Kenai: 11/05/2026 Parks and Recreation Commission Meeting

Hey Bridget, can you hear me?

I can, yeah, I can hear you. Sorry, I couldn't get it to unmute.

Oh cool, they said only 3 commissioners have filled it out, 2 of ours.

Okay, so it looks like pretty much everybody's here. Great.

You can go.

Um, I'd like to call the November 5th, 2026 Parks and Rec Commission meeting to order. If we could all stand for the Pledge.

If we can get roll call.

Wasnowski? Here. Bernard? Here. Fisher?

Present. Carlson? Here. Spiegler?

Here. Thank you. You have a quorum. Agenda approval. Is there a motion to approve the agenda as presented?

I'll move to approve. And I will second.

Any revisions? Uh, seeing none, the, uh, agenda is approved.

Uh, moving on to scheduled Public comment. And you're not— he's not scheduled, I'm assuming? No, he's staff. Oh, okay. Um, we do not have any.

Uh, we'll move on to unscheduled public comment. Any on the web? I don't know if that would— seeing that's just Council Member— okay. Seeing then, we'll move on.

Um, approval of the minutes for October 1st, 2026. I have a motion to approve the September 3rd, 2026 minutes. I'll move to approve.

I will second.

Um, any revisions to the minutes?

Seeing none, the minutes are approved.

I'll move on to unfinished business.

We have none.

We'll move on to new business. The action/approval, uh, recommendation of approval ordinance number 3549-26 To remove a public purpose designation for Carl F. Alstrom Park.

We'll open it up for discussion.

Uh, thank you, Chairman. Uh, my name is Kevin Buettner. I'm the planning director for the city of Kenai. And we were— two things that we'll be bringing for you this evening are both related to each other. We did update our land management plan, which will be our next topic.

While we were going through that, we were looking at suggestions for what we can do with some of the city-owned lands throughout the city.

Things have been set aside for, you know, I think this particular park, since it was originally platted back in the '50s, as we know, the Armstrong subdivision up there north of Readout, but east of the spur, is— it got platted and it got sold. And so there's a lot of different owners up there. But because of that, we haven't been able to develop because we don't have like one single developer going in, putting in roads, water, sewer, that sort of thing. So when we're looking at that, we realize that that's really a hard place to get into for any kind of development. It was, and I believe it's page 10 of your packet, it is a triangle-shaped park that was designated, like I said, way back in the '50s.

We think, we the city, think that a better use of it would be to use that larger piece, it's about 2.25 acres, I believe, to hopefully jumpstart, you know, potentially if we can get to make some of these lots bigger, we might finally get some development up in that area. Um, again, there's really no roads there. I'll say it's very generous to say that there are even trails through there. Like, it's really hard to get into. But using that land because it's closer to the highway may be more, more of a benefit for either multifamily housing or some other development in that area.

But we didn't want to take everything away. Uh, there was noted in the master plan that there is— that whole area north of Readout is underserved by any kind of parks. The nearest ones, you have Fourth Avenue Park, um, Municipal Park all the way down on South Forest. Um, there is a large parcel that's just to the east, which is on page 11 of your packet. That was set aside at one point for community well.

We now have water and sewer that goes through that area, so that we don't need it for a well anymore. It is a little bit larger parcel, and we were thinking that a portion, or potentially all, depending on what kind of development— we also own about 64 acres to the northeast of this particular spot, and it fits in between the Momsen subdivision at 1st and 2nd. We're seeing more development along Redoubt right now with low-income and senior housing, and we expect that this 64-acre piece eventually, when subdivided, is going to be, I'll say, the next Inlet Woods, you know, something, something of that caliber. So having something that's a little more centrally located in the neighborhood, we think, would be a much better amenity to the group, uh, for the city in this neighborhood. So We did put forth an ordinance, got introduced last night.

We won't hear it until the next council meeting, but we're asking to remove the public purpose designation on the triangle piece, the one on page 10, so that as development occurs, we can still use it. It'll still have to go through all the different wickets of leasing or sale, some sort of disposal through that way, but we just think a park is a better fit closer into the middle of those larger subdivisions.

