HomeMy WebLinkAbout01072020 Planning & Zoning Laydown - Hatfield Letter January 7, 2020
To: The Planning and Zoning Commission
Unfortunately, I am unable to attend tonight's meeting; however, I wanted to relay some of my
concerns about resolution 2020-02.
Although this resolution has the potential to address the long term housing shortage,which I
typically support, I believe we need to pay attention to the manner in which we are addressing
rezones lately. The democratic process is encompassed in our Comprehensive Plan. It is the
process through which we involve and receive input from the citizens of Seward and I'm
concerned that it seems to be eroding.As a commission,we need to be aware of the message we
send our community each time we dismiss the Comprehensive Plan and the citizens who took the
time to collaborate on it. To my understanding,the Comprehensive Plan and the Future Land Use
Map are two avenues citizens of Seward have for communicating their desires in development to
the PNZ Commission and the City Council. Every time the commission and the City Council dismiss
the Comprehensive Plan, I feel as if it sends a message to the citizens who worked on it that their
input doesn't matter. This feels as if we are circumventing the democratic process,which makes
me incredibly uncomfortable. Considering that the Comprehensive Plan is up for review later this
month, I hope that the commission will consider postponing this resolution until the community
can defend their rationale or consider rezoning this (and other) areas.
My second concern is that the two properties owned by one applicant are currently listed for sale
(Listing#19-19829, see included image). I hope that the commission will question why we are
considering rezoning these properties if the applicant is selling them. In addition to this rezone
being against the will of the community via deviation from the Comprehensive Plan, I hope the
commission carefully considers future consequences of inadvertently rezoning properties for a
higher resale value. During recent meetings, we've already had property owners state that they,
too,would like to zone their properties "up"to increase their value. I fear that passing this
resolution may unintentionally lead the community to believe that we support using rezones in
this manner. When these properties sell,the new property owner has every right to decide
whether or not they would like to rezone their property.
Thank you for considering these ideas and input from the community.
Best wishes,
Kelli Hatfield
Commissioner
Planning and Zoning
2500 SPRUCE STREET Listing Office:Seward Real Est:
SEWARD,AK 99664
$210,000
Type:Lots/L.and
No Property
Photo Available
Listing#19-19829
2 residentiall lots that are level.With mountain views,
Features Map Mortgage Calculator
Property Feattxes
Location Information
hALS Area:Seward-Cooper Landing Latitude:60,137188
Longitude:-149.43011 Region:Kenai Peninsula Borough
Directions:From the Seward Hiway turn west on Hemlock st,.turn right at Spruce st.2500 is on the left 400'
North..From Hem lock to m right on Ju niper st,2411 Lau rel is at corner with Laurel&Ju riper st.
Interior Features
Featu res:F i re Service Area,Flood PI ain,I n C ity Li m its,Southern Exposure,Trees-Cleared,View
Utilities:Electric-I n Area,Pub Water-I n.Area,Sewer-I n Area,Tele phone-I n.Area Topography.Level
Lot Size in Acres:185 Lot Size in Sq.Ft.-124,146