Kenai: 6/24/2026 Planning & Zoning Commission Regular Meeting

Approval of the agenda and consent agenda. Uh, Commissioners, before we get to the agenda and consent agenda approval, I would bring your attention to the laydown materials.

Postponement memo from the planning director, public comment from Brad Brown, and public comment from KPB River Center.

They have to make a motion. So at the pleasure of the commission, we have a motion. I'd like to make a motion that we postpone— just accept the consent agenda as presented and the laydowns. Are there any additional revisions to the agenda or consent agenda from the commission?

Would the clerk please read the consent agenda items into record? Thank you, Chair. The approval of minutes, the regular meeting of June 10th, 2026, and that is your consent agenda. Thank you. Unanimous consent.

I'd like to ask for unanimous consent Here, are there any objections? Hearing no objections, the agenda and consent agenda are approved.

We have no scheduled public comment this evening. And Dee, is there anyone from the public wishing to speak to anything that is not on the agenda?

Please come forward, state your name and where you're from. Sure, my name is Brad Brown and I live at 306 Baker Street in Kenai. I wanted to make some general comments about the notification process for public hearings as part of other public hearings tonight. And in the past year, this has happened twice now where the properties I have in Kenai have been subject to the 300-foot notification for public hearing, and yet I haven't received the mailer. As you can imagine, this is frustrating.

Last time I was assured it was an anomaly. That was about a year ago, and yet it happened again with the item that was going to be read tonight.

So, you know, it makes you feel a little vulnerable being somewhat disconnected from the process and feeling like something's happening without your noticing. So I had a few issues that I was hoping I could go through and maybe some potential solutions. Okay. If that works for you. So the postcard mailings don't seem to be reaching their intended recipients either at all or on time.

Talking to some neighbors, other folks didn't receive a mailer about this, and I measured they're well within the 300-foot notification area. Um, and then I heard stories about them coming late, um, in the past. In fact, someone from the Planning and Zoning, uh, staff mentioned that they got their own mailer a day after a meeting. Um, so clearly something with that notification process isn't working well, and maybe we could improve it. Um, I think publishing in a newspaper of general General circulation was probably a good solution 20 years ago, but we probably need to get relevant with the times.

As our newspaper doesn't— I don't know anywhere where I could actually go buy one. And then the e-edition, you can't actually access the legal notices unless you download it. And I don't know of anyone who's ever done that. So that's probably not a useful place to post it, especially for the cost associated with it. I was told that that cost has doubled in the last year, so that's probably not a good use of city funds.

And then signage posted on property— well, this is certainly a useful method of last resort. I appreciate that they are large and yellow, they grab your attention. It doesn't necessarily cover all property owners within the 300-foot radius, and this was my experience for, for the public hearing that was going to be tonight. My property is on the back line of that property. So I don't access the same street they access.

So they posted and met all the requirements. However, being literally a stone's throw away from it, I would have never known had I not driven my car around to see what was happening over there. I noticed trees were being cut down. That's why I went over there initially. So, and I saw the sign.

That's when I became aware of the entire public hearing.

So sorry, that's your— sorry, that's your time limit. Okay, thank you though. I took good notes. Could I, uh, submit my ideas somewhere? Uh, would you like to hand it to the clerk?

Sure. Thank you. Is he available for questions and comments? Would you— if we have some questions, would you be able to answer? Sure thing.

Great. Uh, I, I just wanted to assure you that we've already discussed the posting notifications in the paper and are trying to take advantage of more, online internet-based postings, and I didn't see them this week, but at our last meeting I did see a posting on Facebook about the meeting coming up. I think that we need to get the word out there for people to follow the city's page. I'm sure that's where they're being posted from, the City of Kenai's page. It's at the admin, uh, through the chair.

They, um, they're on the meeting, the Kenai keenout.city/meetings. We don't have a public noticing page on the website, but that has been discussed with the clerk, and we're looking for the feasibility of having like essentially a news feed on our website, right? But who's posting them on Facebook? I saw one a couple weeks ago. Uh, generally for the clerk's office has access to Facebook, and the assistant to the city manager does, but otherwise it's pretty restricted, uh, with our social media policy.

But it can be up there. We do have a page. It just, um, I'm not allowed to update it. It's very locked down. What is the, um, time frame prior to the meeting that the notices must be sent out by?

Is it 10 days before the meeting? How does that work for a public—. For a public hearing? It is. You have to have at least 10 days.

