The City of Soldotna received a grant of $360,000 from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration for redevelopment of the city’s commercial district along the Kenai River. The city’s grant application competed with and was selected from among more than 1,500 nationwide applications for the EDA’s Economic Adjustment Assistance program.
John Czarnezki, Soldotna’s Director of Economic Development & Planning tells KSRM that the concept for a pedestrian-friendly riverfront ‘Main Street’ was first described in the city’s 2015 Downtown Improvement Plan:
“We were notified on May 31st that we received the award, $360,000 and that requires a 20% match which is $90,000 for a total project of $450,000. It’s a planning grant is what we received. The idea is to develop a master plan for the redevelopment of Soldotna’s riverfront. We want to create a riverfront walkable downtown. It’s the downtown we’ve never had. We want to be able to create that. We’ll use this grant to run through all the paces and get ourselves prepared to implement a plan.”
Czarnezki says the Riverfront Redevelopment project area includes more than 80 acres of commercially zoned land between the Sterling Highway and the Kenai River, running from Soldotna Creek Park to the bridge:
“In a nutshell, what we’re going to do is do things like a market analysis, conduct public engagement, stakeholder meetings, landowner meetings, conduct a feasibility and cost benefit analysis and then develop a conceptual plan, which would include multiple ideas as to how the riverfront could redevelop and then wrap that all up into a master plan. That will all be accomplished in 18 months, that’s the time period that we have from the federal government for this award. At the end of 18 months, we will have a master plan in hand, and we’ll be ready to take the next step which would be implementation.”
The Riverfront Redevelopment project aims to re-design the city’s commercial district in a way that connects people to place, highlighting the beauty of the Kenai River, and brings residents and visitors to the riverfront.
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Photo courtesy of Visit Soldotna.