A lot of people are tired of a gravel pit on Ciechanski Road and have signed a petition to get nearby land rezoned into residential by the borough.
Nearby resident Janine Simmons and her husband signed the petition.
Simmons: “It’s to get it all residential zoned so they can’t do anymore gravel pits and we’re trying to get rid of the gravel pit because Sean Cude is asking to have an extension variance to have the gravel pit open for a few more years and we don’t want that.”
Local business owner Sean Cude owns three tracts of land that residents are concerned could become another potential hazard like the gravel pit that is already there.
Simmons spoke during the near two hours of public testimony at the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly meeting last night about the neighborhood concerns with a current gravel pit, which previously belonged to Bill Gibbs, and why the small community has brought forward a petition.
Simmons: “Gibbs was a homesteader, he had the ability to have a gravel pit, but it kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger, took up that whole hay field. Now they’re filling it in with all kinds of junk, I mean they’re saying it’s good fill but it’s not, some of it is but some of it’s trash, junk and the rivers right there, so it’s at risk and the aquifer is at risk and our children are at risk.”
Assemblyman Brent Johnson said there are a couple problems with what the petition asks like a nearby hay field which would be affected.
Johnson: “I hear those people loud and clear that want to have their protection for their homes but then I hear the hayfield people and even the gravel pit people, they were there first there’s been a gravel pit there forever. There’s other gravel pits right down the road, so you’re zeroing out these three little lots and saying you can’t have a gravel pit here, but everyone else can.”
Assemblyman Blaine Gilman eventually motioned to postpone the issue to the March meeting in order to see the outcome of an appeal by Cude to board of adjustment in January. The appeal is for Cude to be able to use the three tracts of land as gravel pits which was originally turned down by the Planning Commission November 10.
