The City of Homer continues the discussion on establishing a new community recreation center following determination in 2023 that the Homer Education and Recreation Center — specifically the smaller building, HERC 2 — is no longer fit for use due to the presence of hazardous materials and would be too expensive and cumbersome to demolish in order to establish a new center on the same site.
The Homer City Council began setting aside money last year for the eventual establishment of a new multiuse community recreation center — a project which is listed as No. 2 on the city’s 2025-2030 Capital Improvement Plan.
The Recreation Champions Working Group — which includes city council members Donna Aderhold and Shelly Erickson — recently reviewed three possible locations for a future Homer Community Recreation Center and has determined a preference among those three lots.
The three possible sites include the HEA lot bounded by Lake Street, Grubstake Avenue and Snowbird Street; a vacant lot owned by the Kenai Peninsula Borough behind the athletic field at Homer Middle School; and property owned by the City of Homer in what is commonly referred to as the town center.
Aderhold said during the Jan. 13 council meeting that the working group has ruled out the KPB lot for consideration. According to a Jan. 2 memorandum from the group to the council, this decision was based on the logistics, location and initial cost estimations for utilities, site access and potential development of the lot.
The HEA lot, the memo notes, would be potentially the least expensive site to develop for utilities, but the city would be required to negotiate with HEA to purchase the lot for development. Information presented in the memo and council discussion during the Jan. 13 meeting therefore largely focused on the city-owned town center property as the most advantageous option.
Advantages for the town center property — two empty adjoining lots behind Alice’s Champagne Palace — include that they are centrally located, could include public parking for pedestrian access to businesses on Pioneer Avenue and could “support future efforts to develop privately-owned portions of town center.” Utility connections are viable near the lot; Public Works Director Daniel Kort found during an investigation in October that water is available along Pioneer Avenue and a sewer main passes through the northern portion of the property.
Erickson said during the meeting that in establishing a new rec center, it’s important for the city to select a location that allows room for expansion, and that she thought the town center lots gave Homer that opportunity.
“It checks off a number of boxes for me. It opens up town square … It may look like it’s going to cost us a little bit more up front, but in the long run I think it’s going to be saving money for us all the way across,” she said. “It also gives us a town center that people can come and interact (with) … and we already own the lot.”
Erickson said that the city would lose the option to expand and “wouldn’t be able to check off other boxes” with the HEA lot.
“I’m very excited about it, because there’s so many opportunities ahead of us if we do this one,” she said.
Council member Jason Davis also expressed enthusiasm for the potential to finally develop the town center.
Aderhold said that it would be “really valuable to hear from the broader community on what their thoughts are before we make a formal selection of (the site).”
The memorandum, approved on Jan. 13, requests that the Parks, Art, Recreation and Culture Advisory Commission, the Planning Commission, and the Economic Development Advisory Commission review the city-owned town center lots as the possible preferred location for a future rec center and provide feedback to the council.
The memo also requests that City Manager Melissa Jacobsen direct city staff to conduct outreach and solicit feedback from neighboring property owners, organizations and community members regarding selecting the town center lots as the future rec center’s preferred location.
Find Memorandum CC-25-011 in full at www.cityofhomer-ak.gov/citycouncil/city-council-regular-meeting-317.