Friday, February 27, 2015

Draft Preferred Master Plan

On Wednesday, February 25, the planning and design team presented a phased master plan that reflected the input and comments heard during the previous public meeting. From the three master plans presented previously, this master plan captures the community's desires and priorities as a phased approach that reflects reasonable expected funding opportunities. We encourage you to review the plans and provide input. The final master plan and report will be made final in early April.

Phase One:


Phase Two:


Phase Three:


Phase Four:


Perspectives:






4 comments:

  1. Great Concept Drawings......and always expandable is good too!

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  3. I read about the latest design in the newspaper and wanted to provide comments. The design is very attractive, but has functionality issues that I wonder if you have considered.

    First, moving barge operations six miles out of town doesn't seem to be in the best interest of downtown businesses. I pick up my freight from the barge every week to sell at my store. I can only fit one pallet in the truck bed at a time, and each week I pick up anywhere from one to three pallets of goods that I have to move one at a time to the store. If I had to drive out of town to pick up freight this would be very costly for me in gas and wear on the old pickup, and I would also have to open the store at a later time in the day, which would cost me lunch-hour business. When I'm at the barge staging area picking up my pallets, I notice the Ottesen's guys moving their freight by forklift from the shipping containers to just across the street at their retail location. The nearby boatyard benefits from the proximity of the barge operation when materials and equipment can easily be obtained for time-critical projects. There are numerous small businesses that would be affected by barge operations moving out of town. For example, the owners of Zac's Cafe do not own a vehicle and need their freight delivered. Right now, that only means moving a pallet a couple of blocks to their location on Front Street. When you talked with downtown business owners, were they supportive of this proposal?

    Second, if a dock is built at the edge of an expanded boat yard, this structure would cut off the possibility of any future boatyard expansion into the permitted fill area. The Marine Services Center creates family-wage jobs and should not be limited by a pier. Currently, there is more work coming into the boatyard than there are workers to cover the demand. Having more space downtown to provide additional haul-out area and/or lease area for workers would be forward-thinking. Boat owners hauled out in the yard spend money at the nearby hardware stores, buy supplies at the grocery stores, and drop in for a quick meal at downtown restaurants. Besides the proposed dock being an impediment to potential boatyard expansion, it isn't the best location for another reason. In the newspaper article, there was a suggestion that the dock might even be used to hold wedding receptions. Although we may picture stored boats quietly sitting propped in rows alongside the new dock, the reality is that boatyard work is noisy. There are sandblasters, saws, planers, corking hammers, and other loud equipment running all day, not to mention the sound of AML moving shipping containers for Trident all summer. And then there is the proposed net shed. When you talked with local gillnetters, did they indicate that they would use this structure, or is this just a quaint idea?

    Maintaining public waterfront access is important and I like the idea of a walkway around the waterfront. Also, it would be nice have some additional public space and/or commercial buildings. The area near the Stikine Inn and City Dock would seem to be a natural location with cruise ships arriving at the dock and existing tour businesses already in place. If the barge operation could be expanded into the permitted fill area around the barge dock, an area at the other end of the property at the edge of the roundabout might be traded for public/commercial development. A mix of public views, commercial buildings, and industrial operations at the downtown waterfront is in keeping with the working character of Wrangell. The current design is focused too much on neatening up the waterfront and has the appearance of gentrification.

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