The Alaska daily empire., 1916-07-22
STRIP ON FRONT STREET CAUSES A
 LENGTHY ARGUMENT
.Cty Council Takes Under Advise ment Petition of Property Owners To Condemn
 Certain Property.

Certaln FrOperIy.
 Last night a petition signed by some Of the property owners on Front street was presented to the city counciumen asking that they reconsider their action in allow ing the Henenthal building to eN- tend to the Front street line.
 The council refused to recede from it's position. and the building will be erected on the street line.
 William s. Bayless, and R. D. Ro- bertson appeared on behalf of the petitioners and urged the council to reconsider and if necessary to condemn the entire strip from Franklin street to the corner Of the Juneau Liquor Company that is now in the street but belonging to the abutting property owners. J A.. Hellenthal appeared for the Hellen- thai brothers.
 Mir. Bayless said in part: "The fact of the matter Is that in De- cembcr. 1897. Mrs. Mary McGinn se- cured townsite trustees deed to he property In question and int 1906 two surveys were made establishing the street line along Front street. In January 1907 the city council passed an ordinance establishing the street line at a point to which Hellenthal & Hellenthal have se- cured the permission of the council to build their building.
 "Our contention is that the pub lie has been using this strip Of land as sidewalk since 1897, which is nearly 20 years and which we contend gives the public and the city the possessory right Co the strip Mir Hellenthal as city at torney contends that one of the es- sential points of a contention of possessory right is the claim of that right which the council has abro- gated by the passage of the ordi- nance aforesaid.
 "Whether the council has that right or not | don't know, but the fact remains that the council. to our way Of thinking, should have taken immediate steps to condemn that strip of ground, which would not have costs a large sum, on ac- count of the fact that it had been used as a sidewalk for number of years.
 Some council will have Co do some pioneering in this city some day and why not start now. This council should take such action as would place it on record as being against anything which will make our streets narrower and should al- ways stand for the widening of the present streets This piece of prop erty is worth only a nominal sum and could be condemned very cheap ly and the council should have done SO.
 When the town Of Juneau was first settled the buildings along Front street were not constructed along on line X street line had been surveyed at an early date by a naval officer and while an attempt was made i'm some cases to place the buildings approximately on this line. most of them were back from line more or less and some build ings were built at one angle and others at another.
 When the town was surveyed for patent, c W. Garside re-established the original line and the patent was issued upon this survey so that all owners of porperty alonf the upper side of Front street received patent from the government to all the land lying above this line.
 About eight or nine years ago the city council passed an ordinance establishing the limits of Front street and this ordinance again adopted the line as laid out by Garside in his patent survey. Three years ago the city council again passed an ordinance defining the limits of Front street and this same line was again declared to be the street line All the new build ings erected on Front street up to the present time have been built out to this line. One corner of the old Peerless building was about IS inches from this line and the Oth- CT corner between five and six feet back from the street line. and when the Hellenthals commenced making preparations for the construction Of new building on the site of the old Peerless, they went to the city NpLAnlAA 4A0 ttAf loHu NAAIuA LuttL tubg were figuring on building a con crete building on this site and were willing to keep the building back On the line occupied by the old Peerless building if arrangements could be made with the other prop erty owners also to keep back on that line. so that whenever these other property owners construct new buildings they would not ex- tend out in front of the new build ing. The members of the city coun- cil saw Mrs. Decker but she did not feel warranted in surrendering her rights to the strip of ground from five to six feet wide between the street line and her buildings.
 The Hellenthals were then told by the council that in view of the fact that otheE property owners did not feel like abandoning the strip be- tween the buildings and the street line. they had better make plans on