The Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly voted to veto a petition to vacate a portion of Paper Birch Lane and associated utility easements at their Tuesday evening meeting. It originally was on the consent agenda, but it was pulled off by Assembly Member Jesse Bjorkman. In corresponding memorandum documents, the Planning Director writes to the assembly that in accordance with state statute, no vacation of a Borough right-of-way and/or easement may be made without the consent of the Borough Assembly. During the regularly scheduled March 21st Planning Commission meeting, approval of the proposed vacation was granted unanimously, based on the means of evaluating public necessity.
Bjorkman said he pulled the item off the consent agenda after considering public testimony in opposition of this vacation:
“…from lot owners that stand to lose some easier access to their property. Those comments were plainly made in some of the laydown comments that we have where people would be looking to construct may not a borough road, but a driveway into their property. The loss of that, I think, is a real loss to those property owners who bought property with the understanding that they were going to use that path to access their property. To access those parcels from other directions or other rights of way would include a lot longer approach to their parcels and incur more cost to them.”
He stated the right of way that’s requested is large:
“In acreage, 428 (multiplied by) 60 is 25,000 square feet. So that’s like 6/10 of an acre, I think? A two-acre lot that increases this guy’s lot by a third, or 30% or so. That’s not a small amount of land. I understand and it troubles me that I hear from staff that we have more new construction and new homes that will be coming to us because those homes are also built inside of a right of way, this is troubling.”
Bjorkman suggests that the Planning Commission look at the request and provide relief by a small vacation to accommodate the home that was put where it is, but still maintain the ability for people to have access to their parcel through the dedicated right of way:
“I think that’s what we need to do. We certainly cannot just say, ‘Hey, if you build your house on the line onto this public ground or right of way, we’ll just give you the ground.’ I don’t think that’s where we want to be. I think we need to make sure that everyone knows where the lines are and stays within the lines.”
By vetoing the action of the Planning Commission, the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly hopes the petitioners will craft a different solution to bring forward.
Click here for full details on the Petition to Vacate – Paper Birch Lane.