Uh, so we're just looking for a motion to approve that, is that—. Yeah, I would say if, if someone on the commission made a motion and just read off the line after action approval, like A motion to recommend approval of Ordinance Number 35492026 to remove a public purpose designation for car— yes, reading that thing, but just a motion to recommend to City Council approval of ordinance.

And then also, if you look in the presentation that Kevin made in the packet, he did say any questions at the end. So if there's any questions for myself or Director Buettner, please ask All right, this is a—. I'm new to town question, but is Google Maps correct that this on the other side is, uh, 6th Street and Wildwood Apartments? Is that what's on the other side, like Texas Avenue? Am I looking at the right—.

Yes, yes. Um, so that, that area where Texas Avenue is, is new newly replatted, um, because we have done some land donations. So, um, 6th Street and 5th Street would be the new entrances into a future development to the, to the north of that, because that's all city-owned land back there that's not developed. So this would kind of be, for lack of a better term, like a central park in that neighborhood.

I just want to understand you correctly. Um, are we just looking at, um, both of the parcels as potential parks? Are we going to decide on which one? We prefer. Um, our current recommendation, um, from the city is to take, uh, 6141, the triangle-shaped one, okay, and remove the public purpose designation that's currently on that parcel.

Um, it was set aside for a park, like I said, back in the '50s when this was supposed to be the town center. Um, because of the development in that area, or lack thereof, um, we think it'd be very, very challenging And because of the lack of development with water and sewer, if we could make some of those lots bigger lots where they could have water and septic on site, potentially we may get some houses in that area, but we would have to use that triangle land to make some of those parcels bigger. Um, we just didn't want to say, hey, take this out and we're not going to give you a, a park at all in this neighborhood. We wanted the other one, um, we wouldn't be putting a public purpose designation on, we would just we wanted to show at the city that we think a— we've identified that there's somewhere else where we think a park would be better suited, much more accessible. Um, and likely, uh, if we get a large-scale developer in there, we possibly could even have them construct it as part of a development scheme.

You know, when you have larger things, you sometimes cities can get concessions where they'll put it in, you know, that we maintain it going forward. So we just wanted to do. We didn't want to ask you to take away a potential park without giving you a potential alternative in that same area. Perfect, thank you.

I guess if there are no questions, um, I'm going to make a motion that we, um, recommend approval of Ordinance 3549-2026.

Is there a second? I second.

Anybody oppose?

We call for unanimous consent.

Oh, it's kind of an interesting thing. So we have it— so yeah, it's on the floor now, but we got a staff report. Okay, is anybody from the general public that would like to speak to it? No. Seeing none, we'd like to bring back to commission.

Okay, so yeah, we either need a request for unanimous consent or we need to do a roll call.

It's still on the floor, so you can still ask questions.

Discussion? Oh, do you have a question? The motion's on the floor, so it can still be discussed. Okay, first of all, it's— wait, can you hit your mic though? Oh yeah, yes.

Um, I wish it was more accessible because, okay, I'm ignorant as to who lives where, but Wildwood Drive I know there are already parks on the Redoubt Ave corridor, right? And I don't know, I don't know, it just, it looks like it could be a really good spot, but it's, it's clearly not, and it's clearly in the middle of— those are houses, right? Currently they're just houses, or those are empty lots. That surround it. Um, along the Redoubt corridor, we do have the multi-purpose trail on the south side of the, of Redoubt, but we don't have any parks.

Uh, I think 4th Avenue is our northernmost park in the city. Oh really? 4Th, yeah, the, the pocket park and then the 4th Avenue park are the northern. The only other one, you have the soccer fields that are to the south, and Municipal Park would then be the probably the biggest one that actually has playground equipment.

You're right, you're correct. My data might be coming from a 5-year-old, but she can't walk that far and she lives somewhere. Anyway, um, correct her. Um, heard. Okay, thank you so much, I appreciate it.

And just so you know, just so that way you kind of understand a little bit more of the location. So the one that ends in 6141, that one's located more towards commercial lots and businesses. So you can think of like mechanic shops and storage lots. But if you think of the one that ends in 13202, that one's more residential, that's more designated to houses and apartment units. So that seems more suitable for parks.

Mm-hmm. That's what I think.

Mm-hmm. The whole area just looks like it needs a breath.

Yeah, there's that little area, but yeah, I love I love that area. Can you hear me? Can you hear me?

