{"id":366,"date":"2026-06-10T22:05:57","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T22:05:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alaskamovingnetwork.com\/?p=366"},"modified":"2026-06-10T22:05:57","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T22:05:57","slug":"juneau-assembly-addresses-fairness-issue-regarding-glacial-outburst-flood-wall-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alaskamovingnetwork.com\/?p=366","title":{"rendered":"Juneau Assembly addresses fairness issue regarding glacial outburst flood wall funding"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The Juneau Assembly voted Monday night to undo a controversial funding scheme that required some homeowners in the glacial outburst flood zone to pay thousands toward the initial stretch of the Mendenhall River flood wall.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more Inflation tops 4% for the first time in 3 years on spike in gasoline prices<\/a><\/p>\n

Last year, the Juneau Assembly passed a funding plan to split the original cost of building the flood wall with 466 landowners in the Mendenhall Valley flood zone area following a vote by residents. It\u2019s called a local improvement district, or LID. <\/p>\n

The city would pay 60 percent of the cost; homeowners would pay 40 percent. Most households would have paid up to $6,300 to help protect their homes using sand-filled blocks called HESCO barriers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, the Juneau Assembly has decided the city will cover most homeowners\u2019 portion of the LID. The decision helps resolve a central issue many valley residents have raised about fairness. Many landowners who weren\u2019t required to pay for the flood wall were likely protected from the record-breaking flood last year.<\/p>\n

But some say it doesn\u2019t go far enough.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Debbie Penrose-Fischer, a valley resident who leads a flood advocacy group, testified in favor of the amended ordinance at the Assembly meeting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a chance to correct this inequity and to build a bridge between us,\u201d Penrose-Fischer said.<\/p>\n

But Penrose-Fischer takes issue with a part of the ordinance that still requires four property owners to pay $50,000 each for armoring their section of riverbank with large boulders called rip-rap. Unlike other property owners, these four didn\u2019t do so prior to the flood wall proposal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

City Manager Katie Koester said the city accounted for the homeowners\u2019 share of Phase 1 of the flood wall through a central treasury loan. Because of that, the fund balance for the project won\u2019t be affected by taking on the homeowners\u2019 share, she said.<\/p>\n

\nKoester said the ordinance will help the city move toward answering a broader question about ongoing flood costs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\u201cHow do we fund HESCO barrier maintenance, you know, annually to the tune of $6 to $12 million for this community, and how do we do that in a fair way?\u201d Koester said.<\/p>\n

Read more 3 key takeaways from Juneau\u2019s finalized city budget<\/a><\/p>\n

The cost of the flood wall has ballooned. Repairing and raising the wall this year alone costs an estimated $14.8 million. Koester said she wants to discuss funding strategies at a Committee of the Whole meeting in July.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nStill, the Assembly\u2019s decision to undo the LID is not likely to alter a lawsuit brought by two riverfront property owners over the flood wall.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, an Alaska Superior Court judge dismissed a portion of the lawsuit that challenged the city\u2019s local improvement district. The court said that part of the case wasn\u2019t \u201cripe\u201d for a decision because the city hadn\u2019t finalized how much homeowners would have to pay.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Samuel Hatch is one of the plaintiffs in the case. He hosts barriers in his backyard and said the city\u2019s decision to pay for the first phase of construction starts to address the fairness issue, but it won\u2019t influence him to drop the case.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cRiverfront property owners are giving up a heck of a lot for this barrier to work, and even with CBJ paying to install it, everyone\u2019s lost their view, most everyone\u2019s lost almost their entire backyard,\u201d Hatch said. \u201cWhat\u2019s making that fair or right?\u201d
\nHe\u2019s still suing the city over compensation for the part of his land that\u2019s holding up the flood wall.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Emily Wright, the city\u2019s attorney, said the core question in the case remains: Did the city \u201ctake\u201d private property to host the HESCO barriers? Both the U.S. Constitution and the Alaska Constitution forbid the government from taking private land for public use without paying the owners.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe longer this project goes on, the more it becomes a permanent placement on someone\u2019s property versus just a temporary emergency response,\u201d Wright said.<\/p>\n

If the flood wall looks permanent, Wright said it\u2019s more likely a judge will see it as a \u201ctaking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Denali\u2019s future sled dogs will start showing off their training to visitors this month<\/a><\/p>\n

The case is scheduled to go to trial in October.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 KTOO<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hundreds of homeowners will no longer have to pay into a local improvement district for the HESCO barriers, but a lawsuit over the flood wall is ongoing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":365,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nJuneau Assembly addresses fairness issue regarding glacial outburst flood wall funding - Alaska Moving Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/alaskamovingnetwork.com\/?p=366\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Juneau Assembly addresses fairness issue regarding glacial outburst flood wall funding - 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