Citizen Group Seeks Cruise Petition Permit

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Created on Wednesday, 04 December 2024 14:39

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By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
    A Sitka nonprofit has filed an application to the city to circulate an initiative petition for a public vote on cruise ship tourism limits for Sitka.
Small Town Soul, a citizen group seeking cruise passenger limits less than those recently adopted by the city, submitted its application to the city clerk on Friday.
Three previous applications to circulate a petition on cruise tourism were rejected by the city.
The ordinance proposed in the petition would go into effect for the 2026 season, although most of the schedule has been set by the cruise ship industry. Like the last application this one was filed by STS, which has registered with the state as a nonprofit corporation.
    The proposed ballot proposition calls for a vote on “limitation of cruise visitation in Sitka” and has the stated purpose “to restore balance by limiting cruise ship visitation.”
    “We think we have a good ordinance written here,” said Larry Edwards, an STS board member. “We think we satisfy all of the city’s requirements, and we think it should be approved for circulating an official petition.”
The limits being proposed are up to 300,000 cruise visitors per year, a limit of 4,500 a day, and no more than six days a week. No ships may be scheduled outside the cruise season (defined as May 1-September 30) and the Assembly can specify the quiet days of up to two days a week.
    The three previous applications for circulating initiative petitions, filed by members of the group in September, October and June, were rejected by the city clerk, working with the city attorney and outside counsel. Edwards said the application filed Friday is simpler and should address concerns expressed in the legal opinion that accompanied rejection of previous applications.
“Sitka’s need for relief from excessive cruise numbers has not gone away,” he said. “Again, we have worked to try to satisfy the complaints the city has had with our previous initiatives. In this version we have simplified it by having the caps based on passengers who come ashore and crew members will no longer be counted.”
    Unlike at least one previous version of the ordinance, the new one does not require permits for port facilities nor does it require the facilities to count passengers, “nor will buses and other tour vehicles be counted leaving port facilities.”
    “The caps and limits remain essentially the same as in the previous initiative attempts,” Edwards said. “However, in this version, we give the Assembly latitude to make some choices at several points. That includes the method used for how the Sitka municipal cruise ship schedule would be developed. It gives the Assembly latitude to shorten the season from what we specified.”
    The proposed ordinance specifies there needs to be at least one day per week with no large ships, and gives the Assembly the latitude to increase that to two.
    The stated purpose is to:
    –– improve safety, reduce nuisances and promote the health and wellbeing of residents by reducing cruise related overcrowding in public places;
    –– protect Sitka’s rural subsistence status and small town character; and
    –– “regain Sitka’s integrity as a high-quality destination for all visitors.
    The application comes on the heels of an Assembly 4-3 decision on Nov. 12 to pass a memorandum of understanding with the cruise ship industry. It was drafted in accordance with the specifications in the proposal forwarded by the Tourism Task Force in line with achieving the group’s goals of “flattening the curve,” taking out peak days, shortening the season and designating one quiet day on the weekends.
    Assembly members voting in favor, including Kevin Mosher, commented at the time that the document was “something the community wants, and it’s not perfect but fair.”
    “I think the community is pretty happy with where we’re at right now,” Mosher said. “The MOU was a huge compromise, it’s where we met in the middle, leveraging the benefits of tourism while allowing Sitkans to not feel too overwhelmed by tourists.”
    The MOU says the city will establish criteria for planning cruise calls including not allowing ships with more than 1,000 passengers to dock at the city’s docks if doing so would result in total cruise passenger numbers exceeding 7,000.
    On days when 4,500 passengers are scheduled on ships at the city docks, the cruise company won’t allow the docking or tendering of ships of more than 1,300 visitors at the Sitka Sound Cruise Terminal, if doing so would result in more than 7,000 in Sitka for the day.
    Those voting against the MOU said the city, not the local cruise dock company, was making all the compromises.
    Edwards said in his view the MOU “doesn’t do nearly enough.” Small Town Soul has a link to the latest initiative and FAQs on its website smalltownsoul.org.
    The city clerk is required to respond by December 13.