In a quiet Kenai neighborhood, a fight over how many homes is too many

For someone living on the low-density streets of Kenai's Rural Residential zone, the question now in front of the city's Planning and Zoning Commission is a familiar one: how much housing belongs on a quiet residential street? A developer is asking permission to build zero-lot-line townhouses and a six-family dwelling in one such neighborhood — the densest housing the zone allows, and one step short of what the city bans outright.

Under Kenai's code, a five- or six-unit building in Rural Residential requires a conditional use permit, and anything larger is prohibited. So the project sits right at the ceiling. The commission opened a public hearing on the permit June 24 but has not ruled.

So far, the objection has come from close by. Mark Hall, who lives across the street on High Bush, testified against the project, and his central worry was traffic: the site sits on what is now a dead-end road, and he told the commission the added households would bring a crush of cars the street was never built for. The traffic, he said, "would be tremendous." He also questioned whether renters in townhouses would be as invested in the neighborhood as the owners around them — the kind of owner-versus-renter argument that surfaces in a lot of these fights.

Cutting the other way is the housing itself. The proposal would add homes, through a permit the city's own code is written to allow, in a region where new housing is hard to come by. Whether that belongs on this particular street is what the commission has to weigh.

It takes the question back up July 15. Until then, residents on either side can file written comments with the city or sign up to testify.