Are you heading to Kenai North Beach beach this summer? After July 2, you could be taking Kenai Beach Street instead of South Spruce Street.
Kenai Vice Mayor Henry Knackstedt is proposing the name change.
“It’s occurred to me, growing up here, trying to describe how to get to the beach, ‘Well, it’s the road to go down to the beach,’” he said during Wednesday’s council meeting. “And I can never remember which one it is.”
He says making the name more descriptive will help locals and visitors alike.
South Spruce Street is used to access the Kenai Little League fields, the Leeshore Center and, as of last month, the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Kenai Peninsula clubhouse. Knackstedt says it was actually the clubhouse that helped inspire the proposed change.
Council member Deborah Sounart says she was also confused about the name after first moving to Kenai.
“I always thought it was kind of ironic that I have to go to a road with the word ‘south’ in it to get to North Beach,” she said. “That was just confusing to me for the first six months here.”
But not everyone thinks the confusion warrants a change. Council member Alex Douthit says he doesn’t think the benefits justify the logistical legwork – like businesses updating their mailing addresses and drivers whose navigational systems may now lead them astray.
“I don't know how much we want to go down this road of renaming things that go to specific entities or places,” he said. “We could have a lot of roads renamed if we decide that there's something at the end of them that we should rename them to.”
Last summer, council members changed the name of a different city road. That was after residents said the street name drew unwanted traffic by suggesting there was a view of Cook Inlet at the end. The road formerly called Cook Inlet View Drive is now just Cook Inlet Drive.
The name change hasn’t actually happened yet. At their Wednesday meeting, council members voted to send the proposal to Kenai’s Planning and Zoning Commission. Only with input from that group will the council hold a vote – scheduled for the first council meeting in July.
A city memo says staff will request comments on the proposal from Kenai’s Public Works, Police and Fire departments, as well as the local post office.
