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City drafts revised comprehensive plan to
spur development
By ERIC MORRISON
JUNEAU EMPIRE
April 2, 2007
The city is hoping its revised comprehensive plan will entice
landowners to develop their properties with hundreds of new homes,
mostly along bus routes, to ease Juneau's affordable housing crisis.
Nearly 60 private properties along bus routes remain undeveloped
due to wetlands restrictions and unfriendly building codes, said
Susana Montana, a planner with the Community Development Department.
A recently completed draft of the city's revised comprehensive
plan is intended to address the building restrictions that have led
to a drought of small, affordable housing options for young
professionals and low-income families in recent years, she said.
"We're really focusing on providing land for affordable housing,
and in order to achieve affordability we need higher density and a
little taller buildings along the bus route," Montana said.
When the plan was last revised in 1995, there were only two
policies that addressed housing, she said. During the most recent
revision process, which has taken nearly a year, 10 policies have
been added to help find a solution to a problem that is driving
people away from Juneau, Montana said.
"People have recognized that (affordable housing) is a problem
for all income levels, including our seniors, our kids who would
like to be able to stay here, our young work force and other low
income folks too," said Daniel Ungier of United Way, who is a
community liaison to the Affordable Housing Commission.
There has been a lot of discussion about addressing the problem,
he said.
"The majority of Juneau right now is priced out of the market,
and I think people are really ready to see some solutions to that,"
Ungier said.
The new policies in the revised plan include providing more land
for housing, encouraging housing of all sizes, and expediting the
permit and review process to protect the character of existing
neighborhoods. One of the policies establishes the goal of matching
the standard national vacancy rate of 5 percent.
"Our vacancy rate now is about 1 percent," Montana said. "To
achieve that vacancy rate, we need 645 new units today. So one of
the policies says the city should provide an adequate amount of
land."
The transit corridor is the ideal location to build higher
density affordable housing because it is mostly on the sewer line,
could reduce traffic and parking concerns, and could handle four or
five story apartment or condominium buildings that would not
obstruct the prized shoreline views, she said.
The city has identified parcels of land in Auke Bay, near the
Mendenhall Mall, the airport area, Lemon Creek and on South Franklin
Street downtown that would be ideal for the high-density affordable
homes.
The revision of the comprehensive plan is an important step to
begin development, Montana said.
"We do need a construction boom, but if you start today, we might
not get it for two years," because of acquiring land, processing
permits and the construction time, she said. "All of those units
will come in phases."
Even if the comprehensive plan revisions are adopted by the
Assembly later this year, Montana said the city will be playing
catch-up for several years to meet the needs, ideally building 200
such units each building season, Montana said.
The city is hoping that by changing the zoning to high-density on
these vacant properties, landowners will find it worthwhile to
develop the land.
"We want to induce them to build," Montana said. "These
properties have been vacant for decades and they're vacant for a
reason - they are not zoned for density."
The city intends for a percentage of the new units to be
designated affordable with restrictions on trying to flip them for a
profit.
"The first lucky owner can't make a windfall profit," Montana
said.
The city is also looking at land outside the transit corridor
where 1,000-square-foot two-bedroom bungalow houses could be built
as "starter" homes for families and young professionals who have
steady incomes but can't afford the high housing costs.
According to the city's 2006 Housing Situation Report, the
average single family home in Juneau is assessed at $357,355.
"There are people living here now that could support this
bungalow housing, but there is no product," Montana said. "If we
could provide the product they will buy and free up the rental
units."
If more affordable units became available it would also lessen
the competition for adequate housing between year-round, low-income
residents and seasonal workers spending part of the year in Juneau,
she said.
Not only are residents concerned about escalating housing costs,
so are local businesses, Ungier said.
"A lot of employers are starting to feel the pinch of the
difficulty of finding employees to work here," he said. "They
realize they need to start finding housing solutions for the health
of their businesses."
The city has hired a consultant to complete 450 telephone surveys
this month to determine what type of housing the community values.
"We want to make sure we don't zone a type of house that nobody
wants to live in," Montana said.
City staff will compile the survey information, along with data
collected from community meetings, and present the recommended
priorities of the comprehensive plan to the Planning Commission on
May 15. A final draft will be brought before the commission in June
before being brought to the Assembly sometime this summer, Montana
said.
A draft of the revised comprehensive plan, maps and other
information can be found at the city's Web site,
www.juneau.org.
• Eric Morrison can be reached at
eric.morrison@juneauempire.com.
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