The owner of Sitka’s cruise dock wants to relocate his downtown bus stop and build a pedestrian pathway with shopping, food vendors, and housing nearby. But as KCAW’s Katherine Rose reports, the city’s planning commission has signaled it intends to deny the request.
Sitka’s cruise dock is about six miles away from the center of town. That means, on any given summer day, hundreds to thousands of cruise passengers hop on a tour bus for a round trip to the city’s convention center and visitor hub, Harrigan Centennial Hall. But Sitka Dock Company owner Chris McGraw wants to move the shuttle’s drop off point to private property on Oja Way, with plans to develop the area into a bus depot.
At the Sitka Planning Commission meeting on December 17, McGraw requested a conditional use permit for the plan, which would give him the greenlight to develop two lots on Oja Way. Reading from a prepared statement, McGraw said the plan would mean fewer buses on the road each day, and less congestion and pollution downtown.
“It would honestly be much easier for me to keep things exactly the way they are. I currently pay about $25,000 a year to use Centennial Hall for my shuttle operations, and I could simply continue operating here without investing anything for anything further,” McGraw said. “Instead, I’m investing a significant amount of money in this proposed new shuttle drop off location, because I believe we can do better than the status quo.”
McGraw said moving the bus stop would also reduce jaywalking across the downtown thoroughfare, Harbor Drive, a concern that led the city to hire a crew of traffic safety coordinators this past summer.
McGraw’s plan also includes developing a pedestrian pathway from the back of the bus stop through Etolin Way, funneling passengers to downtown Sitka’s main intersection. On one side of the pathway, they would pass an area designated for food trucks and tour vendors. On the other, an existing 12-plex on Etolin Way would be demolished to make way for a three-story building with retail spaces on the first floor and ten apartments on the upper floors.
He said the plan wasn’t about growth, but about management and improving safety.
“I’m trying to be part of the solution, and asking you to work with me to help improve conditions,” he said. “To allow me to improve the interaction between the cruise ship passengers that visit every summer and the community.”
The two lots on Oja Way are abutted by residential properties, though there are a couple of businesses on the same block, down the street. The state building, which houses Sitka’s courthouse and police station, is across the street on one side, and Xoots Elementary School is on the other. McGraw said he plans to work with the elementary school’s principal to avoid pickup and drop off times for students when school is in session, and his plan also includes installation of noise barriers and a “no idling” policy for buses, to limit emissions.
More than 20 people voiced opposition to the project at the meeting. Tommy Joseph’s home abuts the property, but he said he’d likely leave if the project was approved. He said his family had planted a garden with hundreds of potatoes.
“If this goes through, we won’t be to do that again, because this is going to poison our land,” Joseph said. “I’m not going to be able to live there anymore. I’m going to have to leave this place. For one business, my business has to go.”
Joseph was one of several who voiced concerns about the air quality from the bus traffic and particulates in the air impacting food sources, like the nearby Pacific High School garden. Many worried about the depot’s proximity to schools, and the increase in traffic and noise. Auriella Hughes, who lives nearby, said it would change the fabric of the neighborhood.
“That is not what the downtown of Sitka is about. It’s not about housing, busses. We already have so many tourists. Great. Good for the economy. Excellent,” she said and then listed off several of individuals who live near the proposed bus depot property and had spoken in opposition. “These are real people living right there, and they will be driven out. You know they will,” she said. “Would you want to live next to that? I wouldn’t. No way. Nobody in their right mind would want to live next to that.”
After a very detailed presentation on the application, Planning and Community Development Director Amy Ainslie clarified what the planning commission could consider when making their decision to approve or deny it [web: insert list]. Ainslie said either way, they’d want to gather more information to bolster their call before the decision is finalized.
“This is a complex proposal and complex permit, and I want to make sure that we take the time to really make sure that both the conditions and the findings are accurate and forcible, robust, clear from the record,” Ainslie said. “I do not feel comfortable doing that tonight in, sort of in, one setting.”
Commissioner Wendy Alderson said she didn’t feel the plan met the land use objectives in the city’s comprehensive plan. She said that while the application was for a “public transportation facility,” the bus service is actually private.
“If you look at the application, that is a direct quote on the application,” Alderson said. “And not only is a private shuttle bus drop off not a permitted or conditional use in the public facilities use table, it is not a permitted or conditional use in any of the land use tables. That is what I’m basing my no on.”
Commissioner Robin Sherman said she appreciated some aspects of the proposal, like cutting back on congestion on Harbor Drive. But she didn’t know how they could prevent the development from evolving the neighborhood into a more commercial and seasonal area.
“And I think that’s one of the things that Sitka really values, is that we, unlike some of the other communities that have heavy cruise ship tourism, our downtown is not a ghost town in you know, the off season when the cruise ships aren’t here,” Sherman said. “And I don’t know how, I find it hard to mitigate the impacts of what this use would do in the summer to the mix of property uses year round.”
The commission moved to deny the conditional use permit application, and pending staff findings, will finalize the decision at its meeting in January.
