Cordova Planning Commission approves permit for rental cabin built without a permit

Cordova's Planning Commission approved a conditional use permit Tuesday for a rental cabin on Dan and Devie Scott's property that was built without a building permit and is already being rented short-term, according to the city's staff report.

The permit comes with conditions. The cabin must be connected to city water and sewer by Nov. 2, a deadline Public Works had already set. Both the cabin and the single-family home on the property are on septic systems that the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation has not approved, the staff report says. The permit bars new septic systems and requires the existing one to meet state rules as the city attorney interprets them.

The Scotts' application says the cabin was built for family and friends and "would alleviate the housing shortage here in Cordova in our busy fishing season."

Several commissioners were uneasy. Chair Tania Harrison noted the owners built "without getting a building permit, without getting a conditional use permit." Commissioner Sean Den Adel said he would vote no, pointing to what Public Works and the state were requiring and to the applicants' absence. The Scotts did not attend the meeting.

City Planner Amanda Hadley Coward said enforcement had already pushed the owners to apply, that they had paid fines, and that the permit would give the city a tool to enforce compliance. Without it, Vice Chair Mark Hall said, the owners "can't do anything" and would "have to tear the building down or do something." Turning the permit down would have required the commission to write its own findings, and a 30-day deadline left no time to send it back to staff for more information.

Harrison said she could support approval only as a means of making sure the owners comply. "For the record, this is not how things should be done," she said. The motion passed.

The decision can be appealed to the Board of Adjustment.