Officials expect the latest Public Hearing Draft to be released in early August.

By Delcenia Cosman

Reporter, Homer Independent Press

The process to update Homer’s Title 21 zoning and planning code marches on. 

The Homer City Council and Planning Commission reviewed community feedback on the Title 21 Public Review Draft in a joint work session with project consultants from Agnew::Beck and Stantec late last month and finalized approaches on several “big topics” ahead of the release of the Public Hearing Draft.

Following direction from the council and commission, project consultants are now making final adjustments to the draft code revisions, which the planning commission will review again before public hearings in the fall.

City of Homer Community Development Director Julie Engebretsen said the city expects to release the Public Hearing Draft in early August. From there, she said a six- to eight-month adoption process is “likely,” as the commission works on the draft and holds public hearings before passing its recommendations on to the city council “hopefully” by December. The council then will follow the regular ordinance process — introduction, public hearing and consideration — to formally and finally adopt the updated code.

This timeline remains tentative.

“The unknowns are how many meetings the Planning Commission and council will hold on this topic,” Engebretsen said.

She speculated that the first public hearing will be Sept. 2.

During the Title 21 work session on June 22, the council, commission and project leaders reviewed the work done to date on the draft code and discussed several key policy topics, including short-term rental regulations; “large format development” or development of large retail and wholesale stores; the conditional use permitting process; wetlands and environmental concerns such as steep slopes; regulations on building height; and administrative adjustments.

The Public Review Draft increased the threshold for what qualifies as a large format development from 15,000 square feet to 30,000 square feet and established building coverage maximums, or the percentage of how much of the lot is covered by the building, in all zoning districts. Public comment, according to Stantec senior urban planner Erin Perdu, pushed back against both proposed items. 

During the work session, the council and commission approved project managers’ recommendation to keep the threshold for large retail and wholesale stores at 15,000 square feet. They also decided to retain most maximum building coverages as originally proposed for further review in the Public Hearing Draft. 

While creating the Public Review Draft, project leaders found that all conditional use permit applications between 2020 and 2024 for developments that exceeded 8,000 square feet were approved by the Planning Commission. They subsequently recommended removing that building size trigger and instead making typical conditions for approval — screening, downlit outdoor lighting and conformance with setbacks — requirements in code. 

According to Perdu, nearly all commenters were opposed to removing the CUP trigger. Several council members and commissioners also disagreed with removing the existing trigger, saying that they appreciated the current public process that goes along with consideration of CUPs. 

Ultimately, the city chose to keep the existing CUP trigger in the Public Hearing Draft.

Discussion was also held on building height regulations and allowing administrative adjustments for up to two feet of encroachment into required setbacks. 

On building height, the city approved the project leaders’ recommendation to maintain a maximum height of 40 feet in the downtown mixed use district while reducing the maximum building height in the gateway business district to 35 feet and in the light industrial mixed use area to 40 feet, while leaving exceptions for boat storage or construction.

After extensive discussion among council members and commissioners about the role of administrative adjustments in the city planning process, as well as questions raised about a proposed encroachment permit, project leaders agreed to continue working on the issue before bringing back a more detailed proposal to include in the Public Hearing Draft.

When asked whether any code changes to building height or conditional use permits would retroactively affect developments or CUP applications in progress, or only new developments and applications started after the updated Title 21 is adopted, Engebretsen said the city is thinking about this question but it’s “too early to say with any certainty.”

“This should be spelled out in the ordinance, and can be handled a number of ways,” she said.

During the Title 21 update process, consultants and the Planning Commission have also been evaluating current and proposed regulations on short term rentals, as well as wetlands and steep slopes.

Perdu said that, in consultation with the Planning Commission, project leaders have found that Homer’s unique soil conditions and geology “make regulating development on or near steep slopes more complicated,” and that a “more nuanced” regulations approach is necessary. The Public Review Draft also does not include significant revisions to existing wetlands regulations, despite extensive public feedback desiring stronger wetlands protection. 

According to Perdu, while some wetlands mapping has been done in Homer, additional mapping would need to be conducted to establish new wetlands regulations. The existing mapping was conducted in 2005 and, Perdu said, is “not at a scale or level of accuracy that would be fair to establish regulations that are applicable to specific parcels, because the data is not accurate to a parcel level.”

Ultimately, Perdu and Agnew::Beck consultant Shelly Wade said that wetlands and steep slopes regulations are both complex issues that would require additional staff, data and mapping, and partnership with engineers and other agencies to implement. They recommended conducting special work sessions with the Planning Commission on these topics during the code adoption process “to discuss data sources and accuracy, previous work on these topics, and create a framework for implementation.”

When asked whether these special work sessions would extend the Title 21 update timeline, Engebretsen said the city has always anticipated that the Planning Commission would “take a deeper dive on some topics” and that the work sessions are “part of the expected process” for a project of this scale. 

“I wouldn’t call it a delay,” she said.

Project leaders also called proposed regulations of short-term rentals “a complex issue.”

The Public Review Draft currently contains a “placeholder” permit requirement for STRs that requires owner/caretaker registration. The permit requirement does not put a cap on STRs or contain any further regulations.

The city’s Economic Development Advisory Commission is evaluating the future of short-term rental regulations in Homer. Title 21 consultants recommended keeping the placeholder permit requirement in the Public Hearing Draft and deferring additional STR regulations until the EDC passes on its recommendations to the city council. 

Engebretsen said it is “unknown at this point” when new STR regulations would be implemented in city code and if it would occur during the ongoing Title 21 update.

Find the recording of the June 22 Title 21 joint work session, as well as supplemental materials, on the City of Homer website.