Petersburg’s Borough Assembly today will decide whether or not it will zone some tidelands property where American Cruise Lines wants to build a dock.
The borough-owned parcel is located off Dock Street, near the U.S. Coast Guard float in Petersburg. Currently, it is not zoned. It would be zoned Industrial, within the Marine Industrial Overlay zone subdistrict, if the Assembly passes the ordinance.
Property zoning laws regulate how an area is used. The Assembly adopted the marine industrial overlay zoning law last year as a way to make sure Petersburg’s industrial waterfront property is used for marine purposes.
American Cruise Lines has applied to lease the parcel from the Borough because they want to build a small cruise ship dock. The Borough is currently negotiating the lease contract terms with the company for the parcel. Zoning this portion of tidelands would help the Borough control its use. The Assembly voted in favor of zoning the parcel twice already, and will take its final vote on it today.
The Assembly will also weigh a new resolution that would authorize the Borough to enter an agreement with Axon Enterprise Inc., which provides the equipment and services that Petersburg’s Police Department uses. Under the agreement, the Borough would pay a $378,897.58 quote over the next 10 years.
That quote from the company covers a public safety equipment and services bundle package that includes tasers, body cameras, car camera systems, software and digital evidence management. Sitka’s Assembly decided last week to contract with the same company, AXON, for body cameras.
Petersburg Police Chief Jim Kerr requested the resolution on the grounds that, “these systems are fully integrated with our existing Axon platform and are essential to maintaining officer safety, evidentiary integrity, transparency, and operational efficiency,” according to Kerr’s memo. He said the pricing saves money on scheduled equipment refresh cycles, training, and software services that “reduce long-term replacement and lifecycle costs while protecting the Borough from inflation and future price escalation.”
The Petersburg Borough would need to budget for the funds each year. The annual payments could be about $37,889. If it chooses not to budget the funds in a given year, the Borough could terminate the agreement with AXON.
One last item of new business for the Assembly today is a request asking for direction on how to proceed with potentially updating local regulations for Wireless Communication Facilities. Community Development Director Liz Cabrera entered the request. An attached memo from Cabrera lists four options for the Assembly to choose from:
- Don’t further regulate the facilities for now,
- Develop regulations for the facilities only within the Borough’s municipal limits — known as Service Area One,
- Regulate the facilities borough-wide, exempting within the City of Kupreanof, by extending part of the Borough’s zoning code —Title 19, which Cabrera said is “the vehicle for zoning enforcement”— outside of the municipal limits of Service Area One. This would mean creating a new “holding” district and gradually applying zoning to different areas with resident input,
- Or take time to explore any other potential options.
The request follows months of work and deliberation over updating the Borough’s 1985 zoning code, as the Petersburg Borough navigates emerging concerns about constructing new communications towers in the community.
The Petersburg Borough Assembly meets today at noon in the Assembly Chambers. KFSK will broadcast that meeting live.
