Hundreds of Mendenhall Valley property owners are being spared from paying up to $6,300 for HESCO barriers after the Juneau Assembly voted on Monday to cancel that plan due to the city taking on a more expansive protection effort against glacial lake outburst flooding this year.

The Assembly early last year approved the establishment of a Local Improvement District (LID), requiring 466 property owners within its boundaries to pay 40% and the city 60% of the projected $8 million cost of the semi-permanent levee along the Mendenhall River. But Assembly members and city administrators said the barriers protected more than just those land owners last August, and it turns out the ongoing maintenance cost of the barriers will far exceed projections.

“It doesn’t dissolve the Local Improvement District. It just says the city is going to pay for 100% of that share,” City Manager Katie Koester said in presenting the revised proposal to the Assembly just before Monday’s vote.

Property owners were being given 10 years to pay the amount due, but the city had not yet collected any money from them.

One payment that is still required is for four property owners who are being charged $50,000 for riverbank armoring installed along their land. Other property owners had installed similar rock armoring at their own expense before the HESCO levee was built.

The LID was controversial when first proposed, especially among the property owners set to have HESCO barriers in their backyards. The owners expressed concerns about the barriers causing damage to property, and reducing the accessibility of their lots and their value.

A lawsuit by two of the Mendenhall Valley property owners against the city, seeking compensation for the barriers, has a scheduled trial date of Oct. 12, according to the Alaska Court System’s online database.

City leaders and many residents in at-risk areas say the first phase of HESCO barriers succeeded in preventing a major disaster when a glacial lake outburst flood last August crested at a record 16.65 feet, with officials stating there was no damage to 90% of homes in the flood zone. However, the city is facing several million in costs beyond the original estimate to repair damage from that flood as well as raise the barriers to protect from potentially higher flood levels.

A second phase of HESCO barriers, extending the existing levee on both sides along one side of the river and installing barriers on the opposite side of the river for the first time, is scheduled for completion by July 15. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is installing and paying for the second phase.

The city is also working with federal and state officials on longer-term solutions that are still being determined, with the expectation of asking the federal government to cover most of the costs. But a long-term solution could take more than a decade to implement, according to USACE.

Concerns about the city’s process in implementing flood protection measures were expressed during Monday’s meeting by Debbie Penrose-Fischer, leader of the citizens’ group Juneau Flood Solution Advocates. She cited inequities in what various residents paid for riverbank armoring — asserting the “bank work exceeded the value charged” for the four property owners paying the city $50,000 under the LID, while some other owners paid $150,000 and some benefited from the improvements without additional cost.

“Please use this LID experience as a template of what to do and what not to do,” she said. “This is a chance to correct this inequity and to build a bridge between us. In the future, decisions of this nature concerning the GLOF need to come before all of the voting public.”