Four hours before the Haines Borough Planning Commission was set to hear a conditional use permit application for a heliport at 26 Mile, the applicant Big Salmon Ventures withdrew the application, citing lack of commissioners at the meeting.

In 2011, the Planning Commission denied Big Salmon Ventures’ heli-port application. In 2014, they approved a one-year permit while the borough conducted a noise study in the area, and ultimately denied it a year later. The company appealed the decision, which went all the way to the superior court, where the commission decision was upheld.

Big Salmon Ventures applied again for the same permit in 2019, which was set to be heard by the planning commision on Thursday.

Company owner Scott Sundberg said that he knew there wouldn’t be a full commission present on Thursday and didn’t want to risk a tie vote. Commission chair Don Turner III had resigned the day before the meeting due to frustration, and commissioner Rob Goldberg was out of town, though he called into the meeting.

“It has enough history that had (the planning commission) decided to make a decision and it was a tie, I didn’t want to go through the appeals process,” Sundberg said. “You have to have a full commission.”

The proposed heliport is in the general use zone, which requires conditional use permitting.

Sundberg said that substantial changes in the proposed area allowed for the application to be brought back.

In the time since the first two applications, the area has become more industrial, according to borough records. Adjacent subdivisions have since developed a commercial airstrip, a marijuana cultivation business and 4,000 acres of University of Alaska lands are slated for timber removal in the next decade.

Commissioner Rob Goldberg proposed imposing a penalty for last minute withdrawal of an application.

“I think there should be some consequence for an applicant withdrawing their application for conditional use permit at the last moment and citing that the reason is because not enough commissioners are in attendance to get the result that they want. I think this is gaming the system and wasting a lot of time,” Goldberg said. “There was a huge amount of reading material.”

Commissioners were tasked with reading an 81-page document to prepare for the decision.

Commissioners Diana Lapham and Lee Heinmiller agreed. Longtime commissioner Heinmiller said that this is not the first time an applicant has pulled out of a hearing in the eleventh hour.

Chair Sylvia Heinz asked borough planner Holly Smith to look into a penalty to deter future applicants from last minute permit removal.

Sundberg said his company intends to have the permit heard with a new application before next heli-ski season once a seventh commissioner has been reinstated.

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