Um, backing up with the Clarion, that pushes it out almost 3 weeks, that we are pushing a notice to the Clarion by Monday of a week for it to be published that Friday of that same week. And because they publish on Friday and our meetings are on Wednesday, we have to do 2 Fridays before our meeting. So that's over the 10. If it's a regular meeting where we're not having a public hearing at all, so no CUPs, it's just maybe a plat review, um, it's a minimum 7 days. And that is, uh, that's usually done about a week or so prior.

And as to the addresses within the 300-foot range, where are we gathering those addresses? That is through the KPB Parcel Viewer. We actually pick one, and then it is not from the center of that parcel, it's 300 feet from any edge of that parcel. So if it's weird-shaped parcel, you'll get It's a very weird shape for the mailing. If they are redacted, we do have— because some addresses are redacted, the city does have access to get onto essentially the backside of the borough's records to get that.

So they, um, and then we go through and if there are duplicates, we will remove the duplicates so they're not getting 2 or 3 mailers. If it's the same owner but has like 5 parcels, we neck it down to 1. And find the current mailing address. And Mr. Brown, you've checked your mailing address on the borough's website, it's correct?

Yes, ma'am. They solicit me for taxes every year at that address.

I kind of assumed. I just want to be clear because it's a little—. Right, it—. I just— it's disconcerting that you didn't receive a letter, or any of the other neighbors didn't receive a letter, and you're in that 300-foot range, that's disconcerting to me. And, and that's twice at two properties there.

So thanks.

Any other comments from commission?

Okay.

Are there any remote attendees choosing to speak?

Or anyone else in the room, come on forward, state your name and where you're from.

My name is David Brighton. I live at 380 High Bush Lane right here in Kenai. Um, I, I want to voice the concern about the timeline of notification. I got my postcard about a week ago. And if I had planned a family vacation like we sometimes do to visit family outside, we would have been gone and had never known about this meeting.

I think a 3-week timeline for the postcards would be more important. And maybe if they, you know, end up going up to Anchorage or something, they need to be sent a month out.

But residents need to know. What's happening. And the newspaper is good if you happen to get the newspaper, which is, you know, a struggling entity at this point.

But the mailer or a phone call or something, I think, is gonna be really important moving forward. You know, email is pretty good, although spam filters create a big problem with that. And so, you know, direct contact. And I mean, we all receive city bills and mail from the city on a regular basis. I think that's the way to go, but let's please make sure we have the timeline so that concerned citizens have the chance to come and voice those concerns.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Anyone else for comments not on the agenda? Thank you.

Through the chair, I'd, um, like to request that Commissioner Askin's absence on June 10th, 2026 be excused. Do we have a second? Second.

Miss Kinsen.

A request, a unanimous consent.

Are there any objections?

Hearing none, the motion is passed.

E, we have no— or consideration of PLATS, we have no PLATS for consideration. That brings us to public hearings. The first public hearing before us tonight Resolution PZ-2026-19, granting a conditional use permit for the development and use of zero lot line townhouses and six-family dwellings in the rural residential zoning district. Is there a motion?

Uh, I'd like to make a motion to—. We have to open it first. We need somebody to—. I'd like to make a motion that we accept PZ2026-19. Second.

And now I'd like to ask—. Could you speak up please a little bit? I couldn't hear what you said at the beginning. Yeah, we're getting through procedural. Bear with us here.

My apologies.

What you need? I'm going to do this here. Director Director Butner, can we have the memo, please?

Thank you, Chair Keeton. Um, so I would, instead of staff report, I would like to substitute with a memorandum, and this memorandum requests an amendment to the agenda as presented to the June 24th, 2026 Planning and Zoning Commission meeting. An item on the agenda, F1, was given public noticing in accordance with Kenai Municipal Code 1422-80-C, but is no longer applicable to this meeting. The petitioner representative for item F1, PZ2026-19, for 0 lot line townhouses and 6-family dwelling has requested to withdraw this project from consideration. We received this request at noon today.

We request this item be postponed indefinitely. Thank you for your consideration.

Is there anybody from the general public that would like to speak to Resolution PZ-2026-19?

Okay.

Red button. There you go. Red button. Thank you. There we go.

Mark Hall. I live at 310 High Bush. I'm right across the street from where all this is supposed to happen. I'm kind of glad they're pulling this, but I would love to not have to come down to one of these things again for townhouses coming down in nice little area where we got single-family dwellings. For 40 years, I've never had Never missed a screwdriver out of my yard.

And when we start getting townhouses built in here with families that don't have any vested interest in where they're living at, things are going to be problems. We're going to have— it's a dead-end road right now. The traffic would be tremendous on that thing. And, uh, that's, uh, totally against it. And I will fight tooth and nail to not see anything like that happen.

