The conservation group that spent years pulling together a deal for Anchorage to get a coastal park at the Campbell Creek estuary is scrambling to find ways to overcome city objections, or to find another way to make it a park.
The city had been working with Great Land Trust, the conservation organization, since 2008 to raise money and buy the 60-acre property from private landowners who have held it for decades.
But 10 days ago, Mayor Dan Sullivan said the city is backing away from buying the park.
As for the $2.7 million in grants the city had committed to acquiring land along Campbell Creek's last meander before flowing into Cook Inlet, the mayor said the city wanted to "explore other possibilities" for spending that money.
ACCESS TO A REFUGE
The land in question is mostly undeveloped, with old growth forest on the uplands section. In a clearing, there are also some old, tumbling down buildings including a barn.
Take an easy walk from the uplands down a gradual slope, and you'll find tidal flats rich with sedges and grasses in shades of green from yellowish to dark. Sandhill cranes and other shorebirds sing and screech in the distance. The end of Campbell Creek winds through the Cook Inlet mud.
It's a peaceful place, with views up and down the coastline.
You get to the estuary by taking neighborhood streets in a southerly direction off west Dimond Boulevard, out past the Jewel Lake Carrs store.
Right now, there's a dirt road and "no trespassing" signs.
That would be converted to a trail head if Campbell Creek estuary becomes a park. If that happens, it will become one of few public access points to the Anchorage Coastal Wildlife Refuge. About a third of the property is actually within the refuge boundaries.
HOW TO KEEP UP A PARK
Great Land Trust had raised $6.8 million and was poised to buy the land for $6.1 million. Once purchased, the goal was to donate the land to the city.
Phil Shephard, executive director of Great Land Trust, said that's still the group's top choice -- to get the municipality to change its mind and accept the property.
He is trying to get past one objection -- that the city can't afford to manage more parkland -- by creating and raising money for a new endowment that would take care of any out-of-the-ordinary expenses, such as somebody driving a vehicle onto the mudflats and dumping it. The group has already planned to spend money to develop some gravel trails and help maintain them.
But if the city stands firm against the purchase and gift, Great Land Trust would like to see if the state will accept the property as park and refuge land. Barring that, the conservation group could hold the property itself.
Any alternative other than city ownership raises complications, said Shephard. Some of the funding, applied for with the understanding that the city would own the park, is contingent on that happening; those arrangements would have to be renegotiated.
BOARDWALK INSTEAD?
Sullivan said the city wants to withdraw from the project $2.7 million in federal and state grants designated for protection of coastal or other wetlands.
The mayor said last week some of that money could build a boardwalk to connect the Ship Creek trail near the port and railroad yards to the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail.
He has in mind a Ship Creek walking area like the River Walk in San Antonio, Texas, which is developed with restaurants and hotels and other businesses, as well as walkways.
That would enhance downtown, and once built, the boardwalk would require little maintenance, Sullivan said..
It turns out the city can't just redirect $1.1 million of the $2.7 million, though. That money is committed to the Great Land Trust, said a spokesman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
But removal of the other $1.6 million leaves Great Land Trust short of money for the Campbell Creek purchase.
PIONEER LAND
Great Land Trust faces a Nov. 30 deadline set by the landowners to buy the property, said Shephard.
Much of the land remained in such pristine shape because it had been held that way by two longtime Anchorage families since the 1950s.
Ken Atkinson, a retired lawyer, said a Swedish immigrant named Alex G. Olsen patented the land in 1947 -- and also owned the old Scandinavian Club on Fourth Avenue.
"There's an old shaky log barn out there. He may have been trying some farming."
Olsen died in 1952 with no will, said Atkinson, who has researched the Swede's estate and is friends with the families that later owned the property. David Kyzer bought the land in 1956, and conveyed a half-interest to John McManamin, said Atkinson. The families owned most of the acreage jointly, and held out 5 acres each for individual ownership, he said.
Eventually, the families decided to sell 60 acres for the park.
IS COMPROMISE POSSIBLE?
Some Anchorage Assembly members haven't made up their minds about the possible city purchase, and others disagree with the mayor's decision to drop plans for the city to help buy the park.
Chris Birch, representing South Anchorage, said he's concerned about adding maintenance costs when the city will be contending with more budget reductions next year, but he said he wants to hear from all sides.
Jennifer Johnston, also representing South Anchorage, said she feels mixed about it.
"It's an opportunity, but if we can't pay for what we have it's irresponsible to increase our load," she said. Since it adjoins and overlaps the Anchorage Coastal Wildlife Refuge -- managed by the state -- state ownership might be a better fit, she said.
"It's a bad decision (to reject it as a city park)," said Harriet Drummond, who with Ernie Hall represents the area on the Assembly. "And I think he's going to find out from hundreds of people that it was a really bad decision."
"I'm disappointed, and I don't know if there's anything we can do about it," said Ernie Hall. "I know we've got a tremendous amount of parkland in Anchorage. By the same token, look at the Park Strip. If somebody hadn't had the foresight to save that, we'd never get a park strip today. It would never happen.
"To be able to get that 60 acres where it's located -- I think that's something that in the future could maybe be compared to Central Park in New York," said Hall.
Assembly chairman Dick Traini said he's looking into whether the Assembly has any options and wants to meet with the mayor to see if a compromise is possible.
"He's the executive branch," said Traini. "We cannot force him to do anything he doesn't want to do."
Find Rosemary Shinohara online at adn.com/contact/rshinohara or call her at 257-4340.
By ROSEMARY SHINOHARA
rshinohara@adn.com