To protect private properties along Kenai’s South Beach, the City proposed a 1,500 foot gravel road for dip netters, but now federal supervisors say they’re concerned about the environmental impacts.
Steve Brockmann with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Office in Juneau sent a list of concerns to the Army Corps of Engineers who will be permitting the project. He fears the road may damage “a very rich, ecological sensitive, wetland area.”
Kenai City Manager Rick Koch said they counted the cost during the design phase…
Koch: “There’s trade-offs for any sort of development. This is an alignment that wasn’t our first choice, but we had reached the end of a process of trying to negotiate a different alignment of the road and this was the least damaging or had the least impact of different options that we looked at. These projects are designed to go through and look at all these kinds of impacts and have a discussion about them and we’re in the middle of that right now.”
Koch said he hasn’t yet had a chance to review Brockmann’s concerns and couldn’t comment specifically.
Brockmann said he’s concerned for the 5 species of geese, 7 species of duck and 10 species of shorebird which migrate through those wetlands, and a possible coho salmon population. He also worried that the road could form a dam and change the area hydrology. He requested “less damaging places” to locate parking and fee stations and changing the alignment so those booths could be placed on Royal Street.
He asked that the City consider a road through the subdivision to the south which could solve environmental and private property concerns.
In 2012 complaints boiled over from property owners along South Beach who said they were inundated with fishermen who partied through the night and left behind litter and human waste.
The City applied for the Army Corps permit last February; the public comment period is still open.
