A parking lot overlooking Mud Bay? Industrial development in peat 25 ft deep along Kachemak Drive? All our trees cut down for sprawl? Build housing developments and light industry on unstable bluffs? We can do better. Think about public trails in the Woodard Creek Watershed above the Hospital or a more extensive Diamond Creek or Bear Creek trail system. How about shorebird viewing platform by Mud Bay instead of a parking lot? Why don't we leave that super deep peat for the moose and the owls and work for more walking trails out there?

This is popular by the way. Seventy seven percent of Homer area residents say they want more open space protected. We are spending money and resources on other priorities, but we should be focusing on this more.

You can help. Please, help. Your future self and your kids will thank you. We need to change policy (how we spend our public time and money) and code (what our laws say) to get this done. There is work to do right now. The City Council is currently finalizing our Comprehensive Plan (our statement of policy for our community) and our Planning Commission is beginning to rework City Code.

Go to a meeting or just send them a message on FB or email and tell them that you want them to do any/all of the following (also tell them why you want it):

1) Create a City or Homer digital map that has layers shows property lines, zoning, and existing data on watersheds, unstable slopes, wetlands, bird and moose habitat & trees.

2) Tie those environmental layers to a new "Low Impact Development" designation/Zone that sets standards for maximum footprint, height, setbacks around creeks, restrictions on cutting, filling, and brings in a geotechnical engineer, hydrologist, or other expert when needed, etc.

3) Use these maps to help identify lands that public wants to conserve and prioritize their purchase for public use.

There are a number of meetings where you can show up and say your piece. But don't underestimate the power of a chat with a Council Member outside of an official meeting:

November 6 - Code Change Open House - 5:30 at the College

November 7 - City Council Comp Plan Work Session 9:00 am at City Hall

November 10 - Comp Plan - City Council Public Hearing - 6:00 pm at City Hall

As written, our Comprehensive Plan (Statement of City Policy for the next 20 years) and Zoning Code set us up to continue to develop everything everywhere with no actual restrictions based on environmental constraints. We need to tie zoning code to the known and mapped restrictions of the environment, and then encourage denser development outside of those areas. The kinds of development people are asking for includes Complete Streets, affordable housing like year-round rentals, duplexes and triplexes, and things like apartments over businesses.  

Pave paradise and put up a parking lot? No, we can conserve some of our most valuable lands! The time is now. Protect Open Space for public access, to conserve critical habitats of moose and migratory birds etc., and to mitigate the serious and hazards of mismanaged stormwater. The city should be working to buy and and protect eg. the shorebird habitat around Mud Bay and the Beluga Slough, peatlands along Kachemak Drive (where peat depths are 12-25 ft deep and 15,000 years old!), lands around critical watersheds like the Woodard Creek, Diamond Creek, Bear Creek (these could be beautiful and accessible recreation areas that also are important habitat. Protecting these watersheds is also crucial in mitigating the not insignificant hazards of landslides, flooding etc).

The city's planned spending is out of alignment with what the public says it wants. As written, this plan sets us up to spend millions and millions on harbor expansion (which surveys show is very unpopular), a large vessel haul-out (estimated at $5 million - no one asked the public if they wanted this, and it is basically spending public money to support a few private businesses), and a new community center (estimated $16 million dollars). Public surveys show that conserving open space is much more popular than any of these things, yet we have no money dedicated to conserving open spaces. Our Comprehensive Plan needs to state that we will prioritize protecting our open spaces, that we will use our funds that way, and we will seek other funding options--see eg. this tool and this tool to raise money for Open Space.

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