Juneau residents urge Assembly to delay Telephone Hill demolition, cite $9M cost and no developer

Multiple Juneau residents urged the City and Borough of Juneau Assembly on Aug. 18 to delay or rescind plans to remove homes and evict tenants from Telephone Hill, arguing the city has not secured a developer or a credible plan to convert the site into affordable housing and that the preliminary price tag would be a poor use of local funds.

"I urge the assembly to consider the political consequences of wasting $9,000,000 siphoned from other needed Juneau projects only to leave Juneau with another empty property," said Joshua Adams, a member of Friends of Telephone Hill, in public testimony. Adams warned that current housing-market uncertainty could make the site harder to sell as raw land once homes are demolished.

Why it matters: speakers said the proposed demolition and October eviction date (testifiers cited Oct. 1, 2025 in written petitions) would displace rent-paying households and carry a large, immediate cost with no guaranteed replacement housing. Several testifiers urged selling or renovating existing homes, pausing the eviction, or publicly releasing any developer proposals before spending demolition funds.

Residents and advocates said they had not seen a firm development agreement. "No developer has signed on to the project, and the city has not yet secured a developer to construct new housing there," said Mary Alice McKean, a downtown resident and longtime affordable-housing advocate. "Do not spend $9,000,000 of taxpayer money until you can determine you will get affordable housing if you do that."

Other testifiers urged alternatives to demolition. Carla Hart, who lives on the Back Loop, told the Assembly, "Sell the existing homes on Telephone Hill as existing homes. Take the millions of dollars and use it to protect the housing in the valley if you need to." Bruce Simonson said no responses to a city request for information were publicly available and asked the Assembly to postpone demolition until a viable plan is found.

A petition presented by Shoshana Seligman, gathered over two days, asked the Assembly and staff to retract the Oct. 1 eviction and to allow the public time to see a contractor-backed plan before displacement. Seligman told the Assembly she had collected about 50 signatures opposing eviction without a developer and a concrete plan.

Several speakers said Telephone Hill currently hosts rent-paying tenants who want to remain through winter; they argued demolition before securing a developer would risk leaving the city with vacant, prepped lots and lost housing stock while spending taxpayer money on demolition.

The Assembly did not take action on Telephone Hill at the Aug. 18 meeting. Public testimony on the topic was part of the meeting's non-agenda public participation period. Speakers said they would continue to press the Assembly and staff to delay demolition and to make any developer proposals and cost-benefit plans public before the city spends the $9 million cited by testifiers.

Speakers also connected the Telephone Hill debate to other housing priorities and city spending choices, saying funds earmarked for demolition could be redirected to flood mitigation or other urgent local needs.

The Assembly did not respond with motions or votes on the Telephone Hill items during the public comment period; several members acknowledged the comments and continued the agenda to scheduled business.