Last Monday’s Homer City Council meeting featured a short second public hearing on an ordinance to adopt the draft 2045 Homer Comprehensive Plan, with only one person providing feedback in person.

The council will hold a third public hearing on the comp plan at their next meeting on Monday, Nov. 24 at 6 p.m.

During the last public hearing, Homer resident Brad Faulkner said that while the comp plan “stresses walkability,” he didn’t think that seemed to extend to the Homer Spit.

“Since we built the bike path out there, it has never once had the snow plowed,” he said. “People come out there by the hundreds to walk … I would just ask you guys (for) more than lip service about this walkability.”

In an email to the Homer News Monday, Public Works Director Dan Kort said that the bike path along Homer Spit Road is a state trail. However, the city does plow the trail on behalf of the state.

Port Director Matt Clarke further clarified via email Monday that the city Port and Harbor department regularly clears the sections of the trail between harbor ramps 1 and 3 and between ramps 7 and 8 of snow, as those areas traditionally serve as access for crews of “active” vessels during the winter months.

“In prior years, the remaining areas of the harbor and Spit trail have been plowed periodically by Public Works and the Parks Department,” he wrote.

Several written comments submitted to the council and included in the supplemental packet asked the council once again to ensure that the comp plan addresses protection of open space and establishes critical habitat areas in Homer.

During council members’ discussion of Ordinance 25-64 — which, if passed, will finalize the comp plan’s adoption by the City of Homer and ask the Kenai Peninsula Borough to adopt the plan as well — the council passed several amendments to the plan. Some amendments made changes to the Future Land Use Map, to include marking the critical habitat area around the Homer Airport on the map and revising language to more specifically support critical habitat conservation.

Further amendments passed unanimously by the council revised additional language throughout the plan for clarity or specificity; included as part of the Homer Comprehensive Plan suite of documents the 2022 Local Hazard Mitigation Plan; revised logistical organization and presentation of the comp plan document; and more.

Council members also reviewed and approved by roll call vote a number of additional amendments to the comprehensive plan. One such amendment deleted language on page 34 of the plan directing the city to conduct a housing needs assessment “to identify current and future housing needs, introducing types and numbers of units required to serve projected population growth and affordability ranges as well as supporting economic growths and industries.” The timeframe to conduct the assessment was set at 1-2 years.

The second step following the assessment directs the city to complete a housing stock report and buildable lands inventory within 3-5 years.

Council member Donna Aderhold said that keeping the language to conduct a housing needs assessment would give the city the opportunity to decide whether to take that action in the future. Council member Shelly Erickson said that the city has already been doing some of the work described in that section of the plan, and that retaining the language to conduct an assessment may pressure the city into completing that task whether or not it’s financially prepared to do so.

“One of those assessments is going to cost us $60,000 … I like starting on the second (step) because there’s a little bit of time and distance, and we can plan better for that,” she said.

Council members Aderhold and Bradley Parsons voted against deleting action 2a on page 34 of the plan. Council members Erickson, Storm Hansen, Caroline Venuti and Jason Davis voted in favor.

Another amendment to page 34 in the plan amends action 2e under City-Led Strategies and Actions to read, “Monitor short term rentals and their impact on the housing market and develop strategies to mitigate impacts of short-term rentals on year-round housing.”

A third amendment to the housing chapter of the plan revised a paragraph on page 33, under the section titled, “Unattainable Housing and the High Cost of Living are Barriers to Economic Growth and Quality of Life,” to further address impacts of short term rentals on year-round housing in Homer.

The revised paragraph now includes the sentence, “Conversion of existing homes to short-term rentals has further constrained available year-round housing supply.”

One amendment passed unanimously added a directive under Land Use and Environment Strategy 4, which describes protecting and enhancing green space in Homer, to develop fill requirements for parcels located in target areas documented to contain 66% or greater hydric soils.

Erickson raised a question about where the “66%” came from.

“I think we want to be really mindful of the consequences of what we’re doing, and making sure that that is a realistic number to be looking at before we do this,” she said.

Community Development Director Julie Engebretsen said that “most of our wetlands are based on soil mapping.”

“If two-thirds of your property has really wet soil, that’s likely a trigger — not only for looking for wetlands, but just drainage in general,” she said. “These are strategies for future regulation. The regulation itself would look a little further into that and figure out what a good boundary would be.”

Following discussion of all the amendments on the table during last week’s meeting, Engebretsen said that Agnew::Beck, the consulting firm working in partnership with the city to conduct the comp plan rewrite, was committed to making the requested changes to the plan before the next council meeting.

Find the Nov. 10 meeting recording in full, as well as the list of amendments in the supplemental packet, at www.cityofhomer-ak.gov/citycouncil/city-council-regular-meeting-346.

The 2045 comprehensive plan draft and additional announcements and updates are available online at homercompplan.com.