By Marcia Kuszmaul

Homer Independent Press

The Homer community came out in force to protest the prospect of a beloved Spit restaurant being paved over for a parking lot. Social media posts, personal phone calls to council members, dozens of written testimonies and a packed house at Monday’s city council meeting attested to residents’ outrage that the city would consider sacrificing a viable small business to accommodate more cars.

In her written testimony, Dasia Gall was succinct: “Homer is a community with people. Not a place for people to park.” 

The city council, expressing no enthusiasm for bulldozing successful businesses, put off any action Monday on the city-owned land in question until May 11, saying they would also look at broader Spit leasing and parking issues.

The protest grew out of a suggestion Port Director Bryan Hawkins made to the Port and Harbor Advisory Commission at its March meeting to create 102 new parking spaces on two adjacent city-owned lots with expiring leases, including one anchored by LaBaleine Cafe.

The commissioners rejected the parking idea, expressing concern for displacing businesses, preserving the Homer Spit charm and the need to weigh community input. Instead, they recommended to the city council that lot 88-2, the LaBaleine lot, not be put up for new lease proposals, which would be typical for expiring leases that have no renewal option, while the city decides its best use.

The fact that the idea was broached and discussed was enough to set off a firestorm.


Written testimony was submitted from Anchorage, Chugiak, Kasilof, Seldovia as well as Homer with common themes of protecting small businesses and gathering places, preserving history and culture.

Solutions were offered – begin shuttle service from the high school parking lot, convert a camping area, rearrange and reprice parking for efficiency and to control demand.

City Manager Melissa Jacobsen provided the mayor and council with background on the expiring leases associated with the lot. Currently there are three leases tied to the one lot. The city’s ground lease rules require buildings on a leased lot to be owned by the tenant. With three different owners of the buildings, the city signed three individual short-term leases in November 2025.

“This is the result of a failed lease of city port property,” observed Guy Rosi. “This process of the leases needs to be totally revamped where it is not arbitrary and capricious like it appears to be.”

The city council will specifically review the 88-2 leases at a May 11 worksession but also plans to consider the overall city leasing process and Spit parking issues. Possible scenarios range from short- to long-term leases, issuing Requests for Proposals, to letting the leases expire.

“It has been very evident in the last two weeks that when we talk about leased properties, we’re talking about individual people’s rights,” Mayor Rachel Lord said. “We need to be really mindful about how that is noticed and how that is gone about. So, city lease properties are going to be part of that conversation.”

Addressing city council, Lu Lovelace, an original Spit Rat who has lived or worked on the Spit over the past 50 years, has seen a lot of changes. She’s met a lot of people from the Lower 48.

“They’re just so excited to be here,” she said. “Some fish, some don’t, but they all eat, and they all shop. I’m concerned about the city wanting to take away viable businesses that have been there for years . . . eventually  . . . there might be plenty of parking, but what else is going to be out there?”

Lovelace encouraged the city to look at the Spit from a bird’s eye view to find ways to reorganize and consolidate parking before repurposing lots with businesses.

Mandy Dixon joined the conversation by Zoom on behalf of her family, which owns LaBaleine. She detailed one of the key dilemmas in the conversation – they lease the land from the city, but they own the buildings on the land.  

“If our lot is deemed to become a parking lot,” she said, “we have no avenue to move or to sell these investments. They will just be bulldozed out of existence.

“Right now, what we need most is not special treatment. We need a fair and transparent path forward,” Dixon said. “We are not asking for a gift, we are just asking to not be stranded.”

Mayor Lord reported that she and City Manager Jacobson have met with the Dixon family.



Lord shared her belief that Homer should not add more parking until other management tools – like fees and permits – are considered. 

“We’re limiting ourselves by not using pricing as a management tool,” she said. “It won’t solve everything, but it will change behavior.”



Councilmember Shelly Erickson encouraged the city to think outside the box and take a strategic look at what the city wants the end of the Spit to be, rather than just focus on parking.