over the long term, to just sprawl all over the place. We need to make the most of the land we have by encouraging higher density development. And where the city gets involved to sell its land, the land that is buildable, we need definitely to have that land in the higher density categories to get the most units out of it.


Debbie White
We can allow more density and build houses closer together, which some of that is within the rules. And we can build up or we can build out. The only way that we are going to build out is for the City and Borough to start getting rid of their land. The City and Borough of Juneau owns about 20,000 acres of property. It’s really hard to find a buildable lot in this area. In most places, a builder can get a lot with water, sewer, and power to the lot line for in between $35,000 and $55,000. Obviously, Juneau is never going to get close to that number. But at this time, they’re sitting at about $150,000 before they even start digging for a foundation. There’s no way to build an affordable home when that’s what you’re starting with. It’s the only component left that we have any control over is the cost of the land. The only way to lower the cost of the land is to get more land available. Not just for housing though. You also have to think about business, because where is the next big idea is going to build? We have a lack of exports in our community. We have exports coming out of Alaska Glacier Seafoods. And we have exports coming out of Alaskan Brewery. And for the brewery to expand, the city had to forfeit a street. When our next young person comes up with our next big idea like that, there’s no place available for them to build.


Josh Warren

So far there’s definitely work in the Switzer area and the Peterson hill area that are already moving forward to try to dispose of some land for future development. I think we need to be really careful to make sure the land gets developed but to also that it’s a relatively condensed development to allow more houses per square foot. There’s some land already being developed I think on West Juneau. I think we also need to find incentives to provide people to expand. People have a lot of empty land.


Kory Hunt
I think one thing that we need to do is maybe take a look at rezoning. Cause, I know, there’re a lot of areas we could use for housing. And I think also, taking a look at property tax might be a good thing. Cause, I know we keep raising the property taxes and that just encourages landlords to raise the rent.


David Fox

I largely think it’s up to the Assembly, or in large part, to create an environment where we can start to build good starter homes for families who would like to be here long term.

I’d like to see the Assembly develop some sort of strategic partnership, if you will, for the finance and construction end of things, and see if there are any barriers or what barriers exist and how to adjust those so we can promote those, so we can promote housing. We can make it effective from a cost standpoint, it does cost to bring materials up here. I know that’s one the construction industry deals with.

And possibly look at some of the borough land holdings that they have, that the city has, and determine if there’s any barriers or anything that — or promote the building on some of that land. Just trying to basically work it from a holistic standpoint. … If we have to go up and out, that’s what we have to do. But, just look at all avenues of approach there. But I think the basics are the city working with the folks who are financing and who are constructing. I think that’s a really great place to start, ‘cause they are the ones with boots on the ground on that.

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