Wasilla Lake dock denied

April 4, 2006

MARY AMES

Frontiersman reporter

WASILLA - After his expansion plans were shot down, a Valley man who has run an air charter business for 14 years, including nine years at the Wasilla airport, apologized to the 40 or so people who came to the planning commission meeting Tuesday night.

The meeting never had to happen, said Dave Glenn, who owns Grasshopper Aviation.

Glenn wanted to build a floatplane dock by the Fred Meyer shoreline, add one or two floatplanes and pilots to his one-man operation, and fly tourists from Wasilla Lake.

&#8220This is good use of a heavily commercialized zone,” Glenn told the commissioners. &#8220Alaska is plane country. There are 137 airstrips in the area, one for every 400 people.”

Some of the commissioners agreed with Glenn. A few people in the audience voiced support for the project. But most speakers stated their opposition to the project because when Fred Meyer applied for the conditional-use permit to build the Wasilla store, the corporation promised a commercial float dock would not ever be built.

Glenn addressed concerns about fuel polluting the lake, saying he was in the oil spill business for years, and knows better than anyone that the best way to handle a spill is to never have one. He said his planes have fuel-water separators in the crankcase and don't leak oil. The static discharge from airplanes mandates no av-gas spills, he said.

&#8220Within 300 feet there is a gas station with thousands of gallons of gasoline,” Glenn said. &#8220Millions and millions of gallons of gas go up and down the Parks Highway in trucks and rail tankers every year.”

Glenn spoke about keeping the lake habitable for grebes, loons and other wildlife.

&#8220Fifty percent of my business is tourists,” he said. &#8220These critters are my bread and butter.”

Glenn even addressed the recurrent theme raised by almost everyone who objected to his plan, that Fred Meyer broke many of the promises made to the citizens of Wasilla in order to get a conditional-use permit to build the store. Never having a floatplane dock on the lake was one promise they could still demand the store keep.

Everybody hates Fred Meyer,” Glenn said after listening to more than an hour of public testimony. &#8220Let's not cloud the issue because of hatred of Fred Meyer.”

Ultimately, the matter came down to the fact that the use of a commercial floatplane dock is not allowed under Fred Meyer's conditional-use permit, something Sandra Garley, city planner, told the commissioners at the beginning of the meeting. Glenn's proposal would violate the permit as it is written, Garley said.

Even the commissioners who supported Glenn's proposal said their hands were tied because of the permit. Until that permit is amended, they had to vote no.

&#8220I support what he is doing, and I hope he does it,” commission chair Stan Tucker said. &#8220But I personally believe Fred Meyer has to take responsibility. The original use permit problem should be solved by Fred Meyer.”

After his apology, Glenn asked why he wasn't told right away he couldn't base an air charter business there.

&#8220Who's responsible?” Glenn said. &#8220We didn't have to do this. You had the conditional-use permit in your possession. I would have withdrawn. It's an abuse of public process.”

Garley and Tucker said that because Glenn made the proposal, city code dictated a public hearing on the matter.

&#8220She had certain things to deal with once you made the application,” Tucker said.

The commission voted down the plan unanimously.

&#8220She should have called me,” Glenn said after the meeting. &#8220This put me and a lot of people out tonight.”

Contact Mary Ames at

352-2282 or mary.ames@

frontiersman.com.