Daily Sitka Sentinel

Planners Give OK to Alice Island Replats

By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
    The Sitka Planning Commission deferred action on three short-term rental requests Wednesday night, and gave approval to the remaining two items on the agenda.
    The short-term conditional use permit issues were postponed until the next meeting because the property owners weren’t present, as required by the commission.
    Turning to other business, the commission:
    – approved a final plat for a minor subdivision to turn one lot into two at 601 Alice Loop, in the Waterfront zoning district, filed by Shee Atika Holdings Alice Island. The property is the location of the Shee Atika office park, formerly Mt. Edgecumbe Elementary School. The subdivision created two lots measuring 60,512-square-feet and 78,101-square-feet.
    – approved a final plat for a hybrid minor subdivision, to turn two lots into a total of five, at 430 and 479 Alice Loop. The request was filed by Shee Atika Inc. The lots are 12,558-square-feet, 7,283-square-feet, 9,744-square-feet, 9,869-square-feet and 7,185-square-feet.
    Commission members present were Randy Hughey, Stacy Mudry, Darrell Windsor and Chairman Chris Spivey.
    At the outset of the meeting, interim City Administrator Hugh Bevan told the panel he planned to recommend Amy Ainslie as planning director, filling a position that has been vacant since August 2018, when Planner Mike Scarcelli left. Ainslie has been Planner 1 in the department since January, and has been the sole full-time employee in the planning department since April. Since being hired, she has been assisting applicants with their zoning requests, reviewing requests for permits and making recommendations to the commission, among other tasks.
    The recommendation to hire Ainslie goes next to the Assembly, which will take up the proposal at its regular meeting Tuesday. (See story, this page.)
    Bevan said Scott Brylinsky, who has served twice as interim planning director and has been hired as a consultant in the planning department, will serve as a mentor to Ainslie as she learns the job.
    Ainslie attended Sitka schools from grade 2 through 12, graduating from Sitka High School in 2009. She graduated magna cum laude from the University of Alaska Anchorage in 2014, with a bachelor’ in business administration, and a double major in economics and management. From 2014 to 2017 she worked in corporate finance and as a commercial analyst before moving back to Sitka in 2017, where she worked first for the Hames Corporation until being hired in the planning office earlier this year.
    Ainslie said today she has less hands-on experience than some of the past planning directors, and is looking into continuing education opportunities to earn her certificate in planning.
    Brylinsky has been hired by the city to serve as project manager on the No Name Mountain master plan, and as a consultant on “tiny homes” and smaller dwellings as affordable housing options.