Doyon, Limited acquired an area of land at the base of the Homer spit know as the Lighthouse Village on March 10 of this year. The Alaska Native corporation is planning on building a hotel development with the same name.
The development consists of a four story hotel and rooftop bar, a three story employee housing building and five triplexes. Two triplexes will be short stay units, and three are condominiums for long term housing.
Doyon chief financial officer Patrick Duke said the corporation is working to develop their tourism investments beyond the Kantishna Roadhouse lodge in Denali National Park and their coach tour services.
Duke said he thinks Homer would be a good place to invest in tourism for the south central region.
“It's an area that we both, we both love, and it made perfect sense for us to bring what we feel is a world class project to the city of Homer,” he said.
Doyon has submitted a conditional use permit request and a rezoning application to get the development site shovel-ready. The application would turn a forested residential lot into one for commercial use. The city would also have to vacate a right of way from B Street located south of Bay Avenue.
The city’s planning commission hears the proposals and decides whether to make a recommendation to city council to adopt them: take no action or to ask for changes to be made.
Homer residents packed into the Cowles Council Chambers and the Zoom meeting room during the commission’s Dec. 6 meeting to speak on these proposals.
They brought up numerous concerns with the development, which mainly focused on its impact on traffic and the environment.
Tammie Shrader said she’s worried the project might exacerbate traffic issues in the area.
“My biggest concern is that we have our Saturday market and as other people have testified as well” she said, “It's troublesome trying to get out of the farmers market and on to Ocean Drive.”
As part of the application process, Doyon collected geotechnical data and completed a traffic impact analysis, or TIA. The TIA looked into the hotel’s potential impact on two intersections located at the base of the spit including FAA Street and Ocean Drive, and Kachemak Drive and Homer Spit Road.
The report said that the hotel would not have a significant impact on traffic at these intersections, and recommended reducing demand for vehicles through enhancing non-motorized transportation like bikes and pedestrian traffic.
Resident Lane Chesley spoke out against the TIA’s methodology. Chesley said the report used national data to generate its models that can’t fully assess local traffic conditions.
“You are hearing a lot of local comment about traffic, and so I think it's important that you take a deep dive into the TIA and, look at some of the assumptions that were made by the engineer to do that,” he said.
In their application, Doyon wrote about using sustainable practices and protecting the local ecosystem during construction. Resident Glenn Seaman says he’s doubtful.
“I mean no disrespect to Doyon, but if you look at their team and architectural team – I looked very carefully – there's not one biologist on that team,” he said, “you'll see nothing in the narrative that substantiates what they're saying in terms of biology.”
Other commenters brought up concerns about losing access to wetlands south of the development, chemicals found in the soil analysis and the size of the space between the development and the adjacent neighborhood.
If all applications get approved, Doyon plans to begin construction in 2024 and to complete the development by 2026.
Due to time constraints, the commission moved to continue discussion on all of Doyon’s proposals to a special meeting on Jan 3 at Homer City Hall and on Zoom.
