As many of you are aware from reading this week’s ADN article of July 5th and Alaska Star article of July 4th, the owners of the Wallace homesteads have met a fork in the road.

Many of the current owners, who came together as financial investors twenty-five years ago, began with a two option approach to generating reasonable return on their investment. Chugach State Park, as most of you know, lacks access, and usability is limited. Therefore, first priority, for myself and the other original investor in our project, was to repurpose the subdivisions to provide community recreational use in conjunction with the Park, either commercially or by fair market sale to the State or Municipality. By the time we set up the investment, the two of us had already spent ten years working with the Til, Ella and Mike Wallace toward this end.

Second option for return on investment was, and remains, continuation of the Wallace’s original subdivision development, selling home sites. As managing partner for this investment, these were the promises I made to the investors.

A valuable feature of the second option is the private access road and utility easement which the Wallaces bought from Eklutna, Incorporated, prior to extending it through the Wallace Brothers Mountain Subdivision plat. Privacy has generally proven to be a desirable component of upscale residential development. However, retaining the private road system for a few home owners will eliminate this potential public access to the Park. Early on it became obvious that, even by combining summer tourism with winter community recreation, our little partnership did not have the economic horsepower to pull off commercial development of the properties, leaving us dependent on outright State purchase or other outside money to save the homesteads for the Park. Over the last several years it appeared that our best chance was a certain national NGO that specialized in finding the monies to resolve conservation and access issues.

Unfortunately, last week we were advised that funding sources critical to the NGO’s operation were not currently available. While their expressed interest remained strong, they could not promise participation, let alone a time line.

Currently ownership of the two homesteads is divided between two entities. Mike Wallace’s is generally owned by his heirs, while Til and Ella Wallace’s is generally owned by us, Wallace Brothers Mountain, LLC. As of this week, Mike Wallace’s heirs have chosen to list their portion of the ownership with a realtor. In respect for their past participation in the private road system and the value it could bring to their sales effort, Wallace Brothers Mountain LLC is hereby suspending our free pedestrian permit program until further notice. Of course, it is possible that their buyer or buyers could support my preferred use of the land. However, until that time comes, we will be posting our properties against trespass and request that you honor our wishes in this regard.

We will be modifying our web site, WallaceBrothersMountain.com, to incorporate this letter, recent news articles and other pertinent information regarding land status. We will also include a new section for your current public comments, where you can vent your suggestions and offer opinions, as well as find current email addresses for various potential players who need to know you and your friends care.

Thank you all
Wallace Brothers Mountain, LLC
Bill Tucker, Managing Partner

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