By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
One of the main priorities for the new Sitka Tourism Task Force will be the issue of determining a reasonable limit on cruise tourism numbers.
Assembly member JJ Carlson said “a place to start” is the recent memorandum of agreement between the cruise ship industry and the city of Juneau, “because they are our neighbors, they have gone through this idea.”
Carlson spoke Thursday night at the joint meeting of the Assembly and the new nine-member Tourism Task Force.
Juneau, which has had decades of experience with large numbers of cruise visitors, recently signed an unenforceable MOU to limit cruise ships to five per day starting in 2024.
All nine members of the new Sitka task force and six Assembly members attended the one-hour work session.
Carlson and Chris Ystad cosponsored the Assembly resolution to set up an advisory group to research and provide recommendations on several tourism-related issues.
That includes guidelines on desirable cruise ship visitor numbers, a tourism management plan, regional planning, and city funding for summer tourism operations. Juneau’s MOU is based on recommendations by that city’s tourism task force.
The Juneau MOU cites the importance of the visitor industry to the community, as well as the importance of cooperation and communication between the cruise ship industry and the community.
Ystad said he knows there are a number of communities looking at ways to limit cruise ship tourism.
“I think this is something each one of you is going to be able to look into as much as you choose,” he told task force members. “I don’t think any of us are in denial that it’s the big question in Sitka right now. And so to me this is going to be one of the more important findings that this group comes up with.”
The task force has two members at large, and seven representing various commissions and economic sectors of Sitka.
Kevin Mosher said the task force may want to look beyond Juneau for communities more similar to Sitka, since Juneau owns its own cruise ship docks, and Sitka has one, which is privately owned. Mayor Steven Eisenbeisz said one aspect of the question would be to determine “carrying capacity” in determining a limit on cruise ship tourism for Sitka.
Another directive related to an annual review cycle for what tourism-related services are needed, how community input will be taken, and making recommendations for change. This directive would include how to spend cruise passenger fees.
“This directive is getting after what the Planning Commission has been doing for the last couple of years – establishing the short-term tourism plans and all the surveys, and everything that’s has gone along with that,” Ystad said. “So the goal was to take that off of the Planning Commission so they can go on and tackle their normal objectives and put that more on this body.”
The directive should include a question of whether a permanent tourism commission should be established.
City Administrator John Leach said some other communities have a process to create a “citizen generated wish list” for using the CPV funds, which are restricted to particular purposes. The city can work with cruise officials after the annual list is generated, which can be incorporated into the budget cycle, he said.
The city commissioned a cost allocation study last summer to establish what the direct and indirect costs of tourism are on the city. It covers such costs as internet use, salaried staff time, street closures, Harrigan Centennial Hall usage, garbage pickup and library usage.
“Having that cycle is important because we know what we need to pay for with it, but then sometimes there are community projects important to the community and we can build it into the budget cycle,” Leach said.
Assembly members said they are hoping the group will hear from Sitkans reporting on their own experiences during the summer.
City Planning Director Amy Ainslie advised the task force to delineate their recommendations between city operations (garbage pickup, street closure), activities regulated by the city (permitting), and activities that can’t be regulated by the city (interstate travel).
“So trying to keep those things compartmentalized and not mixing, I think, will help keep things clear for everybody as we move through all the directives,” she said.
There was some discussion on a “Tourism Best Practices” program. Ainslie said today she sees the program as one that should change over time, as issues and various uses come up. Juneau’s Best Practices document has regulations on hours of operation for helicopters, and rules for use of local trails by commercial tour companies.
“There’s also provisions for ... best practices for whale watching and other wildlife viewing, and I believe their program may also talk about trails,” Ainslie said.
The Juneau program has been in effect since 1997.
Eisenbeisz said he sees a Best Practices document as one that is not focused on enforcement, but on goals and objectives operators can agree to, “that we’re going to continue to do this to make our town the best place we can.”
A directive related to waterfront development policies would include identifying gaps in regulations and permitting for commercial tourism activities, and make recommendations.
Ystad and Thor Christianson said this might involve work with other commissions, such as planning, Port and Harbors and the Gary Paxton Industrial Park. Christianson said to keep in mind any changes proposed related to the tourism industry would apply to everyone, and to “be careful of the law of unintended consequences.”
The resolution adopted by the Assembly sets “no later than April 30” as the deadline for task force recommendations to the Assembly, but there was a question of whether a permanent Tourism Commission would be set up after the task force’s work is done.
One person at the work session asked whether this was getting into the Planning Commission’s work, but Assembly members said the diverse task force would have a different perspective, and could provide input on decisions other communities had made related to the waterfront.
“Basically, just focused on tourism and how it affects the community, possible suggestions that may make things smooth and beneficial,” Mosher said.
Leach provided the example of food carts: whether the community wants them, and where they would work best.
“GPIP for example,” Leach said. “There’s a work dock down there that gets requests more and more every year to kind of turn it into a cruise terminal at this point. Can it be used for that? It absolutely can be used for that, but is that really what the community wants to use that facility for? So those are the recommendations that would be useful.”
The final directive is on regional coordination and planning as it relates to the cruise industry. Ystad wondered if Sitka could work with other communities on a schedule that works for everyone, with fewer spikes in visitors.
Carlson said today she felt the work session went well.
“It outlined the intentions behind what the directives are and it seems like the task force members are in a good place to get started with the initiatives,” she said.
Members of the newly created tourism task force meet in Harrigan Centennial Hall Thursday. (Sentinel Photo by Shannon Haugland)
