The Haines Borough Assembly Tuesday postponed directing the manager to craft a plan for monitoring the impact of helicopter operations near 26 Mile Haines Highway, claiming it wanted to see an estimated cost for the plan first.
The assembly recently overturned a borough planning commission decision and approved a conditional use permit for Big Salmon Ventures, sister company of heli-ski operator Southeast Alaska Backcountry Adventures, to build a heliport at .6 Mile Chilkat Lake Road.
The permit comes with conditions including a one-year trial period and borough monitoring of noise impacts to the surrounding neighborhood. However, the borough hasn’t yet figured out how it will monitor the helicopter landings or how much it will cost.
Mayor Stephanie Scott brought up the question of expense Tuesday before the assembly could vote to direct new manager David Sosa to design, describe and conduct the monitoring.
“This might cost some money to do this,” Scott said, prompting assembly member Jerry Lapp to move to postpone the decision until Sosa could provide an estimate.
“Before I think about voting on this, I need to see a cost,” Lapp said.
The assembly will take up the issue again at its regular meeting on April 22.
The conditional use permit expires March 31, 2015.