Open House Tackles Commercial Use of Trails

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Category: News

Created on Monday, 28 October 2024 15:31

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By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
Is there a right level of commercial use for particular city recreational locations, and if so, what are those levels?
Are there areas that should be off limits for commercial use? And should the city restrict certain uses on city land?
How can the city make the permitting process for commercial use more streamlined?
About a dozen local residents wishing to help set city policy on those issues turned out for the Parks and Recreation Division’s open house Thursday night to talk about commercial uses of city land, trails, parks and remote recreational areas such as Goddard Hot Springs and Baranof Warm Springs.

Kevin Knox, Parks and Recreation coordinator for the city, talks to Annemarie LaPalme about the permit system for commerical operators on city recreation sites, including trails, parks, remote areas and uplands beaches (Back Beach, Herring Cove Beach). The deadline for comments on commercial permits is November 10. (Sentinel photo)

“It was smaller than we were hoping for but we got to have a lot of in-depth conversations with people who did come and who have a strong passion for managing trail use and other uses,” said city planning director Amy Ainslie. “It was nice to sit and talk and have a good conversation.”
Commercial use of city recreation areas has been a growing concern in recent years with the uptick in cruise and other tourism to Sitka. The public has weighed in with their concerns already during the Tourism Task Force open houses, where they expressed displeasure about commercial tours on trails, visitor ebikes on trails, and trail crowding.
The open house provided another opportunity to ask questions and provide input on how they would like to see recreation sites managed for commercial use. Those attending the Thursday open house were able to view the list of city owned trails, remote sites, and boat launches under city control.
The Parks and Recreation Division is conducting a survey now and taking public comment under “Commercial Recreational Land Uses on City Lands.” The city is looking for public “input, priorities, and preferences for allowing commercial use such as guided hikes, bike tours, and kayak rentals through the CBS commercial recreational land use permit process.”
The results from the survey and open house will be presented to the Assembly and the Parks and Recreation Committee to help guide how the city will issue permits starting in 2025.
The survey is available online at: cityofsitka.com/departments/ParksRecreation
“The survey is really focused on establishing a use plan, and the use plan will help us hear from the community about which areas they do or don’t want to see commercial recreational use and at those areas, what the right level of commercial use is,” Ainslie said.
Some of the areas, trails and roads outlined in the survey are under the jurisdiction of multiple organizations (city, state, federal government, Baranof Island Housing Authority, and others), but the survey questions are focused only on areas under city jurisdiction.
Paper survey forms area available at the library, the public works office at city hall, and the parks and rec office at Blatchley.
Each of the sheets posted to the walls showed a map of the area, the number of commercial permits issued, recreational activities in that area, the mix of resident versus visitor use, and estimated visitation. The information packet is available on the Parks and Rec page on the city website.
For example, data from the city shows there were three commercial permits for using Indian River Trail in 2024, with a 500 maximum number of visitors, and a maximum of 18 in a group. For Herring Cove/Beaver lake there were 5 permits, no more than 18 people per trip, and a total of 2,500 visitors allowed under all permits.
Statistics also were shown for the Cross Trail, Green Lake/Medvejie trail, Whale Park, Baranof Warm Springs (15 permits), Goddard Hot Springs (1 permit), city boat launches, Blue Lake and Green Lake.
The deadline for comment is Nov. 10.
In another project, the city Parks and Rec division is working on a proposal to change city code for how the city issues commercial recreation permits.
‘‘It’s a pretty lengthy process, and the process is not always super straightforward, and it’s highly dependent on the Parks and Recreation committee schedule,” Ainslie said. “We’ve often heard from the public (that) it’s not clear how they can submit public comment or keep up-to-date with incoming permits.”