A conditional use permit for a short-term rental at 115 Anna Drive was approved unanimously at Wednesday’s Planning Commission meeting.
The commission also heard the 2024 annual short-term rental report and continued its discussion of zoning code changes for cruise-related docks.
Commission members Wendy Alderson and Darrell Windsor were absent.
115 Anna Drive Conditional Use Permit
Daniel and Patrina Kilkeary applied for a conditional use permit for a short-term rental at 115 Anna Drive in the R-1 MH single-family, duplex and manufactured home zoning district.
The owners plan to make a two-bedroom apartment on the property, currently a long-term rental, into a short-term rental for up to five guests.
Quiet hours will be from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. on weekdays and midnight to 8 a.m. on weekends. The owners will oversee garbage disposal themselves and give renters bear safety warnings.
2024 Short-Term Rental Report
The annual short-term rental report showed seven permits were issued in 2024, increasing the total number of permits in Sitka to 62. Of those, 56 were active permits, four were active permits that haven’t begun renting, and two were active permits that were intended to deactivate in 2025.
Fifty-two permit holders reported bed tax remittance totaling $90,783. The total rental revenue was $1,513,057, exceeding 2023's short-term rental revenue by 19 percent. Among permit holders reporting bed tax in 2024, the average revenue per permit holder was $29,097.
The average number of nights rented was 72, a slight decrease from the 78 nights reported in 2023. However, if counting only the permit holders who reported bed tax remittance, the number of nights increases to 83 nights.
More than half of short-term rentals — 58% — were available only during the summer season, from April to September. The other 42% of properties were evenly split between renting continuously and intermittently throughout the year.
Out of all STR properties, 85% hosted vacation and leisure travelers, 66% hosted travelers visiting Sitkans, 49% hosted business travelers and 41% hosted itinerant workers. Forty-one percent of permit holders reported hosting all four categories of visitors.
Cruise-Related Docks Zoning Changes
As part of an ongoing effort to regulate the potential of additional cruise ship docks being built in Sitka, commission members reached general agreements on definitions of cruise ships and cruise-related docks. The plan would regulate docks for ships with a capacity of 250 or more overnight passengers, excluding the ship's crew. Alaska Marine Highway System ferries are not included in this category.
A “cruise ship” is defined as “a passenger vessel with overnight accommodations for commercial passengers and designed for the purpose of providing pleasure and/or leisure travel, generally stopping at multiple ports on a fixed itinerary.”
A “cruise-related dock” is “a fixed or floating structure, including moorings, that serves cruise ships that have the capacity to accommodate 250 or more overnight passengers, exclusive of the ship’s crew, by either berthing the cruise ship, or berthing passenger lightering vessels that transport passengers to and from the cruise ship otherwise anchored or berthed at another location.”
The next consideration is in which zoning districts cruise-related docks can be constructed. City Planning Director Amy Ainslie proposed making all cruise-related docks conditional in any public zones, which led to a larger discussion about the role of public feedback in making such decisions with a large impact.
Members agreed on having two levels of review for cruise-related conditional use permits, with Planning Commission decisions going to the Assembly for final review. Commission members Katie Riley and Robin Sherman also suggested adding an optional step of a conceptual review.
In terms of requirements for fulfilling a conditional use permit, required items include a site plan and an operations plan that specifies passenger capacities. Additional proposed requirements include a traffic study, a list of required permits from other agencies, provisions for waste disposal, and possibilities for environmental and infrastructure impacts.
Throughout this discussion, Commission members took notice that sustainable tourism that balances economic development with maintaining Sitka’s quality of life is at the heart of the decisions to be made.
No binding decisions were made, and more discussion will take place at future meetings.
