The aesthetics of the Haines Borough’s harbor expansion and other development projects along the town’s waterfront have residents wondering about the future look of Portage Cove.
The topic arose at a Planning Commission meeting last week, and a town hall meeting held by harbor expansion critic Joe Parnell. Residents expressed concern about the planned harbor’s 700-foot steel wave barrier, its large gravel parking lot, the nearby private development by Roger Schnabel, and the borough’s development of Picture Point.
At last week’s commission meeting, residents Carolyn Weishahn, Heidi Robichaud and Tresham Gregg urged planners to consider the waterfront as a whole. “Our concern is the amount of impact to the contiguous area along Portage Cove. Those tidelands are, once filled, irreplaceable,” Weishahn said.
Creating a boat storage facility – private or public – at the bottom of Main Street in the middle of the town’s waterfront will irreversibly change the town’s aesthetic, Gregg said.
“What we are looking at is a total transformation of our waterfront from an idyllic, little community – a historic place – to a big commercial enterprise with boat storage right in the heart of our scenic waterfront,” Gregg said.
Commissioner Heather Lende tried to convince her peers to use the Comprehensive Plan as its guide, and read from a section of the guiding document pertaining to development of waterfront.
“The borough is working steadily to develop a walking path, mostly along the waterfront, in this area that will connect with Picture Point and the wide road shoulder along Lutak Road to the north, and to the south, Portage Cove State Recreation Site and then Battery Point. Portions of the Portage Cove waterfront are designated Park, Recreation and Open Space on the Future Growth Map to reflect the community’s intent to develop a walkway that connects parks along the waterfront and to keep the viewshed from Front Street out to the water and mountains on the east side of Lynn Canal open,” the plan reads.
“There are privately owned parcels on the waterside of Front Street where development that inhibits public use and views out to the water is discouraged. To accomplish this, the borough may want to require height limits, require an easement for a coastal walkway, buy development rights, reduce property taxes, or acquire property. This includes four privately-owned tidelands lots next to the Port Chilkoot Dock and several between the small boat harbor and Picture Point,” it continues.
Lende said her “heart sinks” when she reads the plan. “It seems to be routinely ignored.”
Greg Schlachter, who is managing Schnabel’s development of a marine repair facility on Front Street, said building a walkway is in his project’s plans. “Hopefully that spurs on other private landowners to continue it on,” Schlachter said. “At this point I think one step in that direction is helpful.”
A continuous waterfront walkway was the No. 1 recommendation of visitors surveyed in a 2011 McDowell Study of cruise ship visitors to Haines, with 80 percent of visitors ranking it “somewhat important” or “very important.”
Parnell’s Monday town hall meeting drew about 35 people and focused heavily on aesthetics. Current plans include construction of a 700-foot steel wave barrier that would sit in the water at about the same level as the existing rubble mound breakwater.
Resident Gershon Cohen asked at Monday’s meeting whether the borough could provide an artist’s rendering or a model showing how the wave barrier and harbor project would look from street level. Drawings provided by PND Engineers have only shown overhead views.
“Didn’t anybody ever do a drawing of what this would look like from street level so that we could see other than as an aerial schematic what we’re buying?” Cohen asked. “I think that’s an important thing for us to know so we all don’t have different images in our mind of what the thing is even going to look like when it is done.”
Debra Schnabel suggested the assembly commission a model, graphic or some other visual representation of how the project will look to pedestrians. “Is it worth $3,000? Is it worth $5,000 to have a visual or have a model that people could look at and say, ‘Oh, that’s what it looks like?’ I mean, I think it’s worth that.”
When the borough was planning its rebuild of the Port Chilkoot Dock, Schnabel placed flagging to show where the edge of the filled area would be. “Just that simple act of illustrating something brought so much more understanding to people,” she said.
Manager David Sosa said Wednesday he has put more information about the harbor project on the borough’s website, some of which answers recent questions. The borough can look at what it would cost for an artist’s rendering, Sosa said.
Several residents at Monday’s meeting said regardless of what is done, the wave barrier isn’t going to be an attractive addition to the waterfront area.
“It is not going to be becoming,” said Port and Harbor committee member Don Turner. “It is going to be a big steel wall out there. That’s all there is to it. There’s no other way around it.”
Commercial gillnetter Will Prisciandaro said a beautiful harbor isn’t a high priority for him. “It’s a working harbor. It’s not a yacht marina.”