I don't know if I got much else nice to say. I'll be nice. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you.

Is there anyone online that would wish to comment?

There are people online, but I'm not seeing any notification that they'd like to speak at the moment. Thank you. Go ahead, sir.

Do I need to reintroduce myself? Great. Brad Brown, 306 Baker Street. Hopefully you saw in my lay down letter to the commission in criteria 6, I noticed while looking at city code in effort to stop this development, Um, the thought kept, kept recurring to me that this is just too dense of housing for this area. Um, and sure enough, it is.

Um, so if you— I understand the proposal has been removed, but I would like to point this out for future use via the commission. Um, if you look at Section, uh, Code Section 14.20.160, the zero lot line development Says zero lot line development shall be subject to the following standards. Says for detached zero lot line units, which these are, C Section 14.20.170 for planned unit residential development shall be followed. Um, this application was never required to meet that code, and had it been, it would have never met—. Been put—.

Placed on the docket because it would have not meeting the initial requirements. Those requirements are in that code. It says, um, planned unit residential developments, um, are subject to the following standards, which include the minimum parcel size allowed for a planned unit residential development shall be 2.5 acres. Additionally, it goes on to say the maximum number of dwelling units per acre Uh, within the gross area of a planned unit development shall be as follows: zoning rural residential would be 6 units per acre. Those lots are 0.76.

Um, so whether you look at them individually or combined, they would have never met the standard for this much density. Um, it's a little bit troubling to me that we needed to get an entire neighborhood down here in opposition to this. For something that should have never been considered in the first place.

Talking to Kevin, and I had almost an hour conversation this week earlier, and the code is so horribly complex. There's honestly double standards inside of it, or contrary language. He said he wants to do an effort to revise a lot of the code, and as a citizen, I wholly support this, 'cause I have about 10 hours probably 12 hours with all the door knocking I did to try and get people here. Um, and, you know, it's— that's a big effort just to try and stop something that, in my opinion, should have never been considered anyways. Um, I think everyone here is in agreement that this development would not have been characteristic of the neighborhood by any standard.

Um, so I guess that's all I have to say. I'm more than happy to take questions through the chair. Do you have, um, city— sir, are you on city services by chance? Uh, water and sewer? Yes.

Okay, thanks. Anybody else? Thank you, Mr. Brown. Thank you. I have a question.

We haven't—. We We probably won't since this is being, um, tabled. Thank you. Uh, read the staff report, but the staff report was in favor of this development, uh, overall with, uh, with certain conditions. It could have, um, met the intent of the code as it was, or with the code that was referenced in the staff report.

Um, after talking to Mr. Brown I believe it was yesterday, and looking back through a few other things, I actually do agree that he, his findings actually are of merit, and probably had the petitioner not withdrawn by their own volition, would have, we would have had to re- do this entire staff report. Um, since it had been public notice, we still have to have— we still had to have the meeting. But, um, I will duly admit that the standards applied for the staff report that is now moot, um, actually looked at the wrong parts of code. Um, they're very similar, but planned unit development is, uh, is slightly different than the townhouses. Um, so it was I will just admit that the staff report in this case was wrong.

I would have voted no for this anyway because I drove by through the neighborhood today and it clearly did not— it would not have been appropriate to have that in the area that they wanted it. But we rely heavily on the staff report, and if it's incorrect and it takes a citizen to come in here and draw our attention to it, That is disconcerting to me.

Through the chair, I'd just like to add to that. I mean, I fully came in prepared with quite a few standards and quite a bit of findings to support a very similar conclusion as Mr. Brown had. I did read his laydowns and I did follow through with his standards, and I did question why this was even brought to us. But just to state that it's one part of the tool. So we have the staff's document, we have the advertisements of the hearing, and we have the testimony of the residents.

But not any one of those things is going to necessarily knock something out. We still could have gone ahead of this. We still could have had a vote, and the applicant still could have had a process of an appeal. But through this process, I would hope moving forward as a learning experience, we can take some of this knowledge and glean And I too have been the bearer of getting mailings after the fact. And I sit on the commission.

And then the mailings didn't match up with what the agenda said. And I sit on the commission. So yeah, I see the error of our ways there. But moving forward, I'd like to hope that, you know, some of this information that's coming forward, and I'm so happy that so many people turned out because I mean, I had page after page and I'm like, if this is one of those where people just don't show up. Up.

I'm like, it's huge. So thank you very much for coming forward. That means a lot.

I believe Scott Stanford has public comment. You'll just— I'm sorry.

