Almost one year after Brechan Construction first applied to purchase city land on Near Island, the Kodiak City Council officially rejected the company’s request. On May 22 the council decided to stick with its minimum development plan for the island next to town.
On May 20 during a work session, Doug Hogen sang the well-known Joni Mitchell song "Big Yellow Taxi" to the Kodiak City Council as part of his comments against Brechan’s proposal to move its operations to Near Island. Hogen was one of roughly two dozen Kodiak residents, cross country athletes and Island Trails Network volunteers who were opposed to the company’s request to buy 10.44 acres of city land. Many argued that selling that land to Brechan would negatively impact the trail system and its recreational uses in the area.
“It’s the wrong place at the wrong time," Brian Hill said.
“If we are serious about sustainable development, we need to protect the assets that brought people here. Near Island is one of those assets," Mary Lindschied explained. “Please deny this application and further let’s not allow anymore sales on Near Island," Paul Anderson said.
After the roughly one hour of citizens’ comments were over, it was Jascha Zbitnoff’s turn to address the city council. He is the vice president of operations at Brechan Construction. Zbitnoff said the company’s plans have not changed since they last presented to the group in October and Brechan was never going to take away from any of the existing trails on Near Island.
“This lot that we are asking to purchase does not currently have any trails on it. We don’t intend to take away any trails down on the south end or anywhere else; the north end," Zbitnoff said. "Definitely no direction to do that, on our part.”
Later on during the proposed project, Brechan planned to build workforce housing on Near Island as well.
Currently the lot in question falls within a general commercial tourism related area; it is not zoned for industrial use or even residential use, which Brechan proposed using the land for. Dave Johnson, the acting city deputy manager during Josie Bahnke’s absence, explained why the city staff was not in support of this land sale.
“At this time [city] management does not support selling the lot in question because doing so would significantly limit the city’s ability to control how the land is developed, potentially leading to use that conflict with the Near Island development plan," Johnson said.
The final decision didn’t come until two days later on May 22 during the council’s regular meeting, but all six council members rejected Brechan’s application to buy land on Near Island.
Still, the council has not completely ruled out developing other parts of Near Island. Earlier this year on April 24, the council adopted the 2017 Near Island development plan with a goal to support minimal development. This option does not add any new commercial zoned land uses to Near Island according to city documents.
Concept A, the minimal development option, involves not expanding the industrial area beyond the city’s conditional use permit or general vicinity of City Enterprise operations at St. Herman’s Harbor and Trident Basin.
And even though Brechan’s proposal has been shot down, the Ports and Harbors Advisory Board requested at its last meeting on April 7 that the council develop lots between Alimaq Drive and north of Trident Way on Near Island. The advisory board said the intent is to, “create long-term revenue for the enterprise fund while maintaining the traditional trail usage.”
This is based on the harbor property schedule included in part of the Near Island development plan.
As of June 2, the city council has yet to officially make a decision on the advisory board's request.
Editor's Note: A previous version of this article misspelled Doug Hogen's last name. The article has been updated and KMXT regrets the error.
