Chelslea Bossert/Daily Mining Gazette The City of Hancock's plan to develop Navy Street has drawn criticism from residents of Portage Lake Condos, along with their Attorney Matthew Eliason, who said the 33-foot easement signed in 1996 cannot accommodate a road.

HANCOCK — In a joint meeting of Hancock City Council, the City of Hancock Planning Commission and the Downtown Development Authority on April 1, many residents of Portage Lake Condos brought forth concerns during the public comment period about the prospective Navy Street development.

The legal perspective

The residents of Portage Lake Condos were represented by Matthew Eliason of Eliason Law. He read the easement signed in 1996 between the city and the developer, outlining the specific language in the document.

After a contentious city council meeting on Wednesday, questions were raised by several council members about the feasibility of their plan and what will come of it. Eliason spoke at Wednesday’s public comment period and gave a legal memorandum packet to the council. A copy of the packet was also provided to The Gazette.

“The 1996 Grant of Easement defines the easement parcel(s) as a 33-foot-wide +/- area and only grants the City the right to build, traverse, or place upon that defined 33-foot area,” page one of the packet reads. “Reading the easement it is clear: that all activity including construction and ancillary functions, are limited to the easement parcel.”

Eliason argues in his notice the 33-foot easement is too narrow for any significant road development. It would include excavation of the hillside within the easement, tie-backs, construction walls, drainage and snow removal would have to not encroach within the narrow area.

According to Babcock’s report at Wednesday’s meeting, the city is looking into other options as to not encroach over the easement. A gravel road — as opposed to asphalt — was brought up and drew skepticism from Council member Laura Givens, Ward III. She said the financial investment into Navy Street might not be worth the trouble.

Eliason said the council and Downtown Development Authority’s (DDA) proposals would require a significant amount of work in order to be within the 33-foot easement.

“The formal proposals that they were exploring require, more likely than not, tearing the bank down, putting in some kind of sheet piling or retaining wall with tie-backs, but they need to do that all within 33 feet, which would seem to be unlikely,” he said.

Eliason said he is also concerned with the way DDA money is being appropriated in order to develop behind PLC. “When you look here, if you look at the enabling language for Downtown Development Authority, it’s to get rid of blight and urban decay up in the downtown area,” he said. “So I would question whether or not the job’s been done in Hancock.”

“Any activity outside the easement is simply a trespass,” page four of the document states. “The easement simply does not give the City the right to do any work or place anything other than what is in the easement.”

A resident’s perspective

Glenn Bugni, President of the Portage Lakeside Condominium Association, says he represents 14 out of 15 condo owners who oppose this development. Bugni was present at the City of Hancock joint meeting and spoke during both public comment periods.

“It’s an engineering nightmare,” he said. “The slope is extremely steep and behind, you know, the slope itself is a railroad bed.”

Part of Bugni’s concerns come from the positioning of the nearby nature trail, between the Navy Street easement and the condos themselves.

“The easement, for Hancock, is a 33-foot easement and they have to construct that road right on that easement,” Bugni said. “Because we own the property right around it, right up to the railroad grade.”

On Wednesday, city council acknowledged it received communications regarding Navy Street. One was from Michael Cleveland, who spoke during the public comment period after new business was discussed. Cleveland opposed the development moving forward.

City perspective

According to Mayor Kurt Rickard, the Navy Street working group has met only a few times before a recent hiatus. It could not come to an agreement with property owners at the west end of the easement, both Andrew Lathi and Taylor Augustine. The aim of the development is to build a park with waterfront access on a city-owned parcel west of Lathi’s property by connecting it with a road.

“Some of us, would like to make [the parcel] a park,” Rickard said. “You know, it’s public, make it a public property, where people could sit and enjoy — look at the lake.”

An additional rationale Rickard provided was the current zoning allows business developments to take place on Navy Street. He said a road through the easement would give the City of Hancock’s residents incentive to develop where they might not have been able to because of a lack of road access.

“That’s what’s gonna pay for the whole thing, so we get some taxable property down there,” he said. “We get the road through so that we can eventually develop that part, and then we also allow other people to do developments down in other parcels that are further to the west.”

Council member Laura Givens said once the project leaves the planning stage, it will be funded through the DDA. “The project is estimated to cost between 1.8 and 2.3 million which would be recouped by the DDA in [approximately] 18.5 years based on prospective appraisals of the developments,” she said. “No additional tax levies would be imposed as part of this funding approach.”

With the easement between condo property developers and the City of Hancock signed in 1996, Rickard said it was always the goal of the city to create public waterfront access, as well as overall development on Navy Street.

Givens agreed with this philosophy, citing the city’s master plan.

“Waterfront connectivity has long been a goal of the community and is recognized in the City’s master plan,” she said. “Since the majority of Hancock’s waterfront has been privatized, connecting pedestrian and vehicle access requires working with property owners to obtain easements and utilizing existing easements such as the one across the Portage Lake Condos property.”