Ketchikan planners to rehear parking variance for KIC's planned shelter after notice error

Ketchikan's planning commission will hold a new hearing Nov. 10 on the Ketchikan Indian Community's request to build a four-story shelter on Tongass Avenue with one parking space, where the borough's parking calculation calls for 24.

Commissioners approved the request 4-1 in September. Borough staff later found that hearing notices had gone to two nearby condominium associations but not to all of the individual unit owners, which staff called a "substantial procedural error," Alaska News reported Oct. 9. The commission voted Oct. 13 to reconsider, and the borough mailed new notices Oct. 23 to property owners within 600 feet.

The S'eenáa Hít Navigation Center would go on the lot of the demolished Galley Restaurant at 2334 Tongass Ave. It would have day services on the first floor, overnight shelter on the second and offices and classrooms above, and would offer behavioral health screening and case management, according to KIC's application in the borough packet.

KIC says it has run a cold-weather shelter during the coldest months for two years, since First City Homeless Services closed. It says the new center would be the community's permanent low-barrier shelter and would be open to the entire community, not only tribal citizens.

Structured parking could add about $1.2 million to the project, well over 10% of its cost, according to a Cook Inlet Housing Authority letter in the packet. KIC says most of the parking would be used by staff, not residents, and that a bus stop sits across the street. The center would share parking with KIC's supportive housing next door, which houses 28 chronically homeless tenants.

In September, Commissioner Darlene Dollimont-Svenson voted no, saying KIC should provide parking. Chair Jos Govaars pointed to a nearby city parking lot. Borough staff recommended approval when they asked the commission to reconsider.

Written comments received by Nov. 3 will be included in the staff report. The meeting starts at 6 pm.