The Haines Borough Administration building. (Emily Files)
After reviewing a recommendation from the Planning Commission, the Haines Borough Assembly voted to move forward with rezoning plans for South Sawmill Road at a meeting Tuesday. The new zoning designation is intended to align better with the land use needs of the property’s owners, Takshanuk Watershed Council and Professional Property Management.
In May, Takshanuk Watershed Council and Professional Property Management made a petition to rezone all or part of their land near Jones Point from Heavy Industrial to Rural Mixed Use.
In its application to the borough, Takshanuk said the current zoning is preventing the organization from pursuing several goals, including developing trails, and making the area a center for recreation, education, research and conservation.
Their request was sent to the Borough’s planning commission. The commission recommended that the borough deny the request, in part because Rural Mixed Use zoning would allow residences to come into the area. Planning Commission Chair Rob Goldberg said this could lead to conflict.
“When residences come in next to industrial, there’s always conflict. So I think having rural mixed use come into this area is just a recipe for future conflict. And I think it will actually come back to bite the property owners who are there now,” Goldberg said.
The Planning Commission proposed rezoning the properties to Industrial Light Commercial instead. This would allow for uses that fit the needs of the owners while leaving the door open for heavy industrial use to take place with a conditional use permit
While the Planning Commission’s recommendation was approved unanimously, assembly member Brenda Josephson said she was concerned about losing land zoned for heavy industry.
“It’s great that Takshanuk is community minded and they want to make this a recreational site. This was a heavy industrial area. The borough is supposed to protect heavy industrial for heavy industrial,” Josephson said.
Assemblyman Tom Morphet responded saying it’s unfortunate that borough code prevents trail development through heavy industrial areas because he doesn’t think that recreation and industry are mutually exclusive.
“I think there is every reason to believe that waterfront, which is one of the most spectacular spots in our valley, will one day be a park. This is a historic day because maybe we have taken the first step towards that. Does that mean that behind the park or offshore from the park there can’t be some kind of industrial activity going on? No, not at all,” Morphet said.
Josephson also raised doubts about Takshanuk’s capacity to remediate contaminated soil stockpiles on its land.
In the ‘90s, gasoline contaminated soil was transported from the former Haines Tank Farm on Beach Road to the end of Sawmill Road. When Takshanuk took ownership of the property in 2015, they also took on the cleanup of five contaminated stockpiles.
Josephson said that she didn’t want to make any changes to the zoning until this issue was dealt with.
“I would ask the assembly to not let this zoning become enforced until after we’ve got communication from DEC that we’ve got an entity that is in compliance with their regulations,” Josephson said.
Recently Takshanuk missed a deadline to provide a remediation plan for the contaminated piles to the Department of Environmental Conservation.
However, Takshanuk’s Executive Director Meredith Pochardt said that the council received a waiver from DEC for missing the deadline.
“I do understand that we did not meet that deadline, but we have been in constant communication with DEC and did get a written email today extending that deadline because we are pursuing this other funding opportunity to get those piles under remediation,” Pochardt said.
Takshanuk is seeking funds for the stockpile cleanup through the EPA’s Brownfields Program, which helps communities assess, cleanup, and sustainably reuse properties that contain pollutants.
Moving forward an ordinance to rezone the property will be drawn up, and two public hearings will be held on the plans for the site before the change can be implemented.
