Community members in the Homer area gathered at the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge Visitor’s Center Thursday night for an open house as the city continues the process of rewriting its comprehensive plan.
Shelly Wade is a principal/owner from Anchorage-based consulting group Agnew::Beck. She said the open house gave people the opportunity to comment on parts of the city that are important to them.
“There was a lot of dialogue about walkability, accessibility to recreation, also preserving what folks really love about Homer, including the small town vibe of Homer,” she said.
This year, the city is working with Agnew::Beck to rewrite the comprehensive plan. The plan is a 20-year document that guides the growth and development of the city. It doesn’t change city code, but the city will rewrite its zoning code after approving the new plan.
After a brief introduction from Wade, attendees had the opportunity to comment on various posters and maps. A set of posters asked for feedback on what people valued in Homer, as well as challenging areas. They also had the opportunity to suggest areas of improvement. People would be able to place check marks on ideas they agreed with.
Many attendees wanted improved walkability and protection of green spaces. Most of the support went to the value of the city’s natural areas and small businesses. Affordable housing availability and the number of home and landowners that don’t live in the city stood out as challenges that people agreed on.
Other tables let people note where they wanted to see growth in the city by putting different colored circles on maps. Different colors represented the type of development people wanted to see in parts of the city. By the end of the evening, green stickers representing parks and open spaces lined the city’s wetlands while a few yellow dots representing housing were placed in the center of the city.
Finally people had the chance to comment on the speed of growth they wanted to see in different economic fields. They also suggested ideas to promote growth. Overall, more people wanted to see slower growth in the visitor industry while marine trades, education, and healthcare received a lot of support for moderate growth.
While the visitor’s center’s auditorium was packed with people, very few young children and teens went to the open house. Wade said many attendees brought up the need to involve young people in the rewriting process.
“We're talking about 20 years from now, what do you want Homer to look like? And clearly, we need to ask young people about that,” she said, “because ideally, this is where they're, they are and they're living and working and playing at Homer 20 years from now.”
In addition to the open house. Wade and her team of consultants met with city staff, the Homer Chamber of Commerce and other local stakeholders during their visit this week. Moving forward, the team will release a community wide survey in the next week to continue gathering feedback from residents. They will also return to Homer sometime this May.
