In Sitka’s zoning code, all commercial docks are treated the same– it does not differentiate between the size or type of dock, whether it’s a dock for charter fishing boats or cruise ships. And commercial, waterfront and industrial zones currently allow commercial docks by right.
At a meeting on September 29, Planning and Community Development Director Amy Ainslie said that means cruise ship docks could be developed in Sitka with little to no public process involved.
Before an audience of around 30 Sitkans, Ainslie gave an overview of a draft ordinance that seeks to plug that hole, which was identified by the tourism task force several years ago. It would create a permitting process for new or expanded cruise ship docks – existing docks would be grandfathered in. Ainslie said the goal is to ensure there’s a public process and review for approving a new dock is comprehensive.
“We know that cruise ship docks have an impact on our whole community,” Ainslie said. “Typically, in zoning hearings, you’re looking at the impact of a use on a particular property, and just a narrow kind of window around it. But we know that this is an industry that impacts our whole community. We want to make sure that our review is comprehensive, and we also want to make sure that decisions we make under these regulations are sound and defensible.”
The planning and tourism commissions have been working on the ordinance for some time– The ordinance is in draft form right now. Ainslie said now is the time to get feedback.
“And so, we want to hear more from you. Are we on the right track? Does this solve the community’s concerns when it comes to regulating cruise ship dock development?” Ainslie asked. “We also want to know: Are there potential consequences of taking this action, whether intended or unintended, good or bad?”
After Ainslie’s presentation, she and members of both the planning and tourism commissions took questions from the audience. One speaker, who did not identify himself, said he did not understand why the city was looking to regulate cruise ship docks if Sitka hasn’t had a lot of interest in building them, and said the city shouldn’t add more regulations to address something that isn’t really a problem. Planning Commissioner Wendy Alderson said she sees the ordinance more like housekeeping than regulation. Larry Edwards with Small Town Soul said the city should instead develop an ordinance prohibiting future cruise ship dock construction. Private cruise dock owner Chris McGraw asked if future updates to the draft ordinance could clarify how the city would define a dock expansion under the new regulations.
“The ordinance talks a lot about ship sizes and it uses numbers of passengers, but you have, you know, the Ritz-Carlton ship that I think has sometimes 300 passengers on it, yet it’s 800 feet long. So that’s something to take in consideration,” McGraw said.
Jim Steffen said the city’s current agreement with McGraw’s dock doesn’t address Sitkans’ concerns about cruise traffic growth and hoped any updates to city code would include some teeth. He was glad the proposed ordinance would also come with an amendment to the city’s comprehensive plan, which was developed before the community saw a big jump in cruise tourism. But he said updates to that plan should come first.
“It’s really the only document that’s going to give guidance to all these questions about impacts on our community, and I believe the comp[rehensive] plan is woefully inadequate in this area,” Steffen said. “And so I’m glad to see an interest in updating the comp plan as regards pretty much anything that this would affect– quality of life, our services, our roads, our, you know, jobs, housing. These are all things that would be affected.”
Assembly member Scott Saline, who was in the audience, asked if there was an appetite for asking voters to weigh in on whether future cruise docks should be built in Sitka. Planning Commissioner Robin Sherman said she preferred a regulatory approach and finding compromise when addressing a divisive issue like cruise passenger limits.
“I do not think that we have consensus. I think we have a diversity of opinion, and when that is the case, I can speak for myself personally in looking for a compromise that makes nobody completely happy,” Sherman said. “Because when you have very, very different opinions, if you make one contingent very, very happy, somebody else is very unhappy. So I personally strive for some kind of a balance.”
It’s not the last time the public will have an opportunity to give feedback on the proposed cruise dock code update. A joint work session between the planning and tourism commission will take place in October along with a legal review of the ordinance. After commission feedback is folded in, a new draft of the ordinance will be posted to the city’s website for a 30-day comment period. Then it will go before both commissions for approval, and finally to the assembly for consideration- a culmination Ainslie said is still “many months away.”
