Ketchikan Gateway Borough staff propose allowing housing on commercial waterfront land

Ketchikan Gateway Borough staff are proposing to open commercial waterfront land to housing and to relabel seven parcels on the borough's land use map. The Planning Commission is scheduled to resume its public hearing on the changes at 6 pm Tuesday, Oct. 13, in the Borough Assembly Chambers, after postponing it Sept. 15 for reasons the docket doesn't give. Staff recommend the commission adopt Resolution 4580 and send the changes to the Borough Assembly with a recommendation of approval.

The waterfront change deletes one sentence from the borough's 2035 Comprehensive Plan: "Residential uses are accessory." Housing would join light industrial, recreation and commercial uses as intended uses on commercial waterfront land. The draft resolution says that reflects the mixed-use residential character already there.

The proposal also rewrites the plan's opening goals. The current first goal calls for "coordinated, predictable, and place-based" planning; staff would replace it with a goal to guide growth "while allowing lawful use of property." A new goal would allow reasonable flexibility in land use to support housing, essential services and the local economy. Another would tie land use decisions to mapped designations and adopted policies, and a goal on natural hazards would become one about using land efficiently and safely while minimizing risk.

On the land use map, three parcels, including land on the southeast shore of Clover Passage, would move from Public Management to Rural Mixed Use. Two lots and part of a third in the South Tongass Utilities Subdivision would move from Commercial to Institutional, and a lot in Betton View Subdivision would move from Rural Residential to Recreation and Open Space. The resolution says the new labels better match the parcels' ownership, past and present uses and surroundings, and that the changes "do not amend the zoning district classification of any parcel." The borough's plan page says the land use map guides zoning and land use decisions.

The records don't show who owns the parcels or what "lawful use of property" would change in practice.

Comments sent to [email protected] by Oct. 6 will be included in the staff report; later comments go directly to commissioners at the meeting. Comments should cite Case 26-046.