A five-acre parcel of prime Portage Cove beachfront, including the pull-outs known as “Picture Point,” is slated to be sold by October, but the Haines Borough may still have a chance of acquiring some of the property.

Fairbanks attorney Mary Nordale, who oversees the Narada Trust, this week said she’s accepted an offer from a buyer and expects the sale to be completed in six weeks.

“Some things need to happen before it closes but we’re figuring somewhere around the first of October,” she said, declining to provide details about the buyer. The trust had sought $750,000 for the land.

“Our price was not quite met, but it was close enough,” Nordale said.

Nordale said it wasn’t too late for the borough to pursue its interest in the property. The pull-outs, used by generations of residents and visitors, provide a view of Fort Seward and the Chilkat Range that has been immortalized in postcards, posters, and art photos.

“The person buying the property would be very willing to discuss with the borough anything it is they want to talk about,” Nordale said. “That’s my understanding.”

Borough manager Mark Earnest and borough assemblymen interviewed this week were unable to say whether the borough ever made a dollar-value offer on the property. Nordale said she thought a $200,000 figure “was batted around” by borough officials. “It was totally inadequate.”

A few months ago, the borough started investigating securing National Scenic Byway funds to buy the pullouts, but the application period for those funds doesn’t start until late March. The pull-outs are identified in the Haines Highway corridor inventory as having “intrinsic quality” for “scenic viewing.”

Earnest said this week that he was hopeful the borough could work with a buyer, and pursue funding through the highway program.

Borough elected leaders this week had differing views on the potential loss of public use of the pullouts.

Assemblywoman Joanne Waterman said such a loss would be sad. “In the perfect world, it would be nice for the borough to acquire that land, but do I think it devalues the community if it doesn’t come in to public hands? No. There are lot of other views around the community that compare with that.”

Waterman said the borough sought partial payment for the property and a land trade. “We asked, are there options, and were told that no, there weren’t any options. We were always told by the Narada Trust that it was their asking price or nothing at all. I don’t think we have that kind of money lying around. It’s a hard one.”

Mayor Jan Hill said she didn’t remember the assembly having a discussion about buying the property and subdividing it to recoup costs. “Assembly members voiced their opinion about the price early in the discussion and I don’t think it went further than that.”

Hill said possible closure of the area to the public would be a loss, but one not unlike other areas of private land that have been developed over the years. “There are a lot of de facto public areas of my youth that are no longer open to the public.” Hill said she’s taken photos from Picture Point.

“But there are so many other opportunities to take pictures. I don’t think we’ve lost any visitors this summer because people haven’t been able to stop there” after the property was cordoned off earlier this year.

“If people are willing to pay for it and do something with it, that’s private enterprise. I don’t think it’s a matter of right or wrong,” Hill said.

If residents felt strongly about the purchase, they could have brought it to a public vote, she said. “There wasn’t an overwhelming majority of people who told us we had to buy it. There was no community outcry.”

Assembly member Scott Rossman said he thought photos from the point still could be taken from the edge of the road if the private property there was closed to public use.

“I don’t see it as a huge need for the borough. There’s a lot of other things that we need. Picture Point, in my view, is at the bottom of my list,” Rossman said. He said he would possibly be amenable to buying a slice of the property from a new owner to preserve a lookout there.

Nordale previously said the property would go to whoever first came up with the money for it. The Haines Borough Assembly met in private in March to discuss acquiring it, but the $750,000 pricetag all but killed that discussion, members said afterward. The borough assessed the property at $219,590. Canary and Associates, a Juneau appraisal firm, appraised the property at $750,000.

Real estate agent Jim Studley, whose firm is handling the sale, has placed ads showing the point property in recent editions of the newspaper.

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