Reflecting a continued division on the topic, the Haines Borough Assembly this week voted 4-2 to approve the Small Boat Harbor expansion project’s 95 percent design documents.
The project includes unofficial plans to demolish Lookout Park and eventually rebuild it on the southeast corner of a planned parking lot.
Members Tresham Gregg and George Campbell were opposed.
The vote paralleled one from Feb. 2014, when the assembly voted 4-2 to pursue the existing design, “Concept 14B.”
The split votes have represented a similarly divided public, some of whom have questioned the project’s cost, incorporation of a steel wave barrier, and plan for a large parking lot.
The movement of Lookout Park isn’t reflected in the 95 percent design documents, which still depict the park surrounded by an expanded parking lot. Interim manager Brad Ryan said he is working with PND Engineers to identify the best time in the project to demolish Lookout Park, though it will likely happen during dredging and construction of the parking lot.
“I have budgeted money for conceptual designs and a trail to build a new park,” Ryan said. “The real issue that I am hoping to address is not stranding a park in the middle of a parking lot and it should be more cost effective to remove the park in Phase I and rebuild a new park at a more desired location.”
When asked by assembly member Ron Jackson if that meant the park could be gone for two years, Ryan said it potentially could, depending on budgeting and prioritization of its reconstruction on a 6,000-square-foot waterfront bulge out of the parking lot’s southeast corner.
“The current pavilion is failing and will be removed when we have a better estimate for the harbor going to construction,” Ryan said.
In the meantime, the borough will relocate the park’s totem pole, Fisherman’s Memorial and historic steam drill. Ryan said the pole will be moved to Alaska Indian Arts, where it will be refurbished by David Svenson, one of the original designers who worked on the totem.
Ryan plans to have the memorial moved next to Gene Kennedy’s metal dog sculpture near the intersection of Front Street and Beach Road. Ryan said he plans to publicize the planned move of the memorial in case there are objections.
The historic self-propelled steam drill, renovated by Dave Pahl, will be moved to Tlingit Park.
The plan is to have all the elements returned to the rebuilt Lookout Park, Ryan said.
Port and Harbor Advisory Committee chair Norman Hughes said in an interview this week there are no concrete or even rough plans for how to rebuild Lookout Park. “The engineers made space for the park, about 100 feet across. We haven’t gotten any further than that.”
The Port and Harbor Advisory Committee and Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee have a joint work session scheduled for 5 p.m., Monday, April 25, to discuss Lookout Park. Hughes said he scheduled the work session because the mayor’s Waterfront Aesthetics Committee hasn’t met since fall.
That lack of plan for the park, the location of which has been a focal point of public scrutiny, is one of the reasons Campbell voted against the 95 percent design. Campbell also balked at the design because of the borough’s failure to financially plan for how to fund future phases of the project.
Critics such as Campbell continue to ask where the remaining $10 million will come from to pay for the harbor’s interior, as the roughly $20 million in hand will pay only for the wave barrier, dredging and parking lot work.
“I keep hearing that there are different ideas to fund it; why hasn’t the harbor group sat down for half an hour in one of their meetings and brainstormed 10 ideas on ways to fund the rest of the project, written down a rough timeline of what they thought, and included that?” Campbell asked.
Assembly member Gregg once again aired a list of complaints about the design and the public process that has surrounded the project, stating he wasn’t happy with the metal breakwater or the large parking lot, which he said would mar the natural beauty of the waterfront.
“I’m sad that Lookout Park has to come down. It seems like kind of a waste of our efforts,” Gregg said.
Assembly member Jackson said he has struggled to accept the current project design, but has come to terms with it. His major concern continues to be the movement of Lookout Park and associated waterfront beautification efforts.
“Personally, I want to make that a real high priority, and when we get into the budget I’m going to be advocating for significant improvements,” Jackson said.
The 95 percent design plans for a 600-foot partially-penetrating steel wave barrier, but includes an alternative for building the previously-planned 700-foot barrier. The parking lot will be roughly four acres.
The “base bid,” which includes the shorter breakwater and limited dredging, is $18.3 million. With the four added alternatives – the longer breakwater, the extra dredging, transient float work and sacrificial anodes – the total is $20.1 million.
Interim manager Ryan said the process for securing the Army Corps of Engineers 408 permit is moving along, and he hopes to have a final letter with project recommendations in two weeks. Ryan has received a draft list of recommendations, but will not release it at the request of the Army Corps.
Ryan did say none of the Corps’ draft stipulations are “game changers.” “They are all within our abilities to implement,” he said.
Regarding a report by Department of Transportation statewide coastal engineer Harvey Smith that suggested the proposed harbor entrance be moved due to potential wave transmission issues, increased study has allayed the borough and Corps’ concerns.
“We don’t feel that they’re a concern at this point and neither does the Corps of Engineers, for that matter,” Ryan said.