Fifty acres of property along the Kenai River in Soldotna will stay commercially zoned. That’s after the Soldotna City Council last week killed a pair of related zoning ordinances as part of its Riverfront Redevelopment Project. During debate, council members weighed the city’s economic and quality-of-life opportunities with the wishes of property owners.
Rezone supporters said it would have been just the first step in the city’s larger effort to redevelop its waterfront area. But opponents like council member Dave Carey pointed to new restrictions on business owners and community resistance.
“I'm not ready to support this,” he said. “I've heard from people who live there now, who’ve lived there, who are opposed to this, and that, to me, is the stronger voice I want to listen to and want to represent.”
Two ordinances were up for consideration. The first would have created a new type of city zoning, riverfront mixed-use. The second would have applied to the roughly 50-acre project area. The ordinances first went before the council last year, but members delayed action to gather more information.
The city received federal money to start planning the project almost four years ago. The idea was to create a walkable main street in Soldotna, parallel to the Kenai River. The final plan envisioned a public market hall, mixed-use buildings and trails, with the goal of cementing a sense of community and identity for Soldotna.
Soldotna Vice Mayor Lisa Parker says the rezone is an important step in that effort.
“The riverfront development plan is something that I support. I know it is a long-term plan,” she said. “And in order for the plan to start to come together, first you've got to identify, what type of businesses do you want within this area? And that is what is being proposed.”
The proposed riverfront mixed-use, or RMU, zoning is more restrictive than the existing commercial zone. The mixed-use zone would still have allowed concert halls, restaurants, banks and museums, for example. But it would not have allowed gas stations, churches, campgrounds, nursing homes or lumberyards, to name a few – even with a special permit.
Existing businesses would have been allowed to continue operating, but could not expand.
That’s a problem for Brian Bishop. He manages the River Terrace RV Park in the project area. He says he and the property owner have thought about expanding. A few years ago, the park evicted nearly all of its long-term residents that the owner said was unrelated to the proposed development project.
“I believe the RMU reduces the economic opportunity of our property value for the public benefit of others,” Bishop said. “I feel that this is – the public benefit is being prioritized over landowner rights. If the issue were safety or public health, I could get behind it, but it seems to me to resolve more around aesthetics and revenue.”
Council member Linda Farnsworth-Hutchings has the same concerns. She said the changes were “too much too soon” and likened them to eminent domain.
“I also have a problem with us feeling like we can tell property owners what they can do with their property when they have bought that property, they have improved on that property,” she said.
Through amendments, Parker, the vice mayor, said she tried to take out its “controversial” parts. And council member Jordan Chilson said he was actively working on a companion ordinance to address some of the community’s lingering concerns.
“I think we're making a good faith effort to try to, you know, thread that needle and find compromise with this and protect our existing business owners,” he said.
But council member Chera Wackler still felt passing the ordinances now could do more harm than good.
“If we want public-private partnerships to create more walkable areas in Soldotna, possibly moving forward with this today might inhibit some of that goodwill with landowners and the public,” she said.
The council came down 3-2 against creating the riverfront mixed-use zoning type, with Chilson and Parker in favor.
Council member Dan Nelson didn’t vote because of a conflict of interest. He leases office space within the area proposed for rezone.
After killing that ordinance, the council also defeated the companion ordinance rezoning the project area.
