Haines, Alaska. (Bruce Barrett/Flickr Creative Commons)

Haines, Alaska. (Bruce Barrett/Flickr Creative Commons)

The Haines Planning Commission is not interested in expanding the borough’s boundaries – at least not right now.

The assembly asked the group to consider annexing other nearby areas to generate extra revenue.

Planner Rob Miller said it needs to be clear what kind of money could be brought in from borough expansion.

“I’m not going to be looking on this idea with much favor until somebody shows me what as a borough we could reasonably expect as revenue,” said Miller.

Interim manager Brad Ryan brought up the idea at an April assembly meeting. He said expanding borough boundaries could mean extra money for Haines through payment in-lieu-of taxes.

One suggestion he had was to move toward Glacier Bay.

The city and borough of Juneau is considering expanding its boundaries on Admiralty Island.

But none of the Haines commissioners were enthusiastic about the idea. Brenda Josephson said it could be an arduous process.

“I think this is something that could be a long course, I think attorneys could get really rich on it,” said Josephson. “I think that it’s going to consume a lot of people’s time, staff, local boundaries commission, and I’m not supportive of pursuing this further.”

And chair Rob Goldberg said it could create tension with nearby areas.

“I can’t think of one situation where one small community said ‘yeah, annex us!’ It just doesn’t happen. And it just creates more contention between people,” said Goldberg.

The commission did not take any action on the idea.