Thursday night’s planning commission meeting was well attended, with much time dedicated to public comments concerning the permitting of the River Adventures helipad at 25 miles. Of the dozens of comments directed at the issue, the chamber of commerce was the lone entity speaking in favor of issuing the permit. When the Haines borough sent KHNS the recording of the meeting, the public comments section was missing. 

About fifteen people testified. Many of the speaker’s voices quivered with anger.

25 mile resident and therapist Riley Hall testified that earlier this year, helicopters flew around his neighborhood during a search and rescue operation, and he could not work with his clients over the phone. Nicholas Schatkowski, who is on the Klukwan school advisory board, said excessive noise is well known to interfere with student learning. Thom Ely of Haines listed all the heliports already in use; he and others pleaded to consolidate the operations at the airport. Scott Sunberg, a longtime heliski operator in the valley, spoke against this permit. Justina Hotch of Klukwan questioned whether the planning commission would allow a helipad to be built as near the Haines school and residences as this is to Klukwan school and residences. Morgan Shaw, representing the Chilkat Indian Village, spoke against the helipad. In a letter, Kimberley Strong, president of the Chilkat Indian Village, reminded the Borough government that CIV is a sovereign entity, and requested a government to government dialogue She writes the proposed Heliport threatens the traditional way of life, and the health and wellbeing of the natural environment around us and asks that the application be dismissed. 

The commission proceeded with voting on whether issuing the permit would violate any of eight criteria. These criteria have to be met when issuing any conditional use permit in a general use area. They include assessment of noise impact, having a system in place to deal with oil spills, compliance with existing regulations, and taking community input into serious consideration.

Despite hearing 45 minutes of unanimous community opposition to the permit, the commission  voted three to two to certify that it had given enough consideration to the public process and proceeded to pass a resolution to approve conditional use permit 22-82 to allow Chilkat River Adventures to operate one helicopter from March 1st to April 21st, every day from 8 am to 6 pm from it’s 25 mile location. 

The next item on the agenda was to review the 35% design of the Lutak dock. Public opposition to the current design revolves around the fear that the facility would attract ore truck traffic from the Constantine mine and other mines in the Yukon. Proponents denie the design will allow for such   use, and point out that the federal government will foot most of the bill.

Turnagain Marine Construction representatives presented their design, and commissioners asked technical questions. They enquired about drainage, the gauge of steel that will be used for the metal structures, anticorrosion coatings and load capacity. 

The commission voted to approve Turnagain’s 35% design for the Lutak dock.

The next item on the agenda was repair of the Porcupine road. A stretch of 600’ has been damaged in the flood event of 2020, and FEMA has indicated it would foot the bill of repairs. 

The civil engineering firm proHNS presented different options they have studied. The current   road could be reinforced with boulders or tree trunks, the road could be rerouted to avoid the floodplain, the river itself could be rerouted away from the road through dredging, or access could be provided through a different route, by upgrading Sunshine Mountain Road.

The dredging option was quickly dismissed as too expensive, impactful and uncertain. There was most interest in a blend of rerouting the existing road and reinforcing it along some sections. There was no action required of the planning commission, the presentation was purely for informational purposes.

Also up for consideration, the 95% design for the Beach Road repairs was approved, as well as all the other road maintenance and repair projects on the agenda.

Two seats on the commission are reaching the end of their term, and the commission voted to recommend retaining commissioners Lapham and Goldberg in their current seats.