Guys, if we're going to have discussion, which should be on the record though, and if we have discussion, it should be on the record. You should have your mics on. I'm just wondering if the building on the corner is the old SBS building, if anyone's in it, or if the windows are just broken?

I do believe it is used, not, not relevant, not a lot. Um, there are, I think, at least one big broken window in the south side of the building.

And one further thought is if everything gets moved over that soccer fields and all that, that might be a good spot to think about putting a park there too. Yes, we were looking at alternatives for the sports complex, and there's not just where the soccer fields are, um, but actually that entire strip all the way up, um, the east side is all zoned for recreation. So we definitely could have several different iterations. And, um, I will say that we are about to The city's— we own a lot of land on the other side of, uh, of the spur from the soccer fields, um, and the developers bought out all the other private owners, and we're actually about to embark on replatting and developing that whole area. So I could see the soccer field sports complex really probably getting a good facelift and some stuff shuffling around as funding becomes available.

I would also like to, to thank, uh, Director Buettner, as in You know, this, this plot before my time was identified as a possible park. And when they looked at economic development of Kenai, they looked at, oh, if we can grow these plots and use this land, it could help us develop these plots and get more housing built in Kenai. And then, you know what, we're not just going to take it away. They identified another parcel, which I think is, which is close by. So I think that was really good work by the planning team.

Anybody want to call for that unanimous consent, or you can call for a roll call, or a roll call. Can we just get a roll call?

Lusniewski? Yes. Bernard? Yes. Fisher?

Yes. Carlson? Yes. Spiegler?

Yes.

Do I say something now? You guys never do this, so it's been approved. Motion passes. Going forward, yes. Okay, motion carries.

All right, that's the next one.

Yep, um, action approval, the recom— recommending approval of the 2020— 2026 land management plan. Okay, I think technically we should have a motion first so we can discuss it. It's doubled up on the script right now.

Yeah, so do we have a motion to recommend approval of the 2026 Land Management Plan? So then, so then we can get seconded and on the floor, then we can discuss it.

I forgot what the words were for this one. Is it motion to bring to the board? Um, no, you can say motion to approve. Oh, okay. Or motion to recommend.

I'd say motion to recommend approval. A motion for the discussion and approval of the recommendation, approval of the 2026 Land Management Plan.

I second. So now that motion is on the floor so it can be discussed, and then Grant can call upon me to do a staff report. Director Best, can we have a staff report? I'll start with several years ago, the city officially adopted the land management plan. It goes through and identifies like a lot of the parcels, if not all of them, throughout the city of Kenai that affects our parks.

Designations were done. It's a living document. There are periodic updates. There have been quite a few, some housecleaning things that have been made, and they want to get ran through the commissions, I believe. But I'm going to kick the official stuff over to Director Buettner.

I think he just wants to get out of talking, but, um, he is correct. Uh, 2022, we updated, or we created our first land management plan that handles every parcel in the city to include our shore fisheries. So some submerged tidelands, but most of it is on dry land. Um, anyways, over the, over the years, we've donated land, we've subdivided, you know, parcels have shrank, or grown depending on if they got merged. We had a live outcry auction, sold off like, I believe, 13 lots in 2024 for residential development.

Um, so it's, uh, like you said, it's a very living, breathing document. The city is never the same, uh, any two days straight. So, um, this update was to kind of simplify. The other one was— it was a great report for what it was. It kind of gave us a baseline.

Um, it was a very clunky document, wasn't the easiest for developers and outside interested parties. People are looking for city lands for whatever use. It wasn't easily understood. We could coach them through it, but we wanted to kind of redesign a little bit, streamline it. We shaved about 40 pages off, which saved my aching hands from all the typing.

But we also changed our recommendation, or some of our recommendations. So instead of retention status, which means nothing to a person outside of the city, we now say, what is the recommendation? Is it going to be public use? Is it unavailable because it's already under a lease? So like our airport, obviously public use.

All our park parcels, public use. So stuff like that. But because Parks does have a substantial amount of acreage here in the city, we wanted to bring back to the commission. Nothing drastic has changed. In fact, you just made the first change with that motion you just did.

