A vacant lot in the Valley neighborhood. (Annie Ngo/KUCB)

City council got a list of choices for how to move forward addressing Unalaska’s housing shortage at their meeting Tuesday night. Their short answer: do it all.

Councilors asked city staff to get legal opinions on certain tax abatements. And they wanted information on the financial status of city utilities before looking at making new lines cheaper.

"I’m a little nervous about the city just starting to write a blank check, because I’m not sure where that money would come from," said councilor Roger Rowland. 

As taxes go, the city is focusing on the business-personal property tax, which applies to items inside rental units. Landlords say it’s a nuisance, but council wants to know how much revenue it brings in every year.

They also want to know how much would cost to defer property taxes for new lots until they have a private owner. Right now, the subdivision owner has to pay that cost. Council also asked for details on Local Improvement Districts, where utility costs are split up among owners inside a subdivision over 20 years.

Many of the builders who were at last week’s housing meeting came out again on Tuesday -- and they used every chance they had to press the city for a cheaper development process.

Rod Hester said the city should consider waiving fees for their parts of the development process more often:

"You guys have to remember, you’re in a monopolistic kind of -- I mean, who else do I go to?" he asked.

But councilor Zoya Johnson took issue with that language.

"I would prefer to call it the city providing services," she said. "We did not go and control something that existed -- the city built the utilities; the city is providing the service to the community."

Johnson also asked for a primer on the development process overall. City manager Chris Hladick said staff would plan to hold another special meeting to cover all those issues.

Also on Tuesday, council gave a $345,000 contract to Samson Tug & Barge to ship scrap metal off the island. And they passed a budget increase to cover that cost, including extra for standby time or moving the scrap to a different dock -- making for about a $380,000 boost overall.

And council voted to become members of the Institute of the North, an Alaska-based Arctic policy group. Council agreed on a $1,000 contribution for the first year. That’ll get Unalaska a seat at the table for certain projects.