Alaska’s Local Boundary Commission staff has released its final report on the petition to dissolve the City of Hoonah and incorporate the Xunaa Borough. The report recommends against the petition, which has been developed with paid consultants to the city of Hoonah.
“LBC staff does not recommend adopting the petition in its current form. As identified in this report, there exist substantive concerns about assumed areawide powers and the addition of fewer than 100 residents to the existing population fails to meet the LBC’s constitutional, statutory, and regulatory requirements for borough incorporation,” the report says.
The proposed Xunaa Borough would encompass 10,403 square miles, but would have just 980 residents, mostly in Hoonah. That would make it the eighth-largest borough in Alaska by geography, none of it connected by road, but the third smallest by population, after Yakutat (pop. 687) and Bristol Bay (pop. 844) boroughs.
The petition only meets a few of the Local Boundary Commission standards. The petition proposes to trade one local government for another, but assume very little responsibility for services now delivered by the state, staff said. The proposed boundary would only benefit Hoonah to the exclusion of neighboring communities.
In addition, there appears to be outright opposition to the proposal by neighboring communities.
“It is unclear why the city moved forward so quickly, and a letter from the Gustavus mayor to Hoonah’s mayor in October 2019 expresses puzzlement over why the multi-community based approach was abandoned. A more compelling petition would have included one or more of the neighboring municipalities of Gustavus, Tenakee Springs, and Pelican, as well as a plan to consolidate school districts and apportion borough assembly representation to ensure a more equitable distribution of resources throughout the region,” the staff said.
The question of whether the proposed borough “will embrace an area and population with common interests to the maximum degree possible” was in doubt due to the singularity of Hoonah.
Many of the remote properties that are included in the proposed borough boundary are owned by people in other parts of the state; therefore, the proposal does not extend local government to a significant population. “Rather, it offers a refuge for those seeking to avoid annexation by the City and Borough of Juneau,” the staff noted.
The staff also referred to what occurred when the Bristol Bay Borough was formed.
“These communities often share marine and air-based transportation methods. If Hoonah is allowed to establish boundaries that include all of Icy Strait and a significant area of the Gulf of Alaska, it could capture revenue, in the form of excise taxes, that could otherwise be distributed to other communities in the region,” the staff noted.
The decision comes as no surprise. Earlier this year, the staff indicated it was not favorable to the petition.
Department’s full final report is posted to the Local Boundary Commission website, along with all other petition documents and public comments. A public hearing will take place on Sept. 5, at the Hoonah City Council chambers and will be available by Zoom. The public hearing will be the last opportunity to comment on the Xunaa petition. No further written comments will be accepted by the Department.