Soldotna City Council members are preparing to vote on two ordinances that would dramatically change the zoning landscape of properties along the Kenai River. Passage would mean a major step forward for the so-called Soldotna Riverfront Redevelopment Project, which imagines a walkable commercial district between the river and the Sterling Highway.
The council has been wary of making big changes for the project. It’s been almost four years since the city received $360,000 from the federal government to map out the project. Last summer, the group delayed voting on the two ordinances, with the goal of doing more public outreach and gathering more information.
Now, the pair of ordinances is back before them. The first creates a new zone type – the Riverfront Mixed-Use Zoning District. The second rezones the 50-acre project area as Riverfront Mixed-Use from commercial. The new zone is stricter about what types of businesses can set up shop in the area to those that align with
Linda Mitchell is Soldotna’s director of planning and economic development. She facilitated a work session last week to review the proposed changes and share a new economic perspective with city council members.
“The last meeting that we had with city council was back in September and your council had asked staff to come back and address some outstanding concerns,” she said.
Those concerns included the long-term city tax implications, what happens to existing buildings that don’t comply with the new zoning laws and whether there’s been adequate time for public input.
Mitchell says her office has worked to address those concerns. The city has mailed informational postcards to property owners and tenants and held a public open house. And the city council has held work sessions and public hearings on supporting legislation.
Beyond calling each property owner, Mitchell says she’s not sure what else they can or should do.
“I think we’re right back to where we are right now where we’re not getting many comments back,” she said.
Mitchell also brought in Cassidi Cameron, the executive director of the Kenai Peninsula Economic Development District to brief the council on the project’s financial implications. She says adding a few tall buildings instead of spread out, single-story buildings would make the project more financially valuable.
Cameron says some analyses compare the idea to putting dollar bills on a table.
“Let's say you have all of these one dollar bills and you ask your son to put the one dollar bills all along the table and he spreads them out and then you ask him to spread out another layer and another layer,” she said. “If you're building up, you can put more dollars on the table.”
But Soldotna City Manager Janette Bower says the project isn’t all about the money.
“There would be revenue we receive – revenue through sales tax for the city, but, you know, a lot the – most of the focus of the plan involves quality of life,” Bower said.
At the end of the work session, council member Dave Carey said he still doesn’t support moving forward with the rezone. And he’s unconvinced that sluggish public comments mean people are happy about, or even interested in, the development.
“I don’t see people jumping up and down and saying, ‘Do this,’” Carey said.
Soldotna council members will consider both ordinances at their meeting next week. More information about the riverfront redevelopment project can be found on the project website.
