South Dakota: Businessman asks again to build helipad near Rockerville

Michael Jacob, owner of Black Hills Aerial Adventures, stands with a helicopter at the Highway 16 location south of Hill City on Thursday, March 24, 2011. Jacob also owns Rushmore Helicopters, the helicopter tour business based out of Keystone. He is looking to move the Keystone business to Rockerville, but zoning, noise and traffic issues may prevent the move.

(Kristina Barker/Journal staff)

A local businessman has resubmitted his request to build a helipad off U.S. Highway 16 near Rockerville, five months after the Pennington County Commission rejected the proposal.

Michael Jacob filed a new request for a conditional use permit Sept. 29 with the Pennington County Planning and Zoning office.

Jacob wants to build a helipad at the Rockerville location for his helicopter tour business. He provides aerial tours of Mount Rushmore National Memorial and the Black Hills from a Keystone heliport, but has faced opposition from neighbors there.

People living around the proposed Rockerville location have repeatedly urged the Pennington County Commission to reject Jacob's request, citing concerns over noise and safety concerns.

Jacob said those concerns are overblown. He said his helipad in Custer County has drawn few complaints from neighbors, and he offered to pay for road improvements to mitigate traffic concerns.

He also said the move would promote economic development.

But the Pennington County Commission sided with the Rockerville area residents and rejected Jacob's conditional use permit in May.

Since that time, Jacob has talked to several county commissioners and invited them to view his existing operations.

Commissioners Ken Davis and Ron Buskerud, who both voted against granting conditional use permit, said they had both visited Jacob's heliport at his invitation.

"I understood he was going to resubmit it some time," Buskerud said.

But commissioner Nancy Trautman, who supported Jacob’s request earlier this year, said she hadn’t heard from him since the vote and was surprised to hear he had reapplied.

Dan Jennisen, the county planning director, said the conditional use permit application is unchanged from the version rejected in May.

Buskerud said he is open to reconsidering his vote, but would have to be persuaded.

"I'd have to see some road improvements and check out the noise before I'd change my vote," he said.

Davis said he still believes the Rockerville location isn't a good spot for a helipad.

Jacob could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Local residents said they will oppose the new request.

"I'm not happy that he's going to try helicopters out of Rockerville again," said Ron Kesterson, who lives half a mile from the proposed site. "I thought we had put this to bed, but apparently we hadn't. We're going to come together as a community and oppose this at the county level again."

The conditional use permit application is scheduled to be considered by the county planning commission on Oct. 24.

Jennisen said he expects whatever the planning commission decides to be appealed to the full county commission, which would take up the question on either Nov. 1 or Nov. 15.

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