So now I get to update the plan again, but it will basically going forward, it'll be easier. So as we do decide, you know, should we put a public purpose designation on the— on that one parcel near Readout, you know, that'll go in the plan. And that way we, we have one repository where we know where everything is in the city, what ordinance or resolution set it aside and why. Um, so just a good way for us to know exactly what we're taking care of here in the city.

Uh, I'd like to follow Commissioner— not Commissioner— Director Buettner, uh, statement on this is a very useful tool if you have any, like, kind of two You watch, watch, you tell me you deleted this part. No, I think a really good example of when they developed this, something I learned about one of our parks, I had to go find more information on it, is, but we have a rest stop right by the Elson Family Rest Stop. It's a parcel of land that was donated to the city with a restriction or quick claim. There was something in it that has to be used for recreation purposes. So people along the bike path could rest.

There is a sign there, but it's the Elson Family Rest Stop, and it was a parcel I didn't fully understand when I first started. And someone's like, oh, look in the land management plan. So I was able to pull up the parcel and it was like, Elson Family Rest Stop to be used for park and recreation usage. And I found out if we don't use it, it'll go back to the descendants. Um, but we have a bench on there.

We have a sign on there just so people get tired, they can take a break along the bike path. But that's just one way I've used it. So if there's ever any questions you have about parcels in the city, this is a great reference to go on this document and find them. And apparently it's much easier to read now, and it's 40-page shorter, because it is not a short document.

Any further discussion?

Yeah, you guys put the work in and did all the work, so it's I mean, my input isn't going to help much, so I think it was— it looked good when I was looking over some of the parcels to possibly buy and stuff like that, but none of them worked out. But, uh, yeah, it's a good document.

So we have a motion on the floor. Oh, go ahead. I guess I just have maybe a clarification. So that third part, narrative for each subdivision, give an example of what that would be. Sure, um, and I can pass this around if you would like.

Um, let's go to one that benefits you guys. All right, I'll just pass this. So Um, so the— a copy of the plan's going around. It's still in draft form, but, um, we have a, a map, so it shows all the parcels outlined and labeled, and those are all just city-owned land. So anything that's not labeled is all privately held.

Then we have a table that kind of says— breaks it down parcel by parcel— what, how big is it, what zone is it in, If there are restrictions, what restrictions are there? An ordinance set aside for a park or ordinance set aside for a water tower, something like that. And then after that, we have— we take the table. That's kind of the short, you know, quick and quick to review. Then we could give a little bit more expounded narrative on— for some of the subdivisions, sometimes it's given a little bit of a history, like how did we get to where we are today.

How did we acquire this land? Sometimes it was donated by the borough. BLM's given us— Bureau of Land Management, you know, from the feds. Airport we got from the FAA back in '63. So it kind of gives a little bit of a backstory.

So when we are looking to develop that land, we know what's going on with it. Is there, um, you just like, like you said, is there a reversionary clause if we don't use the land as it was given to us. Does somebody else get it back? You know, is it a family that gets it back? Is it a— I think Fourth Avenue Park.

Um, there's some fun times going through that history, but, um, we had it and then it reverted back to the state, and then the borough got it from the state and gave it back to us, but it has to be used for recreation. And if we don't use Fourth Avenue Park for recreation, it goes back to the borough. So We just document all that because digging through all of that every single time someone's interested in development would just take way too much time. So we felt, put it in this repository and we have it going forward.

So what we're doing is just approving the updating of this research document? Yes, so we, uh, had asked for a recommendation to city council for them to adopt this new plan with all the— with all the updates, uh, that would include the motion you just made as well.

We just gotta really appreciate the specificity. They changed one page or one map and then they had to change all of the rest of them.

I think. Is that what happened? We did, because of some of our sales, we actually got rid of a couple maps. So towards the end, I think like from 30 on, we actually had to renumber all of them. Like, cool, nothing else changed.

But we did go through everything. Like I said, the retention status is gone now. It's what is our recommendation.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. So things changed on everything, but some more than others. Mm.

Okay.

Cool.

Can I get a roll call?

Yes. Wisniewski? Yes. Bernard? Yes.

Fisher? Yes. Carlson? Yes. Spiegler?

Yes. I don't think that's me on the packet. I don't think I'm supposed to say anything. Oh, I think unofficial, usually The clerk will say motion passes. The motion passes.

