The issue was among the planning and zoning concerns discussed during the more than five-hour council meeting.
Under city code, the council has two years to zone areas added to the city through annexation. The area in question, which abuts the Sterling Highway west of Rogers Loop, is currently unzoned.
While the Homer Advisory Planning Commission recommendation for the area included General Commercial One, Rural Residential, Open Space Recreational and Conservation zoning, the parcels abutting the highway would have been zoned RR and GC-1.
"I don't think this recommendation is really reflective of the property owners," said Councilman Rick Ladd.
Area residents support commercial zoning, in part because it increases the resale value of the property.
Doris Cabana, who is co-owner of a sawmill in the area being discussed, said she was just asking that her wishes be heard.
"We want this to be commercial," she said. "We're the ones who have to pay our taxes on it."
Arguing against residential zoning, area resident Lee Martin asked of the council, "If you were to choose a site for a house, would you choose this place?"
But council members Monday expressed concern that leaving the door open would be a bad idea.
"Are we going to get trapped into looking like we're driving through Soldotna?" asked Councilwoman Rose Beck.
Councilman Mike Yourkowski said that zoning the area as noncommercial would appease current commercial users by grandfathering them in, but would prevent new commercial uses on the property.
Beck suggested postponing the action until March to give the city planning commission time to prepare a "gateway overlay."
An overlay is a series of restrictions, conditions and stipulations added to existing requirements within a zoning area, including buffer areas and fence and vegetation requirements, said Beverly Guyton, acting city planner.
The gateway overlay would help preserve the scenic nature of the entrance to the city while still allowing existing commercial uses, she said.
But Monday, Guyton told the council that postponing action on the area left the door open wide.
"My concern with you not zoning it is that by leaving it unzoned, it's open to anything," she said. "It's better to zone it. You can always go back and change it."
"Once we zone it, reversing that is going to be near impossible," Councilman John Fenske said.
"GC-1 is new dealer car lots," Yourkowski said. "It's car repair, machine shops. I don't know how a scenic overlay is going to buffer a new car dealer. This is a real bad idea."
Council members expressed some doubt that the already busy planning commission could prepare the overlay by March.
"I don't know how it's going to get back to us sooner than six months," Beck said. "I'm really torn on this, because I don't want to see this turn into a monster."
Though council members went back and forth on the issue, ultimately they voted 5-1 to postpone action to give the planning commission time to prepare the gateway overlay. Yourkowski cast the dissenting vote.
Council members also pulled from the consent agenda for Monday's meeting a resolution setting fees for zoning permits.
Ladd drafted an amendment to the resolution that would maintain permit fees at their present rate for all non-retail and non-wholesale buildings, but would impose a zoning permit fee deposit on businesses larger than 30,000 square feet in size.
The fee would pay for city studies to determine whether the zoning permits should be approved.
A progressive zoning permit deposit fee also would be imposed, according to the amendment, charging "$300 per 1,000 square feet of gross floor space" for retail and wholesale buildings of more than 30,000 square feet.
Unused portions of the fee would be refunded.
Fenske said he had some concern that applying different standards based on size might not meet legal muster, but Ladd said he'd drafted the language based on similar ordinances in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
The vote was 4-2 in favor of the resolution.
Chris Bernard can be reached at cbernard@homernews.com.
We encourage you to add your comments. To prevent spam, comments with links are manually approved during the normal business day. Please be respectful of others with your comments, bear in mind anyone in the community may be reading your comments.
