Despite protests from a local activist, the construction of a fifth cruise ship dock in downtown Juneau, Alaska has been cleared to move forward. The legality of the dock has been settled, but the project may still face challenges as it progresses.
The challenge, filed by Juneau resident Karla Hart in 2023, was based on public health and safety as well as whether the proposed new dock plan was acceptable with the city’s downtown waterfront development plans.
According to KTOO, Hart acknowledges that she wasn’t sure what the outcome would be when she filed the appeal challenging the plans for the dock, but now she does not plan on repeating her challenge.
“I don’t know what I expected when I originally filed it I just felt as if we didn’t have a fair public process in the very beginning and I think we need one,” Hart said. “I think that it’s good that now we move on with the real community discussion on whether we have a dock or not.”
Hart has long been active in attempting to slow cruise ship tourism in Juneau, and she will undoubtedly stay updated as the plan progresses.
The new floating steel dock is proposed by Huna Totem, an Alaska Native village corporation. Huna Totem has worked with cruise lines in several ways, including the development of the popular port of call at Icy Strait Point.
Development of the new dock along the Gastineau Channel in downtown Juneau would include underground bus and car parking at the site as well as retail space, restaurants, a welcome center, an extension of the Totem Pole Trail, and open park, and more.
Priority will be given to local Alaskan businesses to further economic development, and the project has been named Aak’w Landing in honor of native tribes.
While this most recent challenge has been surpassed, local leases must still be approved and other steps completed before work can officially begin on the project, which has not yet broken ground.
Residents of Juneau have been protesting the expansion of cruise tourism in Juneau in different ways. In early July, a petition was submitted to create “ship-free Saturdays” for the city, which is an additional limit from the current passenger restrictions of 16,000 cruise guests per day and just 12,000 on Saturdays.
Cruise Traffic Growing in Juneau
Annually, the capital of the Last Frontier welcomes more than 1.5 million cruise passengers, which makes Juneau the ninth-busiest passenger cruise port in the US. Despite the limited Alaska sailing season, Juneau sees more guests than Tampa, Los Angeles, Seattle, and several other US homeports.
To support the growth of the cruise industry in Juneau, Aak’w Landing is scheduled to be completed in multiple phases. By the 2026 sailing season, the critical infrastructure – the dock, underground parking, the welcome center, and initial retail space – should be completed and ready to welcome its first vessels.
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Additional retail space and the upper-level plaza is expected to be complete by the time ships begin arriving in 2027, while the Indigenous Knowledge, Science, and Cultural Learning Center will be finished in phase three, which does not yet have a definitive debut date.
The sailing season in Juneau begins annually in late April and extends through the end of October. The city is a popular destination for cruise ships of different sizes, including vessels from Holland America Line, Princess Cruises, Celebrity Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean International, Silversea, Disney Cruise Line, Carnival Cruise Line, and more.
