Soldotna’s planning director says minor zoning hurdles are in the way of building more housing. Those hurdles were the subject of a city council work session last week.
Linda Mitchell describes Soldotna as “built out,” or with limited potential for new development for housing. As the city’s director of planning and economic development, she says she often helps people navigate Soldotna’s zoning code, and has some ideas for cleaning it up.
“These are kind of like the low-hanging fruit to address the more immediate need of providing opportunities to housing,” she said.
During the work session, Mitchell pitched her suggestions as a targeted rezone of specific areas in a way that makes it easier to develop them as housing.
For example, the city says a group of 11 parcels at the intersection of Robin Place and East Beluga Avenue should be rezoned from commercial to limited commercial. That would allow the properties to be used for housing without a conditional permit from the city.
Mitchell says those properties are already being used for homes and offices, so a rezone would more accurately reflect current practice.
Even if the city doesn’t implement any of the proposed rezones, Mitchell thinks builders will persist.
“People are starting to look outside the residential zones and seeing opportunities within the commercial, but they're also willing to go through the conditional use permit to get a to build a residential development,” she said.
But she says city housing data suggest sluggish residential development in recent years.
Since 2024, Mitchell says only two pieces of residential land were sold vacant and developed into housing. Forty-four pieces of commercial property in Soldotna are being used for residential purposes. But more than 30 are considered non-conforming, because the residence was built before a code change in 2010.
City data also show residents have acquired three accessory dwelling unit permits since the city council greenlit that type of housing in 2022. At that time, the council sought to expand housing options by allowing eligible property owners to build a second residence on their property, sometimes also called a “mother-in-law” apartment.
Mitchell says low participation in that program indicates a problem.
“When I look at something that we've adopted, and I only see three permits, there's definitely some zoning barriers within the code that makes it difficult or not appealable or attractable to people to build ADUs,” Mitchell said.
She suspects strict square footage, setback, height and other requirements are standing in the way.
Mitchell says zoning is only one slice of the housing pie, though. The work session comes on the heels of a housing report released by the Kenai Peninsula Economic Development District. Mitchell says she’s asked the same firm to put together a Soldotna-specific report. And she’d like to refine Soldotna’s short-term rental policies.
Council members seemed generally supportive of expanding Soldotna’s housing availability. But Vice Mayor Lisa Parker says any new zoning policies need to come with residential buy-in.
“I would just think before we proceed too far that I'd like to know that the property owners are okay with it, because if they don't like it and want to stay the way things are, then why change it?” she said.
Any rezones would be subject to city council approval. Mitchell says she hopes to reconvene for more housing-related work sessions before the end of the year.
