Residents of Lincoln Tuesday night were given the chance to weigh in on Beta Technologies founder Kyle Clark’s plans to build an airstrip at his house.
Opponents outnumbered supporters two-to-one among about a dozen people who spoke at the Zoning Board of Adjustment hearing.
Lifelong Lincoln resident Stephanie Atkins, whose property abuts Clark’s, asked Clark whether he would be flying at about 500 feet over her property as he comes in for landings. He confirmed that he would.
“So that directly affects us,” Atkins said. “We have a farm. We have animals.”
Atkins asked Clark if he would be flying in four or five times a week if he could.
“Definitely,” he replied.
“This is going to be high traffic,” Atkins said. “We had a nice aerial show last Monday evening of Kyle doing loops and flying over our property.”
The town previously granted Clark a permit to build a 60-foot-wide, 1,500-foot-long, grass landing strip, but reopened the case after a neighbor appealed.
Atkins and another resident objected to the application on the grounds that the zoning administrator had not performed a site visit prior to issuing Clark a permit for the airstrip.
Marilyn Ganahl, whose property also borders Clark’s, filed the appeal that has prompted the board to reconsider the airstrip application. She testified that Clark flew near her property “as an act of intimidation.”
“He definitely went below 500 feet,” Ganahl said. “It did intimidate me.”
Clark, who was present at the hearing and did answer questions from Atkins, did not respond to Ganahl as she did not ask him any questions.
If Clark is granted his airstrip, Ganahl said, “it would feel like I have wasted 18 years trying to create a sanctuary in the mountains where you think you can have privacy and seclusion and solitude and support wildlife. If I wanted to live near a freaking airport I would be in Williston.”
At least one family is divided over Clark’s proposed airstrip.
Roger Rood testified that Clark once landed a helicopter on his landing strip without Rood’s permission. When Clark’s son came to pick him up, Rood said he told him that the helicopter was not welcome. Later, Rood said, an airplane landed. Rood said he left a note on the plane saying that the airplane was not welcome.
“Knowing that I own the land and did not want an aircraft landing there, I don’t think that showed respect,” Rood said.
But Rood’s niece, Jenn Buker, countered that Clark told her he had tried several times to talk to Rood.
“I just want you to know that Kyle did try to reach out and speak to you,” Buker told Rood.
Another supporter of Clark’s, Erin Malone, a part-time resident of Lincoln, said she has known Clark’s wife, Katie, for 35 years and Clark for 28 years.
“The Clarks’ project will allow them to use their property in Lincoln as they wish,” Malone said.
Board members spent the first hour of the nearly three hours devoted to Clark’s airstrip Tuesday night trying to decide whether to allow a former neighbor of Clark’s in Underhill, Sandy Murphy, to testify. At a previous meeting on June 15, Claudine Safar, an attorney representing Ganahl, said she wanted Murphy to testify about alleged harassment on Clark’s part after Murphy complained that he was flying over her property.
In the end, the board decided not to let Murphy testify, arguing that only interested parties in Lincoln should be allowed a say. Murphy did post in the Zoom meeting’s chat function that Clark flew so low over her property that she could read the tail numbers on his aircraft.
The Board will resume the hearing on Aug. 8 to allow Clark’s attorneys to ask additional questions of Clark.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled Claudine Safar’s name.
