Halasta Sense LLC urges reversal of AR 2025-12s, outlines HVAC repairs and new MOU at Anchorage Assembly work session

Halasta Sense LLC asked the Anchorage Assembly on April 2 to reverse a prior municipal action and to consider an alternative resolution, arguing that earlier findings were vague, procedurally unfair and had stigmatized the business.

The request came during a fact-finding work session convened at 12:45 p.m. in which petitioner counsel Rachel Lawson told the Assembly that the company has completed an interim fix to the top floor ventilation, expects the bottom-floor interim repair to be finished this week, has applied for permits for a permanent repair and has instituted a proactive twice-daily air-balancing check.

Lawson, an attorney with the Lawson Law team representing Halasta Sense LLC, framed the petition in three parts: a conditional protest tied to vandalism that damaged the firm’s ventilation system, a challenge to statements in AR 2025-24 about odor complaints, and a request that AR 2025-12s be reversed. She told the Assembly that a conditionally filed protest followed municipal and AMCO (Alcohol & Marijuana Control Office) actions: “This is a stigmatizing document that, that, you know, ended up in a, possible deprivation of our protected first of all, our constitutionally protected reputation and, second of all, constitutionally protected business interests,” Lawson said.

Lawson said the business’s position includes contested factual points from 2024 and that municipal land-use and AMCO investigations had found complaints “unsubstantiated and unfounded.” She said the firm is negotiating with its insurance carrier over parts and repairs, and that some HVAC parts have been sourced but not yet ordered because of coverage disputes. Lawson described steps the business has taken to reduce neighborhood impacts: “we are proactively twice daily, checking the air balancing,” she said, and noted the petitioner has proposed an updated memorandum of understanding with the Midtown Community Council to add protocols for smell concerns.

Assembly members asked for factual clarifications. Assembly Member Brockley pressed whether permanent equipment had been ordered; Lawson said parts had been sourced and permits requested but payment and ordering were contingent on insurance resolution. The petitioner also said it had discussed a new MOU at a meeting two days earlier attended by the Midtown Community Council and the municipal ombudsman.

Petitioner counsel challenged the municipality’s record of community positions on the renewal. Lawson cited the Midtown Community Council’s bylaws and said she found no record that the council had properly voted to take a position on Halasta Sense’s license renewal; she asked the Assembly to consider whether statements in AR 2025-24 relied on council positions that were not formally adopted.

The session also covered procedural concerns about ex parte communications and the limits on Assembly members’ contacts before an item is formally before the body. Assembly counsel explained that the prohibition on ex parte communications generally “can't attach until the item is set for you to take it up,” and that it would be impractical to bar all community engagement before an item first appears on an agenda. The chair, Christopher Constant, reiterated the work-session purpose: “our work sessions are not opportunities for debate… They are opportunities for gathering facts before we can be in the hearing and take action.”

No formal vote or final decision occurred at the April 2 session. Lawson and the petitioner said AMCO has tabled review of the state cultivation license pending the municipality’s decision. Chair Constant and counsel said unresolved legal questions – including whether dense industrial odors can be characterized as a threat to public health or welfare under state law – would require later research and would not be resolved on the record at the work session.

The Assembly is scheduled to consider the matter at a subsequent meeting on April 8, at which the petitioner’s ex parte disclosures and the alternative AR document will be part of the record, the chair said.