The Haines Borough is proposing a moratorium on new heliports within 10 miles of existing ones. The assembly did not vote on the resolution Tuesday but instead opted to have a second hearing on the issue due to a lack of public comments.
Borough clerk Alekka Fullerton and manager Annette Kreitzer drafted the resolution in response to the high volume of conditional use permit applications for heliports in the past few years that have caused controversy in affected neighborhoods.
“When Ms. Kreitzer and I sat down to address this, we really thought that we were just putting something out there for discussion. We just made up, for instance, the ten-mile (boundary). We thought that that seemed like a reasonable place to start,” said Fullerton during the assembly meeting.
There are currently eight heliports within a 40-mile highway corridor, including the Haines airport, two used and constructed by Constantine Metals (Big Nugget and Glacier Creek heliports), and two that were grandfathered in before the 2011 code changes, when a CUP was required for a heliport in the General Use Zone.
Fullerton said before the CUP requirement, there were drafts of a master map for appropriate zones for heliports, but the plan didn’t go forward.
Kreitzer said she was shocked to not have received a single public comment on the proposed resolution.
“I was pretty surprised in this way. I think people need to see this and be able to comment on it,” said Kreitzer.
Kreitzer said her main concern at the moment is making sure the moratorium is not misunderstood by federal and state agencies. She said the proposed policy is not meant to hinder those agencies operating within their authorities or cause disruptions to completing their tasks. The resolution is set to have a second public hearing on Oct. 10.