A local company denied a conditional use permit to operate a heliport near 26 Mile is appealing the decision in state Superior Court.
In a notice of appeal filed Dec. 29, attorneys for Big Salmon Ventures said the Haines Borough’s decision on the matter was “based on prejudice, arbitrary and capricious decision-making” and “on improper motives.”
Big Salmon Ventures is a sister company to Haines-based Southeast Alaska Backcountry Aventures, which would like to use the site for transporting heliskiers. The companies say use of the site is critical to development of a year-round “eco-lodge” at the site.
Daniel Bruce of the Juneau law firm Baxter, Bruce and Sullivan wrote that the borough lacks facts to support its assertions that a heliport there doesn’t protect public safety, health and welfare and that such a heliport would significantly damage values of neighboring properties.
“The (borough) erred by unduly relying on neighborhood opposition as the basis for denying the appellant’s conditional use permit,” Bruce wrote.
In a Nov. 12 decision, the Haines Borough Planning Commission ruled that Big Salmon did not meet six of eight conditions required for issuance of a conditional use permit. The Haines Borough Assembly upheld the commission’s decision.
It’s not clear that Big Salmon’s appeal addresses a criterion that a conditional use “is so located on the site to avoid undue noise and other nuisances and dangers.”
The borough maintains that its noise study “shows that undue noise travels from the property owned by Big Salmon Ventures and impacts nearby residences,” including at levels that are considered “very loud.”
SEABA operated heliski tours at the site last year. The borough in March 2014 granted a one-year permit at 26 Mile, in part to measure impacts of a heliport to neighboring homes.