The Juneau Assembly took a cautious step toward Goldbelt Corporation’s plans for a new cruise port on West Douglas. They voted to have staff outline a master plan for the area, but stopped short of drafting a formal agreement with the company.
The cruise industry was the main topic of discussion at Monday night’s Assembly meeting.
Goldbelt first announced its plans for Goldbelt Aaní, Juneau’s “new cultural cruise destination,” last October. Their plans include two new cruise ship berths, a recreated 1800s Tlingit village, touring that operates and departs directly from Douglas and employee housing.
Goldbelt owns much of the land along the coastline of west Douglas, but the potential development would fall partially on CBJ land.
The city voted unanimously to direct staff to provide a process and budget for the West Douglas master plan and bring it back to the committee on the whole.
The motion signalled that the city wants to be a decision-making body as Goldbelt moves forward with plans for development.
But the potential development is still early on in the process. City Manager Katie Koester said that as of Monday’s meeting, Goldbelt had not yet submitted a conditional use permit application to CBJ, which the company would need to develop.
The development would fall outside of the City and Borough of Juneau’s service area, meaning CBJ is not responsible for providing services like water, waste management or emergency dispatch. Developers are required to complete a master planning process that ensures they will provide the public services needed to make the area safe and accessible.
“When we stretch outside that urban service area, that’s when we really need to be mindful about what those impacts mean,” said Jill Lawhorne, CBJ community development director.
Expanding out to West Douglas also brings into focus concerns over Douglas’ single bridge. A second crossing has been in public consideration for decades, but the city is still tens of millions of dollars and years of planning and construction away from it being a reality.
“Since I’ve been on this Assembly we’ve been saying [we] can’t develop out there until we get a second crossing, so I’m a little like, why the change in strategy?” asked Assembly member Christine Wolls.
Koester said that plans for potential development are a “key piece” to planning for a second crossing, making it a greater priority.
The Assembly decided to pause the next step of the plan. By a vote of 4-5, they ruled against a motion to direct city staff to draft a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between CBJ and Goldbelt. That MOU would lay out the services that Goldbelt would be responsible for providing to the region in order to develop there.
Assembly member Christine Wolls voted against the motion. She said that moving forward with drafting an MOU made her nervous that the public would view it as a step toward approving the development.
“To me, I think the public will take this as, we’re moving forward on a project, and that is not the intent that I think I want the community taking from these conversations. We have a lot to figure out,” Woll said.
Lawhorne said that city staff does not want to rush or pressure the Assembly to make decisions, but to signal that planning for the development process is underway.
“From staff’s perspective, our intent on coming before you tonight was to set the stage and say, ‘Hey, this is coming. This is a huge deal. It will be hugely impactful to the entire community, and we want to start setting that stage for you of what’s to come, and what you need to be thinking about,’” Lawhorne said.
Goldbelt’s original timeline optimistically placed them at finishing the port by the 2027 cruise season. They now slate their grand opening for 2028.
