A permit issued for a heliport in a neighborhood 26 miles from Haines has sparked more debate about helicopter use in the borough. One side clamors for the freedom to use their land as they want the other wants freedom from noise pollution. We visited the airstrip, and the neighbors.
It started with a helicopter ride.
George Campbell: “I got a helicopter ride when I was in high school and decided I wanted to fly helicopters.”
George Campbell never got his helicopter license, but he went on to have a career as a plane pilot. He married Lynette, who spent her career managing airports in rural areas. In 2017, they decided to have their own airstrip.
Lynette Campbell: “George has flown since he was 16 years old, that’s his passion. He wanted an area to land his plane. So I did not want him landing on river bars, landing on areas where he could land but probably wasn’t as safe as I would like, and I said ‘why don’t we just buy a piece of land and develop a runway so that you can land safely.”
They bought land 26 miles from Haines, in a neighborhood where they wouldn’t need to obtain a permit to put an airstrip. They got the land in 2017 and started clearing it.
Kevin Stoddard’s house is next to the airstrip.
Stoddard: “He was going to build a runway, and I said yeah that’s all right, if it’s private, he always stressed private.”
The Campbells say they do not want a commercial operation.
Lynette Campbell: “We actually don’t have a business shingle, people have called us and said can we land at your airport, it’s prior permission required. We are not selling fuel, we are not providing any services, it’s a runway with a big hangar.”
But as soon as the airstrip was established the Campbells started receiving requests.
George Campbell: “The airstrip wasn’t even completed and we got a phone call: ‘Help, the state wants DNR to come up and look at some stuff, and we need to pick them up with a helicopter. Can we fly them from your airstrip?’ Yeah, sure, OK, no problem. So they flew that and then a friend of ours called up and said we want to fly a bunch of materials out to our cabin at Chilkat lake, so we can do some work on our cabin’, and we are like yeah, sure, no problem. And so we started getting phone calls.”
George Campbell says they allowed 36 helicopter landings over a two-year period that ended this winter when they received a cease and desist order from the borough. Most of those were associated with a television crew and the nearby constantine mine. Their neighbors filed a complaint about the noise. They claimed the Campbells were operating a heliport illegally, and needed to apply for a conditional use permit.
Hans Baertle lives next within a stone’s throw of the landing site.
Hans Baertle: “I don’t like the idea of living next to a heliport, you don’t know how much traffic it is going to be. I’ve lived next to a heliport in Juneau out North Douglas, and you couldn’t actually sit outside and have a conversation with anybody.”
His wife Natalia, says she has seen less wildlife over the last three years. The dust from the airstrip can be a problem on dry days.
Natralia Baertle: “When we bought this cabin, Lyn and George were talking about a private airport with grass and flowers, one plane, two, it’s OK. It’s not a helicopter. Helicopter, it’s a completely different story. Especially commercial ones. No.”
A few weeks ago, the Planning Commission approved the Campbell’s permit after a similar one was rejected in 2015.Then 21 neighbors got together to file an appeal in front of the borough assembly. The assembly voted against hearing the appeal but agreed to reconsider the conditions associated with the permit.
The heliport owners, George and Lynette Campbell say the appellants represent a small portion of upper valley residents. Their neighbors disagree. In a presentation to the borough assembly, Jessica Plachta, said of the 24 public comments submitted by residents who live within a mile of the airstrip, all but two wrote in opposition to granting a permit for landing helicopters.
The Campbells say they get so little helicopter traffic, their operation does not qualify as a heliport. But when asked if they would serve the heliskiing industry, George Cambell says he is a businessman and therefore would consider it. In the meantime, he is working on expanding his runway by a thousand feet. He put a log bridge over a salmon stream, and is working on getting the appropriate permits. And he is suing the borough to overturn the cease and desist order he received this winter.
Plachta says the Campbells should have expected resistance from the neighborhood.
Plachta: “Mr. Campbell was serving on the Haines Borough Assembly in 2015 when the planning commission and assembly denied a conditional use permit for a heliport because it didn’t meet the requirements of borough code. Mr. Campbell knew long before he bought the property that the neighborhood didn’t want a heliport degrading our lives and property values. And that it didn’t meet the requirements of borough law. We are just asking the borough to uphold its own laws, and treat its citizens fairly.”
Heliports are a sensitive and recurring issue in the area. Erika Merklin, who lives across the street from the new heliport, expresses a widely shared feeling.
Merklin: “I feel exhausted by this, I feel really upset that our voices are not truly being considered.”
Her neighbor Maria Paquet agrees.
Packet: “It does seem to be that the borough and its officials are disregarding this well established neighborhood. George has only started this business in 2017, most of us have been here more than 20 years.”
The assembly will soon review the conditions of their conditional use permit. The Campbells’ appeal to their cease and desist order has yet to be heard. And the residents are talking about suing the borough to overturn the permit issuance.
