An order from the borough manager to cease and desist heliport operations at Airkat Airpark was delivered to George and Lynnette Campbell last month. The private airstrip at 26 Mile of Haines Highway was ordered to shut down until a conditional use permit (CUP) was granted. The Campbells appealed the action to the borough’s planning commission on Thursday, a request which was denied by a majority vote.

Commissioners Diana Lapham, Richard Clement, Travis Eckhoff, Justin Mitman, and Don Turner Jr., voted to uphold the cease and desist order. Commissioner Zack Ferrin was opposed.

Lapham said that the Campbell's “situation is no different from Chilkat River Adventures,” and that she needed to uphold borough code.

“You are in a general use area,” Lapham said. “You have a landing strip. You have had helicopter usage on that landing strip. You need a conditional use permit, per code.”

Airkat has serviced 24 helicopter trips for Raw TV, six trips for Constantine Mining LLC, and six private landings in the last two years. Haines Borough code requires a CUP to be granted by the planning commission to operate a heliport in a general use zone. Airkat, near 26 Mile Haines Highway, is in a general use zone.

Lynnette Campbell said the airpark was designed for fixed-wing aircraft, not helicopters.

“We do not want to be a heliport, we haven’t said we want to be a heliport,” Lynnette Campbell said. “If you look at our plat, we have a long, thin parcel which is developed flat for fixed-wing aircraft. In all of our FAA materials, we don't talk about a heliport or helipad... We may have pointed to an area to say that that’s a safe place for you to land. It's not much different than a wide spot in the highway that was developed flat and level, and someone pointing there and saying, ‘there's a place to land’.”

George Campbell told the commission that the heart of the discussion is the definition of a ‘routine operation.' Code defines a heliport as “a use or designated site for the routine commercial or private general operations, landing, takeoff, parking, storage, fueling and/or maintenance of helicopters.”

“Is one helicopter landing a heliport? Does it require a heliport to have one helicopter landing in our borough? What if there’s two helicopter landings there? What if there’s four? That seems to be a lot of the strife in our community is that we have this heliport, but nobody has stepped out to say this is the level which is a heliport,” George Campbell said. “If one landing makes it a heliport, that means every single fish and game landing in our borough, every time they fly to a communications site or anybody's flying by the borough and needs to land to stretch their legs, you now have to have a conditional use permit for that.”

Borough manager Annette Kreitzer said that because the area is in a general use zone, a CUP is required.

“You have helicopters landing at an established runway,” Kreitzer said. “We don't have a definition of ‘routine’. We have to go to the dictionary, which says something repeated. I believe it's been repeated enough that you should apply for a conditional use permit if it's required in this zone.”

The planning commission also approved permits for three vacation rentals, as well as a conditional use permit for Highlands Estates Inc.

In December, the planning commission approved a CUP for a Chilkat River Adventures heliport at 24 Mile of Haines Highway. The decision sparked opposition from residents that lived in the area, the Chilkat Indian Village of Klukwan, the Klukwan school advisory board and Lynn Canal Conservation. Five appeals were submitted to the assembly regarding the permit’s approval. The borough assembly overturned the planning commission’s decision on Jan 26.