Housing dominated much of Skagway’s last assembly meeting as three members were appointed to the ad hoc housing committee. Assembly member Orion Hanson tried to get approval for staff to draft a RFP for high density housing at the former clinic site, to include senior housing.
The Skagway Borough Assembly spent much of their Feb. 15 meeting addressing housing. Mayor Sam Bass announced the start of a housing task force committee. The assembly instructed staff to identify sites for multi-family housing, including senior housing, put out an RFP and research establishing a community land trust.
Bass described the current housing situation as a crisis.
“I know that the use of the word crisis is controversial,” Bass said. “But I believe it is a crisis, especially for those that are being removed from their year-round homes or for people who cannot find adequate housing, whether it’s year-round or seasonal. Housing is a basic necessity and any community that cannot provide that necessity will neither grow or flourish.”
Charles Dolan, Mike Healy and Charity Pomeroy were assigned by Bass to the Housing Task Force Ad Hoc Committee. Assembly members had the opportunity to veto the appointments, but none did.
Bass said the purpose of the task force is to, “research, develop and review concepts that will help alleviate our housing issue.” The committee needs six additional members. Bass encouraged anyone interested in serving to submit a request to the borough clerk’s office.
In a separate agenda item, Hanson proposed the municipality begin a draft RFP for Lots 10, 11 and 12, on Block 73, located on 11th and Broadway, for high density housing to include senior housing. The site of the original clinic, the empty lots were set aside for senior housing and a senior center after a 2016 vote authorized a $6 million bond for the purpose. The bond passed by five votes but building plans were never approved.
Hanson’s Feb. 15 proposal recommended the municipality contribute the three lots to a housing trust through a 100-year lease.
“The old clinic site is shovel ready,” Hanson said. “Garden City will take a lot of work, a lot of time and a lot of money. And my concept here is that we put out an RFP, or at least we get a draft of RFP from staff that gives, advances this process a little faster. We can then bring it back to committee. The old clinic site is three lots. It could be, without any changes to code with conditional use, it could be nine units. We have in our packet a resolution from 2013 designated to be a senior community center. That would need to be amended or updated. I think this is something — we can put this out to the private sector, see what comes back. And if we like it, great, if we don’t, we haven’t spent any money on it. It’s something that could happen fairly quickly, much faster than any kind of housing development at Garden City. I’m really looking for solutions. And this could be a conduit to get there.”
After four amendments and 45 minutes of discussion, the final directions to staff comprised of locating all municipal property appropriate for multi-family housing, including senior housing, putting it out to RFP and breaking down the steps to forming a community land trust.
Assemblymember Dan Henry voted yes to the final amendment and yes to the motion, but his comments didn’t encourage confidence.
“…I’m going to vote in favor,” Henry said. “I, for one, am not going to anticipate that we’re going to get a turnaround on this anytime soon. They [staff] are buried. And this is a big task without an acute target specific. It’s going to be a lot of challenges. So, good luck.”
Assembly members Alex Weddell and Kate Kolodi expressed satisfaction that the amended language gave staff more options, as the original 2013 resolution reserving the land for a senior center specified that no trees be removed, if possible.
