Soldotna’s plan for what the city will look like in 2030 was adopted in 2011 and a recent review has found that six of its nine goals have been completed.
Stephanie Queen is the Director of Economic Development and Planning…
Queen: “Well I think one highlight is that there seems to be movement in all the different departments. I think this is typically thought of as a Planning and Zoning type document but in reality it covers all the city’s operations and one thing that I think is exciting is that regardless of whether we’re talking about public works or economic development or parks, it seems like all of the departments have really embraced it and are moving forward on some of the things that we’ve identified.”
She says some of the efforts completed so far have been making the city safer for pedestrians through things like more winter sidewalk care and the Safe Routes to School Program.
One of the remaining goals to accomplish before 2030 is to update the city’s signage code for local businesses.
Queen: “I hope that that’s not a scary concept for our businesses because I think there’s a lot of things we can do to make the sign code less onerous for them, give them greater flexibility, that’s kind of the direction that we try to head with any of our zoning regulations is be accommodating for businesses, help them do what they need to do to grow. We heard last week at our meeting last week with Planning and Zoning that they think it’s time, it’s been 20 years since we rewrote the sign code.”
Soldotna is also looking at improving the quality of developments along the river and developing subdivision standards.