A civil lawsuit aimed at preserving a historic neighborhood in the capital city is set for trial next summer. Juneau’s city government, meanwhile, plans to demolish the neighborhood before then.
At a hearing on Wednesday, Superior Court Judge Amanda Browning set the trial date for August 2026. Three longtime tenants of the city-owned Telephone Hill neighborhood filed the lawsuit in October. It seeks to both stop the city’s demolition and reverse the evictions of renters.
City Attorney Emily Wright said, as it stands legally, nothing is holding the city back from continuing with demolition.
“There’s nothing stopping forward movement,” she said. “Right now, the timeline that the city manager’s office is working on is a March demo.”
After years of public debate, the Juneau Assembly approved demolishing the homes on the hill this spring to redevelop the area into newer, denser housing. The Assembly says the plan is necessary to address Juneau’s lack of housing.
But, the tenants’ lawsuit claims that the city improperly evicted people on the hill, illegally phased the redevelopment and the project fails to comply with federal and state historic preservation acts. The city has repeatedly denied these claims.
Following Wednesday’s hearing, the tenants’ attorney, Fred Triem, said he intends to file a motion to prevent the demolition pending the outcome of the August trial. Judge Browning will decide whether to accept or deny it.
“We want to save the old buildings — that’s the object of the suit,” he said. “We will move forward in the court system with our efforts to protect the buildings while we await the trial presently scheduled for August.”
At the hearing, Judge Browning also ruled on a couple of the eviction cases the city filed against remaining tenants who refused to vacate by the city’s Nov. 1 deadline. While Browning ruled in favor of the city’s right to evict two residences, she gave different eviction deadlines to the tenants because of their personal circumstances. A third eviction case is still pending.