State officials planning for a new Juneau office building are expanding their list of possible sites to 20 or more, despite having earlier narrowed their list down to just a handful.
And while both the new and old site lists included both downtown and Valley locations, there are increasing indications that the state is seriously considering a Valley site.
The state’s architect, ECI/Hyer, Inc., is planning a public meeting in Juneau in a few weeks and a full site list will be made public before that meeting, said Tanci Mintz, state leasing and facilities manager.
Rep. Beth Kerttula, D-Juneau, who lives in Douglas but represents downtown, said she’d hoped any new building would be close to the core capital complex, ranging from the State Museum to the Capitol and its neighboring buildings.
“Proximity is so important,” she said, and needs to be considered if staff in the new building is to efficiently interact with other state workers.
A more distant location is “not what the delegation thought was going to happen,” she said.
The state has released HCI/Hyer’s site evaluation criteria, in which various site factors are given point awards to help with the decision making process. Of the 280 points possible, ECI/Hyer decided that “proximity to Capital complex” was worth 10 points, or about 3.5 percent of the total.
The largest number of points available, 60, are for construction/development cost, with both operational cost and site procurement cost/feasibility at 40 points each.
Numerous other factors, such as impact on cultural resources and public transit access, also can get 10 points each.
Mintz said it was decided that proximity to other state offices was of lesser importance than what she termed “major operational impacts,” such as the cost factors that got higher point values.
Early estimates done last year suggested possible cost savings in locating the building in an empty section of a business park in the Valley, compared to a project located in the core area downtown.
In addition, the state has begun surveying those staff who will be located in the building to determine how far away they now live from work and gather details about their commutes.
“We going to take all of those into consideration,” she said.
A public workshop will be held in Juneau in a few weeks to give additional opportunity for feedback, she said.
In addition, she said, Heather Marlowe, the city’s lands and resources manager, also represents Juneau in the process.
Marlowe said Juneau doesn’t have an official position on where the new office building should be.
“We want what’s best for state government,” she said.
If the state determines a location outside downtown is best for its needs, the city will support that, she said.
The city is also monitoring the process to determine what impacts the project might have on traffic patterns, or other issues that might develop.
For example, a location in the Valley’s Vintage Park might require additional road improvements, but a movement of people away from the congested 10th Street and Douglas Bridge intersection might relieve pressure there, she said.
The new building is to be home to the Department of Labor, currently located in a leased building known as the “Plywood Palace,” as well as smaller numbers of Public Safety employees downtown and Fish and Game employees in Douglas, Mintz said.
• Contact reporter Pat Forgey at 523-2250 or at patrick.forgey@juneauempire.com.
Comments (22)
Add commentSupport Valley Location
Having a significant state office building in the Valley would be a big plus for many Valley residents who now work downtown. Giving workers and parents additional time each day not spent in traffic is a major goal. The proximity-to-the-capitol issue applies to top staff who respond to the legislature for 120 days, and is not necessary for 95% of Labor, F&G and Public Safety employees.
"close proximity"?
Ms. Kertulla obviously suffers from the Juneau syndrome. There is barely 48 miles of road to cover from one end of Juneau to another. The drive from the central valley to downtown is barely 11 miles. I wonder why driving that limited distance would be a barrier to close contact for state workers to interact with one another? Are we that lazy that a drive under 15 minutes is prohibitive to accomplishing work related tasks that require interaction with others?
Any location in this town, downtown or valley, would be at a perfectly reasonable proximity to other state workers. In larger communities, government workers seem to have adapted to driving a few miles, teleconferencing, internet meeting, etc. The State of Alaska provides state cars, gas cards and generous salaries for all staff who are required to travel, whether that travel involves local, state or national travel. The vast majority of the staff to be housed in the new building dont need to travel. Those who do can reasonably expect to spend less than 20 minutes in transit anywhere they need to go in Juneau.
Do we really need to complicate the parking and building congestion issue downtown by building a large complex in an area that has limited ability to accommodate it? Inviting this type of increased congestion to an already overpopulated area seems a highly illogical solution to location of this building. The City and Borough of Juneau actively seek more tourist traffic each year in order to bolster the economy. That traffic will be densely inhabiting downtown. Parking is at a premium already downtown. Little land is available to develop. Adding a large government building and increasing the traffic and parking burden challenges the City's objectives to keep Juneau financially sound as a tourist attraction and commerce venue.
