After months of hammering out a new contract with the Kenai Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Center over operation of the Kenai Bicentennial Visitors Center, the Kenai City Council Wednesday night approved a separate one-year special use permit for the property the chamber's old headquarters sits is on, next to the visitor center.
Known as the Moosemeat John Cabin, the building was the office of the chamber of commerce until it merged with the convention and visitors bureau in 2012 and moved into the visitors center. The chamber has owned the building since 1975.
Kenai City Attorney Scott Bloom explained why neither a lease nor a longer-term agreement was made.
“This 100-by-100 piece of property is part of a bigger contiguous lot, it’s the entire lot that the Visitor Center resides on,” Bloom said. “So we don't have the ability to lease just a portion of a lot — it would constitute an illegal subdivision.”
He added that special use permits in the new land code currently being crafted will be limited to no longer than one year, and he wanted to maintain that consistency.
The chamber has been allowing the Kenai Historical Society to use the Moose Meat John Cabin during the summer months in conjunction with its Old Town Kenai operations since 2013.