A motion to send an ordinance relating to marijuana businesses back to the Community Development Department was shot down handily at an Assembly work session Monday evening.<\/p>\n
Assembly member Karen Crane moved to send the ordinance, which amends the Land Use Code establishing the zoning regulations for marijuana businesses, back to the CDD. This motion, had the Assembly not killed it with a 7\u20132 vote, would have ultimately dropped the ordinance back in the lap of the Planning Commission, which helped shape it to begin with.<\/p>\n
Crane has taken issue with this ordinance before because it allows for marijuana business of all types to operate in Rural Reserve zones and allows marijuana cultivation in D1 zones outside of the urban service boundary, the zoning district that Crane lives in.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really think that we are rushing into something here by allowing D1 and not looking into what we want to do in Rural Reserve without some restrictions,\u201d Crane said.<\/p>\n
Crane and Marjorie Menzie, a Juneau resident who also lives in a D1 district out of the urban service boundary and who testified against the ordinance Monday, both argued that one of the ordinance\u2019s greatest failings is that it treats neighborhoods differently depending on where they are located.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe should not be discriminated against because we have low density or we live outside of the urban service area,\u201d Menzie said during her testimony. She went on to say that she wants \u201cequity\u201d for all residential districts.<\/p>\n
Assembly members Jesse Kiehl and Maria Gladziszewski were the most vocal in objecting Crane\u2019s motion. Kiehl chairs the city\u2019s Marijuana Committee, out of which the ordinance originated. Gladziszewski is a member of the committee.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Planning Commission has already seen it and worked on it a couple of times,\u201d Gladziszewski said of the ordinance. \u201cI don\u2019t know what else we would ask them to do other than to do it over, which we don\u2019t normally do without new information.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kiehl agreed with Gladziszewski, arguing that the Assembly already has \u201cthe policy tools\u201d it needs to address the issue without holding the ordinance in limbo any longer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think disliking the recommendations is reason enough to send it back and say \u2018Please, say something new,\u2019\u201d Kiehl said.<\/p>\n
Kiehl also mentioned that Rural Reserve zones already allow for uses that may be potentially disruptive to neighbors. He pointed out that these zones currently allow racetracks and landfills with conditional use permits.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that marijuana cultivation and processing will be pretty limited in their impact on neighbors compared to some of the things that are already allowed in this zone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Juneau resident James Barrett, who plans to open a marijuana business with his brother, argued during the public comment period of the meeting that public protest of licenses rather than zoning should be used to determine where marijuana business should be able to operate.<\/p>\n
He also asked for product manufacturing to be allowed in D1 zones, which it currently is not. This change, he said, would allow for small startups to make edibles out of their homes.<\/p>\n
The ordinance will go before the Assembly for consideration at its next regular meeting.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Housing Action Plan<\/strong><\/p>\n During the past year, a Virginia-based consulting firm called czb has been working with the City and Borough of Juneau to put together a plan to help solve the city\u2019s housing crisis. The founder of czb presented the report \u2014 aptly named the Housing Action Plan \u2014 to the Assembly Monday night, and his prognosis was grim unless the city starts \u201cnonincrementally doing things differently.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYour market is stuck,\u201d czb\u2019s founder Charles Buki told Assembly members at the outset of his presentation. \u201cFrom our point of view, we\u2019re pretty clear on that, and it\u2019s been stuck for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n The good news, he said, is that \u201cgetting unstuck is easy.\u201d Unfortunately, that\u2019s also the \u201ctroubling part.\u201d Speaking to members of city government, Buki said that the fact that the housing problem has persisted so long means that Juneau has \u201ca governing problem.\u201d<\/p>\n After Buki\u2019s presentation, Assembly member Kate Troll said that the Assembly has taken some steps to fix the city\u2019s housing problem. These include upzoning and amending Title 49 to make subdividing land easier.<\/p>\n \u201cOverall, I really appreciate where this plan is going,\u201d she said. \u201cBut the one problem I do have is the plan doesn\u2019t really address the actions that this Assembly and previous Assemblies have taken to resolve the housing problem.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Buki, however, upzoning will only get Juneau \u201cto the 20-yard line\u201d in solving its housing problem. Continuing his football metaphor, Buki said that only major overhauls to zoning will get the city \u201cacross the goal line.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou need to change your zoning or accept that you\u2019re going to have a housing problem,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s like Juneau didn\u2019t get the memo on suburbanization.\u201d<\/p>\n Buki presented several recommendations for the Assembly to consider as it moves forward. His first recommendation, of course, was adopting his Housing Action Plan. He also recommended that the city grow its housing trust fund, hire a housing director and update its zoning regulations.<\/p>\n Buki\u2019s Housing Action Plan will go to the Planning Commission next before it ultimately returns to the Assembly for consideration.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Juneau Ocean Center and Seawalk<\/strong><\/p>\n The proposed Ocean Interpretation Center has a new name, according to Bob Janes who pitched the center to the Assembly Monday. It will now be called the Juneau Ocean Center, if it comes to fruition.<\/p>\n Janes said the name change was born of strategy; it includes the city\u2019s name now and will help with fundraising, he said. Along with Linda Nicklin and Paul Voelckers, who designed the proposed center, Janes stressed the importance of location when thinking about how to move forward with the whale sculpture and the Downtown Seawalk bid, which was cancelled after bids came in much higher than anticipated.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve walked the site in the rain. I\u2019ve walked it in the sun. I\u2019ve walked it in the wind,\u201d Janes responded when asked why his center couldn\u2019t simply be placed in Bridge Park where the whale is planned to go. \u201cAs restaurateurs and businessmen will tell you, it\u2019s all about location, location, location. And that is not the location to put in that kind of center.\u201d<\/p>\n Janes also asked the Assembly to consider placing the whale in a temporary location instead of going ahead with placing it in Bridge Park. Placing it in a temporary location would cost between $50,000 and $60,000, Janes said.<\/p>\n The Assembly didn\u2019t act on Janes\u2019 proposal.<\/p>\n As far as the seawalk is concerned, the city will likely be splitting the project into three phases, Engineering Director Rorie Watt told the Assembly after Janes\u2019 presentation. This is a response to bidder concerns about the different types of work requested in the original bid and the timeframe for completion.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the main message is that we were asking for an unusual package of construction that our contractors don\u2019t usually bid,\u201d Watt said.<\/p>\n Under the new phase program, the first phase will take care of all of the earth moving. This will include creating the island that will be part of the seawalk and preparing the land at Bridge Park for the whale. The second phase will take care of the seawalk and the final phase will handle plantings and other finishing touches.<\/p>\n \u201cThat sculpture is coming, and it needs to go somewhere late next spring,\u201d Watt said. And he assured Assembly members that preparing a place for the whale will be a priority.<\/p>\n The construction cost of the seawalk should remain unchanged despite the altering of the bid, Watt said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A motion to send an ordinance relating to marijuana businesses back to the Community Development Department was shot down handily at an Assembly work session Monday evening. Assembly member Karen Crane moved to send the ordinance, which amends the Land Use Code establishing the zoning regulations for marijuana businesses, back to the CDD. This motion, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":28600,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[75],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-28599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28599"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=28599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}