Yeah, I just want to quickly echo, like, it is very concerning that a public citizen had to do all this research and come before the council when it could have been just quashed right away and we didn't have to go through this. Like, I'm on the slope right now, I can't be there in person. I submitted a letter in opposition to it, but like, like everybody said, I got the letter like right before I was headed to work. So if it wasn't for Zoom, I wouldn't be there. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Stanford. Go ahead, sir. My name is Phil Dreheim. I live at 410 High Bush, and my issue isn't with the housing per se. What it amounts to is the circular driveways.

This housing development will triple the traffic, and I see every day people making wrong turns wearing out my neighbors' driveways, stopping, knocking on doors when they're not home. And I'm concerned that this, uh, traffic pattern of, uh, 5 cars per hour, that's just wrong. That needs to be revisited by your folks that do the traffic patterns.

Thank you.

Anyone else like to make a comment?

Please restate your name.

My name is David Brighton, and I still live at 380 High Bush Lane.

Um, so I'm here today with frustration, um, that, that this application got the hearing. And I'm hearing that you're going to table it to bring back up at some future point. Yeah, you shake your head no, but all it takes is calling it back, which I was— before the meeting, staff member explained that they can pick that back up.

Through the chair, if you want to continue your testimony, I'm sure the staff will be able to answer the questions after your testimony. So I would ask the committee to fail this so that if someone wants to do something similar, they have to go through the whole process all over again, not just to put it down indefinitely because you can pick it back up off the table. I mean, I know Robert's Rules pretty well, um, but also I would urge you guys to follow the code. So, I mean, there's a set of rules that when I bought property in Kenai, I followed the rules. I expected the rules to be followed.

And it is very disconcerting to find out that with less than a week's notice that this could have gotten rubber stamped if other neighbors didn't get a hold of me, if I got the postcard today instead of last week.

Um, we have the rules for a purpose, and it sounds like, um, the city is willing to just forego those rules or set them aside, um, when people want to build. And I would say your job is, you know, representatives of Kenai, is to support those rules, is to keep those rules in place. And to protect our property values. So please do your job. Thank you.

Director Butner, would you like to elaborate?

Through the chair, um, in accordance with Robert's Rules, if, if a body moves to postpone something indefinitely, it does, it does not come back, um, to Commissioner Krause's, uh, things, they could theoretically, um, bring something, a brand new application forward. However, with this particular project, the person did not own the land. They was going to be subject to getting a conditional use permit, so they have actually withdrawn their offer, and this is not going to go forward in this neighborhood at all. Thank you.

You bet it did.

Is there anyone else online that has comments?

Through the chair, I am seeing people online, but I'm not seeing any notification that they would like to speak at this time. Everybody that wants to speak has had an opportunity to speak.

I'm going to go ahead and make a motion to postpone indefinitely PZ2026-19, and I'd like to ask for unanimous consent. I'll second that.

Do the commissioners have any comments or questions? Hearing none, the motion is passed.

Moving on to G, we have no unfinished business.

H, we have new business. We're going to discuss, uh, Establishing work session schedule for fall 2026. And does everybody have the dates?

I'm getting there, sorry, I'm getting there. What is it? I got it. I know how to super zip. All right, one more.

Thank you, folks, for showing up. You're so welcome. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. So we have, um, 25.

That's okay, I went right past it too.

Hey Marty, you need to say page 25 now. Everybody else has said it.

Thank you. Page 25.

That's not fall. That's next. That's in a week. We just put all dates in case anything would jump out. Oh, I see.

Upcoming meetings, but we're going towards fall. Okay, so what you're saying—. These are all meetings. And what kind of work sessions are we looking at? What are we talking about?

Yeah, holy smokes. Since the discussion's open, I'll jump in through the chair. So we have, um, towards the bottom of page 25, we have a couple of things, um, that have been brought up or brought to our attention. Um, bringing back the process that we started last year with conditional use permits, um, that kind of got put on the back burner with a couple other council directives. Uh, so we want to continue on that, looking through a lot through the land use table of what should be permitted, what's not, what, you know, all those Cs that we have out there.

Um, so those would be some of the work sessions. Um, I would try to either shake them up or bunch them together so we can make a decent amount of progress and get something worked through. And at the request of Planning and Zoning Commissioner, they wanted to look at the provisions that were struck out of the ordinance that Council adopted regarding tent camping because certain— they think it just wasn't fully fleshed out, and that's why Council stripped a couple things out. So that at their request, they wanted me to bring that forward for consideration of by this body.

