Reconsideration sought on right-of-way privitization ordinance

At last week’s Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly Meeting, a final vote was called on the ordinance that could turn existing borough roads and rights-of-way into private and gated subdivisions. It is different from planning a private subdivision from scratch, as has been done along the Kenai River in several spots, such as Kenai Keys.
    However, the 5-to-4 vote approving the ordinance did not stay final. Near the end of the meeting Homer Assembly member Willy Dunne moved for a reconsideration vote.
    After six months of deliberation and not getting very far with it, and a number of amendments and a number of modifications, I still didn't think it was an acceptable ordinance,” Dunne said. “And so I did ask for reconsideration at our May 5th meeting.”
    The vote on that date will require five yeses just to get back to the ordinance.
    “If that vote passes, then the ordinance would be back on the table, the last version of it for discussion and possible further amendments and then a vote,” he said. “So first we have to decide whether to reconsider. And if that is passed by a majority, then we will debate the ordinance further.”
    Dunne’s last ditch appeal last week did sway Assembly member Brent Johnson, who declared his mind changed when he realized a yes vote would indeed bar residents from formerly public property. Another of Dunne’s argument’s that got traction was the wide disparity in public response to the ordinance.
    “But one of the big questions is why would the assembly want to pass something that is so overwhelmingly opposed by the public? We've gotten dozens of public comments opposed to this and only one public testimony in favor of it. And that was from the lawyer of the corporation that's trying to create their own private roads in a subdivision with public roads,” he said.
    And it’s that last point that Dunne comes back to:
    “Part of the confusion among people is that this has been framed as a gated communities ordinance, when gated communities are already allowed in the borough, gated communities already exist in the borough and they're allowed under our current subdivision rules. And in fact, there's even a process for exceptions that would allow existing public roads to be closed off and become a gated community,” Dunne said. “But the ordinance that is being discussed and that I'm asking to be reconsidered is more about converting public rights of way to private ownership. And so roads and trails and rights of way that had been used for decades could overnight be closed off to public use.“
    The reconsideration vote of Ordinance 20.80 will be at the Assembly’s next meeting on May 5.