Skagway’s Broadway Street on a busy cruise ship day. (Emily Files)
The Municipality of Skagway is asking residents to consider what the most important priorities and goals are for the community. Consulting firm Sheinberg Associates has been hired by the city to hold a series of community meetings to hear from residents about the challenges, opportunities and priorities related to their community. This feedback will be used to update the borough’s comprehensive plan.
State law requires that municipal governments adopt a comprehensive plan and periodically make updates to it as needed. The plan is supposed to outline a vision for the community in the coming years.
Sheinberg Associates has helped prepare the last two comprehensive plans for Skagway. Barbara Sheinberg is the principal planner for the consulting firm. She says that the first step is to analyze the current state of the community before defining goals and priorities.
“Our job is to topic by topic identify what are the current conditions with regard to economic opportunity or housing or recreation,” Sheinberg says. “What do we know about what the future looks like or is likely to look like? What are some of the opportunities or challenges the community has in order to grow?”
Sheinberg says while the comprehensive plan is not a binding document, it is supposed to be used to guide the planning and zoning commission and other decision-making bodies.
“One of their questions when they make their findings is, ‘Is this proposed development in concert with our comprehensive plan?’ Another way I’ve seen it used a lot is when assemblies have their annual retreats a lot of times they look at their list of priorities and goals from the comp plan. What did we get done this year and what are the top priorities for next year?”
Sheinberg says that so far her firm has met with the planning commission and distributed a survey to Skagway’s elected and appointed leaders to get their perspective on the future of Skagway.
This week Sheinberg will host a work session with residents to discuss population and socioeconomic trends. She says in her research about the city, she has been struck by the recent population increase.
“Right now their population is about 1,088. The projection for 2030 is over 1,200 people. What’s happening is a lot of young people and young families are staying in town. The number of kids is really growing in the community as is the number of seniors. So each of those brings challenges and opportunities.”
The work session is on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. in the Skagway Library. To learn more about the comprehensive plan visit skagway.org/2030
