The Coast Guard is expanding its presence in Kodiak, while multiple entities are exploring solutions to the local housing shortage. As more units are being built for the military, it’s also affecting the local municipalities’ long term plans for housing its residents.
On a recent tour of a new Coast Guard housing development, civil engineers, contractors, and construction workers were busy building 2,000 square foot duplexes with spacious garages off Old Tom Stiles Road, near Kodiak’s state airport. Crews are hustling to have the first phase of the project completed in October.
Captain Jeremy Hall, the commanding officer of Coast Guard Base Kodiak, said the current population on base is estimated to be 2,200 residents.
“So that’s folks that wear the uniform and folks that may not wear the uniform, but are here because of Coast Guard business,” Hall said.
The Coast Guard’s new housing complex, called Nemetz Park site, will include 25 new duplexes, at a cost of more than $85 million. When the contract was awarded, the cost started at $85 million but as construction has gone on, material costs and other expenses have gone up.
Each duplex includes a pair of three-bedroom or four-bedroom units, providing housing for 50 families with four to five people per unit on average. Construction began in September of 2022 and is expected to be completed in the summer of 2025.
The impetus behind the new housing project?
Potentially four new cutters that are expected to come to Kodiak in 2027, and bring an estimated 200 more Kodiak residents with them, which includes service members and their families. Captain Hall said that expansion is pretty much set at this point in terms of the final numbers. The number of crew onboard those vessels that are expected to be here for two to three years at a time, replace the Cutter Douglas Munro which was decommissioned in 2021.
“That’s 200 more Coast Guard residents. And what I mean is that’s not 200 households. That’s 200 service members, spouses, and children. And so when you do the math, and you compare that to how our [housing] inventory is changing, we’re adding about 50 new units," Hall explained.
Coast Guard Base Kodiak is the largest Coast Guard base in the country and the base’s membership has doubled in size since 2018, from just over 1,000 members that summer to approximately 2,200 today. The new units at Nemetz Park are in addition to the 386 units the Coast Guard already owns across all its properties in Kodiak.
As the Coast Guard continues to expand its presence, the Kodiak Island Borough is factoring that into its plans for the future of the local housing market.
The Borough is looking at a comprehensive long term plan for the next 15 to 20 years or more that will review local zoning laws, covering everything from land use to accessory dwelling units (ADUs). Essentially the plan will impact borough residents’ access to affordable middle-income housing.
Plan 2045 is a comprehensive plan is required by the State of Alaska for any community that has zoning regulations and takes about one to two years according to Chris French, the Director of Community Development for the borough.
He is spearheading an update to the plan, which was last approved in 2008. French said it’s an opportunity to address what might be the borough’s biggest issue - housing.
“The first issue is, if you’re trying to do more housing that’s what we kind of call in the middle, which is not really high end housing and certainly not low income housing, but more of that middle housing segment; then you really have to have the public water and sewer to do it," French stated.
He said addressing the local housing issues will require the borough, the city and other organizations, like the Kodiak Island Housing Authority, to work together.
When it comes to water and sewer access in Kodiak though, the vast majority of that infrastructure is controlled and owned by the City. The Mayor of the City of Kodiak, Pat Branson said council members and borough assembly members are discussing these issues in multiple forums, such as through the recently rejuvenated Borough Lands Committee, which Councilmember Rich Walker sits on as the City Council's representative.
“It’s water and sewer and yes the city has that infrastructure and the capacity. But how much more can we bear in the capacity? And that’s been a point of discussion as well, with some new information coming forward,” Branson explained.
The Coast Guard is another entity that has its own water and sewer infrastructure close to city limits, specifically off of Old Tom Stiles Road where pre-existing housing units at Lake Louise are located, near the new ones being built at Nemetz Park. Branson said if the opportunity to share infrastructure presents itself then she thinks the city would be open to pursue it.
“The city is always willing to talk to the Coast Guard about sharing services, making efficient improvements. And we have a very good working relationship with the Coast Guard here, as well as in DC," Branson said. "So you know opportunities certainly might arise and the city would be open for those discussions.”
According to Mayor Branson, years ago the city was discussing annexing land with Natives of Kodiak, which is an organization that owns land between southern city limits and the Coast Guard base. But nothing more came of that for either entity.
Hall, with Coast Guard Base Kodiak, said he has been involved in conversations about opportunities to divest land or share water and sewer infrastructure but nothing concrete is happening at this point in time.
“So if there is interest in developing those places, or those extension of utility systems, I think somebody else would need to be the owner and operator of those utility systems to make that happen. And the reason for that is, is we’re meeting our housing demand, we’re meeting our operational demand. To do expansion work like what you are suggesting really requires us to not own the infrastructure because I don’t know how we would justify that ask at that point," Hall stated.
Even without sharing water and sewer, the Coast Guard brings an economic boost to the community through its partnerships with other organizations, businesses, and property owners in town.
Hall estimates 60 households worth of military members and their families live in homes within the local market each year. Otherwise the Coast Guard maintains an occupancy rate of 95% of its members across all of its total housing units, including its guesthouse with over 40 rooms and other temporary quarters; but there are exceptions to this rule.
“Let’s say for instance there’s a family with two incomes that comes in and or they’re married member to member, it makes sense for them to want to live in the economy. And so we facilitate that," Hall explained. "But I would say that’s more of the exception than the rule because most folks that come here like to be assigned to housing.”
Despite these types of exceptions where military families live off base, Capt. Hall doesn’t think the upcoming increase in Coast Guard families will exacerbate housing issues in Kodiak for the long term.
