Homer Alaska - News

As the Homer City Council considers the Homer Comprehensive Plan, with a vote to consider approval scheduled at its Monday night meeting (see story, page 8), one area won't be in the plan: the Homer Spit. In a separate process that started last summer, USKH, an Anchorage planning firm, has been working on a separate Homer Spit Comprehensive Plan.

Last month, USKH released a draft of the Spit comp plan. In the next few months, USKH, city planners and the Homer Advisory Planning Commission will work on the draft. Once a final draft is written, an open house and work session will be held before summer. The Spit comp plan goes to the planning commission for its consideration and then to the Homer City Council for approval, with public hearings held in each body.

"I'm really hoping that there's more public input," said planning commission Chairperson Sharon Minsch. "Once the plan is on the table, maybe it will be easier because it's not as big as the comprehensive plan."

When the city decided to update its Homer Comprehensive Plan in 2006, officials excluded the Spit section.

"It was determined the Spit was such an important community feature it deserved and required its own planning effort," the draft plan notes in the introduction.

City Planner Rick Abboud said the decision to separate the Spit from the general Homer comp plan update was made before he came to the city.

"My understanding is somehow the previous contractor who did the comp plan didn't feel they could do the Spit justice within their contract," Abboud said.

Stretching from Mud Bay at the intersection of Kachemak Drive and the Homer Spit Road to Land's End Resort, the Spit has a wide variety of uses. Million-dollar luxury condos are next to fuel tanks. Commercial fishing boats share the harbor with recreational skiffs. Spit Rats camp in $200 tents next to $200,000 motorhomes.

Spit plans date back to 1988, but the 29-page draft is the first comprehensive plan for the Spit. The 1999 Homer Comprehensive Plan included a two-page Homer Spit Plan. The comp plan will describe goals, preferred development and recommend public improvements for the Spit.

Minsch said the planning commission will go through the draft to make sure nothing has been left out. For example, she noted the plan discusses park improvements, but that the Parks and Recreation Commission — which hasn't met since the plan came out — hasn't made comments.

"It's still pretty rough," Minsch said.

The plan looks at the Spit in terms of land use, the environment, transportation, parking, the port and harbor, city land, and parks and recreation, and makes recommendations in those areas.

Probably the biggest issues, and the recommendations most likely to affect all users, deal with transportation and parking.

"For me, the biggest part of the Spit is the safety issue, the traffic," Minsch said.

As part of its project, USKH did a transportation and parking study. That study shows in concrete numbers what many already know: at summer's peak, the Spit is congested and parking close to shops and the harbor can be almost as bad as any East Coast sea resort.

In June 2009, the average daily traffic count was 3,540 vehicles — down slightly from an average daily count of 4,125 vehicles in 2007. That compares to a low of 1,636 average daily vehicles in January and a high of 8,960 average daily vehicles in July. The highest daily traffic counts were in late May for about 10,500 vehicles. July was almost as bad, at 10,000 vehicles for some days.

A snapshot of parking on July 10, 2009, showed the lots at the center of the Spit to be from 75 to 95 percent full at any time of the business day. In some lots, 75 percent of the spaces were occupied by the same vehicle all day. By 8 a.m., some lots like the one between the harbor office and the Salty Dawg, had 70 percent occupancy. The Spit has about 1,300 public parking spaces, including parking on the east side of the harbor.

"It really addresses parking," Minsch said of the draft comp plan.

Some recommendations made in the plan for parking are:

Provide free, four-hour parking in lots close to shopping and commercial businesses;

* Provide permit parking for boat owners with rented slips and employees in designated areas;

* Provide permit parking for long-term parking;

* Provide loading zones for businesses;

* Clearly identify parking areas;

* Create clear parking lot entrances;

* And manage parking better.

Minsch noted that recommendation is key to addressing parking on the Spit.

"If you look at the (parking) report, there's plenty of parking. It's not managed properly," she said.

"I don't think there's any argument that there shouldn't be areas for timed parking — and organization, period," Abboud said.

Implementing policies would require some sort of parking authority with enforcement powers.

"It's a matter of making policies and enforcing them," Abboud said. "If we don't have someone policing them, what's the use?"

Other ideas suggested in the draft comp plan include new or remodeled parks, such as a park with amphitheater and plaza by Pier One Theatre and the Nick Dudiak Fishing Lagoon.

Still early in the process, the public — and not just Spit users — has plenty of time to come to future workshops and hearings. The comp plan will be discussed at planning commission work sessions and meetings over the next several months.

"Anybody is welcome to comment at any time, especially when it's on our agenda," Abboud said.

Minsch encouraged citizens to weigh in on the plan now.

"Rather than waiting for the 11th hour and try to make the plan work from their personal vision, people should work all the way through," she said.

Copies of the current draft are available at the Planning Department at city hall. The draft also is available as a large document for download at www.homerspitfutureplan.com. That Web site also includes information on meetings and an overview of the Spit comp plan.

Michael Armstrong can be reached at michael.armstrong.@homernews.com.