At the December 9 Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly meeting more testimony was heard about the community frustration with rezoning in the Ciechanski area.
Crystal Penrod and her husband are the head of the Diamond Willow Homeowners Association and began the petition to rezone three parcels of land owned by a local businessman so that they may not be made into gravel pits.
Penrod: “I have to say we are very disappointed without this is being handled. Both the assembly and planning commission members seem to not really know what localized option zoning is, we can tell this by the questions being asked at the hearings, that type of thing. We were given extensive instructions on the hoops that we are to jump through, how many signatures we had to have, it was all laid out of Mr. Bruce Wall the planning officer. We did everything, we both took two weeks off from work to get it done.”
Mayor Mike Navarre detailed the reason that the assembly originally postponed the ordinance.
Navarre: “Because there was a conditional use permit that was applied for, it went before the planning commission, the planning commission denied it and it has been appealed to the board of adjustment. The board of adjustment meets in January, they have 30 days after their meeting to make a determination and so what they did is postpone it until the first meeting that they could really hear it after the appeal process.”
To see KSRM’s past coverage of this controversial issue, click here.