Category: Tourism

Public meeting at Centennial Hall Feb. 27th at 5pm on the impacts of cruise ships to Juneau communities.

If you’re a member of a Juneau Neighborhood Association (see Auke Bay Neighborhood Boundary map at https://www.aukebay.org) please consider attending.

With the failure of the Auke Bay Area Plan the neighborhood association has not met for several years. I have often considered taking down this website, but have found this blog in particular to be helpful in getting information out to others in Auke Bay. Thoughts? Please comment below if you find this helpful.

For more information view this shared google document with the meetings agenda: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QBNDYlmfC0NMm6VYKPBYGSS5tLg9W9oYGgYvujAEKF8/edit?usp=sharing

We’ve been asked to share guidelines provided by Paula Terrel of the VITF, as they night be helpful in providing testimony and/or written comment in regards to impacts of the cruise ship industry in Auke Bay.

At last, we now have a chance to express our thoughts to the Mayor’s Visitor Industry Task Force, and everyone is encouraged to take advantage of this opportunity!
As you may have heard, the Task Force is having 2 meetings for public testimony:

• Saturday, January 11, 2020, in City Hall Assembly Chambers at 10:00 a.m.
• Thursday, January 16, 2020, in City Hall Assembly Chambers at 5:30 p.m.

Testimony is limited to 3 minutes, but you can testify at both meetings, if you wish. I suggest the most effective way for you to present your testimony is: write out your testimony, read it at the public hearing, and give it to the city clerk.  If you prefer to submit longer written comments, you can email them to:  city.clerk@juneau.org or hand them to the City Clerk at the public meetings. Your written comments can be as long as you wish. 

Why take the time to come down to City Hall and testify in person?

• Our greatest strength comes from the number of us who testify
• The media will be there to get your comments out to the greater community.
• Written comments will not get the same attention. The Task Force Members may not take time to read all the written comments. Plus, it is more effective for them to see and listen to an individual.
• Others in the audience may be heartened to learn they are not alone in their concerns.

Here are some “Talking Points” to help you get started drafting your own comments. Speak about why you are testifying. Most importantly, the Task Force needs to hear:

• There seems to be no end in sight to growth of the cruise ship industry; it is time our municipal leaders take action NOW to get a handle on the impacts that are real and far reaching.
• We need to set limits. The Task Force should fully investigate and get one or more legal opinions on various ways CBJ can legally enact limits on the growth of the industry
• My quality of life – the reason I love living here – is being negatively impacted 
• I am feeling overwhelmed by the growing numbers of cruise ships

Speak about specific social, environmental, economic impacts to you and your neighborhood. Some we have heard relate to:

• Whale-watching boats’ impacts on Auke Bay
• Flight-seeing noise
• Tourist-crowded hiking trails at the glacier and elsewhere
• Smoke pollution from the cruise ships fouling our air
• Bus, van and other vehicle congestion

Speak in support of specific solutions to help mitigate impacts, such as:

• Setting limits
• Cruise ship-free Saturdays.  CBJ leaders should make clear to the cruise lines that we don’t want big ships visiting on this one day of the week
• A thorough cost/benefit analysis of the social and economic impacts of the growing cruise industry on Juneau. Such an analysis would guide CBJ leaders when they consider how to mitigate impacts, tighten zoning laws, raise user fees, etc..The analysis could include but not be limited to:

1. Costs to Bartlett Regional Hospital and our emergency services sector
2.  Costs of rental housing; does renting to summer workers raise rents for locals and/or displace locals?
3. Costs to locally-owned, downtown businesses due to rising rents and competing with cruise line-owned businesses

I encourage you to share this email with like-minded community members who are concerned with the growth of the industry. If they wish to be on the Watchdog email list, they can contact me or ask you to convey their email address. (Watchdog members’ emails are always listed in the BC: field)

If you have questions or comments, my contact information is below…Hope to see you in Assembly Chambers.

Paula Terrel, Visitor Industry Task Force Member
907-321-3451
terrel.paula@gmail.com

The following information release was provided by the City and Borough of Juneau and would be of interest to many Auke Bay residents and business owners. If you can not make it in person to the dates below, please let your voice be heard by emailing the City Clerk.

The Visitor Industry Task Force, an advisory committee to the Juneau Assembly, will be taking public testimony twice in January:

• Saturday, January 11, in City Hall Assembly Chambers at 10 a.m.
• Thursday, January 16, in City Hall Assembly Chambers at 5:30 p.m.

Individuals will be given 2 minutes to speak and are encouraged to submit written comments ahead of time to city.clerk@juneau.org or at the meetings.

Outside of the public comment meetings in January, the public is welcome to submit comments to the task force any time by emailing city.clerk@juneau.org. All correspondences go to task force members and are also posted to the public comments section of the Visitor Industry Task Force webpage. The webpage also lists past and future meetings, documents and presentations provided to the task force, and its charging document. 

The task force was established by Mayor Beth Weldon on October 14. Its goal is to provide advice to the Assembly and to advance community thinking on a range of visitor industry topics, including management of the visitor industry, CBJ’s Long Range Waterfront Plan, the idea of restricting visitor numbers, and collecting public input.

The task force is scheduled to report its findings to the Assembly by February 29, 2020 and is set to expire April 2020 unless extended by the Assembly. Task force members are Assembly member Carole Triem (Chair), Assembly member Wade Bryson, Craig Dahl (Vice-Chair), Paula Terrel, Bobbie Meszaros, Holly Johnson, Alida Bus, Kirby Day, Meilani Schijvens, and Dan Blanchard.

Sorry for the very late notice as we are just now confirming details on this meeting many of you may be interested in attending or providing feedback. On Wednesday, December 11, there will be a meeting to gather feedback from Juneau neighborhood associations regarding impacts to their neighborhoods created by the cruise ship industry. 

The meeting is open to all, and is from 5-6:30pm at the Andrew Hope Building, 320 West Willoughby Ave.  

Meeting sponsors suggest the following categories to consider for your feedback:

1. Environmental
2. Economic
3. Community
4. Other

If you can not make it in person considering this late notice but would like to send feedback, concerns, solutions, etc. to share during the meeting, please email it to kleins@aukebay.org by 12/11 at 4pm.  Below is more information on the focus of the meeting provide by the organizers of the meeting:

Purpose of the Meeting: 

1. To provide the first-ever meeting of NA representatives to discuss positive & negative impacts of the growing cruise ship tourism industry, a subject common to all Juneau neighborhoods;
2. To share what the Neighborhood representatives have heard from their members relative to specific impacts on their quality of life(however individually defined) and how important they feel this is for the Juneau community;
3. To provide information to the CBJ Visitor Industry Task Force from the NA perspective.

Why Neighborhood Associations?

Neighborhood Associations were created by CBJ ordinance  Chapter.35. “Juneau’s Neighborhood Associations provide a direct and continuing means of citizen participation in local government decisions about neighborhoods through the use of neighborhood associations recognized as advisory to the municipal government.”  As such, they have standing.

Process

While the focus of this meeting is on Neighborhood Associations, all Juneau individuals are invited to attend, listen, and will have an opportunity to provide comments.

The NA comments and comments from the listening public will be forwarded to the CBJ Tourism Industry Task Force that has been created to provide recommendations to the Assembly.

A detailed agenda will be provided at the meeting.