Ms. Kertulla and her contingent would do well to manage time more efficiently so that they can drive for 10 extra minutes to do the job we elected she and her staff to do. In the absence of the Kertulla contingent's ability to manage to drive to the valley, perhaps electing a more motivated representative next time would be a logical solution.
We are in Juneau, not Los Angeles. Driving anywhere in this town is a short trip. Let us choose a site that makes sense for the location. Downtown cannot possibly accommodate a building of the size needed to house three large state offices and staff. A valley location seems logical, reasonable and most beneficial for the location and staff who would be housed in the new building. Build it and they will come !!
Support a centralized plan
I agree that with the comment that "We are Juneau not Los Angeles" and will add that we are not Anchorage, as well. For a town of 30,000 we do not need to continue to develop two city centers further polarizing and eroding which is still a beautiful city center. Simple because we decided to copy the typical suburban sprawl plan fashionable during the 70's and 80's it also does not mean we need to continue to make that mistake.
Kertulla is keeping Juneau's best interest in mind. Sometimes it is not always about what is cheaper. We should be past those days as well...enough of plywood palaces and 30 year spec buildings. To those who believe that juneau is "congested", it is not. 5 minutes at a traffic light is not congestion.
I also believe another building in the middle of a parking lot has nothing to contribute to a beautiful city....again, I'll bring up Anchorage as a case study.
Juneau syndrome
" Valley" makes sense. Beth Kertulla does not.
Valley...
Build it in the Valley. This would eliminate over 50%+ of the traffic in the morning and evening. It would eliminate traffic congestion, fuel consumption, add additional time for parents to spend with their children, etc.
There isn't much need for several state offices to be downtown.
Valley Location Needed
I would think a new State Office Building in the Valley for various depts that need it would really help local business out that way, especially the ones that are suffering in our malls.
And all the traffic efficiency mentioned would be a very big plus.
just my thought on this subject.
State offices
Close JDHS. Have TMHS as the only HS, Sell JDHS to the state. Problem solved!
I agree with Kerttula and Marias...
We have one city center. Let's keep it that way. Alaska should be investing heavily and developing Juneau as a spectacular Capital City, rather than pursuing a political agenda and inflicting real and serious economic damage to Juneau and Southeast, by moving jobs to Anchorage (but I digress). If Stedman hadn't stuck his big fat meddling foot in the door, our building would already be under construction in the ideal spot.
btw Empire reporter...
Exactly what are the "20 potential locations"?? It's not nice to pique our interest and then provide no information.
If proximity is so important
If proximity is so important the capitol should be moved up north.
Close TMHS sell for a buck
just like every other city boondoggle, we can give the state a 80 million dollar complex for a buck in the interest of helping the state. The aquatic center can then add a cost rate for "pot luck" lunches for the state employees and there is plenty of parking out there for all the employees and no more traffic on the Egan.
JDHS has more than enough room for all the hs students, no need for the second hs. especially with all the naysayers (SEACC, Earth Justice, Alaskans for Juneau, etc...) chasing hard working people out of town by killing projects, jobs and development.
my 2 cents
There are MANY, large, empty buildings in the Valley that would not have to be built and already have lots of parking space. The stream of people heading from the valley to town in the morning and back in the evening, suggests to me that the Valley would be a better location for the majority of them. Sorry you live in Douglas, Beth.
Do this
Move the capital and build the road...
Valley area not convenient
The valley area is too spread out and does not have proper sidewalks for people to safely get from one location to another; particularly in the winter when snow burms are high. The bus system isn't very user-friendly either and you have to hike from the Mendenhall Mall and to get to the Carrs area where OCS is located.
The State unemployment office is in a ridiculous location; but maybe that's all part of the game plan to discourage people filing in the first place . . . . . and OCS . . . . .
State government offices should be centrally located and not a scavenger hunt. If you can't build out, build up. Or are tall buildings prohibited by the Assembly?
No Sense in Prejudging
Wouldn't it be nice, for once, if everyone held fire for a few months and waited for the initial report on all possible locations and then we lurch off into the typical disjointed Juneau debate. There might be some pros and cons to various sites. Let's wait a while before we all start beating each other up on this topic.
To the downtown/douglas
To the downtown/douglas employee's affected by this move:
Your arguements are very unique, intresting, and well thought out, but to me ( my opinion ) it is not a good enough reason. It really sounds like your pulling idea's out of nothing so you personally wont be inconvienenced at suddenly having to drive to the valley for work.
