The planning commission voted Thursday to overturn the borough manager’s decision to deny Alaska Mountain Guide’s request to add additional employee housing on the company’s Sawmill Road property.

Sean Gaffney, AMG executive director, applied for an accessory use permit in October 2018 for a bathhouse and five to seven camping spots for employee vehicles and/or tents.

In November, the permit was partially denied by acting manager Brad Ryan, who contested that “accessory use” is not intended to mean large scale residential occupancy. The bathhouse was permitted.

In Haines Borough code, “accessory use” is defined as “living quarters necessary for caretakers, guards, and overnight employee accommodations.”

“We understand that ‘employee overnight accommodation’ appears to be allowed under the definition of ‘accessory use’…” Ryan wrote in an email to Gaffney, “Staff and commission have taken steps to eliminate this wording from our definition…because we do not believe large-scale residential occupancy is the true intent of accessory use.”

A draft ordinance clarifying employee housing language is pending committee review on Jan. 24.

Commissioners and staff went back and forth about their own interpretations on the number of people indicated in employee overnight accommodations under accessory use. Ultimately, the commissioners voted 5-1 to overturn the manager’s decision with conditions applied. Chair Rob Goldberg was the only member in opposition.

“‘Caretakers and guards’ is a small amount of people, and then the rest of this- ‘employee overnight accommodations’- if I were a lawyer, I’d focus on this word ‘overnight,’” Goldberg said. “Overnight does not imply long-term housing. Overnight, to me, says if you need to have an employee stay there overnight, they could do that.”

Commissioner Sylvia Heinz said that Gaffney’s request should be considered under current code, not held against a new definition of employee housing that hasn’t been adopted.

“If we are considering it as employee housing, then there’s a lot more that needs to be done,” Heinz said. “But if we’re looking at it in code as accessory use then it looks like it complies with the definition of accessory use.”

Additional conditions for AMG’s land use permit include conforming to OSHA regulations, submitting a refuse disposal plan and providing emergency services.

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