BOARDWALK BARRIERS? Mentioned by city officials as possible roadblocks, landowners say they support the idea — with conditions

When it comes to the city’s proposed harbor boardwalk, Alan Laird says he is 100 percent on board with the project, despite the popular belief that he is against it.

“We are willing to do this and would even pay for it,” the AJ’s owner told The Log during a sit down interview Thursday. “I am all for it, but the easement is a little strong — owners come and go, but easements survive the sale of real estate.”

Over the past few weeks city leaders have been reviewing and recommending changes to an easement agreement, which would allow the public to traverse the boardwalk while it’s on private property. Owners would have to sign the agreement in order to be part of the $2.2 million project. During Tuesday night’s Community Redevelopment Agency board meeting, CRA members agreed to move forward with more changes to the easements.

As they move forward, city leaders would like to have easement agreements from all participating parties by July 18. Property owners who don’t supply an easement agreement will not be part of the project moving forward, according to city documents.

“That would be a grave mistake,” Laird said of the city’s deadline. “I don’t think they have exhausted enough time, adequate time to this.”

The simple solution for Laird is to put all the property owners in a room and let them discuss the issue and come up with some solutions that everyone could agree with.

Looking at the project, Laird has a few concerns. He is worried that people “don’t realize” what they have to give up as far as their property rights. Second; the changes to the scope of the project and the disparity of what the city is asking for and what they are giving is too far apart. But the biggest issue for Laird is parking.

When the project was initially pitched to harborfront owners, Laird said the city promised to build a “multi-tiered parking garage and a park” that he says are “off the table now.”

“The scope of this project has changed tremendously since they first started talking about this,” he said. “Municipal parking is the infrastructure that is going to make this boardwalk work.”

The other landowner that has been mentioned as a sticking point is Claude Perry, who owns the property adjacent to East Pass Marina.

The long-time developer told The Log there are still too many unanswered questions. And while he supports the project in concept, he has yet to sign an easement agreement.

Parking is also a critical issue to Perry. Months ago, he even took the bold step of putting up pilings between his property and East Pass Marina after a long-running parking dispute.

“The city needs to honor their commitment and address the parking issue,“ Perry told The Log Wednesday. “To me, those issues need to be addressed before we build this boardwalk, not after we build it.”