The last work session we had was on the different zoning areas, and we were— yeah, and we weren't— we didn't complete that. I still have the paperwork. That's the continuation of that conditional use permit. We were going through the land use table that had what our conditional uses and what zone we did residential, so we keep moving down that. That would be Um, we just kind of get set aside because Council asked us to do a couple other things over the winter, uh, and into spring.

I'm not sure that an hour was sufficient for what we had to cover. I mean, clearly. So I don't know if we need more time for the next. And that would be up— that'd be up to the body. If you'd like to have longer work sessions, that's fine.

They don't necessarily have to be on a commission date. If you think that another day of the week may be appropriate Um, but that would be up to the body. I just wanted to give you all the P&Z meeting dates so you at least have those, but you're not locked to having a work session on a business meeting day if the body wants to meet on another day, because it'll still be noticed as, as a normal meeting. Speaking from experience, um, it doesn't work for me with my work schedule to have to come in an hour earlier. And then having gone over the land use before and knowing how significant and important it is, it is very time-consuming.

So I don't think that an hour is appropriate. I think almost if there's an opportunity on the schedule to where we don't have items that we spend an evening just focused on that, but we wouldn't know ahead of time obviously if something's going to be canceled. So then the other option maybe would be to schedule on an alternate day.

Does anybody, uh, have anything special planned on July 29th that may cancel anyway? I'm going to be out of town. July is the hot button. Everybody kind of limits all their activity for business in July. I also won't be available on that day.

I'm fishing the net. As well as me.

We have a quorum? Not here.

Um, again, just typically speaking from experience, we've gone over in the past, October is a good month, November is somewhat sketchy, uh, January is a great month, February is a great month. February, a lot of training usually takes place, so, um, but again, if it's something that needs to be presented to council right away, I would come up with, like, say, an alternate suggestion. Question of trying to tackle it a day before the same week as a meeting, maybe. I don't know. Um, if we do look at some of these dates, um, we have by code for PLATS— the only thing that is by code time sensitive is a review of a PLAT, and we have 49 days from the date of receipt.

Um, so if you choose to say— we'll just say September 23rd because it's right in the middle— and you said you wanted that to be a work session instead of business meeting, we would inform anyone who does put any kind of application that the 23rd is not— there will be no public hearings at night. Um, so if you guys— because we have plenty of time now in advance, if you want to set aside one or two, um, and we just would not allow, uh, business to happen on those days, we would either try to get them into the meeting before the meeting after. But we do have some leeway in code when it comes, um, to the one time-sensitive thing. We do have That said, we don't like to drag things out, but if it's pre-scheduled, most applicants are— they're aware of when the next meeting is, so at the time of application. So just one second.

It's okay. Uh, October is a good month for me because generally the snowfall is not too heavy and I'm not out at 2 o'clock in the morning looking at road conditions. So, um, I don't mind staying up late, but I don't like getting up early.

September 23rd would be great if for me, or October 14th, but I'll be— I won't be in state on the 28th. I think I leave on the 26th of October. I don't come back until the 6th of November.

And September 23rd and October 14th work for me.

Same here. Yeah, same here.

Those dates will work for me.

Okay, so can we come together on a time when we want to meet? Because they— you guys can postpone any kind of meetings that we have, right? Okay, so you don't get off work? We can go 6:15 to 10 or 6:15 to 9. I get up at 2.

So is 6:15 okay for everybody, and then we'll just go till whenever we go? No, you want to put a ceiling on it? 9? Does 9 work for you? Okay, 6:15 to 9 PM, sir.

Just kidding. Uh, when we get a lot closer, um, we'll plan on this. Um, if we see a lot of stuff coming down, I'll try to divert stuff either to the 9th and expedite it, or, um, if we absolutely have to, we'll have plenty of notice. Um, the October 1 could potentially be a business meeting, um, if we just have a lot of stuff piling up, but I'll definitely let you know as far in advance as I possibly can. And is there any objection to doing this on a night that's not a Wednesday?

Say like we can't make a Wednesday, can we do it on a Tuesday?

As long as chambers are available. Who meets on Tuesdays? Um, in the early part of the— does no one meet on Tuesdays? Airport? They're not here, are they?

Oh, beautification. But they, they meet very Um, they meet a couple up. It's normally at the beginning of the month, so if it's later in the month, generally Chambers is free almost every, every evening except Council Wednesdays. So we could do like the 30th since it's blank? Yeah, if there's no color on any of those squares, those days are, um, we'd reserve Chambers, but those days are technically free.

Okay, the 30th of September, Wednesday.

The 30th of September. It's a bonus week, so there's no commission or council meeting. So that's like a possibility Wednesday.

