Transportation

The City and Borough of Juneau says the northern boundary for the recently-formed Petersburg Borough is wrong. It’s a jagged line that starts in northwestern Holkham Bay and runs from peak-to-peak north of Endicott Arm all the way east to the Canadian border.

The CBJ says the mistake was made by the Local Boundary Commission, the state panel charged with reviewing the creation or alteration of municipal governments. They want the LBC to go back and redraw that line, preferably much further south than it is now.

The CBJ, which had its own petition to annex the mainland down to Cape Fanshaw, is making its case with a judicial appeal of the LBC’s approval of the Petersburg Borough incorporation petition. Arguments were held Wednesday afternoon in Juneau Superior Court.

 

 

For much of the nearly hour-and-fifteen minute hearing, attorneys provided their own interpretation of what was done with both petitions, and why.

City and Borough of Juneau attorney Amy Mead referred to a constitutional requirement for the LBC to fully and fairly consider both competing claims for the overlapping area between Holkham Bay and Cape Fanshaw before a boundary was set. But she says the LBC only considered whether the Petersburg petition met incorporation standards.

In a situation such as the LBC had before in this case, when there were competing claims for the same area and two pending petitions filed for the same area, the LBC was obligated to fully consider all of the competing claims. Nothing justifies the first-in-time approach that the LBC took in this matter.”

Mead said that both petitions could have been consolidated, or considered separately, but fully by the LBC.

Mead says there was no hearing physically in the CBJ on the Juneau annexation petition and the CBJ did not have opportunity to fully present their claims. They were only able to present their claims on the Petersburg petition, and CBJ’s own annexation petition was eventually set aside by the LBC pending outcome of the December borough vote by Petersburg citizens.

State attorney Erling Johanson, representing the LBC, says Juneau’s comments were not ignored. The CBJ annexation petition was accepted nearly two months before a multi-day public hearing in Petersburg that included witnesses from Juneau.

The commissioners had the entire volumes of Juneau’s petition. All the back up material and everything.”

Jim Brennan, attorney for Petersburg, says there was substantial evidence that demonstrated Petersburg’s dominance in the disputed area with tourism and commercial fishing. But he also points to the Tracy Arm area that was carved out from the proposed Petersburg boundaries as the LBC recognizing Juneau’s stronger ties to that part of the mainland.

In this case, Petersburg’s efforts to form a borough had been pending for five years. Ms. Mead tried to equate the two. What Juneau did is sit on their hands all that time. And so, finally at the eleventh hour, when Petersburg’s petition was set to be heard, that’s when they filed their annexation petition.”

 

 

Brennan also argued that requiring an amended boundary would invalidate the vote by Petersburg residents or force dissolution of the new Borough, creating chaos and a legal mess. But CBJ’s Amy Mead said during rebuttal that would not happen in this instance, and she said it was not their intent to invalidate the new borough anyway.

Mead was accompanied at the appellants table during arguments by Juneau Mayor Merrill Sanford while Petersburg Mayor Mark Jensen joined Johansen and Brennan at the appellees table.

Juneau Superior Court Judge Louis Menendez asked only a few questions as he patiently listened to all the arguments.

I have the documents. We’re starting to review them to a greater extent. We’ll take it under advisement. Thank you for your time. It’s been very interesting.”

He’s expected to issue an opinion anytime within the next six months.

 

 

 

 

Related documentation:

Juneau’s Annexation Petition

Juneau’s Appellant Brief on boundary appeal

Petersburg Appellee Brief in response to Juneau appeal

State LBC Appellees Brief

 

 

 

 

Related stories:

Juneau boundary appeal could have serious Petersburg consequences

Petersburg becomes 19th borough in Alaska

Unofficial results show Petersburg borough passing

Attorneys for the State and two Southeast communities argued in court on Wednesday afternoon on whether the right procedure was followed when drawing up a potential boundary between the municipalities.

The City and Borough of Juneau says that the Local Boundary Commission did not consider their evidence or properly process its annexation petition for contested land between Holkham Bay and Cape Fanshaw.

The LBC argues that they considered all of the evidence when the Petersburg Borough incorporation petition was approved last year, while Petersburg argues that there was already substantial presented evidence which demonstrated their ties to the disputed area.

Here’s a sample of the arguments:

Those are the voices of state attorney Erling Johansen who represented the Local Boundary Commission, Jim Brennan representing the Petersburg Borough, and Amy Mead who is the attorney for the City and Borough of Juneau.

Juneau Superior Court Judge Louis Menendez listened for about an hour-and-fifteen minutes on Wednesday on the CBJ’s appeal of the LBC decision on the Petersburg Borough incorporation petition. He may issue an opinion anytime within the next six months.

Proposed Alaska Marine Highway day boats are now included in the Juneau Access road project.

The state transportation department recently updated the Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement to reflect how the new Alaska Class shuttle ferries would be used if a road out of Juneau is built.

In public comments about the new ferry plan, some Southeast residents worry the state is trying to make the two projects dependent on each other. That’s because the state’s preferred road alternative along the east side of Lynn Canal would stop just north  of the Katzehin River, where motorists would board shuttle ferries for Haines and Skagway.

While DOT officials maintain there is no connection, spokesman Jeremy Woodrow said the state needs to keep both in mind during the planning stages.

“It would be irresponsible for us to not include the Alaska Class Ferry Project as part of the Juneau Access Project since it’s a project the department is working on. So we can’t ignore either situation,” Woodrow said. 

