Planning & Zoning Commission - Regular Meeting

Good after Good afternoon, evening. Uh, I would like to call the March 11, 2026 Planning and Zoning Commission regular meeting to order. If you are able, please rise and join me in the pledge of allegiance. I allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Clerk, may we have the roll call, please? Commissioner Fikes, here. Commissioner Woodard here. Vice Chair Doit is absent. Chair Keaton here. Commissioner Asen here. Commissioner Ersley present. Commissioner Krauss here. You have a quorum.

Thank you. Um the approval of the agenda and consent agenda. Public comments on consent agenda items limited to 3 minutes per speaker or 30 minutes aggregated. All items listed with oh commission will be approved. All items are considered to be non-controversial by the commission and will be approved by one motion. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless a commission member so requests in which case the item will be removed from the consent agenda and considered in its normal sequence on the agenda as part of the general orders. Is there a motion to approve the agenda and consent agenda? I move that we approve the agenda and the consent agenda.

A second. Second. Thank you. Are there any additional revisions to the agenda and consent agenda from the commissioners? Would the clerk please read the consent agenda items into the record? Approval of minutes. Regular meeting of February 25th, 2026. And that is your consent agenda.

Thank you. Are there any public comments on any of the consent agenda items just read by the clerk? Is there unanimous consent or is is there anyone who would like unanimous consent? I ask for unanimous consent. Thank you. Are there any objections to unanimous consent? Hearing no objections, the consent the agenda and consent agenda are approved. And we have no scheduled public comment. Is that correct?

That is correct. All right. How about unscheduled public comment? Is there anybody from the public wishing to speak to anything that is not on the agenda? Remote attendees? There are no remote attendees from the general public online right now.

Thank you. We have no considerations of plats. We do have a public hearing. That brings us to new business. The first item is resolution PZ2026-05 granting a conditional use permit from retail marijuana store on the property described as lot 12 block Baver Creek Alaska subdivision amended located at 6384 Kenai Spur Highway in the general commercial zoning district. Is there a motion to approve the resolution? I move to approve resolution PZ2026-05 granting a conditional use permit for a retail marijuana store on the property described as lot 12 block Ba Creek Alaska subdivision.

Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. Director Butner, may we have your report?

Uh, thank you, Chair Katon. Um, actually before I give my report, I just want to quote KMC 142150D public hearing. If the application is in order, a public hearing shall be scheduled in accordance with the requirements of KMC 142280. An applicant or representative of the applicant must be present in person or by remote device for the application to be considered at the public hearing. At this time they are not here. I would ask that the commission table this so we can move to the next agenda item to give them a couple extra minutes and then we can bring it back up off the table and um close it out at that point. Is there a motion to table this item?

We'll make a motion that we table this item and a second. Second and uh can I ask for unanimous consent? I request unanimous consent to table uh public hearing on resolution PZ2026-05. Thank you. Hearing no objection, the uh resolution is tabled. Um is there anybody from the general public that would like to speak? Oh, wait. you still need to give your report or you going to table your report to

um the public hearing if if they don't show up if we can go to the next item of business which would be H1. Um if they do show up we'll go back and act like it's a full public hearing. If not there's actually provisions to uh dismiss the application. Okay. Perfect. Uh we have no un we have no unfinished business. That brings us to new business. The first item is a discussion rescheduling April planning and zoding commission meetings. Discussion from the commission.

I'll just give a quick background as to why we brought this as a discussion item and then we can open discussion. The city special election is scheduled for April 14th, 2026. Pursuant to KMC 6.40.020, the canvas board is required to meet 7 days following the election to canvas results. The the April 15th, 2026 regular council meeting has been rescheduled April 22nd, 2026 to allow for the canvas board to complete its work in accordance with city code and enable the council to certify the election results the day following the canvas without delay. Uh this then bumped us out of the April 22nd slot. Um but we figured that rescheduling the planning and zoning commission meetings in April would allow the council to hold their meeting on the newly scheduled date and avoid any conflict of overscheduling the chambers. Um, our recommendation at this time is to cancel the April 8th meeting um and then move the April 22nd to April 29th.

Sorry. Does anybody have any discussion about this? It works for me. Works for me. works for me. Okay. Um, do do we need a vote on it? Okay, great. Sounds like we're all in agreement that it's going to be okay. Good. Marty asking Marty, would you like to comment?

No, I'm I'm good with M dates. Thank you. For clarification, the new date was April 29th at 6 p.m. 7 p.m., excuse me, 7 p.m. Thank you. And also cancelling April 8th.

Are we not scheduling a work session in April? We may, but I want to figure out what the topic is going to be because there's a couple things that council would direct us to do and we're working internally as administration to figure out which which one's going to come up next. So, we likely will. It will likely be um before the meeting on the 29th, but that isn't set in stone quite yet, but we will let you guys know by um by our next meeting at the end of March. Okay, that brings us to reports. Um, Director Butner, may we have your report, please?