Uh, moving on, we'll go to reports. Uh, Director Bess, we— can we get your report? Yep. Uh, I will note in the packet, it's just a— I wrote the mid-month report in October and I labeled it October, but it is the mid-month September report. Uh, I'm about to submit the mid-month report for October to this next council meeting, which will be in 2 weeks.

But in September, you know, we're transitioning from summer to fall operations. Usually after Labor Day, a lot of our seasonal maintenance people are gone and things start slowing down. We start turning off water to running water, to the running water bathrooms. One port, we start pulling our portable toilets at our parks as well too. They don't seem to be needed there.

We leave one till— I think it's still out there, but I'm going to pull it this week for the October Chili Chains tournament at the disc golf course. They had that on October 16th, but that's one porta potty you will see out late in the year because people are still using that disc golf course. It snowed and they still held that tournament. So a big highlight of September is we hosted the 2026 Alaska Parks and Recreation Conference, which brought more than 15,000 25 Parks and Rec professionals and partners to Kenai. During, uh, the conference, the Kenai Rec Center received, uh, the Facility Excellence Award, recognizing the facility and its service to the community.

Um, hosting the conference also provided additional training opportunities for both conference attendees and local community. An out-of-state organization was flown up that specializes in grant writing, and it was the day before the conference started. Uh, so I attended that, and a couple other entities attended that that weren't Bear Creek, Homer, Parks and Rec. So that was cool to get that resource in the community. The last Sunday of September marks the annual Kenai River Marathon.

The Kenai Chamber and the City of Kenai have a longstanding partnership where we put on this great race. We always welcome runners from all over the lower 48. I know I talked to a couple from Kansas and they really wanted to see a moose. So I hope they got to see one, hopefully not during the run, but I don't think they did because I talked to them at the run and they told me they hadn't seen one on their drive home. So I'm assuming they did not see one, even though I saw several on the drive to my house after the marathons.

I hope they got to see one. And then at the end of the report, we've been tweaking these a little bit. There used to be different numbers were reported on and we're trying to find the right thing. But right here you'll see how many visits we had at the rec center, how many gym rentals we had, how many volleyball court rentals we had and how many shelter rentals we had. Shelter rentals can be actually zero in September, but it was cool to see we had 4 late in the year.

And then attached is a couple pictures from the conference. Spark the Fire picture, that's the grant writing class organization that came up. Then you'll see some people attending a session and some of our vendors there. And then there was a professional, like, field day where we had the company Turfis brought up some professionals, and we actually had one person from Wasilla and one person from the Anchorage Softball Association come down just for that like 4-hour training. So it was cool to get a couple extra people.

You may have noticed, I felt like Parks and Rec people really like to walk. And I feel like Kenai, you don't always see a lot of people walking, but there was 2 or 3 days there where people, all 50 of them were just walking around town. Our mayor came and opened it up and was like, I noticed all the people walking in town. And threw some people off. Off a little bit.

And I will say, I think some of the businesses appreciated it. There was one night I went with a group of people over to Siam Noodle, and I think they had to call in an extra cook. So I don't think they were expecting that. And I heard Louie's was excited and Kenai Joe's was excited that they got extra attendance. I know the manager of Main Street Tap and Grill was like, this is great, and opened up when people flew in.

They're typically closed Tuesday nights. They opened up so people could come buy some dinner and have— we did an unofficial social there. So it was a cool way to see it, go out and support some local businesses in the community too. And all of our interior people loved our ocean view. I led a session on trail maintenance.

And I think I lost 2 people because we went down to Meeks Trail by the beach. And 2 people from Fairbanks who don't see the ocean a lot were just like, I'm going to go stand on the beach. It was blowing like 40, but they're like, I'm going to go stand on the beach for a minute, and they just kind of took in the view and the ocean. So that was really cool to see them just appreciate the beauty of our community.

That's it? It's kind of short. I can, I can keep going. Oh, you didn't talk about the pumpkin? I was going to.

That's in my next mid-month report, but I will, I guess I'll, I'll touch base on that. Uh, our Pumpkin Festival, uh, It was pouring rain. We had more pumpkins than ever. We had a trebuchet. We had over 1,500 attendees.

