Kenai land plan would auction part of the sports complex parcel for housing

Kenai's Parks and Recreation Commission on Thursday recommended an updated city land plan that would carve off part of the Kenai Sports Complex parcel along Evergreen Street and auction it for future housing.

The plan, which also covers city land around Kenai Municipal Airport, goes next to the Kenai Airport Commission. It meets at 6 pm Thursday, Nov. 12, at Kenai City Hall. The Planning and Zoning Commission takes it up Nov. 17, and a draft resolution calls for the City Council to adopt it Nov. 18.

The sports complex parcel is 53.8 acres and holds four regulation-size soccer fields, according to the city's 2022 land plan, which recommended keeping it. The update recommends subdividing "a portion in the northeast corner" for the auction, according to a memo from Planning Director Kevin Buettner. The memo doesn't say how big that portion is.

Part of the parcel comes with federal strings. The 2022 plan says 25 acres developed with a federal Land and Water Conservation Fund grant must stay in public outdoor recreation forever, unless the city replaces them with land of equal or greater value and at least equal recreational value. The memo doesn't say whether the auction land overlaps those 25 acres.

A 2004 city ordinance also set the parcel aside for recreational sports fields. Documents for that ordinance included a preliminary site plan for more softball fields, baseball diamonds, a BMX track, a skateboard park and more parking. Before developing it for anything else, the city would have to declare the land no longer needed for a public purpose, the 2022 plan says.

The council has been clearing other city land for sale. Earlier this year it removed the public purpose designation from six city parcels. On Thursday, the parks commission also voted 5-0 to recommend dropping park status from Carl F. Ahlstrom Park, a 2.32-acre lot north of Redoubt Avenue.

The updated plan covers 376 city-owned parcels, up from 369, and tells developers which ones are available to lease and which could be bought after development. The council adopted the city's first land plan in June 2022. Buettner wrote that land auctions and sales, along with updated Kenai Peninsula Borough data, had made it inaccurate.