Jacob quits fighting for helicopter location

By Bev Pechan

Mike Jacob says enough is enough. He said he really thought when he showed up at a Pennington County Commission meeting this month that he would get approval for his long-awaited conditional use permit for his Black Hills Aerial Adventures helicopter tour business, one of the most popular commercial attractions in the Black Hills. In fact, Jacob said, he even had an assurance from commissioner Nancy Troutman that she was going to vote this time to approve his request.
“I did a lot of work. I wasted a lot of people’s time,” Jacob told the Prevailer last week after seeing his proposal fail one more time. Jacob said he and representatives from the FAA and DOT, plus neighbors sat at the commissioners’ meeting for four and a half hours before their turn came at the end of the commissioners’ agenda only to be turned down again. Jacob has presented his side of the story multiple times, volunteered to make concessions and build noise barriers and offered to open his books and operating procedures to officials to show them that he ran a professional business that was held in high regard by authorities and his customers.
At a public meeting in October, Charlie Johnson of the Pennington County Planning Commission said he had looked over details of Jacob’s operation and had changed his mind favorably toward giving Jacob a green light for use of the property he was considering for purchase on U.S. Highway 16 west of Rockerville. Neighbors weren’t convinced, so Jacob brought in one of his helicopters, giving rides to his skeptics. Later at the same meeting, Jacob talked about his proposed flight pattern and the placement of buildings and construction of buffer zones and tree barriers to control sound.
Several residents in housing areas on both sides of the highway voiced an opinion that having Jacob there would ruin the neighborhood and its home values. Jacob disagreed, but remained low-key. The 6.5 acre parcel is currently zoned for highway service and could be used for a number of businesses which could be more detrimental to the area, Jacob said, which means that another type of business at that site could produce noise and traffic day and night and year-round, whereas his business operats seasonally and at certain hours of the day.
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