Sitka planning staff recommend denying courthouse move to Sheldon Jackson campus

Sitka planning staff are recommending the Planning Commission deny the Alaska Court System's request to move the courthouse onto the former Sheldon Jackson College campus, citing safety risks to children who use a neighboring playground, youth camp and early childhood centers.

The commission takes up the request at 7 pm Wednesday, Nov. 4, at Harrigan Centennial Hall. The court system wants the first floor of the campus's Stratton Library building, which the state now uses to store Sheldon Jackson Museum collections.

In February, the court system told the House Finance Committee it had agreed to pay the Department of Education and Early Development $2 million for the building if lawmakers provided the money, and the Legislature has since appropriated money for the purchase, according to the court system and city staff.

Staff say in their report that they are "most concerned by the public safety impacts of this proposal." Moving the court there "may increase community risk," they wrote, by bringing people with prior convictions or pending charges for crimes against persons near those youth programs. Because the campus was designed for walking, its shortcut routes "cannot be adequately monitored or mitigated," staff wrote, calling the risk "inherent to the proposal." They wrote that they weighed safety and security in consultation with the Sitka Police Department.

Staff also say the application lacks a traffic study, a detailed plan for shuttling jurors and building designs showing how the court system's security requirements would be met. Its floor plan shows no space to hold defendants in custody, and the courthouse would no longer be co-located with the Sitka police station.

The court system's application, filed in September before the staff report, takes a different view. It "foresees no significant impacts on the neighboring properties or the district," wrote Jerome Schultz, the court system's facilities director. Defendants in custody would be unloaded at a former fuel storage area on the building's east side, on a route the court system says would avoid public entrances, main walkways, and playground and day care areas.

The court system also argues a courthouse fits the comprehensive plan's call for campus uses that support Sitka's "education, arts and sciences economy," citing youth court, mock trials and its Color of Justice program, which encourages diverse youth to consider careers as lawyers and judges.

Staff point to traffic and parking as well. Lincoln Street is the only road into the area and the only vehicle route to Sitka National Historical Park, which draws hundreds if not thousands of visitors on busy cruise ship days, and the Sitka Fine Arts Camp has more than 1,000 students on and around the campus much of the summer. The lot has 15 parking spaces; staff calculate the city code requires 26 to 28. For jury days, the court system would lease up to 40 spaces elsewhere and shuttle jurors in.

Leaders of the Fine Arts Camp, the Sitka Sound Science Center, the Sitka Music Festival, the 3 to 5 Preschool and the Sitka Community Playground Group signed a Sept. 9 letter opposing the move, along with two neighbors. Citing an April 2024 state assessment that found $14.5 million in needed rehabilitation at the library, they argued the money needed to fix it "would be better used improving the current courthouse."

Whichever way the commission votes, staff propose adopting written findings Dec. 2, which would be the final date of decision.