The Haines Borough Assembly is asking the University of Alaska to delay awarding the Chilkat Peninsula timber sale contract until they can meet and discuss local zoning issues related to logging.
The University of Alaska Board of Regents approved the competitive timber sale on about 400 acres of land in the Mud Bay zoning area last month in response to local discussions on limiting resource extraction in the area. But officials said it had long been part of the university’s plans.
The Haines Borough Planning Commission began discussing the issue this spring after a resident asked if he needed a permit to sell six truckloads of timber logged on his land, planning commission chair Rob Golberg said.
Although a timber harvest in the area has been planned since 2015, the commission’s resource extraction discussions triggered the University of Alaska to initiate the timber sale because it felt its comments were ignored during the public process.
“The UA advertised its Chilkat Peninsula Competitive Timber Sale to protect our interests because the Haines Borough Planning Commission was not engaging us, specifically their non-response to our public involvement and comments at the Sept. 6, 2017 meeting,” Facilities and Land Management Director Christine Klein wrote to Mayor Jan Hill.
UA Regional Resource Manager Patrick Kelly said he met with Haines officials and staff about the timber sale in 2015.
“We met with Mayor Hill and (borough manager) David Sosa in 2015 and the university, the division of forestry, the Mental Health Trust land office and some timber industry representatives were at that meeting and we laid out our upcoming plan to be in Haines for timber harvesting. The university’s been very transparent about these things,” Kelly said.
At the assembly’s special meeting, assembly member Tom Morphet said the decision to initiate the timber sale might be more about sending a message than logging the land.
“To me that (letter) suggests that the university may be not in a big rush to log out there, but put forward this sale, to a certain extent, to get our attention and they’ve certainly succeeded,” Morphet said.
Klein advised the board of regents to approve the timber sale at their Sept. 14 meeting.
“If we don’t move forward with this, we may lose the ability to harvest the timber and in doing so we would also lose our ability to check and verify if there is any mineral potential,” Klein said during the meeting. “That is basically what this is about, to try and preserve the university’s interest in these parcels.”
The controversy lies in Mud Bay’s zoning language, which states “This zone is intended to provide for the establishment of a rural residential area allowing for single-family dwellings and cottage industries.”
Commercial enterprise is an allowable conditional use in the zone, but is limited to an individual’s private property where it’s to be “conducted only by a member or members of a family residing in a residence on the property and with up to six additional employees at any one time.”
Mud Bay residents crowded the assembly chambers Thursday to oppose the timber sale on the basis of their code.
“The University of Alaska is not a family and does not reside in a residence on the property,” Patty Kermoian said. “Timber cutting operations would undoubtedly require more than six additional employees at any one time.”
Borough attorney Brooks Chandler told the assembly that “The general rule in regulating private property is that unless something is specifically prohibited by a governmental agency it’s going to be allowed.”
Nothing in the Mud Bay code specifically prohibits resource extraction, which is what commercial logging falls under in borough code.
Mud Bay resident George Figdor disputes the idea that because resource extraction isn’t prohibited, that it’s allowed. He likened the argument to what a driver would consider when approaching a sign that reads “right turn only.”
“You could have another sign there that says ‘Hey stupid, you can’t turn left’ but everybody knows what right turn only means,” Figdor said. “I don’t subscribe to any theory that something that’s not listed can be in any way presumed to be allowable. It says this is allowable so it presumes that everything else is not allowable, like you can’t turn left there.”
Assembly member Heather Lende said the timber sale isn’t consistent with the Mud Bay code.
“It’s not how we feel about logging or clear cuts or whatever and the issues of small scale resource extraction certainly do need to be addressed in (code) it sounds like, if that’s unclear, but in terms of an outside entity proposing a 400-acre timber sale, I don’t know how that fits in the intent of rural residential.”
In its policy, the University’s property “shall be developed consistent with local zoning and platting ordinances…” with the caveat that such development does not conflict with the board of regents’ “fiduciary duties and responsibilities.”
The duties and responsibilities are to generate revenue for the University’s Land Grant Trust Fund, which, in part, provides scholarships and funds the management and development of its lands.
Jack Smith was one of two community members to speak in support of the timber sale.
“I don’t live at Mud Bay,” Smith said. “I sort of support logging anywhere in the community. I don’t like when someone says you can’t do something with your land, like logging.”
Andrew Gray told the assembly if they attempted to restrict the university’s timber sale it would send a bad message to the state that the assembly is willing “to deny one of the state agencies who is attempting to profit off of an allowed use of their land.”
Chandler advised borough manager Debra Schnabel that the borough should “request the University to make a good faith effort to comply with borough land use ordinances applicable to the proposed timber sale prior to conducting the sale by applying for a conditional use permit.”
The assembly met in executive session with its attorney to discuss land use law as it applies to Mud Bay and potential legal recourse, should the University move forward without discussion.