That'd be two Wednesdays in a row then. That would be good, especially for P&Z. Remember, work sessions, you guys get food. We get food. My schedule is relatively open.

I heard that. I can, I can take care of that. Are we going for September? I mean, yeah, September 30th instead of October 14th, is that what—. Or are we going all three?

So the chambers are all booked up on Wednesdays in October.

So we'll do 2 days for now and see what we can come up with, maybe some more training on other things later. All right, just for clarification, September 30th and October 14th. The September 23rd and the 30th, and I'll keep the 14th as a rain check date just in case. Thank you. I won't be available on September 30th.

In case we had to do something else during the month, plats or whatever that were time sensitive, then we could have the 30th as well.

We'll work around it, Sonia, don't worry.

All right, where are we at here?

Work sessions. Okay, Planning Director Butner, may we have your report please? Yeah, on page 26, I sent a snapshot of just some of the code enforcement stuff that our department also handles. Um, so some of it is year-to-date, just so you can kind of see the magnitude of what is going on, um, how many we've got in the previous month. So we do this, um, we give this to the city manager every, every month, um, and this will be also a quarterly report that I'm going to give to both this body and council where I can do every month.

That's not a big deal either. But you'll notice that there are a lot of complaints spring and summer. Generally, once everyone— once the snow melts and people actually see what's going on, they're like, oh yeah, we don't like that. So the complaints start ramping up this time of year. So right now we have 30 open cases.

3 Were more compliant last month. I will say another couple have been closed out here in June, so we are making progress. We have a new policy that was done last spring, so it's been a full year of this new process, and it gives timelines and every single step. There are some tricky ones, there are some repeat offenders, but for the most part, we are getting more compliance now than we did when I first started. And we are actively, I believe, in— there should be a number.

Um, it's tiny in the corner, but, um, some of them are actually all the way up to fines are being assessed currently, and it racks up very quickly. So, um, that— we don't like going that route, and we know that we probably will never see those fines, but it does, uh, open the door if legal takes it to, um, to the next level, if they have to put a lien on the property or something to that effect. So, um, just know that it There are places where it doesn't look like anything's happening, but they are going through the process, and a lot more of the ones that probably are well known in town are, are being addressed. So that is part one of my report, and the second part is, um, I'm on the state planning board. Um, I don't know why they made me vice president yesterday, but they did.

Um, but the good news is, is we're having a planning conference in Alaska this year., at the beginning of AML. So it'll be the 7th and 8th. Um, we are actively working on putting that together, but there may be some training, and we've built some money into the budget so some commissioners can go if they would like. Um, but once we get a little more details, I'll share them with the commission.

Thank you. Um, my report is going to be pretty much the same that it always is. I, I just, uh, I'm amazed how much I'm learning every week when I see issues versus solutions and how we get to those. And that the fact that the city's always willing to work with the people that they're serving, and the answer isn't always the right answer they're looking for, but it's a fair answer and it's a— it's— it comes with encouragement on, you know, what other things can be done. And I just appreciate how hard they work with everybody.

And I appreciate the group that we have here. We're very cohesive, and I think that we're just going to keep getting better as we go along. So thank you, everybody. And that leads us to Commissioner Fikes. Can we have your report, please?

Sure. We had a conditional use permit, and that was for a gravel pit. And so we had, um, approved it, um, or excuse me, I apologize, we had denied it. We had denied it. And so before we went ahead with the night's, um, processes, we had to come up with findings.

So on that note, I was prepared for tonight after that practice session. I had several pages of findings, so that was a good lead-in for tonight. Um, and so we ultimately, um, denied the request to operate a gravel pit off of Robinson's Loop 24/7 for the obvious reasons. But in the legal realm of things, you have to come down with standards. And did it meet this standard?

And if it didn't meet that standard, why didn't it meet that standard? And what's factual and what's opinion? And so it was a great process to flesh out. And so we spent about an hour on that process, and then we started into the night's activities for a conditional use permit permit to place a cabin on a parking pad within the 50-foot habitat protection district. And this is on Catching Silvers Drive in the Soldotna area.

And we approved that after hearing staff report and Kenai River Habitat Protection District report.

And so that one was approved. And then we had a building setback encroachment, and that one was off of Carluck, and that was a 20-foot building setback in the southeast corner. Uh, 6 feet of it was into the 20-foot setback. There was no, uh, impacts to traffic, to safety, no objections by utility easements, so that one was approved. And then we got into some director's comments and some of the comments for the evening were towards the hazard mitigation plan and the funds that were received by the feds and the actual impact that those funds did by clearing out and cutting dead spruce and trees in the current fire area.

