Haines Borough Planner Holly Smith reminded the planning commission of projects to complete this year and in the near future, and offered suggestions on how she could help members tackle those tasks.
“One of the reasons I’d like to talk about this with you is because of resource extraction,” Smith said. “Most of our planning commission time has been spent on this one task and I wanted to remind you all that there are many other tasks that are required by code or things that the planning commission has said they want to correct,” Smith said.
She said the planning commission has spent about 8 months discussing resource extraction.
Tasks that take up most of the commission’s time but are required include land sale classifications, platting, permitting, rezoning, enforcement and appeals. Smith said the commission should soon move on to reviewing capital improvement projects costing over $15,000, something that’s also done each year.
The group will be asked to review several borough projects that will cost over $25,000, including the biomass boiler, the harbor expansion project, Lutak Dock upgrades, library expansion project, waste water treatment plant electrical project, public safety building upgrades, museum roof replacement, pool upgrades and water/sewer line extensions.
The borough’s comprehensive plan, published in 2012, has also come up for its 6-year review.
“The planning commission is really focused on the Land Use and Future Growth section, but when you think about it, the planning commission really is involved in all the sections of the comprehensive plan because everything is inextricably linked,” Smith said.
A few things she said are missing from the comprehensive plan include a lands management program, road inventory, map of utilities and a housing section.
“We don’t have a housing section in our comprehensive plan. All communities do, but Haines doesn’t. Housing is linked to land use, to transportation, to utilities, economic development and quality of life,” Smith said. “Land use impacts the kind of housing that we have and whether or not we have the housing we need, it’s not just market driven.”
She discussed different types of housing with commission members and how housing, or lack thereof, can affect a community.
Smith suggested the commission begin review of the comprehensive plan in October.
“We’re also thinking about redoing the use chart to include Mud Bay and Lutak, and I would like to update the use categories…rethink the way that we’re defining our uses, by density or design standards maybe,” Smith said. “Also, how to better assign conditions on permitting, making it more consistent so there’s no favoritism and we have reasons why we’re assigning a condition for a certain use and not for others.”
The planning commission is also tasked with reviewing the Coastal Zone Management Plan, which no longer exists at the state level. The commission scheduled its first coastal management plan workshop since February 2017 for Tuesday, March 6.
Smith also brought up how the planning commission could benefit from having a relationship with neighborhood associations. She suggested better floodplain management and the possibility of master planning for upcoming projects.