Juneau denies Chilkat Vistas hillside plat after approval falls a vote short

The Juneau Planning Commission denied the final phase of a hillside subdivision on July 28, after eight residents told commissioners the slope above their homes has already slid.

Chilkat Vistas Phase IV would add seven lots above the Mountainside and Laurie Lane neighborhoods, three of them able to hold accessory apartments, with Robbie Road dead-ending there. It is the last phase under a 2018 settlement agreement.

Residents cited landslide risk, slope stability, drainage and access. Several described earlier slides, including one on Dec. 1, 2020. Calista Cameron said a landslide damaged her home.

Vice Chair Lacey Derr moved to approve the plat with a condition requiring a hillside endorsement permit evaluating the first three phases. The motion failed 4-3; five votes were needed on the nine-member commission. Staff had recommended approval with four conditions, including a drainage plan.

The applicant, Chilkat Vistas LLC, did not attend the meeting. Commissioners said engineering and hillside-safety questions remained unanswered and declined to push them to final plat review.

Juneau has no landslide ordinance. The city's hazard maps date to 1987 and rest on 1970s work that treated landslides and avalanches as a single hazard. Using a FEMA grant, the city commissioned new, higher-resolution maps, delivered in 2022, which roughly doubled the number of properties carrying high or severe hazard designations. After opposition from homeowners worried about mortgages and insurance, the Assembly declined to adopt them and in December 2023 struck landslide regulations from the land use code, keeping restrictions only for avalanche zones.

Flat land is scarce in Juneau, and a long-running housing shortage has pushed development uphill.

The decision can be appealed to the CBJ Assembly within 20 days of its filing with the city clerk.