Neighbors fear helicopters in backyards

Camilla Siefert's and her neighbor's backyards, with a stand of cottonwoods, has long been assumed to be a buffer between local properties and the airport. Now, a helicopter operation has leased the space. (Photo by Soren Wuerth)

By Soren Wuerth

TNews Editor

When Camilla and Dave Seifert moved into their newly built Girdwood home in 1981, there was only one hangar alongside an airstrip, they could hear chum salmon spashing in the creek and there were no trees behind her house.

"Between 1980 and 1983 everything seemed to be built at the same time," Camilla said recently, referring to the neighborhood by her log home on Lake Tahoe Street.

Seifert pointed to a photo in a gallery of pictures lining a stair case.

"This one shows my daughter and  Rosie Fletcher (who would become an Olympic snowboarder). They were best friends."

Two parka-clad children stand on an  unfinished top floor of the Seifert cabin. 

Beyond lies nothing but snowy mountains, Glacier Creek and a shed.

"The cottonwoods weren't even there," she said, looking out a back toward a stand of trees up to 70 feet high.

And the airport has since expanded. 

Helicopter chatter is so loud, "when we're talking on the back deck, we need to stop talking," Seifert said.

Now, the Sieferts have learned the state transportation has leased a parcel behind her and her neighbor's houses Silverton Mountain Guides for its heliski operation.

The 55-year lease could mean "helicopter operations will be quite literally ten feet from our back doors," Seifert told the Girdwood Board of Supervisors at its recent meeting.

According to the Seiferts and others, Parcel H was never meant to be developed. 

The State didn't have plans for the land to the extent a fence was installed at the airport's southern end, an armor rock wall lining Glacier Creek stops at the fence and a gas line was relocated beside the parcel.

The Seiferts and others said they were under the clear impression the transportation department's airport division never intended to lease the half-acre parcel abutting their backyards.

In an email, the state's Department of Transportation acknowledged it didn't expect to lease the land and that it wasn't until it was given "guidance" from a judge that the DOT opened the parcel for public bid.

In July, 2020 a local pilot frustrated with a lack of tie down and hangar space for his two planes, and hoping to set up an airplane maintenance business, applied to the DOT to lease Parcel H. 

The lease was denied. The applicant, under the title "Crow Creek Holding Company, appealed. The appeal was denied. The company appealed again and, this time, the matter was sent to DOT's commishioner who struck down the appeal and asked its division to begin the process anew only to have the lease denied a third time. 

Last year, the issue was settled by an administrative law judge who ruled the department has to put the parcel up for competitive bid. 

"Crow Creek has expansive plans for how this largely undeveloped land could be used for an aircraft maintenance business, thereby contributing to the airport’s overall development," the ruling concluded.

The decision forced DOT to open the parcel for leasing. Crow Creek Holding bid on the lot along with six others, including Silverton Mountain Guides.

In early October the Seiferts and three of their neighbors received a double-sided letter announcing a proposal to lease airport land. A single-paragraph description with a map said, for just under $2,500 a year, a tenant could put in a hangar at the south end of the airport.

The Seiferts and their neighbors universally rejected the proposal. One neighbor bid on the land himself. 

In January, DOT announced Silverton had won the bid with an offer to pay the state $50,002 annually, according to the DOT.

"This is the story of Girdwood," said the owner of Crow Creek Holding, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "If your a local resident, a blue collar worker, a non-multi-millionaire and you're assuming you can compete in Girdwood you're fooling yourself."

He said he fought with the state through three denied appeals for the only developable parcel available where an "average Joe" can build a hangar.

As for the Seiferts and their neighbors, they "chose to build directly up to the line of a state airport. The state may have said they were giving (them) a buffer but they don't have the legal right to do that."

Silverton did not return calls and emails requesting comment by publication.

But in a post on Girdwood's Facebook page, the company said it would do its "best to work with neighbors" and would "reach out in coming weeks."

The company also said in its post that among the applicants for the lease some "planned high intensity commercial operations" while a Silverton helicopter "only departs the airport once per day as primarily a winter operation."

The DOT's operation manger, Justin Shelby wrote in an email that Silverton still has to undergo a "first-year survey approval process" and "a two-year building permit process" and meet deadlines.

"Silverton’s proposed use and construction will be evaluated during this process. If construction cannot be completed within two years, the lease will be terminated (barring any approved extensions)," Shelby said in an email.

The Seiferts and other neighbors meanwhile worry the value of their homes will drop. 

"We jokingly say we'd sell our house to a pilot--specifically a helicopter pilot," Dave Seifert said.

For her part, Camilla Seifert is organizing with neighbors to resist the development and have martialed the help of state Sen. Cathy Giessel, who has advocated on behalf of community members.

"Do I have to lay down in front of a bulldozer?" Seifert said.