NOTN- The Juneau Assembly held a Committee of the Whole meeting Monday night and among a number of meaty topics, reviewed Goldbelt Inc.’s proposal to develop a large-scale cruise ship facility and supporting infrastructure on West Douglas.
“we’re still just getting in more information on the project.” Said Deputy Mayor Greg Smith, “We want to hear more about master planning back there, because it’s potentially significant development, there’s hundreds of acres of what we believe to be much better developable land for housing.”
Mayor Beth Weldon said the proposed project, still in its early stages, would include extending North Douglas Road, building an onshore terminal and parking area, wastewater treatment facilities, a small boat harbor, and two cruise ship berths.
The project, nicknamed “Goldbelt Aaní” has no officially announced opening date.
According to Goldbelt, Goldbelt Aaní, will highlight Lingít culture and boost the city’s economy.
The Assembly also discussed updating the West Douglas master plan, which will help guide long-term development on the island.
“We’d like authorization to start doing some master planning.” said Smith, “The assembly said, Yes, bring in some more information about what Master Planning might look like, how much it might cost, try to work in collaboration with Goldbelt, should they want to.”
The Master plan along with Goldbelt’s proposed cruise port, involves potentially developing hundreds of acres of land, with a critical focus from the city on establishing a second crossing to enable future development.
“We felt that there should be master planning in relation to their project. Goldbelt doesn’t feel like there should be.” said Smith, “We have to figure things out, you know, if they want to use utilities out there, or emergency services and other city services like that.”
According to the city, public outreach and public comment will be a big part of the master plan process, which will proceed as Goldbelt prepares to submit a conditional use permit.
