By ARIADNE WILL
Sentinel Staff Writer
The Assembly voted unanimously Tuesday night to repeal Chapter 20.01 of the Sitka General Code, which puts restrictions on building on sites with recognized susceptibility to landslides.
The regulations in the code section titled “Landslide Area Management” were based on professional studies following the August 2015 landslides which took the lives of three Sitkans. But as written, the regulations have been “inappropriately applied” and become unnecessary barriers to home financing and insurance, City Administrator John Leach said.
The section that was repealed lays out requirements developers must meet to build on land within a restricted landslide area, and defines what such an area is. It also discusses waivers of the requirement for a geotechnical evaluation of projects within defined landslide areas.
Leach said at Tuesday’s Assembly meeting that the purpose of repealing the chapter is to try to make it easier for people to seek lending and insurance for their properties.
“Our code has become a barrier to lending and insurance, and that’s the issue we’re trying to solve here,” he said.
Leach added that repealing the chapter does not mean the city is dismissing landslide risk.
Since 2015, a large-scale mapping project has been conducted by the State of Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys. The resulting maps include a historical debris flow inventory map, a debris flow susceptibility map, and a computer-generated debris flow runout map.
But the maps aren’t meant to predict landslides, nor are they meant to discourage all development in slide areas, Leach said. The city instead suggests that site-specific, detailed studies be conducted at individual sites before development begins.
“I’m not discrediting any of the science, any of the studies,” Leach said. “A lot of the stuff that’s out there is extremely valid – it’s just that it’s being inappropriately applied.”
The ordinance was sponsored by Assembly members Kevin Knox and Kevin Mosher.
“The biggest piece for me was to remove some finger-pointing that was going on that didn’t seem like it should be happening,” Knox said at the meeting.
Although the city has repealed the chapter, Assembly members said they’re not certain this will solve the hesitancy of lenders and insurance companies.
Instead, repealing the chapter from city code will mean that insurance companies and lenders can’t point to the code to back their decision not to support those trying to build in the slide areas.
“The code didn’t seem like it was really the reason why the insurance companies were reluctant to be here,” Knox said. “Removing (Chapter 20.01) may steer us down a road of really figuring out what we need to do to bring the market back to Sitka.”
