The Juneau Assembly voted Monday night to approve a tidelands lease for a fifth cruise ship dock in downtown Juneau. It paves the way for the construction to move forward after a years-long process.
“With or without this dock, we will still have five ships in town,” said Deputy Mayor Greg Smith, who voted in favor of the lease. “This is not the question on, ‘What is the future of tourism?’ That is still undecided and unknown. This is ‘Should we allow a fifth dock and the benefits that it brings?’ And in my opinion, it is worth supporting.”
The company behind the project is Huna Totem Corp., an Alaskan Native village corporation that owns Icy Strait Point cruise port in Hoonah. Norwegian Cruise Lines, which originally bought the property for $20 million, gave it to Huna Totem in 2022.
The dock will be constructed in Gastineau Channel, accompanied by a waterfront development called Áak’w Landing. The development — which was approved by the Juneau planning commission in 2023 — will include underground parking, retail space and a culture and science center located along Egan Drive next to Juneau’s U.S. Coast Guard station.
The tidelands lease is set to last for 35 years. The Assembly’s vote Monday night came after multiple rounds of public testimony both in favor and against the development.
Huna Totem and supporters of the new dock say it would help disperse tourism downtown and ease vehicle congestion. Kerry Crocker, who leads the local International Longshore and Warehouse Union, called the dock “a big win for Juneau.”
“I spend about 2,000 hours a summer downtown. I’m the dock foreman for all four docks, and we service all the ships that are over 1,000 feet,” he testified. “I can assure you that the downtown congestion will definitely be dissipated with the new dock.”
However, critics of the project, like Joan Wilkerson, said she worries about the dock’s proximity to where she lives and the health impacts the ships could have on air quality. She asked the Assembly to postpone the vote.
“Adding yet another ship pumping more poison into the air right under our windows is not welcome,” she said.
Part of the agreement with the city involves the guarantee that no more than one ship will dock there in a 24-hour period. The city has previously signed agreements with cruise lines that puts in place a five-ship limit in Juneau, and limit the number of daily passengers who arrive in Juneau beginning in 2026.
In the conditional use permit for the dock approved by the planning commission, Huna Totem is required to provide electrified shore power within two years after a power line to connect it is built within 25 feet of its property line. Once the shore power is available, all large ships using the dock must use shore power instead of ship power, which uses fossil fuels.
The Assembly added a few conditions that Huna Totem must agree to before members voted to approve the lease. One is that the corporation must provide the city with written assurance from the U.S. Coast Guard that the dock will not obstruct the Coast Guard icebreaker expected to be homeported in Juneau.
Other conditions include only allowing ships with 4,500 passengers or fewer, and agreeing that the development will not obstruct the downtown seawalk, barring special events.
Assembly member Alicia Hughes-Skandijs, who was the only member to vote against the lease, said she doesn’t think it’s in the best interest of the residents who will feel the impacts the most.
“I asked myself, ‘Is this the right thing? Is there a rush? Have we truly done the planning to make this decision?’ And I do not think we have,” she said.
Russell Dick, the president and CEO of Huna Totem, was not immediately available for comment on the project’s approval or to share more information about the development’s next steps.
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