Postpones Mud Bay petition vote
The assembly Tuesday rejected 2-4 a motion by member Debra Schnabel to raise property taxes by .21 mills to increase funding to the Haines Sheldon Museum.
Member Tyler Huling also supported Schnabel’s proposal. Members Paul Rogers, Cheryl Stickler, Gabe Thomas and Catie Kirby opposed the motion.
Schnabel said, estimating conservatively, the increase could raise at least $63,000 that could help pay for a curator position museum board members say they can’t afford to fund with the budget as it stands.
The assembly held its first public hearing of the budget. The second public hearing is scheduled for May 24 and the budget could be adopted as early as that date. The budget includes increased sales and property tax revenues, reduced state and federal funding and a 2% staff wage increase that could be more depending on how the borough’s collective bargaining agreement resolves.
Swimming pool users lobbied borough staff to keep the pool open through May after an original scheduled closure beginning May 7.
The assembly voted to postpone a vote that would prohibit commercial events as a conditional use in the Mud Bay Rural Residential Zone after Huling made a motion to prohibit commercial events in the residential area.
More than 100 residents signed a petition last year requesting the change to code and many spoke during the meeting. The Planning Commission voted last month to allow commercial events as a conditional use. Patti Kermoian helped organize the petition and spoke on Tuesday.
“Large commercial events should be prohibited because they are incompatible with the purposes of the Mud Bay residential zone,” she said.
“Commercial events” are defined as “including but not limited to weddings, reunions, retreats, performances and conferences” in the draft ordinance.
Deborah Marshall said she belongs to a group of Mud Bay residents who oppose the code change and felt compelled to speak up. She encouraged the borough to better enforce current code rather than change it.
“I don’t share my neighbors’ fears that our neighborhood will become a commercial events capital,” she said.
Huling said prohibiting commercial events was a proactive step to represent the interests of the residents and preserve the lifestyle the code aims to protect in the event the area becomes more populated.
“There’s a lot of people with a lot of money that are going to want some of it,” Huling said of the land in the area.
Thomas said some residents already think people have changed the area and said he wanted to hear from more residents opposed to the proposal.
Stickler said she’d also like to give more opportunity for public comment before she voted on Huling’s amendment.
“If no further testimony comes forward that opposes this, then I will be hard pressed to not pass this ordinance with assemblywoman Huling’s amendment because I respect that democratic process,” she said.
The assembly will hold an additional public hearing and vote on Huling’s amendment at its May 24 meeting.
Current event venues, Chilkat Inlet Retreat and Echo Ranch Bible Camp, would be grandfathered in if the assembly changes code as requested by petitioners under the broad category of “commercial enterprise.” 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 zone.