And so I just call that a very successful event, especially when it's the rainiest day and the coldest rainiest day of the year, it seemed like. And people still showed up. My family came for like 7 minutes. And they did every activity. They watched a pumpkin drop, and then they were like, hey, we're cold, we're gonna get some cider and go home.

But they had a blast. Uh, I will note, I saw this today at my daughter's daycare. They were talking with the elections, they were talking about government leaders, and she said, oh, good government leaders plan events like the Pumpkin Festival. So there's artwork that says that, and there's a hand-drawn stick figure of me. So they're very cool to see that my 4-year-old appreciates the event she gets to go to.

Thank you. You're welcome. Move on to my report.

I went down to the beach today and all the porta-potties are kind of closed or the main—. Yeah, there should always be one open. The one close to 401. Yeah, on the beach. But we close up the other ones unless that one fills up.

I'd probably close that one too. Looked like someone just spun all the toilet paper. And I didn't really— but it's weird why people do that stuff. Yes, it is. It's going to mess it up.

So it probably should be closed down. OK. No, it's pretty hard. People have— I know at least— I don't know. Sunday, I know we did a bathroom. Check, and there was someone had to clean it pretty extensively.

Yeah, there's a lot of jellyfish down there. That's pretty cool.

Um, that's about the extent of my report. We'll move on to Council Lee, as in you're online. Is she online? I am. I'm here.

I'm sorry, I'm not there in person. I have the— I have the cooties and I didn't want to share it with anybody. Um, we've had 3 council meetings since Parks and Rec last met. Um, several resolutions came before council. Uh, we accepted— um, we authorized the grant application to be done with the U.S. Department of Interior.

Um, that I believe, uh, Director Best talked to us about at our last Parks and Rec meeting for the $250K, up to $250K in matching funds for the Old Town Park. And council passed that resolution authorizing the grant application. Um, there was authorized the contract for the citywide paving design project. And authorized a contract award for Kenai Bluff erosion. We had to do that pretty quickly because the extensive damage and erosion that has been occurring over on Mission Avenue.

Um, we authorized the administration to file a motion to intervene on the city's behalf in regards to the Deep Creek Cook Inlet project. That's the data center that is proposed to go into Cook Inlet. It's not within city waters, not within city land, but, um, the city feels that we would potentially be impacted by that. Um, and, uh, so City Attorney Bloom at some point will be filing a motion to intervene on the city's behalf. Um, we heard from Tom Thomas R. Daley, regarding the River Cities Living magazine that he produces.

It's Kenai Peninsula-centric. It focuses on businesses and families in the Central Peninsula area.

We accepted a Rural Health Transformation Program grant that was awarded to Kenai Fire for $434,000 with no matching requirements. If my notes are correct here, 1,800 applications were submitted in that section of RHTP grant requests and only 403 were accepted statewide. So, or excuse me, I believe nationwide, and then KFD was one of the awardees. They will be using it to replace equipment on their ambulance, their life packs, things like that. Chief Teague and Assistant Chief testified that KFD will have a more advanced ambulance than Seattle once this equipment is installed, and they will be the number one in regards to equipment availability on their ambulance when this equipment is purchased with this grant.

So pretty big deal for residents of City of Kenai. Definitely will be getting, and we already get really great response and care from KFD, and this will just make it that much easier for them to meet residents' needs immediately.

We approved employee healthcare fund increase Challenger Center rental fees were established. We approved that. And last night we had a very short meeting. We approved the City Council regular meeting schedule for 2027, and we planned a work session to discuss the 5-year strategic plan. That's a first for the City of Kenai.

We've— we have not had a 5-year strategic plan before. Working with a contractor to develop that, and he will be having— he'll be out and about talking to people, and then there will also be an open house on December 17th from 5:30 to 8:30 at the visitor center to receive feedback and input from residents. I think that is— City Clerk advised us last night that November 10th, absentee votes will be tallied, and then the election will be certified at the next council meeting. And I believe that is it.

Thank you for the report. Is there anybody that has any questions for her?

Well, thank you for the report.

Um, we will move on to additional public comment.

Seeing none, no remote attendees that want to speak, um, the next meeting will be December 12th, 2026. You want to put in your calendar, or you might be gone, look at that.

We'll move on to any comments or questions to the chair. You guys have anything that you guys want.