Sitka planning staff recommend denying permit to move courthouse into Stratton Library

Sitka planning staff recommend the Planning Commission deny the Alaska Court System's request to move the courthouse into the Stratton Library building on the former Sheldon Jackson College campus, citing safety risks to nearby youth programs and gaps in the application. The commission hears the request at 7 pm Wednesday, Nov. 4, at Harrigan Centennial Hall.

Funding Already in Place

The enacted 2026 state capital budget carries $2 million for the purchase, according to a Legislative Finance Division report. On Feb. 16, the court system told the House Finance Committee it had agreed with the state Department of Education and Early Development to buy the building for $2 million if lawmakers approved the money. The department's Division of Libraries, Archives and Museums owns the building, which stores Sheldon Jackson Museum collections.

Jerome Schultz, the court system's facilities director, applied for a conditional use permit in September. The courthouse would take the first floor, and the second floor would stay museum storage.

Zoning Constraints

A courthouse is prohibited in the site's R-2 multifamily residential zone. Because the building's current use also doesn't conform to the zone, staff say the commission can consider the request only as a change from one nonconforming use to another that is equally nonconforming.

Staff Raise Site and Safety Concerns

The staff report says staff are "most concerned by the public safety impacts of this proposal." Staff say the court would bring people with prior convictions or pending charges for crimes against persons beside a playground, a youth camp, early childhood centers and youth services, linked by footpaths that cannot be adequately monitored. They call that risk "inherent to the proposal."

Staff also say the application includes no traffic study, no detailed shuttle plan and no security design, and the floor plan shows no space for securing defendants in custody. The courthouse would no longer share a building with the police station, staff note, leaving prisoner transport solely to the state Department of Public Safety.

Schultz wrote that the court system "foresees no significant impacts on the neighboring properties or the district." The court system proposes unloading defendants at the former fuel storage area on the building's east side, on a route away from public entrances, the playground and daycare areas.

Figures Don't Match

Staff put the courthouse at about 6,750 square feet; the court system's narrative says 5,649. Staff count 15 parking spaces and the narrative 16, against a code requirement staff calculate at 26 to 28.

The court system reports eight employees, about 15 walk-in visits a day, 32 public courtroom seats and monthly district court pretrial hearings of about 30 people. For jury days it would lease up to 40 off-site parking spaces and shuttle jurors.

The court system says youth court, mock trials and its Color of Justice program fit the comprehensive plan's call for campus uses supporting "education, arts and sciences." Staff leave that question to the commission.

Neighbors Oppose the Move

A Sept. 9 joint letter says "we are not supportive of this plan" and argues the court belongs "centrally located and adjacent to other municipal facilities in a single civic center." Leaders of the Sitka Fine Arts Camp, the Sitka Sound Science Center, the Sitka Music Festival, the 3 to 5 Preschool board and the Sitka Community Playground Group signed it, as did neighbors Trista Patterson and Linda Behnken. The letter says an April 2024 state assessment found $14.5 million in rehabilitation needs at the building.

Jeff Davis Street residents Rebecca Poulson and Eric Dow wrote, "It is an inappropriate site and inappropriate property for such a use." The Sitka Fine Arts Camp told staff it expects courthouse users to park on its private College Drive and may have to close that parking to everyone else.

What's Next

Residents can submit written comments to the Planning Office or speak at the Nov. 4 meeting. Whichever way the commission votes, staff say findings would be adopted Dec. 2, the final date of decision.