Chilkat Valley News reporter Will Steinfeld sat down with KHNS news director Melinda Munson to talk about the upcoming Haines Borough Assembly meeting.

Melinda Munson: Will, let’s start by talking about what you’re doing in Juneau right now.

Will Steinfeld: I’ll be here for a month, and I’m covering the state legislature while they’re in session. So I’ll be still writing for the Chilkat Valley News but bringing you some coverage from the capital.

It is a hefty agenda for the meeting this Tuesday. There’s just no other way to describe it. Is this going to be the second hearing for the bulk ore containerization ordinance?

This is. We have the second hearing for bulk ore. And then, kind of related, we have a first public hearing for severance tax. And both of these are regulations that are kind of dealing with trying to regulate heavy industry in some way. So if industries like logging or mining come to the valley, the Assembly is trying to get on the books some way to get money back from that, or put in environmental protections. Otherwise, be prepared as the assembly members have put it.

And then that leads into the other hefty agenda item, which is a “Safety Belt” ordinance. Which again is a – what is the word I’m looking for –  preemptive ordinance. Tell us about that.

All of a sudden there’s this whole spate of these types of regulations. And what I’m watching here is the severance tax and the Safety Belt are actually advancing on kind of separate tracks. 

So the severance tax comes from the Assembly’s Commerce Committee, and then the Safety Belt comes from Assembly Members Forster and Thomas. They have overlap. Safety Belt has a payment in lieu of tax. Safety Belt discusses some of the things that severance tax would do. So, there’s a chance that maybe they’ll decide to fold these together, or drop one and keep the other. It’s unclear right now, so we’ll see what they decide to do, or maybe they’ll advance with both. 

The accessory dwelling unit ordinance is up for a second hearing. Can you give me an idea of the public feedback it received last time?

There hasn’t been too much public feedback yet on this, especially compared to the last time this issue was heard in front of the Assembly last year. In fact, last year the feedback was so great from residents of Mud Bay in particular, that the borough’s decision makers at the Planning Commission actually decided to exempt Lutak and Mud Bay from this.

…This time, Lutak and Mud Bay are back in there. If this passes, then accessory dwelling units would be generally allowed in both neighborhoods. So we’ll see if that gets people out to public comment.

And what are the parameters that are being proposed in this updated ADU ordinance?

As it stands right now, you’re allowed to have an accessory apartment, which is basically a small apartment on your property. It would replace that with an accessory dwelling unit, which you can rent out. It has slightly different parameters. 

The purpose of this is to allow people to have these small units in their backyards or attached to their homes, to increase the housing supply. 

This version of the bill has introduced a lot of stipulations that address some of the concerns that came up last year. You would have to have at least one off-road parking spot, if you were to build one of these. There’s a max height limit. You would have to get a conditional use permit if your lot is very small, if it’s under 10,000 square feet.

And I imagine a large portion of Tuesday’s meeting will be taken up with the Campbell appeal. Why don’t you give us a rundown of what that could look like?

The mayor last meeting was issuing ominous warnings about this potentially being a two day meeting, so it could go long, in large part because of this appeal. The Assembly is going to be reviewing a Planning Commission decision where the Planning Commission denied a new conditional use permit for George and Lynette Campbell’s helicopter use at their airstrip at 26 Mile. 

So what the Assembly can do here, at least according to the borough manager, is they can confirm the Planning Commission’s decision, they can overturn it, or they could change specific conditions for this permit. 

The Campbell’s dispute that. They say that according to past litigation, court decisions, the borough’s own decisions, what the Assembly should be doing is only reviewing permit conditions. And they say they should have permission to land helicopters at their property.

Will, thanks for joining us, and we’ll see you back in Haines soon.

Yep, can’t wait. Thanks for having me.