Soldotna Assemblyman Dale Bagley sits on the annexation advisory committee. During last night’s Soldotna City Council meeting, he encouraged Councilors to consider the strategic benefit of annexing certain areas…
Bagley: “Big boxes, medium boxes, national chains might move to the area, move outside the City of Soldotna, take sales tax away from the city of Soldotna, and so that’s a concern that I have, and K-Beach area would be a logical place that folks could go. They would not be taxed by the City of Soldotna and could be a problem in the future.”
City Planner John Czarneski there are only two lots inside the city limits that are 10 acres or larger, the average requirement for a box store.
Residents who fought this battle in 2008 expressed concern that an expansion of City limits and City regulations would cripple the agriculture industry, particularly along Echo Lake Road.
Patricia Mott has homesteaded her property since the 1950’s growing hay.
Mott: “I just don’t see any advantages. We’ve carved out our place and I don’t see anything that the City can offer us that we need.”
Mott had one suggestion for increasingly cramped developers…
Mott: “There’s lots of places where they can go up and it would be an advantageous thing for them to do, in my opinion. People who come up here to fish, their wives and kids have nothing to do, build them a decent mall where they can go up and have a movie theater, they can have a bowling alley, or they can have places to eat, have a little penthouse restaurant on top of where the mall is now.”
Richard Repper grows peonies nearby and said he’s happily self-contained. He’s afraid if the question goes to a public vote he and his neighbors won’t have a voice, since they live outside the polling area.
The City insists they’re committed to working with farmers to build an agricultural code.