According to the visithaines.com website, Haines advertises more than 40 wedding venues, including Chilkat State Park, Chilkoot State Park, Chilkat Valley Golf Links, Chilkat Inlet Retreat, the Cove at Letnikof, Blue Heron House, Oceanside RV Park, the Gathering Place, Hotel Halsingland, Alaska Fjordlines, to name only a few. The people who put forth the petition to prevent event venues in their single-family residential zones are not against weddings and are not a “lynch mob.” They are citizens, property owners, neighbors, even “good hosts” who live in an area that is zoned Rural Residential Mud Bay; residential — not commercial — with cottage industry. An event venue that allows for hundreds of guests is not a cottage industry. (See Haines Borough Code 18.20.020.) When a person purchases a property in an area zoned residential, they are choosing not to live in a neighborhood that includes a noisy event venue without adequate parking for attendees. Nor do they want to live next to a gravel pit, gas station or bar. With hindsight, it would have been smart for the borough to have made the end of Mud Bay Road a park for all to enjoy, but this did not happen. It is a private property that is part of the Mud Bay rural residential zoning (See HBC18.70.030). If zoning regulations are not going to be abided by and enforced, why have them? Social media is not a place to find facts. Take time to read first source documents.
Linda Moyer