In a special meeting held Wednesday, Jan. 31, the Homer Planning Commission passed a majority 6-1 vote against approving Doyon, Limited’s application for a conditional use permit to develop the former Lighthouse Village site.
When the Doyon proposal to build a large hotel and a dense housing complex was first announced it immediately brought back memories of the history of that area. Seared in my mind is the image of the crumpled Ryan Air Beechcraft 1900C that took the lives of 18 souls on Nov. 23, 1987. It came to rest about 500 feet from the proposed hotel site. Several other fatal and non-fatal accidents have occurred near the airport and the Beluga Lake seaplane base. Among those was the crash of a Cessna 206 returning from Bradley Lake on March 19, 1991, killing all four on board. The pilot lost visual reference during a small snow squall and crashed in Mud Bay short of the runway.
City code permits allows a developer to create a planned unit development (PUD) with “flexibility” in restrictions or guidelines in code or the Comprehensive Plan most projects must follow. In other words, it is a giant loophole for developers.