October 30, 2025 by Michael Armstrong

Special to The Seward Folly

Council Members

Council Member Mike Calhoon and McClure took their oaths of office at the start of Monday’s meeting. Newly elected Council Member Lori Draper had an excused absence and will be sworn in later. The council also unanimously elected Vice-Mayor John Osenga to another term and also was sworn at the meeting.

Agenda: Resolutions and Ordinances

Topping the agenda were two resolutions and one ordinance relating to a land swap between the city and a private landowner of lots on Hemlock Avenue, Laurel Street and the Seward Highway.

Land Swap, Resolution 2025-100

First up was Resolution 2025-100, authorizing the allocation of $240,680 from the general fund for the city’s share of water and sewer improvements on Hemlock Avenue.

“This resolution is the first of several dominoes related to the land swap,” Community Development Director Daniel Meuninck said.

Meunick explained that the land swap between the city  and the owners of 2405 and 2413 Seward Highway would give the city better access to the snow dump on Laurel Avenue.  The city owns two lots just south of the Seward Highway lots. The swap also would give the landowners lots better suited for housing development.

“The current plan is to provide some sort of multifamily unit housing option, which is one of the city’s urgently needed missing middle housing options,” Meunick said.

Sharing the cost of water and sewer development would help make the lots affordable to develop, Meunick noted. Because water and sewer would need to be put in anyway for the future site of the fire hall, sharing the cost would save the city money in the long run.

“And so, by partnering, the city saves a significant amount on that utility installation, and the private owners can move forward with the development, which will ultimately benefit the community by providing much needed housing options,” Meunick said.

Council Member Robert Barnwell followed up on that point.

“I was a little confused about why,” he said. “What’s the advantage to the city splitting the cost of that development? Why are we spending a quarter of a million dollars on developing that area to a private developer that’s really getting most of them?”

“If we don’t partner in this and do this utility installation, now, the city is going to pay double that when they install the utilities for to accommodate the fire hall location,” Meunick said.

Land Swap, Resolution 2025-101

The second resolution in the land swap, 2025-101, recommends to the Kenai Peninsula Borough that 1000 Hemlock Avenue, 2500 Laurel Street, 2405 Seward Highway and 2413 Seward Highway be replatted in an equal exchange of property.

“For  the people not tapped into this,” McClure asked Deputy City Manager Jason Bickling why the replat had to go through the borough.

“The borough has to approve all land replats,” Bickling explained.

Land Swap, Ordinance 2025-017

The third piece of the land swap is Ordinance 2025-017, a rezone of the lots. The lot  at 2500 Laurel Street is in a Resource Management zoning district and 1000 Hemlock Avenue is in an Institutional zoning district. The two Seward Highway lots are in an Auto Commercial zoning district. The replat has the two new lots with split zoning districts. The ordinance would rezone the two new lots, Tracts 5B-1 and 5B-2,  into the Auto Commercial zoning district. Tract 5B-1 would be the new city lot and Tract 5B-2 would be the new privately owned lot.

Next Council Meeting

The council approved introduction of that ordinance, with a public hearing and further action at the next council meeting. With changes to the city calendar, the next council meeting is at 7 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 17, and will be the only council meeting in November.

Michael Armstrong is a retired Homer News reporter and editor. Reach him at wordfolk@gmail.com.

The Seward Folly publisher Robert Barnwell is a current member of the Seward City Council, but he did not participate in the editing of this story.