What’s a yurt? Should yurts be allowed in town? The Haines Borough Government Affairs and Services (GAS) Committee recommended a definition and zoning code amendment to the borough planning commission on Tuesday.
The committee’s proposal is to allow yurts in the townsite as a use-by-right in the rural residential and rural mixed use zones but to ban them in all other areas of the townsite. The structures still would be allowed in the Mud Bay, Lutak and General Use zoning districts. The committee recommended that the planning commission take up the question of whether a yurt should count as an accessory use or guesthouse.
In June, citing worries that yurts lower neighboring property values, the planning commission recommended that the borough assembly ban yurts as temporary-use dwellings within the townsite. The assembly referred the issue to the GAS Committee, which in turn created a working group that met on Aug. 5.
“That work group came up with some ideas for a compromise, a meeting in the middle for yurts in the townsite,” said GAS Committee chair Cheryl Stickler. The group was composed of Stickler, borough planner Dave Long and planning commissioners Rob Goldberg and Diana Lapham. “I thought it was important tonight to get these definitions addressed and the ideas that came out of the work group, just so we don’t have to reinvent the wheel,” Stickler said.
Following the working group’s lead, the GAS Committee recommended that code define “yurt” as “a dwelling with a fabric covering over a frame of wood or other material.” That would include teepees and tents. “Container home,” per the committee’s recommendation, would be defined as “a shipping container or Conex that has been converted into a dwelling.”
GAS Committee members pondered sending their recommendation first to a new working group created to address housing issues and development. Borough Mayor Douglas Olerud and borough manager Annette Kreitzer, both members of the working group, which is advisory and hasn’t met yet, said the issue could go straight to the planning commission because group members are already aware of the yurt issue.
The planning commission meets next on Dec. 9.