Senior housing options soon to grow

Juneau’s housing market is tight for everybody, including senior citizens. But seniors soon may have more housing options, which is good for everybody.

The Juneau Planning Commission approved a conditional use permit for a 49-unit senior housing complex near Safeway in the Mendenhall Valley during its meeting Tuesday night.

With its conditional use permit in hand, GMD Development LLC, a Seattle-based construction company, is one step closer to turning a vacant mixed-use lot off of Clinton Drive into Trillium Landing Apartments, a 45,000-square-foot senior living facility.

It has the potential to impact the overall housing market in Juneau for the better in a couple of ways, according to City and Borough of Juneau Assembly member Loren Jones, who also serves as liaison to the Commission on Aging.

A large percentage of Juneau seniors currently live in the homes where they raised their families, homes that are larger than they need, Jones told the Empire in a phone interview Wednesday. Many seniors are looking to downsize, and Trillium Landing will give them an opportunity to do just that, he said.

“This is big, I think, for people that want to stay here that need to get out from under the large expense of a big house,” Jones said.

Seniors aren’t the only ones who will benefit from the proposed apartments, he added.

“You also have people that would like to move up into these homes that we seniors are filling if we can’t find a place to downsize.”

The facility would be in keeping with the city’s housing action plan, which diagnosed Juneau’s housing market as “stuck.” The apartment building doesn’t offer the plumbing overhaul that the city’s clogged housing market needs; it’s more like Drano, offering some much needed relief in the meantime.

[A small but significant step toward fixing Juneau’s decades-old housing problem]

Of the building’s 49 total units, 41 will be designated income- and rent-restricted affordable housing. The remaining eight units will be fair market housing. Trillium Landing will offer five studio apartments, nine two-bedroom units and 35 one-bedroom units. Emily Breidenbach, a partner with GMD Development said that the apartment building will be attractive to seniors because of its proximity to Mendenhall Valley businesses.

“We think it’s a great site for seniors because there’s so much that you can walk to,” she said by phone Wednesday. “There are sidewalks right out the front door.”

The apartment building, located in Vintage Park, would be a short walk from Safeway and about half a mile from the Mendenhall Mall.

The Planning Commission approved Trillium Landing’s conditional use permit with a unanimous vote. Breidenbach said that GMD Development hopes to close on the land, which is currently owned by the William Bauer Living Trust at some point in the next few weeks. She didn’t want to give any information regarding the project’s timeline until the deal is closed.

“I don’t want to jinx myself by being too formative,” she said.

Doggie Do’s

Doggie Do’s, a pet-grooming and boarding business in the valley, will be allowed to continue operating. The Planning Commission approved a conditional use permit for the 9-year-old business Tuesday.

Benjamin Lee Nestler began his canine-cleaning career in 2007. He has since operated out of his house off of Dudley Street, where he cleans and boards dogs. When Nestler started his business city code didn’t require him to have a conditional use permit.

Unbeknownst to him, that changed in 2010 when the city added a “day animal services” to its table of permissible uses. This made it so that businesses such as Nestler’s, which is located in a residential zone, needed conditional use permits to operate.

The city’s Community Development Department became aware that Nestler was running a business out of his home without a conditional use permit after it received a complaint from one of his neighbors a few months ago, according to Planning Manager Beth McKibben.

Nestler applied for the conditional use permit he needed and obtained it Tuesday night.

“Breaking the law is not something that Doggie Do’s is interested doing on a business level or on a personal level,” Nestler told the commission. He also explained that he prohibits “chronic barkers” from boarding with him and picks up animal waste to be as considerate as possible to his neighbors.

The commission approved his conditional use permit with unanimous support after amending some of the conditions recommended by the Community Development Department.

Southeast Alaska Laboratories LLC

The Planning Commission approved the city’s first conditional use permit for a marijuana testing facility Tuesday night.

The commission had already approved conditional use permits for marijuana cultivation, retail and manufacturing businesses going into Tuesday’s meeting. Though the permit for Southeast Alaska Laboratories LLC, a marijuana testing business based off of Jenkins Drive in Lemon Creek, wasn’t scheduled for a full hearing until the next meeting, the commission pulled it from the consent agenda and passed it without objection and with very little discussion.

[Juneau’s first pot testing lab applies for permit, license]

• Contact reporter Sam DeGrave at 523-2279 or sam.degrave@juneauempire.com.