After nearly a year of discussions and public hearings, Alaska’s Alcoholic Beverage Control Board approved two additional restaurant and eating place licenses for Haines.
The board met Feb. 4 and heard more than an hour of public testimony on Haines’ application before spending another hour discussing the borough’s ask for six more licenses, in addition to the three it already has.
Several business owners, Haines Mayor Tom Morphet and Tourism Director Rebecca Hylton testified. In an email, Hylton said she emphasized that the initiative was supported by the community as it passed through the Haines Borough Assembly twice. She said she also highlighted Haines as a Southeast hub community that is actively working to build out its year-round economy.
“This outcome represents progress, but I hope we can continue to advocate for the resources our community needs to thrive,” Hylton wrote.
The board’s vote allows two more businesses in Haines to apply for a beer and wine license, something Alpenglow Woodfired Pizza owner Nolan Woodard has been hoping to do since he first asked the borough to help him navigate a new state regulation process to get one in May of 2024.
The new licenses become available on March 1, and Woodard has been gathering his documentation for weeks in anticipation of that opening date.
“It’s a race, right? Anybody and anyone could apply for these licenses,” Woodard said.
The number of licenses a community can obtain in Alaska is capped according to size; in the case of Haines, restaurant and eating place licenses were capped at two. In the past, individual business owners have been able to petition for a license that would exceed that cap, but last year regulations changed and now boroughs are required to petition the state’s alcohol board for licenses that exceed the community’s cap.
In its first request to the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, Haines sought 10 more licenses but in June the board denied that request and sent it back to the community for more public comment, particularly from existing license-holders. That public comment was divided and contentious.
Liquor license holders, such as Christy Tengs Fowler of the Bamboo Room, said increasing the cap hurts current license-holders as it reduces the resale value of their licenses.
Fowler said her ideal resolution would be for the state to differentiate between community size and location when it comes to beer and wine licenses. In the past, in order to get a license that exceeded the community’s cap, a local business owner would have had to gather signatures for a petition and do the legwork at the community level to get one.
She said she’d like to see the state’s new process stay in place for larger hub communities, and the old one reinstituted for small ones, like Haines.
Still, the resolution to nearly a year of contention brought some relief.
“I finally slept last night,” she said. “Even though, OK, we have a couple more licenses. But one thing is that Haines can’t apply for another year. I can exhale,” she said.
Both she and Woodard said they wanted the friction between community members to end.
“He’s a friend,” Fowler said. “He used to work for me. So, it’s hard to go on these calls and debate people you care about.”