Roger Schnabel is set to become the second commercial concrete producer in the Chilkat Valley after receiving a permit this week from the borough’s planning commission.
Schnabel has been producing limited amounts of concrete near Major Road where he is building the new Hilltop Subdivision. Schnabel now plans to produce concrete using the plant not just for private construction, but also for commercial sale. Currently, there is only one company, Southeast Roadbuilders, producing concrete in the Chilkat Valley.
Adding a second seller has some support. At Tuesday’s planning commission meeting, Haines Industrial owner Haynes Tormey said he thought it could “stabilize the market” for concrete going forward.
There were, however, some hiccups with Schnabel’s permitting. Schnabel had hoped to begin his first year of commercial production where the plant is currently located off Major Road. After that year, his permit application said, he would relocate the plant.
But the Major Road property is not zoned for commercial production, and the existing concrete production had only been allowed because it was going solely to Schnabel’s construction project.
Instead, planning commissioners voted to approve a second permit — a “backup permit” submitted by Schnabel — allowing him to instead produce concrete on industrially zoned land near the bottom of Piedad Road.
That Piedad tract is the lone heavy industrial zoning in the Haines townsite outside of land at the airport. But, Schnabel argued, it’s less suitable for heavy industry than the Major Road site, particularly due to its proximity to wetlands and Sawmill Creek.
“Anybody that cares about protecting the fisheries, you don’t want to threaten them with a heavy industrial facility in the middle of a fish creek,” Schnabel said Wednesday.
Meanwhile, he told planning commissioners, the Major Road site is surrounded by three sawmills and separated from residential neighborhoods, which in his eyes meant the site was functionally already used for industrial purposes.
Schnabel will also face costs in moving the plant, and an increased delay in getting concrete to market. He did not say how much moving the plant will cost, or when exactly he anticipates making the move.
Planning commissioners seemed sympathetic to the argument, but said they were “handcuffed” by borough code prohibiting commercial concrete production on the specific Major Road property.
“I feel bad splitting hairs given plants nearby but I think there’s no grounds for breaking law to approve this,” said commissioner Rachel Saitzyk. “But I’m in support of a batching plant and look forward to saying as much in the next permit application.”