Yeah. Um, I apologize for being on this side of the dis, but just getting over the flu. Um, we had a successful um, sealed bid auction on uh, the closed last week and we sold tentatively or conditionally, I should say, um, three parcels over the Beaver Loop acres um, near where the existing gravel pits are. um those would require a cup. That was stipulated in the brochure. Um so you may be seeing some some cups coming forth. Um that does take some time. They're a little bit more in-depth. Um requires a lot of extra planning and engineering um before they come to the CUP stage. So um just wanted to kind of celebrate that. That was a success. Um, and that all kind of stemmed out of you guys reviewing a plat last year and we've already turned it around and, you know, want to make it a productive piece of land. Um, other than that, we do have a number of land lease applications out. We have um some competitive ones. I think for the first time, well, definitely in my tenure, but I think first time we've had a competitive land lease application like concerning the same piece of land. So, um, interested to see how all that will work out. Um right now they're in the public review phase. They have um one closes at the end of this month, one closes I believe first week of April. Uh so the lands piece of of planning zoning is a little busy, but we're we're trucking through. So uh that's another reason we're asking to cancel the April 8th meeting is just everything's coming to a crux right about the same time. So um other than that, just glad to be here and glad that the sun is out while we're at a meeting. So that's we're heading the right way. That is good news. Um, I really have no uh report. Um, I plan on asking Director Butner next week

what I should be reporting on and maybe giving me a heads up on things that we're going to be working towards. Um, but I am very appreciative of everybody coming today and I'm still learning a lot. Thank you. Um, Commissioner Bikes, it's your turn. Thank you. Yikes. All righty. February 8th, February 9th. Um, I don't think I was here to speak on this one. This was the February 9th meeting. We had a public hearing quasi judicial matter for a see application member of the publication. Oh, building setback. Building setback encroachment. This one was in the K Beach area um off of North Oh, North Bridge uh Drive. It's kind of a culde-sac off of Shahansky. Yeah. Um it was a parcel that was owned um by an individual that had both parcels and so they were looking to clean up the setback to uh give them more um latitude with their two parcels of property. So there was no conflicts there with public access. So that one was approved. And then we got into a utility easement and this one was in the Ridgeway area uh 10-ft easement along the boundary line and that one there was no issue on. Um

that was in the Mackie Lake area and that one was approved. Then we had a rightaway in Satana vacation and this one was going to be over by the golf course and that one was approved. And then we had another rightway in Nikkisy area. Uh this was in the Emanuel subdivision and that one was approved. And skipping along, we went on into a conditional land use permit. And this was in the Nikiski area. And that was a conditional land use permit. And there was no issues. Trying to read my own writing. Oh, it was in a remote area away from homes within 1,000 ft. So there was no issue. It was a gravel. Nobody was going to be impacted. Nobody came. Nobody complained and so shockingly enough that one had no issues and went on through. Uh then we had some director's comments talking about Chudiaak Electric doing some work in the Cooper Landing area uh kicking off the summer building project in that area. And then we cruised into our February 22nd meeting and let's see that one we had a exciting utility easement vacation in the Diamond Ridge Homer area. Um didn't need uh lot one and lot two had a boundary line in between them a utility easement. again, um, personnel owned both properties and so they wanted to remove that. So that was approved and then we ran into a conditional use permit and this was in the Ridgeway area and this was a renewal from a 2022 and so this one was approved uh, this was for the Alaska Department of Transportation. So, this is part of the Cooper's Landing

area and uh like I say, it was in approved in 2022. We were just doing a renewal of it. No issues there. Brought us into a conditional use permit. This one was in the Funny River area, part of Satna. Um this was a request to install a ELP fence uh for bank protection in the 50oot habitat protection area and there was no issues there. So, we approved that. And then we went into an ordinance to authorize the Kenai Burough to enter into a long-term lease agreement with the city of Sewward for operation of a public outdoor shooting range. And so that was approved after a report and discussion. And then the last one was going to be an ordinance amending a burrow code section. And this was regarding a method of disposition. And so this got into some of the discussion. Is it a uh appraised value? Is it fair market value? Is it assessed price? And so how are we disposing of our burough properties? And so we had some robust discussion on that and then we automatic or automatically we um actually uh voted to approve that ordinance change. And then we had another ordinance amending um the homework comprehensive plan. And after a report on that, um, with good community involvement, they went ahead and approved that as well. And director's comments was talking about updating the Firewise plan. Uh, last time it was done was about 20 years ago. So, they're really going to try and tackle that this year. And that should bring us into March. All good.

