Designers presented four possible options for development on Telephone Hill at a community meeting held on Wednesday.
Around 50 people attended to look over possible plans, with many who pleaded for the city to think about the possibility of a “no build” alternative instead of building new units.
There are seven homes and one apartment building with five units located on Telephone Hill, and the city estimates that 17 residents reside there. All the plans that were presented on Wednesday will add new homes to the area, but only one is preserving existing houses.
The city hired First Forty Feet, an Oregon-based design firm, to create an idea for development plans in the area of Telephone Hill after the state transferred ownership of the property to the city in March. The then-City Manager Rorie Watt stated that the city was likely to build additional housing on the land.
Telephone Hill residents, many of whom have rented houses for a long time and have resisted any proposal that would involve dislocating residents and forcing them to locate new homes in a costly, restricted market. However, city officials say Telephone Hill is a perfect location to grow the market.
The span style=”font-weight 400 ;”>”Everything can be done,” First Forty Feet designer Jason Graf told attendees on Wednesday. “The four concepts we’ll be showing you today are not ideas that state “No change is necessary. Therefore, there’s an anticipated change to the hill. .”
The Wednesday meeting was the second of two community engagement events intended to get opinions from residents about the possible designs. First Forty Feet aims to be able to present a master plan by the municipal manager staff, and Juneau Assembly in December.
The design options
The four designs that were shared on Wednesday will add houses in Telephone Hill, but the styles of housing differ. One model has townhomes and the other includes apartments, and the remaining two are a mixture of both.
Graf stated that the parking structure that is next to Downtown Transit Center could be upgraded with additional parking levels as well as two levels of office space built on top of it.
Choice A represents the least density option. It will comprise around 30 townhomes with a single family. Small groups of them will be connected to one another and may be two, one or three stories high.
Alternative A will be the one one which places office space above the structure of parking.
“We believed we could achieve this due to the fact that there’s less dense on the property – you do not require more parking at the site itself.” First Forty Feet architect James Brackenhoff told attendees.
Option B offers around 60 units, which includes an assortment of townhomes with attached homes and three-story apartments that do not have elevators. Option B could provide parking for the garage parking space.
Option C includes mid-rise apartment buildings with elevators. Brackenhoff stated that it could have 100 to 200 units with parking levels being added to the garage. The apartment buildings could also contain space on the top floor to accommodate restaurants or commercial space.
Option C also has a hotel that Brackenhoff claimed could work with other kinds of housing as well. The design is characterized by a plaza at the heart of the hotel as well as apartments.
Option D could create walk-up apartments in places between existing homes. Brackenhoff claimed that the plan adds 40 apartments to Telephone Hill. Brackenhoff described it as an “acupunctural method” that blends old and new.
“We were looking to make sure that we had an option that takes into consideration what we’ve heard from a few people in the community about the need to preserve certain houses,” Brackenhoff said at the meeting.
Brackenhoff said that they must determine whether it’s possible to save the homes.
“What we must complete is the process of surveying to make sure that the homes are solid in their structure, and that there’s not a huge cost that the city would have to bear to remodel the homes,” Brackenhoff told attendees.
Downtown residents Joshua Adams told the designers and others that he was sceptical that the city would even consider preserving the houses even if the community would have a preference for it.
span style=”font-weight 400 ;”>”We all are aware that the city will examine this issue and claim that there’s no way these buildings could be restored in a reasonable manner. Anyone who has any knowledge of restoration of historic buildings knows that it’s three times more expensive to properly restore a building than to take it down and rebuild it from scratch,” he said. “Does this mean that we should not save our history? ?”
Some of the attendees suggested that the city should sell the homes in their present condition. However, Graf explained that such decision-making is the responsibility of city leaders, not developers.
“What is our goal to determine what happens if keep these, can we build more housing? And what do we make of that development?” he said.
Community response from the community
A majority of Juneau residents who attended the forum said that the city should protect the houses and not build new housing.
Tony Tengs, who resided at Telephone Hill for nearly three years before leaving during the first quarter of spring, examined the layouts before the meeting began. Tengs pointed out Option D, which has apartments in orange, set among grey houses.
The span style=”font-weight 400 ;”>”The only one that shows the buildings still in place They look like ghost structures in the drawing” he stated. “Even in the drawing in which they’re still displayed as ghosts, they appear to be .”
Skip Gray who has been a vocal advocate for the city to rebuild the homes that are in use, was unhappy that questionnaires don’t give him the chance to vote for an “no construction” alternative.
“There simply aren’t any answers to these surveys that I’d like to click for,” he said in an interview.
However, Betsy Brenneman, a former Telephone Hill resident, told participants that the Planning commission as well as the Assembly were the best people to reach out to regarding the “no construction” alternative.
” style=”font-weight 400 ;”>”You’re shooting the messenger often this evening,” she told attendees. “The city requested the plan. .”
Brenneman was one of the members of the Blueprint Downtown Steering Committee, that created the rejuvenation strategy to revitalize downtown Juneau that includes housing as the most important priority.
The span style=”font-weight 400 ;”>”If we don’t see more people to live downtown, you’re likely to see more storefronts closed during winter. You won’t have any downtown businesses,” she added. “We need to attract more people to downtown .”
Brenneman has said she’s in favor of staying with the homes she has However, she’s open for expanding the units around them.
The span style=”font-weight 400 ;”>”I will lay down in front of bulldozers should anyone try to demolish the historical houses,” she said. “However I do believe there are some ways to Telephone Hill to add a bit more homes. .”
Incentivizing affordableness
Many attendees wanted assurances that the new homes or apartments could be affordable.
Graf stated that the city could have the chance to include a specific number of homes that are affordable within its agreements to developers.
It’s a style=”font-weight 400 ;”>”Because it’s part of the supervision of the CBJ it is able to create incentives to make affordability an option and also market rates,” Graf told meeting participants. “There will be a chance to be affordable if this is appreciated, which I think it is. .”
Chris Zahas, a consultant working for Leland Consulting Group, agreed. He’s charged with finding developers who can help make the master plan a reality. He told an interviewer that the city might provide developers with subsidies and could also include the conditions.
“The city has the ability to set up strings to it in order to obtain what the community wants from this,” he said.
Zahas claimed that the developers’ ideas generally go before the Assembly to be approved.
“So there’ll be a variety of points between both the public and Assembly are able to engage in discussions about it,” he said.
