The City of Kenai revised its permitting regulations for the use of fireworks within the city with the passage of Ordinance 3344-2023 at the Kenai City Council meeting on Wednesday, April 19th.
According to the Kenai Municipal Code Chapter 8.20 — which regulates the use of fireworks in the City — and the States Firework Display Permit, the City of Kenai identified redundancies. The Kenai City Council amended Kenai Municipal Code Chapter 8.20 to remove reference to City “Use Permits”, as the City does not have an official Permit, or permit process.
Kenai City Manager Terry Eubanks discussed fireworks approval process.
“What this ordinance does is it’s gonna remove some redundancy in the permitting process. So the state of Alaska goes through all the same standards that we would go through in the issuance of a permit. But the one key thing that they do is they have to have concurrence from the local jurisdiction, so they look to the city. That we concur with whatever show is going to go on. Without our concurrence, they’re not going to issue a permit. We’re not losing any control. They still will come to the city and to the department, and the department will do all the work that they’re currently doing to make sure that all of those safety things are in place and that we concur with the issuance of the permit and then the state will issue that permit.”
The State of Alaska has a permit and process in place that the Fire Department approves at the local level. Before an applicant can receive a Firework Display Permit from the State, the applicant must inform the local fire department and receive a letter from the fire department stating that they are aware and do not object to the display.
Council member Henry Knackstedt asks what control would be lost in the enactment of this ordinance.
“In this redundancy, what kind of control we might be losing, if we’re losing any at all or what kind of interaction we have. We have an airport. Tthe airspace controls pretty much the whole city, so therefore, you know it needs to be notified and is the state to do that or is there something that the city is going to have some involvement in even though we’re not issuing a permit?”
The approved amendments to only remove provisions for a local use permit, thus removing redundancy with State requirements for a Fireworks Display Permit. The
result is the same with a clearer and simpler permitting process.