The Haines Borough Planning Commission Thursday voted to postpone a decision to classify for sale the lot at Third Avenue and Main Street until a concrete proposal is submitted.

The vote came after a recommendation from borough manager Annette Kreitzer, who told the commission that the borough had received interest from a resident about purchasing the lot.

Former Main Street business owner Liz Heywood was among several residents who spoke in favor of keeping the lot as a public space. Heywood sat on the Downtown Revitalization Committee which recommended in 2014 to designate the lot as a “green space.”

“We’re talking about putting vitality into the downtown area,” Heywood said. “That lot at Third and Main, I know from 20 years of running the bookstore, it’s a hub. I think it’s important to keep that lot.”

Darsie Culbeck also spoke in favor of keeping the lot public.

“While I recognize the need for revenue and economic growth, I urge you to consider the long-term impact of this decision on our community,” he wrote to the commission. “Once this public space is sold, it is gone forever. We cannot afford to lose our public spaces, especially in the center of the downtown core. I urge you to preserve this area as a park or table the discussion for another ten years.”

No one from the public spoke in favor of selling the lot.

Commissioner Diana Lapham said it was unnecessary to address the issue without a concrete proposal and spoke in support of interest from Sabine Churchill, owner of Gomi’s Garden, who wants to use the land for her business.

“It would be interesting if someone were to step forward and say, ‘Hey can I lease it?’ Gomi’s has a very nice idea here of keeping it kind of like a garden.”

Churchill in November expressed interest in purchasing the land. Churchill has held seasonal plant sales from her home for the past four years, but wrote that her business has outgrown her space.

“As Gomi’s Garden has outgrown the original location of my private educational garden, I am looking for a suitable replacement property,” she wrote in a letter of interest to the borough. “My intention is to keep the experience of visiting a garden and parklike setting as well as to expand the seasonal plant sales to year-round educational opportunities and hosting a German-style Christmas market.”

She said the sale of the property to her business would enable efforts to beautify downtown and create year-round tourism and events.

Commissioner Justin Mitman said he’d like to see a proposal for the area that would develop green space or a gazebo. “I’d like to see it stay public-use and I’m glad we’re postponing this. With no plan, it doesn’t make sense to classify this right now.”

Commissioner Don Turner Jr. was the only commissioner in favor of seeing part of the lot sold and the rest used for snow storage. The borough received a letter from Alaska Department of Transportation Haines foreman Matt Boron detailing the lots use for snow storage for both the state and borough snow plowing crews.

“If we lose this storage, both the state and the borough will incur huge costs in snow removal that would far exceed any tax revenue that this property would ever produce,” Boron wrote.

Borough manager Annette Kreitzer told the CVN the planning commission could consider leasing the land. “It doesn’t have to be a sell or don’t sell question, if someone comes up with a great idea for leasing a portion or all of the property,” Kreitzer wrote to the CVN. “ I think a lease arrangement also allows the public to see what could work and whether it still allows the State and the borough the ability to use the property for snow storage.”

The planning commission in 2012 voted to hold the parcel for 10 years before deciding on the future of the land that some want to see sold into private ownership and others want developed into a public space. The lot in question was once the site of the Haines school. Former planning commissioner Robert Venables’ proposal in 2012 was to set aside the lot for a “town square” with space for parking, snow removal and wood-heat infrastructure. Others wanted the borough to sell the land to recoup costs associated with the purchase of land the current school is built on.