So that was kind of nice to hear that they were able to jump on it and attack it, but also some of the stuff that we had the forethought to jump in and address and the funds to do so was actually a success for that area. So that was kind of a huge thing to hear about. And then we had 5 plats that we reviewed and we passed, and that was all we had going on.

Thank you. Council Member Daniel.

All right, so last council meeting on the 17th So I have some fun news. I had some public scheduled comments, and the March for Meals event for the senior center was another great success. I believe they raised, I think it was like $120,000 for senior meals. That's very exciting. And go back and help all the seniors.

There's a lot of seniors at Meals on Wheels, a huge part of this community. That's another just big win right there. Let's see here. Also, We'll touch on some of the other highlights. Um, oh, this is an interesting one.

So looking at the boat ramp area, the land use table from retained to mixed, retained to dispose. And the reason why is you can still access it for the other side where we, we leave the boat ramp area. That wouldn't change, but potentially in the future there's some space that could be developed as part of the working waterfront. And, you know, one of the goals is to try to develop that waterfront, and you all are a part of that. So that's a potential future use, which is very exciting.

And another big one is that the airport— we authorized a contract for Vector Airport Systems to do this billing of landing fees. We've been We've developed leakage there at the airport, and we've approved this contract for automated systems using the— see if I get this right, I'm not a pilot— the ADBS tracking on the planes.

So hopefully that'll help, you know, make that a little more fair for everyone and ease the city staff's burden with that. Other than that, it's a couple routine budgetary deals. If you have any questions, just let me know.

Any, um, interest in replacing the restaurant in the airport?

Nothing yet. I'm, I'm very hopeful, so especially this time of year. Just curious, has the staff, uh, considered any changes to the way they perform the, um, contract? They I mean, it's open. When you apply— this is my understanding, so we'll see if I get this right— you can propose whatever terms you want.

They give suggested terms. I believe it's like 12% of the sales is what they have it set, the last concessioner. But anyway, they can propose whatever terms they like, and then it's all scored. And whoever has the best score, and it's based on cost and other metrics, that would be the winner. So I don't think there's any changes there, but it is definitely a score system.

So a different concessionaire could propose whatever they feel that would be an acceptable deal, and they could get it. So thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Daniels. At this time, we're asking for additional public comment. Is there anybody from the public who would like to address the commission at this time?

David Brighton again at 380 High Bush Lane. I just want to say thank you. Um, you know, sometimes we come in and we're really upset, and I hope no one was feeling anything personal. I appreciate the work that you guys do.

Thank you very much, sir. Anyone else?

I think if you live with him, we know where you live, but what's your name, please? Jen Brighton, also of 380 High Bush, because I live with that guy.

Um, against all reason.

Um, I, I also actually— great minds think alike, dear— I also wanted to say thank you. I appreciate those of you who've mentioned the time that you spent poring over policy that, you know, driving out down our little dead-end street. We have a very quiet neighborhood. We've been there 11 years. Most folks that are there are there for a long time.

We have— our parcel is over an acre and we're planting trees. We're not cutting them down. You know, we're trying to maintain this space for families that want to have homes for a long time. And, uh, we're a lot of quiet neighbors, but we show up for each other when somebody's stuck in a ditch or needs their driveway plowed, or, um, when there's something that we all feel threatens the neighborhood that we have built. And so I appreciate those of you who took the personal look at it and not just numbers on paper, because, you know, it's real people's lives, and we've We just appreciate that.

Thank you. I did have a quick question, if you don't mind. Since you lived on that street, and I didn't get a chance to ask the applicant, how did the snow removal work out? Because you are on a dead-end street. So does the city come down there with a regular grader, or how does that work?

Um, the city does come down. We, we do have a neighbor with a plow on his truck who usually gets out there before the city makes it. Uh, this— we're, we're not a highest priority street, which we understand. Um, we're usually a couple of days behind. Can he turn around though?

That's what I'm trying to understand. So if they're like on the regular Lawton and Linwood, I'll see a regular— yeah, city, 966, I think they call them, big piece of equipment. So I'm trying to figure out how your street would be plowed. It's probably magic. I don't know.

I, I have never actually seen how they turn around. I have seen them come up the street and I have seen them drive out the street, but I'm in the middle, so I haven't seen what happens up at the end. And I'm not sure, um, I don't know if they use the end of a driveway or something because there are a couple driveways off the end. I'm not sure. That's an excellent question.

