A Haines corporation has applied for an Army Corps of Engineers permit to discharge 27,000 cubic yards of fill into Portage Cove for construction of a restaurant/bar, recreational vehicle park, marine repair and boat storage facility, and office/retail space along the waterfront.

The application is by Front Street LLC, owned 85 percent by Roger Schnabel and 15 percent by wife Nancy Schnabel. Corporation manager Greg Schlachter filed the Corps permit application.

The corporation was created in June 2014.

According to Haines Borough records, Schnabel owns more than three dozen waterfront parcels along Front Street, between Main and Union Street.

Schnabel directed all questions about the development to Schlachter, saying he hadn’t read the Army Corps permit. “I haven’t kept very close tabs on it at all,” Schnabel said.

 Schlachter was out of town this week and did not respond to calls and emails for comment.

  Schnabel did say the development will occur in conjunction with the borough’s Small Boat Harbor expansion project. It will include demolition and replacement of the Canal Marine building, which Schnabel owns.

  “Canal Marine will have a new, improved facility,” he said.

  Though Schnabel owns the building, Joyce Town and her husband Kerry own the business and manage the adjoining Oceanside RV Park. Town said she has been trying to talk to Schnabel and Schlachter about the development that will affect her business, but hasn’t heard much.

  “They aren’t letting me in on it either, which has been hard for us,” Town said.

  According to the Army Corps permit application, the project will discharge approximately 25,030 cubic yards of gravelly sand with silt, and 2,600 cubic yards of riprap/armor rock into about 1.16 acres of water.

The project will effectively extend the RV park’s east embankment seaward, onto the beach there.

The fill to be used in the project may be taken from the dredged material from the borough’s harbor expansion project. According to current harbor plans, PND Engineers will dredge the harbor area, use some of that fill for construction of the expanded parking lot, and dump the rest offshore.

Public facilities director Carlos Jimenez said Schnabel approached the borough to ask if he could use fill from the harbor project, saying he thought it would be cheaper than dumping it offshore. Jimenez said the borough penciled into the contract that PND Engineers could work something out with Schnabel if it were more cost effective, but made no guarantees.

“If it costs the borough a penny more, it is off the table,” Jimenez said.

Because it is proposing to fill 1.16 acres of intertidal habitat, Front Street LLC must perform compensatory mitigation to benefit other wetlands.

The corporation is proposing to provide the Alaska Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve with 3.25 acres of the Porcupine Point Pond near 26 Mile Haines Highway, as well as give the preserve 1 to 1.5 acres of adjacent privately-owned property designated as a “high-value wetland.”

The Takshanuk Watershed Council and Southeast Alaska Watershed Coalition were consulted about the compensatory mitigation. Takshanuk executive director Meredith Pochardt said right now, only half of Porcupine Point Pond falls within the eagle preserve. Having the remainder incorporated into the preserve would be valuable for future restoration projects there, which Takshanuk has been looking at, she said.

The permit application also makes reference to construction of a rubble mound, which will use armor rock instead of concrete blocks or sheet pile construction, as armor rock “has been known to improve marine habitat.”

The permit also states the described activity “may adversely affect essential fish habitat in the project area” for chum, coho, pink and sockeye salmon.

“The proposed project location is nearshore shallow water habitat primarily used by adult and juvenile salmon migration, as these waters provide refuge from predators and opportunity to rest. The proposed project would involve filling activities, which may increase the potential for injury or mortality to salmon from elevation of suspended particulates within the water column and/or loss of habitat,” it states.

The project requires consultation with the National Marine Fisheries Service because of potential impacts to essential fish habitat.

There could be a potential obstacle to the development concerning ownership of the parcels on the waterfront, as there are several long tracts of questionable ownership that transect Schnabel’s swathe of properties.

Borough assessor Dean Olsen called the waterfront “a problem area” that hasn’t been properly surveyed since the townsite was platted in approximately 1910. Some of the lot sizes reflected in borough records are inaccurate, and ownership of several tracts is unclear due to missing documentation, he said.

Planning and zoning technician Tracy Cui said she has spoken with Dave Smith, project superintendent and surveyor for Schnabel’s construction company Southeast Road Builders, about the Front Street development.

“They are trying to figure out what pieces of parcels they own. It’s really difficult because they are trying to track down the deeds but a lot of the documentation conflicts each other. It doesn’t make sense,” Cui said.

Smith did not return a call for comment by press time.

Olsen said the tracts could be utility easements or designated future use areas, parcels the borough set aside for roads or other development that never transpired. Someone may have taken over ownership of the property, or have a right to use it, but the borough doesn’t know for sure.

“There’s just never really been a really good comprehensive survey of that area,” Olsen said.

Public comment on the Army Corps permit is open until May 14. To comment, contact Randal Vigil at 907-790-4491 or [email protected].