After nearly two years of collaborative effort from project leaders and residents of the greater Homer area, the City of Homer finally has a new comprehensive plan.

The Homer City Council passed Ordinance 25-64, adopting the 2045 Homer Comprehensive Plan and recommending adoption by the Kenai Peninsula Borough, on Monday after a third and final public hearing.

A handful of people approached the podium to provide public testimony in the Homer City Hall Cowles Council Chambers. Former Public Works Director Jan Keiser asked the council to amend the Future Land Use Map attached to the comp plan so that it depicts property lines, similar to the 2018 Comprehensive Plan Land Use Recommendations Map. In written comments submitted to the council and provided in a supplemental packet on Monday, Keiser wrote that because of the omission of property lines on the current map, “it is impossible to know what future land use is proposed for specific properties.”

During council discussion of the ordinance, council member Caroline Venuti moved to include property lines on the Future Land Use Map. However, the motion failed in a unanimous roll call vote — Venuti included — after the council heard feedback from City of Homer Community Development Director Julie Engebretsen and Agnew::Beck consultant Shelly Wade that the Future Land Use Map is meant to be more broad and, like the comp plan itself, “visionary.”

According to Engebretsen and Wade, including property lines on the physical map would not only make it more difficult to read, but would not serve the map’s purpose in the long run as, first, the Future Land Use Map is not equivalent to the zoning map and is not intended to be parcel-specific, and second, property lines and parcels will more than likely change during the 20 year life of the comp plan, thus rendering the map inaccurate down the road.

According to the map itself, future land use maps “anticipate” development needs and constraints, identify suitable types of development and establish policies to guide development but do not act as regulatory zoning documents or make changes to existing code.

In other comments provided by the public, Penelope Haas, speaking on behalf of the Kachemak Bay Conservation Society, thanked the council for the work they had done to date on the plan and asked that they consider “doing a little more” to strengthen language or actions in the plan for protection of various areas, including Mud Bay or areas adjacent to Mud Bay.

Brad Faulkner, who also provided testimony during the Nov. 18 public hearing on the comp plan, asked that winter maintenance such as plowing, as well as general year-round walkability, of the Homer Spit bike path be included in the comprehensive plan. During the council’s discussion of the plan following the close of the public hearing, council member Donna Aderhold said that while the city could look into the matter of walkability on the Homer Spit during the winter and that a conversation might be needed between the Public Works Department and Port and Harbor, “plowing the bike path” wasn’t an action that should be addressed specifically in the comp plan.

The council also passed several final amendments to language in the Nov. 18 Council Public Hearing Draft of the comprehensive plan. Several of these amendments largely aimed to specify or strengthen existing language, though a couple of the amendments also touched on larger issues like housing availability or economic development. An amendment submitted by Venuti and passed unanimously by the council revises chapter 4, page 49 of the draft plan — which addresses housing — so that the first city-led strategy now reads, “Implement zoning reforms to encourage attainable housing development for young people, families, seniors, college students and seasonal workers.” Venuti’s rationale for the amendment was that Kachemak Bay Campus should “be considered an economic driver and a meaningful career and job-training opportunity for Homer residents.”

Another amendment revises chapter 5, page 57 of the draft plan, addressing economic development, so that the fifth potential partner-led strategy now more explicitly includes construction and marine trades and technology as fields in which career and job training resources could be expanded.

Additional amendments passed by the council can be found in the Nov. 24 supplemental packet.

The revised comp plan must still go before the Kenai Peninsula Borough Planning Commission and borough Assembly for review and adoption as an element of the Official Borough Comprehensive Plan within the City of Homer planning area of the borough, according to the ordinance. In the meantime, city project leaders and contracted consultants are continuing work to revise Title 21 zoning and planning code.

The council also passed a resolution to extend the city’s contract with Agnew::Beck. The original contract is set to expire on Dec. 18.

Resolution 25-103 states that an extension is necessary to allow the consultant to continue working with the community to adopt a new zoning code by July 1, 2026. The resolution extends the length of the existing contract to July 1 at no additional cost to the city.

The resolution was passed as part of the consent agenda and no discussion was held on the item by council members.

Find Ordinance 25-64 and supplemental materials, as well as the Nov. 24 meeting recording, in full at www.cityofhomer-ak.gov/citycouncil/city-council-regular-meeting-336.

Find the 2045 Homer Comprehensive Plan and supplemental materials in full at homercompplanupdate.com/.

The Homer City Council is not scheduled to meet during the month of December. The next regular council meeting will take place on Monday, Jan. 12 at 6 p.m. in the Homer City Hall Cowles Council Chambers and via Zoom.