And then just to follow up, curiosity, sorry to bug you, um, is there a trash service? So do a lot of people in the area actually have trash pickup with the actual trash truck? We can hire that privately, I think. I mean, but have you— like, my neighbor next to me, he's got trash service. I don't.

I just go to the dump. So, right, we go to the dump. Is there pieces of equipment going down the street? First moved there, we did get trash service for a month before we decided it was easier to just take our own trash to the dump. But it It can come up that street if someone wants it.

I don't know if I've seen it, but it's available.

If I can jump in with my wife. Um, you're taking my time here. Sorry. No, we, we do have trash service that, that does come down the street. Um, I, I mean, I Neighbor across the street has a dumpster with the whatever, Peninsula Refuse or whatever it is, and I— yep, and there is a grader that I don't know how they turn around, but I see them go by and I'm like, don't hit my trees.

Anyone else wanting to make public comment? Mr. Brown, thank you.

In the same vein of gratitude, I just wanted to thank Planning Director Kevin. We had a lot of interaction in the last week, both with him and his staff, and I just wanted to say I appreciate your patience and graciousness with folks who are usually frustrated. And I think you are doing a good job. So just want to state that on the record. Can I ask you also a question?

Yeah. You testified earlier that you, you've gotten involved because you noticed that there was clearing behind you. Yes. And so I just was curious in your conversation with the staff and administration if it was brought up to you that it's my understanding if somebody's going to develop a lot, they can't clear more than like 75% of the trees without notice to the city. So I was just curious about that.

I was gonna say, so that is, what I noticed was that there had been a lot of beetle kill and the beetle kill was being removed. So it wasn't any clearing per se, like leveling, it was just that beetle kill were noticeably absent. My house looks out onto that property and so I see the skyline, if you will, and it was becoming more clear. And that's what, that's what caused me to go over there. It wasn't actual production or—.

Yeah.

Through the chair, to answer question, yes, if it's anything other than single-family residential, it does require a landscape plan that addresses clearing.

Thanks.

And any last comments or questions?

So, Kay is the next meeting attendance notification. Please note that the next meeting is July 15th. Is anyone planning to be absent, attending remotely?

Looks good. Okay, so we'll all be here July 15th at 7 PM unless you guys call a work session. Negative. Copy that. Thank you.

All right, so commission's comments and questions. Mr. Askin, Commissioner Askin, do you have any comments or questions about tonight? I appreciate everybody's involvement. It is awesome to see the chairs full. It's nice to see participation in the process.

You know, I'm fully in agreement with the findings that were going on. It's not a place to have zero lot line townhomes. But that being said, I appreciate everybody's participation in it.

Commissioner Urszlyk. I'd also like to, um, thank the residents of Kenai to showing up and making your voice being known, and, um, appreciate you guys staying behind with the rest of the meeting to show your gratification for the work that we do.

Commissioner Woodard. Well, it's already been said, so I, I echo that.

Mr. Krause, go ahead. I think that you should read the agenda before every meeting and rally all the neighborhoods because this is the biggest participation we've had in a meeting, and I was glad for it because sometimes it's difficult to Sometimes I look at the agenda and no one showed up to testify and I'm against it and I think, well, why should I vote against it? Nobody bothered to show up and testify. So, um, thank you really genuinely. Commissioner Fikes.

Yeah, I really thought that that was going to happen tonight with the weather and the time of year and everything that nobody was going to show up. And then, like you say, there's problems I know with the notification. So then I had that. So yeah, I was fully prepared with 2 pages of test standards and findings and over 20 questions for the applicant. And so, yeah, I was thinking I was going to be the lone soul where everybody's just going to rubber stamp.

And I was like, no, not in my backyard. So I was grateful that the residents definitely gathered up and had time to actually come and testify. So that really does matter. It does absolutely matter. So thank you.

And I too would like to echo the same.

Sometimes we don't know what's going to happen, and sometimes things show up. This was a surprise to us as much as it was to you, so hopefully you're not upset with us not really having that kind of knowledge, because the reality is things happen at the last minute, and we're not employees, right? We're all volunteers, and we show up at 7 o'clock when we're supposed to and they hand us this big packet of stuff. I mean, we get some stuff ahead of time, but not everything. And so I appreciate your patience with us.

Uh, also, please keep the momentum going, right? When you start seeing this kind of stuff happen, if you know that it's something that you don't think is right, don't be afraid to show up and say so. We want to hear it. We want to hear it all. So thank you very much, everybody.

Okay, I think that's it, right? We have no pending items, and the best part of the meeting— seeing no further business before the commission, we are adjourned. Woohoo! Thank you, everybody.