The Kenai City Council held a work session earlier this month to discuss revitalizing the Kenai Waterfront adjacent to Bridge Access Road beginning at Millennium Square to the City dock. Several ideas were brought up at the session including a multi-use area such as a mixture of residential, restaurants and retail.
Paul Ostrander, Kenai City Manager, told KSRM’s ‘The Bird’s Eye View’ with Bob Bird:
“Historically, this area, as early as 1888 was used for processing facilities. As that industry is changed, the number of fish harvested out of the Cook Inlet has continued to decline. We’re now at the point, there’s only one active processor in that area. Much of that area is now underutilized, but if you look at that area, it is truly a jewel of the city. If you have an opportunity to go down, even to the City Dock property and look over that mouth of the river there – you’ve got the two opposing beaches, you’ve got the flats, you’ve got the inlet, you’ve got the mountains on the other side – It’s truly a spectacular area. We think that there’s, really, a lot of untapped potential there.”
The Kenai City Council is considering on appropriating money for a feasibility study at their upcoming Wednesday City Council meeting.
Ostrander said:
“What this feasibility study will do is determine if there are things that the city can do from a regulatory perspective, from a zoning perspective, if there’s an opportunity for the city to enter into some type of public-private partnership. Are there things that we can do to incentivize the types of development down there that the community wants?”
He said the city is not looking at purchasing properties that are located there, but figuring what to do to help the development:
“This vision needs to be created by the community. The community needs to be the one that drives this, but I certainly think that a transformation of those underutilized lots, in conjunction with existing operations that are down there, there’s huge potential there.”
According to the Kenai Waterfront and Economic Development Incentives Timeline, a public hearing is scheduled to happen on Wednesday, September 1 on funding the Waterfront Feasibility Study.