Attendees at the Kenai River Special Management Area Board’s Thursday meeting were happy that board members supported the least impactful plan for the Kenai River Ranch property.
Ken Marlow lives directly adjacent to the parcel and says he’s glad the board supported not developing the property because no matter how careful people are, the area and wildlife there would be impacted.
Marlow: “Wildlife gets a lot of use out of it though, we’ve seen as many as 14 moose in one day migrate across the river, coming over to give birth on the hillside there.”
In 2014 a legislative request directed the parcels’s managing agencies, which are the Alaska Department of Fish & Game and State Parks, to come up with a potential plan for the property.
The board considered three options: option one that essentially leaves the parcel undeveloped, option two that included a boat launch and parking, and option three that would have put in trails and two recreational public use cabins.
Last night, KRSMA board members considered option three as a way to generate revenue from the cabins for the Parks Department. Eventually members settled on option one after it was pointed out that a majority of the public testimony received last year was against development of the Kenai River Ranch.
Board members added a request for funding from the state for active riverbank restoration into their recommendation .
The board’s recommendation will be submitted to the project.
As we’ve previously reported, this was the last step of the planning process, now the project team will consider the public testimony to determine which option is preferred and what kind of funding should be requested from the legislature.