Mud Bay residents submitted a petition to the Haines Borough Assembly requesting a code change to prohibit commercial events in the Mud Bay Rural Residential Zone (MBRRZ), which encompasses much of the Chilkat Peninsula south of Carr’s Cove.
Signed by more than 100 residents, the petition asks that commercial event venues join heliports and resource extraction on the list of prohibited uses in the MBRRZ.
“Mud Bay residents and property owners value the quiet enjoyment of their homes and properties, and clearly stated that they do not want to see the expansion of commercial events in their neighborhoods,” reads a letter submitted with the petition. “Smaller lot sizes and the proximity of residences makes it impossible to guarantee that the rights of residential property owners can be protected if commercial events are allowed.”
The assembly voted 4-2 to send the issue to the code review commission, with assembly members Cheryl Stickler and Gabe Thomas in opposition. Stickler questioned why the issue wouldn’t go to the planning commission, which has long dealt with complaints about commercial events in Mud Bay. Newly elected assembly member Debra Schnabel, who motioned to send the issue to the code review commission, said that commission would be better suited to deal with the language of the zoning code.
Weddings, conferences, retreats and other events are not listed explicitly in code as conditional or prohibited uses in the MBRRZ. But the borough currently permits venues that host such events in the zoning area under the broad category of “commercial enterprise,” a conditional use defined in code as “any commercial, manufacturing, sale or service that occurs on a person’s private property.”
“The fact that an events venue has been permitted under the concept of commercial enterprise does not make sense to me,” said Schnabel, who directed, in her motion, for the code review commission to define “commercial enterprise” and “event venues.”
There are currently three venues in the MBRRZ that host events—Chilkat Inlet Retreat, Echo Ranch Bible Camp and Viking Cove. (Another, Letnikof Pavilion, is in the Mud Bay cannery zone, which wouldn’t be affected by the requested code change, although that venue lost its permit because it doesn’t have a parking lot.) Mud Bay neighbors have long raised concerns about Viking Cove, a vacation rental business that the planning commission has allowed to host events such as weddings.
According to borough clerk Alekka Fullerton, current event venues would be grandfathered in if the assembly changed code as requested by petitioners. It’s unclear what effect the code change would have on Viking Cove, whose permit doesn’t explicitly allow or prohibit events, unlike conditional use permits for other event venues in the MBRRZ.
Mud Bay resident Katey Palmer presented the letter and petition to the assembly on Tuesday. She said the petition followed a lack of response from the planning commission to complaints made over several years by Mud Bay residents about “inappropriate permitting.”
Planning commission member Diana Lapham said there has been, on average, one complaint per year about Viking Cove and that the commission never turned a blind eye. “We have always found there has been no violation,” Lapham said.
In 2017, borough staff cited Viking Cove owners Bill and Kim Chetney for adding vacation rental units beyond their permit’s limit. The Planning Commission initially held that the Chetneys didn’t violate their permit, but reconsidered and ultimately reversed that decision, finding them in violation.
*This story originally referenced a Planning Commission packet from June that stated “complaints (against Viking Cove) have been filed in 2015, 2017, 2019, 2020, and 2021. Each time, the Chetneys have been found NOT to be in violation of their permit.” In fact, the Planning Commission found in 2017 that the Chetneys violated the conditions of their permit, reversing a decision earlier that year that found no violation.