By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
Lincoln Street closures, temporary restroom locations, and pedestrian safety improvements are up for discussion as the Assembly weighs in on the 2023 tourism operations plan on Tuesday.
City staff is asking for direction on those and other cruise visitor-related questions at the regular meeting that starts at 6 p.m. at Harrigan Centennial Hall.
The Assembly will also consider on final reading proposed changes to the recently approved Centennial Hall permits fees and policies for excursions and tours.
The other major item is a request for $25,000 from city funds to help Alaska Trollers Association fight a legal case related to southern resident killer whales. ATA is an intervenor in the case that may result in the closure of Chinook troll and other fisheries. (See Friday’s Sentinel.)
Summer Visitor Plan
The discussion of the 2023 tourism operations plan will include Lincoln Street closures, temporary restrooms, safety improvements, programs and incentives and future planning needs.
“I need direction from the Assembly on what elements of the plan we’re moving ahead on,” said City Planning Director Amy Ainslie. “And if there are any details in our operating plan they would like to change.
City staff at a January or February Assembly meeting will then bring forward a supplemental appropriation to pay for those operations.
Some 600 citizens weighed in through a survey on how the 2022 season went, which included their suggestions on hours for the street closure, potential restroom locations and areas needing improvement. Testimony was also taken from some of the 15 citizens who attended the joint meeting of the Assembly and Planning Commission after the end of the cruise season.
The 2022 short-term tourism plan was the result of many hours of community meetings. Since the end of the 2022 season, the commission has discussed the 2023 season at a joint meeting of the planning commission and the Assembly, and as an item at a planning commission meeting.
At Tuesday night’s meeting the Assembly has over a dozen “decision points” on the list submitted by the planning department.
On the section for “safety improvements,” for example, the three main traffic concerns are:
- intersection changes/ management for Lake and Lincoln streets.
- improved pedestrian crossing along Harbor Drive
- crossing guards/pedestrian monitors.
The decision point is “direction whether to pursue traffic improvements.” The chart in the Assembly packet also notes improvements would come with more financial resources needed.
In another section, locations are suggested for portable restroom locations, including one used last year on Lincoln Street near the Pioneers Home. Other sites suggested in the planning department document are Totem Square, Harbor Way/Castle Hill, the Wells Fargo or First National Bank Alaska parking lots, College Drive on the SJ campus, and the Crescent Harbor playground.
One suggestion not on the list is Maksoutoff Street, where the city installed a restroom last May that closed the street to vehicle and bike traffic for the duration of the cruise season. At the Planning Commission meeting on the 2023 cruise season, a number of residents testified against the closure of the street for the restrooms, Planning Chairman Chris Spivey said today. That option was removed from the list of commission recommendations forwarded to the Assembly, but Spivey said the Assembly may add other options.
In addition to preferred and non-preferred locations, “decision points” Tuesday night will be on whether to pursue utility connections.
Mayor Steven Eisenbeisz said that if Assembly motions are made on any of the decision points, public comment will be taken. Otherwise, he said, public comment must wait until Persons to be Heard at the end of the meeting.
Under the Lincoln Street closure item, concepts and actions included closing the street from Katlian to Lake street on days with 5,000 or more visitors, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and no parking beginning at 9, similar to operations in 2022.
Decision points on that item are whether to continue the street closures, and whether to change logistics and the closure threshold.
Also on the list for decisions is whether to continue the grant program for businesses opening their restrooms to visitors; the walk/bike incentive; food cart permits on Lincoln street; and beautification measures, such as tables, benches or planters.
Centennial Hall
On Dec. 13 the Assembly gave final approval to permit fee increases and a new sealed bidding system for awarding vendor and excursion spaces in front of and in back of the building, and higher annual permit fees, among other changes.
But the omnibus bill was passed with the understanding that amendments on particular parts of the plan could be considered at later meetings, in light of the objections raised by tour and excursion operators when the ordinance was passed.
Assembly member Thor Christianson and others introduced four ordinances taking the operators’ suggestions into account, and they were all forwarded for second reading and final approval at Tuesday night’s meeting.
Proposed amendments include:
- doubling the fee for buses that drop off and pick up passengers at Centennil Hall, from $1,000 per year per bus, to $2,000.
- exemptions from permit fees for electric vehicles.
- increasing the term of the permits from one to three years for sales spaces in the plaza, and outfitter spaces behind the building. Initially the permits would be for one-, two- and three-year terms but eventually would all be three years. This change is intended to provide more predictability for businesses, from one year to the next, and ensure opportunities each year for new businesses.
- an outcry auction instead a sealed bid process for the outfitter and sales spaces.
One of the most common complaints from operators was over the sharp increase in fees, and a bidding process instead of first-come, first-serve.
“It’s worked fine, but with the numbers of people coming now an update was needed in the permit system,” said Centennial Hall manager Tony Rosas, who worked with a consultant and other city staff on the new fee structure and policies.
He noted the permit fees and policies had not been changed for more than 20 years, and there were no fees for picking up or dropping off, which is the main traffic at the building.
Christianson said he was trying to respond to the concerns by vendors, but that the building is owned by the community.
“At the end of the day it’s a city building and it’s owned by everybody,” Christianson said. “We need to be thinking of everybody.”
The city in the past has made 15 spaces available in the front for sales, and five in the back. The plaza spaces are generally used by tour businesses, selling day tours with the vendor squares changing daily; the spaces in back of the building have been occupied by kayak and other water tour operators, Rosas said.
The changes approved Dec. 13 call for businesses to bid on vendor squares and outfitter spaces.
“I’m glad vendors are going to the meetings, and letting their voices be heard,” Rosas said. “Some of the changes being considered are because of things they said.”
ATA Lawsuit
Christianson says he feels strongly about co-sponsoring the ATA request, which would go toward the lawsuit Wild Fish Conservancy v. Thom. ATA and the state of Alaska are intervenors on the side of the defendants.
“I don’t like giving money necessarily to attorneys,” Christianson said, “but if this goes forward as it stands now - which it has, there’s been a ruling - there will be no kings allowed for the (Alaska) king fishery, and maybe no cohos if they say bycatch, and maybe no charter king fisheries.”
The lawsuit is aimed at protecting southern resident killer whales, which historically have spent part of the year in Puget Sound. “Thom” is Barry Thom, the National Marine Fisheries Service regional administrator.
Christianson noted that other Southeast communities are being asked to chip in, and some have. The Southeast Alaska Guides Organization has also donated funds.