Excellent. Thank you very much, Commission or Council Member Cassenna. May we have your report, please? Sure. It's uh refreshing to have the reports be the longest part of this meeting. Oh, boy. Yeah. Uh no, I mean I'm I'm not trying to I'll try to keep it relatively brief. Uh one question I had for uh you Kevin, are we able to uh mention how much uh is conditionally or earned from those land sales? Uh we haven't done the official notice award uh yet. So, I would say no at this time. Okay. My guess is it'll be announced step council next week. Yeah.

So, listen for that big news. Next Wednesday. Um Okay. So, uh our last meeting was uh last Wednesday. It's every Wednesday that we aren't here unless we make you reschedu. Uh we had some scheduled reports. We received an update on the street condition assessment. So, a contractor came in and surveyed all the roads we had, paved or gravel, and gave us a a rating on those. Um, all our gravel roads were in the good or whatever was better than good. I don't have those notes in front of me. Uh, and then, um, many of our paved roads were also in good condition. About 66% of our paved roads were in good or better condition. Um, they made some recommendations on how to take care of that long term. uh to manage those at a reasonable price. So that was I thought that was interesting. Uh we had some public hearings uh basically we increased funds for the uh new building department software basically permitting software that multiple departments will be able to use uh rather than paper and pencils maybe. Uh we appropriated some grant funds from the American Library Association for the libraries participation in the digital pathways uh online health literacy program. They were one of somewhere in between 12 to 16 libraries nationally to receive this grant. So I think it's a testament to the good work they do at grant writing. um increased some funds for consulting services um to evaluate the natural gas storage opportunities at uh the Kenai Municipal Airport lands. I wasn't here for your last meeting, so Phil may have mentioned that they're looking at a number of um organizations that would

like to store gas underground basically. Uh and so uh in order to help us navigate that, a a contractor, it's a couple of people will help us try to do that. So, uh amended the city schedule of rates for plan review fees. You you may already know this uh for successive identical structures. So, if someone's building 10 of the same exact thing, maybe don't make them pay 10 times. And then new business approved the 2026 airport commission work plans. Uh approved some matching grants. Uh some money to help um the Alaska Children's Institute uh the theater um put in a parking lot. So a paved parking lot. Um, they received, shoot, I should have written it down, probably I want to say maybe like $40,000 from uh uh some folks in Anchorage, and we would cover the remaining 10,000 or so. Um, and there were some pretty cute testimonies from uh two of the kids there. So, this it's hard when the kids come in. Uh and then uh the administration uh offered or requested council's participation in uh an RFP review, a request for proposals. Some pretty fun stuff. Uh there was it was a hot debate which one of us was going to be able to do it, but Phil ultimately won, so he gets to do it. Um but yeah, other than that, that was the the big happenings of our last meeting and then our next meeting is next Wednesday. So, thank you so much. Um is there any uh additional anyone from the public wishing to comment online or in person?

There's nobody online. Thank you. Next meeting is March 25th, 2026. Oh, that was April. That's what I thought. Okay, that was close. That was close. From March 26, 2026, I assume at 7 p.m. or will it be a work session? 700 p.m. Great. And I would like to get um let's see, let's uh move on to commissioner comments and questions. I'd like to make a motion. Go ahead.

I move that we remove item F1 from from the table item and second that they it just brings it brings back item F1 for um are they here? But no, it it just brings it back as a business item that is in front of Yo, I was like, can somebody help clarify this for me? Go ahead. You need you need a second, right? Okay, great. And unanimous consent. Request for unanimous consent.

Okay, no comment or no questions. Okay. Um unanimous consent is it it's passed by unanimous consent. Next I move that we dismiss the application related to PZ2026-05. Okay. Uh due to the lack of attendance of the applicant. Okay. Great. Yeah. Takes it off the table permanently. Sounds great. And uh would somebody like to request unanimous consent? Oh, I'm sorry. I'll request unanimous consent.

And any questions or discussion? Okay. Unanimous consent. The motion passes. Both motions pass. So, we're taking it off the table. And then we're And then you're dismissing it due to per code. It says the commission will dismiss. Um they can reapply with a new application fee, but this and this isn't a denial. It's just saying this wasn't they failed to show up. What's their timeline? There is no timeline for this particular one because it wasn't it wasn't within 24 hours they turn around and do it again.

No, this this one because it's not a denial, they could turn around tomorrow and put it back on the agenda for another meeting. Okay, great. Thank you very much. Back to where we were at. Comments and questions from the commissioners. Miss Krauss. Oh, it's great to see the sun out and it's already 7:30 at night, so glad we all made it in. Mr. Woodard,

I'm glad we didn't have to vote on that tonight.

I'm happy the sun is out as well. All good. All right. Thanks everybody for coming. Uh Mr. Askin, all good here. All right. Great. Thank you, Marty. Uh seeing no further business before this body, we are