A day before the updated alternatives were released, Gov. Sean Parnell insisted his decision to change the Alaska Class Ferry project from a mainliner to day-time shuttle boats was independent of his push for a road up Lynn Canal.

“Certainly, they can be connected in a person’s mind, but when I made the decision to go from a 350-foot vessel, that was done at the time because that design had driven costs up from $120 million to $167 million and it was still going up,” Parnell said.  “That’s where we got two, smaller Alaska ferry designs, from that calculation.”

The revised Juneau Access alternatives include a highway ending at Sawmill Cove in Berners Bay, where a new terminal would be constructed for ferries north.  That alternative incorporates a road along the west shore of Lynn Canal from William Henry Bay to Haines.

Marine alternatives in the SEIS include mainline, day boat and fast ferry service in Lynn Canal.

The Federal Highway Administration is expected to issue a final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement and Record of Decision next year, kicking off public hearings in Juneau, Haines and Skagway.

 

 

 

 

The state Transportation Department wants feedback on its plan for next summer’s ferry sailings.

The draft schedule continues the ferry Matanuska on a route from Prince Rupert, British Columbia, to northern Southeast.

The Malaspina will cover the Juneau-Haines-Skagway route most days.

The fast ferry Fairweather will sail four days a week to Sitka in the early summer, then increase to six days a week. It will also serve Petersburg once a week.

The Columbia and the Kennicott will each sail to Bellingham once a week. The Kennicott’s run will continue across the Gulf of Alaska.

Other details are available online.

A public-comment teleconference will be held Sept. 11th at the system’s Ketchikan headquarters. Comments will be taken in person and via teleconference.

Meanwhile, the state’s Marine Transportation Advisory Board is meeting this week on the Fairweather and at Sitka’s Harrigan Centennial Hall.

Board members will get updates on the design for the Alaska Class Ferry dayboat shuttle. Two ships will be built for the Juneau-Haines-Skagway route.

They will also address the process for replacing the ferry Tustumena, which serves Homer, Kodiak and other parts of Southwest Alaska. It’s been laid up for repairs this summer.

The Alaska Marine Highway System Manager says the first of two day boats will be sailing Lynn Canal even before the summer of 2016.

Captain John Falvey and other state transportation officials are holding meetings on the new ferry design this week. The first was in Juneau last night.

“The purpose of this was to have a lunch box boat.”

Will Nickum is an engineer for Elliott Bay Design Group in Seattle, architects for the day boats and other Alaska Marine Highway ships.

But the paradigm of state ferries is changing; instead of operating 24-hours a day, the proposed 280-foot shuttles would be tied up at the end of 12-hours, like the fast ferries Fairweather and Chenega.

“At the end of the day, the crew would go home and then come back the next morning and start all over again.”

The current design of the ferries show a closed car deck – but state officials originally said it would be open. That drew a lot of criticism from passengers who are familiar with Lynn Canal’s rough seas and spray. Boat architects Elliott Bay have advised against it. Nickum says it would cost slightly more.

“But the weather protection and the potential for lower maintenance, the recommendation was pretty strong back to the state and state’s accepted that recommendation and the design you see now has a closed car deck.”

The day boats would first serve Juneau, Skagway and Haines, carry 53 standard-size vehicles and 300 passengers, and travel at about 15 and a half knots.

There wouldn’t be much time in port.

“Rapid unload and load of the passengers and vehicles is important to meet this day boat concept,” Nickum said. “For rapid turnaround, need to drive through loading and unloading; not too much monkey motion around through side doors and what not. Really want to come on the bow, go off the stern or come on the stern and go off the bow.”

Juneau resident Bob Millard wonders how realistic that turnaround is. He rides the Alaska Marine Highway often, and also Washington State ferries, which are day boats.

“You know I’m concerned about crew fatigue and the time it takes to load in ports, like Haines, (where) you have a lot of tourists. The turnaround time I s probably a factor given all the traffic and inexperience of people loading and unloading.”

Millard says the potential delays would make that 12-hour day a very tight schedule.

The preliminary design study for the shuttle ferries came out last month and a public comment period is underway. This week’s meetings in Juneau, Skagway and Haines are strictly informational.

Marine Highway manager Falvey believes both ships will be operational by the middle of 2016. The funding comes from a previous Alaska Class Ferry project.

“We have approximately $118 million to work with and we feel very confident we can deliver both of these boats all said and done for that price.”

Falvey says the design team is now working detailed scenarios:

“What would the system look like when the first Alaska Class Ferry comes on. What would it look like when the second one comes on and there will still be mainliners running up through the canal.”

The public comment period on the preliminary design ends August 30. Comments should be made online through the Department of Transportation website.

School begins Tuesday in Juneau, so watch out for kids on bicycles — and Juneau’s police chief.

He’ll be riding his bicycle this week throughout Juneau to raise awareness of bicyclists.

Since June 1st, the Juneau Police Department has had five reports of vehicle and bike collisions. The problem seems to be drivers who fail to give bicycle riders the right of way.

Chief Bryce Johnson wants to encourage drivers to watch out for bicyclists on the road. He’s participating in a contest called “Spot the Chief for a Ten Spot.”

He may be easy to see in a spotted shirt and helmet.  The first ten callers to JPD will get a 10-dollar bill, but you need to call within two hours of seeing him on his bicycle and also when you’re not driving!

The Capital City Chapter of the Alaska Peace Officers Association is putting up the cash for the prizes.  All the ten dollar winners will be entered into a drawing for a bike tune up from Cycle Alaska.

Click here “Spot the Chief for a Ten Spot.”