Commissioners approve zoning in Lemon Creek
Commission's approval is a recommendation to Assembly, which will make the final decision
Juneau needs housing, one city planning commissioner pointed out Tuesday night to Lemon Creek residents who objected to a proposed multi-family housing project in their neighborhood.
"We are in deep need of additional housing," Peggy Ann McConnochie said at Tuesday's Juneau Planning Commission meeting.
She said she would vote in favor of a transitional zoning change for 6.32 acres at Davis Avenue, fronting Lemon Creek and bordering on the Lemon Creek Correctional Center grounds.
The housing project would be built later in this decade.
Lemon Creek residents objected to the proposal, citing concerns with traffic, congestion, safety, property values and water quality. Many comments were greeted with applause, but Planning Commission Chairman Johan Dybdahl said the reaction wouldn't be taken into consideration by the board.
The commission voted 6-2 in favor of transitional zoning for the property, owned by Aniakchak Inc. Commissioners Marshal Kendziorek and Jacqueline Fowler voted against the motion.
"I'm very concerned about safety issues here," Fowler said.
Juneau Community Development Director Dale Pernula said the commission's approval will serve as a recommendation to the Juneau Assembly, which will ultimately have to decide the issue.
For the transitional zoning to take effect, safety issues will have to be addressed. Improvements must be made for pedestrian traffic on Davis Avenue, which currently has no sidewalks. And the level of safety at the Davis Avenue-Glacier Highway intersection must be substantially improved.
Sidewalks for Davis Avenue are in the city's capital improvement plan for 2006-07.
Jan Van Dort, a part owner in Aniakchak Inc. with Bill Heumann, told commissioners that waiting for the city to put in sidewalks could affect the project. Fluctuating interest rates could make the project more expensive to build, she said.
Heumann said the project is not meant to be a single high-rise building.
"It is certainly not our goal to go in and trash the neighborhood," he said.
People in the audience laughed when Van Dort said the developers are committed to including a greenbelt that would offer a view over the industrial properties in Lemon Creek and across the Gastineau Channel.
"This is a perfect place to do it," he said.