"Maybe when we get the Fred Meyer and Gateway (Zoning District) stuff out of the way, we can attack this," council member Mike Heimbuch said in August 2006. "I can guarantee you this case has lit the fire again."
Last month, the planning commission reignited that discussion when it presented a workshop on a proposed ordinance. Commissioners emphasized the ordinance is a draft version and only the first step in a long public process that has to go through several planning commission work sessions and commission and council public hearings before or if it's adopted into city code.
Developers might worry the ordinance would cover any land steep enough to roll a marble downhill. Not so; the proposed ordinance applies to property with more than a 30-percent slope, within 40 feet of a bluff edge or where the city engineer determines slope, erosion or stability issues.
What the ordinance says about how slopes steeper than 50 percent can be developed could ignite some controversy. The version available on the Homer Planning Department Web site says "on slopes of 50 percent or greater, no development, regrading or stripping of vegetation shall be permitted."
Planning Commission Chairman Ray Kranich said that restriction could get people alarmed. He cautioned that the ordinance is only a draft, and that as it works its way through the process, a blanket restriction could be qualified to read that anything over 50 percent would need an engineering plan.
"This is a very rough ordinance," he said.
David Cole of DOWL Engineers, Anchorage, gave a talk that could be called Steep Slope 101. Cole works as a consultant to the city on steep-slope issues under a five-year Environmental Protection Agency grant to the city for wetlands and other geologic mapping. Engineers calculate slope by dividing horizontal distance by vertical distance. A hill that runs 5 feet for every 1 foot of rise has a 20 percent slope and a hill that runs 2 feet for every 1 foot of rise has a 50 percent slope. Slopes at or under 50 percent generally can be built on without major difficulty, Cole said.
"If they're steeper than two-to-one, generally you'll need some engineering analysis," he said.
The proposed ordinance would require a site plan by a civil engineer for slopes 30 percent or greater.
Another factor has to do with soil types, geologic features or vegetation. Engineers compare the driving force, or the movement of soils downhill, with the resisting force, or soil structure or subsurface geologic features. If the resisting force is greater than the driving force say, well-vegetated topsoil on a shallow slope then the slope will be stable.
Stability can be improved by putting in retaining walls at the uphill or toe side of the slope. Disturbed slopes can be revegetated and the soil stabilized with materials like jute fabric to retain soil while grasses and brushes grow.
In a comment period, Mike McCarthy encouraged the city to address soil structure. McCarthy, a Kachemak Drive resident, said his research suggests marine sediments that contain salt become unstable when water dissolves the salt crystals. Along with calculating slope areas, the city should do a baseline hydrology and surficial soils analysis, McCarthy said.
The proposed ordinance also looks at development within 40 feet of a bluff edge. It focuses on upland or inland bluffs, such as the bluffs along Skyline Drive. Nina Faust, a Skyline Drive area homeowner, said she wondered if 40 feet would be enough.
"That sounds like something that needs to be addressed," she said.
Faust also said she thought the ordinance should address issues like dumping off a bluff.
"That would not be acceptable," Cole said. "You're creating a fill."
Filling or dumping also is addressed by the draft ordinance, with restrictions on how high a fill could be built. It would require a site plan for fill placement over 8 feet and for cuts 5 feet high or greater.
Borough assemblywoman Milli Martin, also a Skyline Drive area resident, raised similar concerns.
"What is the impact of what occurs on the top?" she asked. "What is the impact below?"
Cole said he understood Martin's concern about where a sloping area ends and how uphill activity could affect neighbors below.
"The ordinance as written doesn't talk about that, but you make a very good point," Cole said.
The steep slope ordinance workshop led to many similar concerns. With notes in the draft ordinance like "What to call this section?" it clearly is in rough form. After the planning commission has conducted more work sessions and the city incorporated its ideas, the steep slope ordinance will go before the commission for its consideration, with public hearings. If passed or amended, it would go to the Homer City Council for more public hearings and final action.
No dates for future action have been set. The draft ordinance is at the planning department's Web page at planning.ci.homer.ak.us.
Michael Armstrong can be reached at michael.armstrong@homernews.com.
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Homer Alaska - News -
Story last updated at
8:47 PM on
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
City starts work on steep-slope ordinance
BY MICHAEL ARMSTRONG
STAFF WRITER
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