Southeast Alaska Backcountry Adventures co-owner Scott Sundberg last week said he would appeal the Haines Borough Planning Commission’s rejection of a permit application for a heliport near 26 Mile Haines Highway.
That decision sets the stage for yet another round in the company’s efforts to establish a heliport there, which date back to 2007.
The commission, which spent nearly four hours on helicopter-related topics last week, also postponed a decision on a separate application from Coastal Helicopters manager Mike Wilson for a heliport at 35 Mile.
Sundberg applied for the Chilkat Lake Road heliport conditional use permit on behalf of his other company, Big Salmon Ventures.
The denial was déjà vu for most of the commission, which has rejected the heliport plan three times in three years. The Haines Borough Assembly in March 2014 overturned the commission’s second rejection, granting a one-year conditional use permit, which has expired.
This time around, commissioners Rob Goldberg, Heather Lende, Robert Venables and Lee Heinmiller voted against the permit. Commissioners Brenda Josephson and Donnie Turner were in favor.
The commission approved a motion by Venables to recommend the assembly set aside funds and task staff with identifying a potential site for a public heliport between 25 Mile and 35 Mile. “I still think there is a solution out there,” Venables said.
Manager David Sosa recommended approving the 26 Mile permit but limiting the number of takeoffs and landings each day to 10 and requiring that engines to be shut down if a helicopter is landed longer than two minutes.
To issue a conditional use permit, the commission must find the application meets each of eight criteria specified in code, including that “the use is so located on the site as to avoid undue noise and other nuisances and dangers.”
Sosa said he felt this condition was met and cited the $41,300 noise study commissioned by the borough.
“Noise levels were monitored during the test and, while high during operations, the overall impact was moderate. Additionally, there are other activities in the area that generate noise at levels equal to or higher than the levels produced by aircraft taking off and landing,” Sosa said.
Referring to the permit requirement that the use not significantly impair adjoining property values, Sosa said property values are determined by sales in the area, not heliports. From an assessing perspective, he said, land values are not impacted by a heliport.
SEABA co-owner Sundberg urged the assembly to look at the “big picture” of heli-skiing and its contribution to the economy. Sundberg said he wants to develop the area up the highway into a thriving community again, including by eventually establishing a “winter village.”
“We see growth in that area. It used to be a lot more lively than it is now, back in the 70s and 80s. We are trying to figure out how to reinvent a community out there. And yeah, some people aren’t going to like it, but there are lots of people in town that don’t like what’s going around them either. It’s just the way of life,” he said.
If area residents didn’t want heliports in the area, they could have used a tool in borough code that allows neighborhoods to collectively decide developments they will or will not allow, Sundberg said. For example, the Mud Bay land use planning area determined heliports were not allowed.
“The majority, if not 75 percent, of the letters opposing our heliport live more than 30 miles from this location, therefore the impacts to them are negligible,” Sundberg said.
“It’s time to say yes. We’ve been patient. SEABA and Big Salmon have worked thoroughly with the borough and residents to make this a fair and balanced request,” he said.
Former SEABA partner Shawn McNamara addressed the commission more bluntly.
“You guys are tasked with allowing a heliport in a general use zone, no matter what peoples’ personal views of the situation are,” McNamara said. “You guys are tasked to do that. There is no reason that you shouldn’t do that. Please do what you should be doing.”
Several residents in the 26 Mile neighborhood attended Thursday’s meeting to testify against the permit, and commissioners said they received about 50 letters “overwhelmingly against” permitting the heliport.
Resident Josh Grimm noted that last season’s temporary permit which allowed helicopter flights “changed the character of the neighborhood” due to the noise and traffic.
“It sucks to be around. I don’t like it,” Grimm said. “If I was in the position of being an operator, whenever I heard that helicopter start up, I’d hear cha-ching cha-ching. The money coming in. But that isn’t what I hear.”
Lauren McPhun also said the helicopters last year were disturbing. McPhun reported a helicopter flew so low over her property she could clearly make out the people inside. The borough determined her complaint was “unsubstantiated,” which she said “feels like a slap in the face,” like what she saw doesn’t matter.
The University of Alaska, which owns adjacent property to where the heliport would be sited, submitted a letter opposing the permit, claiming the helicopters would fly at a low altitude over the university’s property, thereby decreasing the land’s value.
26 Mile resident Chris Brooks said he supported the permit, and that he understood living in a general use zone meant property owners were afforded a certain level of developmental freedom.
Commissioner Donnie Turner agreed, saying people buy property out the highway because nobody can tell them what to do out there. “On the other side of that, that means you can’t tell your neighbor what to do. You can’t have it both ways,” Turner said.
In addition to the 26 Mile permit, the commission also held a public hearing on a permit application from Mike Wilson, general manager of Coastal Helicopters, to site a helicopter on his property near 35 Mile Haines Highway.
The commission postponed the discussion to its next meeting on Dec. 10 after it became apparent all adjacent landowners hadn’t been made aware of the application. The commission has twice postponed consideration of the 35 Mile site due to concerns about neighbor notification.
Haines heli-ski companies currently use three approved heliports at the Haines Airport, 18 Mile Haines Highway and 33 Mile Haines Highway. The planning commission in September 2014 approved a conditional use permit for local developer John Floreske to install three helipads at 10 Mile Haines Highway.