Where to Build new State Infrastructure?
Be careful folks. Proximity to existing state governmental facilities is essential.
If you don't believe that, then you run the risk of having new infrastructure built away from the current legislative hall.
And if 10 miles is okay, then, perhaps, 900 miles would be okay.
Juneau lost 45 Alaska Marine Highway jobs during Murkowski's governship; 22 coastal zone management jobs were just lost during Parnel's governship.
Be careful; don't let an argument for convenience in your backyard in the Valley spin out of control, and end up in a coupe to move the Department of Labor out of Juneau.
Be careful.
Come to the meeting on July 19, at the JAHC downtown, and say clearly what you want. If it's good government, with departments serving the people and interacting with the executive and legislative branches, make sure that goal doesn't get hijacked by the process.
Please be careful.
move the capital and build the road? ... come on, think about it
Actually, JNUFFWC, moving the capital is probably the best way to ensure the road will never be built ...
convenience in location?
1. Unemployment claims are strictly taken telephonically. Your argument that a building is inconvenient for that purpose is an uneducated one. The building you refer to is the Job Center where dislocated workers go to find a job and re-employment services. That building is on a busline. There is a hotline phone there for unemployment claims also. Vocational Rehab offices and Public Assistance are also housed there. Some of those offices provide bus passes to clients.
2. OCS is directly on a bus line. OCS also provides free bus passes for all clients who ask for one and show up timely to pick one up.
3. Sarah Palin's "capitol creep" administration was responsible for many, many more jobs lost than Murkowski and Parnell together.
4. The Department of Labor building is making employees chronically ill. The need for a new building is urgent.
5. Location in Juneau, valley or downtown, is an argument strictly based on convenience. We live in a small town. Drive for 10 extra minutes !! Enjoy the ride. Spend some money in the valley. Save the jobs we do have by advancing some capital toward the business most at risk of closing-Valley businesses !!
6. Show up at the meeting and have an informed opinion. Convey that opinion respectfully and firmly. You will be heard !!
7. The state has been distributing a survey among the potentially effected workers. That survey is solely focused on proximity to the existing buildings, drive times, residence locations, etc. The state is collecting data to make informed choices.
This is obviously an issue of great contention. The bottom line is that the state will build where it is practical from an accessibility, fiscal and logistical stand. There is far more useable land available in the valley than downtown.
For those of you who favor moving the capitol north, that argument has been brought to the table many times and summarily rejected by the majority. Find another subject to haul over to your soap box while you are enjoying the privilege of living in such a fine town as Juneau. The fact that your property taxes, sales taxes and quality of life are so good speaks volumes as to the Juneau community at large's committment to sustaining our town as the lovely capitol of our great state.
BillB.... your idea to use the JDHS site is ludacris. Have you tried to park there during an event? NO CAN DO. Now add over 200 employees, visiting stakeholders and vendors and you will plainly see that there is no way to make that site work without building a 6 deck parking garage under it. The land down there cant sustain that load. Its too wet !!
The debate here is, for the most part healthy. However, those unfortunates whose uninformed passion overrides good common sense make this forum into nothing but a rhetoric venue. Intelligent debate is healthy. Emotional, uninformed commentary is not productive at all.
Bills new high school
Bills new high school conversion idea is the best so far. If parking is the only problem juneau can hire someone from out of town that knows how to park cars.
The valley location is a good idea.
The 'city center' argument doesn't hold much water as the city center has become a rather pathetic place that really is NOT a city center anyway.
Moving some state workers to the valley may encourage the valley to become more walkable and have some 'city center' type qualities that it currently lacks.
It will certainly help traffic, and now that we have torn down our only green hillside to build another parking garage the talk of tearing down the existing SOB parking garage to make room for more office space can now die, too. (Hey, think we have enough parking garages downtown yet?)
This can help open the door to looking at Juneau as a single whole community that needs certain characteristics to become a liveable and pedestrian-friendly community. Most people live in the valley, hello?
(BTW, what is the problem with leaving Fish and Game in Douglas?)
F&G in Douglas
Have you been to the Douglas building lately? I work in it and it is old and very decrepit. When the Taku winds blow, my window bows in. I live in the Valley, don't mind the commute, but I believe this building is no more centrally located than having it in the valley.
I'm all for less of a commute for more Juneau state employees. No matter where they are considering for a downtown location I can pretty much guarantee a parking issue. Having a new State building in Lemon Creek or the Valley just makes sense.