The Haines Borough Assembly Tuesday unanimously reaffirmed its opposition to an east Lynn Canal highway, and continued preference for ferry improvements.
“I just wonder how many times it takes for us to do this before they get the message,” said assemblyman Norm Smith.
The borough’s resolution cites the EIS finding that a majority of residents in Juneau, Haines and Skagway prefer improved marine access to a road and that the record of decision in the project’s final environmental impact statement “determined that an east Lynn Canal highway would be twice as expensive to operate and maintain as existing ferry service.”
The Haines Chamber of Commerce made a similar statement last week, repeating arguments it made against the road in 1997 and 2004.
Statements come in response to the state Department of Transportation’s Southeast Alaska Transportation Plan, which includes the road in one option.
In September, Gov. Sean Parnell dropped a previous court appeal and instead will write a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement toward pursuing the road.
Press secretary Sharon Leighow this week said: “Tens of thousands of Alaskans would benefit from and use the road regardless of which specific community they are from. The positions of local communities are important and are taken into consideration, but it is just one of several factors considered in making a decision on a statewide basis.”
Jan Hill, president of the Haines Chamber of Commerce in 1997, wrote a 17-point letter to DOT detailing the group’s opposition. “With potential improved access to ‘warehouse’ shopping, the small ‘mom and pop’ companies in Haines will suffer economically,” Hill wrote.
The Chamber also cited 58 avalanche chutes intersecting the planned roadway, high maintenance costs, lost income to the ferry system, inflated use estimates for a road and reliance on a shuttle ferry. “Only with a marine option will reliable, year-round, access and increased summer access be possible,” she wrote.
The borough’s resolution recommends the state focus on planning and funding strategies recommended by the Marine Transportation Advisory Board.They include “consideration of a Berner’s Bay ferry terminal include a public transportation component to support walk-on ferry passengers.”
It also notes that the final Environmental Impact Statement projected 600 non-fatal and eight fatal accidents along the proposed road over a 40-year period. The road would end at Katzenhin, about five miles south of downtown, and connect to Haines and Skagway with shuttle ferries.
Chamber of Commerce office manager Joan Carlson said opposition to a road on Lynn Canal is not unanimous within the organization. “There are some people who are in favor of the road, but they’re for the west side (road).”
The east Lynn Canal Road is estimated to cost $470 million.