The Soldotna City Council enacted an ordinance authorizing the purchase of a tract of land, Mullen Homestead Subdivision Soldotna Creek Addition. The parcel lies along Homestead Lane and extends northeast toward East Redoubt Avenue. The tract of land is 3.46 acres in size and is mostly wooded and portions of the parcel run parallel to Soldotna Creek. No structures or land uses are presently on the property.
Soldotna City Manager Stephanie Queen said:
“This property is for the purpose of connecting East Redoubt to Homestead Land so that there’s a different way to come off of East Redoubt and not have to make that hard left. For the last two years, our staff has been engaged with trying to have informal discussions and then more formal negotiations with the property owners that have property there in the vicinity of the Y with the goal of acquiring land that we could then dedicate as right of way so that road extension can be made and people would be able to come off of East Redoubt and enter the Sterling Highway at a signalized intersection there at the Y.”
The intent for purchasing this tract of land is to alleviate the traffic issue at the intersection with the Sterling Highway given that it records some of the highest levels of traffic on the Kenai Peninsula. The city receives regular complaints and comments regarding the inability to make a turn left from E. Redoubt onto the highway. Drivers, often drivers would cut through Fred Meyer’s parking lot to gain access to the signalized intersection at Devin Drive.
Queen added:
“Of the three and a half acres, we roughly estimate we would need only about an acre from the road right of way. That remainder, if we move forward with this purchase, the council would be able to give us direction. It could be put back up for sale so that it could then continue to develop commercially as that area has seen a lot of growth in development right now. Or if the council wanted to retain it for some public purpose, we could consider that also, but I think it presents an opportunity to make that important safety connection from our street network standpoint and at a reasonable cost if the city did want to then try and recoup some of those funds through the sale of the remainder piece.”
A secondary benefit of the purchase would be the creation of new spaces of land for private development along the extended road. The road extension would also for the looping of its water mains, improving water quality and flow.
The negotiated cost for this property is $806,500.