Skagway panel to weigh moving old Starlite Room out of historic district

Skagway's Historic District Commission will hear a request Monday to move the former Starlite Room building out of the town's historic district. JAM LLC wants to use the small building for storage on another lot.

The hearing is at 5:30 pm in the Assembly Chambers, according to the meeting agenda.

Much depends on whether the commission finds the building historic. City code discourages moving historic structures. A building found non-historic may be moved once the commission approves. If the commission finds it historic, JAM must give public notice, document the building to the Historic American Building Survey Level I standard and study alternatives. The city's application form says that standard means a full set of measured drawings, large-format photographs of the exterior and interior and a written history and description. A historic building moved outside the district must then wait 12 months after approval and any appeals.

In its moving application, JAM calls the 20-foot-3-inch by 12-foot building "non-historic." The move would cost about $6,000 and would take it from the Business-Skagway Historical Zone to a lot in the Business-General Zone. JAM says the building was put up around 1999 or 2000 as one of two identical buildings. It was moved to its current lot in 2003.

A Sept. 28 filing had planned to move the building to a corner of the same property. It said, "It is not a historic building." JAM's Oct. 5 application instead sends it outside the district.

The commission will also consider a second JAM request for the same property: extending the beer garden canopy to the north, at an estimated $70,000, with completion planned for April 1, 2027. City code says the commission will limit new canopies to buildings that had them historically.

Residents can sign up in writing before the meeting starts to speak, or send written comments to the clerk's office by 4 pm Monday, according to the city's hearing notice.