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Voters did not authorize the City of Homer to sell general obligation bonds in the amount of $8million to help fund the City Hall-Town Square Project. Currently the city administration and city council are weighing options for how to proceed. A more detailed discussion of election results can be found in the Homer News and Homer Tribune.
Click below for their coverage of the Special Election:
Catch up on the latest project information:
Homer’s City Hall – Town Square project aims to accomplish three main goals:
- Create a vibrant “heart of Homer” that will provide for business development, instill a greater sense of pride in the downtown area, and contribute to a higher quality of life for all residents.
- Cultivate a “university district” by converting the existing city hall building into part of the Univeristy of Alaska’s Kachemak Bay Campus thus greatly enhancing college services and providing an opportunity for growth.
- Provide a new city hall facility that combines town-hall features. This facility will solve existing space problems for city hall operations and will also integrate into the proposed town square to offer community space for gatherings indoors and outdoors.
Please learn more about the project and read answers to Frequetly Asked Questions (Does the project include green space and trails? How will it be funded? Who are the stakeholders?) by clicking on the link below. Links to local news articles and opinion pieces are compiled here.
How will a Town Center benefit Homer's economy?
A Town Center serves as a "civic anchor" which can galvanize an area into becoming a lively, prosperous downtown. Investing in town center improvements is likely to bring very significant economic and fiscal returns. Those include new spending on the part of visitors, increased spending on the part of residents, increased employment and revenue and an overall net increase in the community's fiscal health. Read more about these short-term and long-term economic benefits, supported by ISER (Institute of Social and Economic Research) studies, by clicking on the following link.
Financing the Future: "Where is the money coming from?"
The Feb. 11 discussion paper from Homer City Manager, Walt Wrede, outlines plans and ideas, and makes recommendations, for financing the City Hall – Town Square project. Below is an excerpt. Please read it in full by clicking the following link.
"The Homer City Council is currently is the process of evaluating and planning for construction of the proposed new City Hall and Town Square. The City and the project design team have been attempting to engage the public and disseminate as much information about the project to the community as possible. As part of this process, the City is attempting to provide answers to the important, substantive questions it receives from the community.
Where is the money coming from? This is one of the most critical and prominent questions the City has heard from the public to date. This question is very important in its own right. But it has assumed added importance because the City Council has stated that it intends to complete this project without raising taxes or negatively impacting existing services.
This discussion paper is intended to generate debate and shed some light on the City’s fiscal condition with respect to its ability to handle this project without new revenues or budgets cuts."
"What is the Town Center Zoning District?"
Learn how the proposed Homer Town Center zoning district relates to the Homer City Hall - Town Square Project. What is it? Where is it? How does it differ from a central business district? Will it affect large retail developement? The Homer Planning Office answers these Frequently Asked Questions and provides a map indicating the exact boundaries of the proposed district. Please learn more by clicking the following links.
Town Square
Town Square design plans are taking shape to blend together natural, urban, flexible spaces. This initial design includes plans for an overlook, a rock garden, a "Garden for all ages," a stage area, winding streams of water spanned by bridges and plenty of access for people of many generations and abilities to enjoy the beautiful, welcoming space at Homer's heart.
View the sketch with detailed descriptions of each feature, as well as a conceptual diagram of the area and descriptive sketches of the proposed Garden for all ages. As the community's ideas and dreams begin to take form in these preliminary plans, please continue to let us know what you think. (Please find contacts at the bottom of this page.)
Master Plan
Initial master planning efforts have determined a basic location for the town center road alignments and parcel boundaries. Preliminary Plat Concept (219 KB)
City Hall
ECI/Hyer worked closely with the community of Homer to develop a design for the planned Homer City Hall. The process featured lively discussions and lots of creative thinking. The result is a design that meets functional needs for improved city offices, offers a  good fit with Homer’s design traditions, and provides a “civic anchor” to support development of a vital town center. The facility totals approximately 20,000 square feet and includes two main components: city offices and a “community hall.” The “35%” design, will be completed and presented for Council approval in March. Following are the latest images from the architect.
Project Overview
The Homer City Hall - Town Square - Infrastructure Master Plan Project will build from the extensive work done by Homer residents and City government over many years to construct a City Hall and Town Square for the Town Center area by 2009.
Project Description
What can be done to create a viable, vibrant town center for Homer? Our community is growing and changing. The community’s natural surroundings and small town atmosphere attract more residents, second homes and summer tourists every year. As our town expands in both population and size, the need for a geographic, economic, civic and transportation “heart for Homer” becomes ever more important.
Building a real center for Homer has many benefits. An attractive, walkable mixed-use town center is a great asset for the quality of life of both residents and visitors, establishing a center for community events, and creating a more convenient and enjoyable place to meet the needs of daily life and to enhance the pleasure of meeting friends and neighbors. Creating a better center for the community increases the prosperity of Homer’s business community, by providing a lively, vital place for shops, services and restaurants. Finally, creating a concentrated town center helps reduce the need for driving, in turn reducing traffic congestion, noise, and pollution.
This website is designed to help the community of Homer be involved in building a successful town center. Successful downtowns in small towns across the country have become destinations where residents complete daily errands on foot, tourists stroll through galleries and shops and lively streets, and plazas encourage everyone to linger just a bit longer. Creating Homer’s town center will be a milestone on the way to making our town an even stronger, more vital community, and will help to ensure that our children and grandchildren will cherish life here as much as we do today.
Project History
The Homer Town Center Project had its formal beginning in 1998 when the Kachemak Heritage Land Trust (KHLT) formed the Homer Town Square Committee. This started a multi-year, collaborative community-wide discussion about a vision for downtown Homer focused on improving economic opportunities and quality of life for residents and visitors.
Since 1998, the process has included many dozens of well-attended town meetings, focus groups, and a community survey. Hundreds of great ideas have come forward, as people shared their thinking about what a vital town center should look like, potential uses in the area, and how best to link the town center to the broader community. With broad public support for a town center, the City formally included the Town Center Project into the 1999 Update of Homer’s Comprehensive Plan.
In 2006, the City formally approved the Town Center Development Plan, which incorporated more public input and refined the goals outlined in the 1999 Comprehensive Plan Update for the Town Center. The Town Center Development Plan details a broad and visionary framework for the vacant land bounded by Pioneer, Main Street, Poopdeck, and the Sterling Highway. The Plan outlines several desired uses for this Town Center area. Specifically, its guiding principles state that:
- “A new City Hall will serve as the civic anchor for Town Center development,” and
- “A central open-air plaza will serve as the focal point of Town Center.”
The current City Hall/Town Square Master Plan Project is a continuation of the hard work begun in 1998 and will realize these two Town Center Development Plan principles: a new City Hall and Town Square community open space. The City of Homer's website has additional information relating to project history.
Project Funding
Numerous groups, agencies, and individuals have financially supported the Town Center Project. Early project fundraising efforts by KHLT brought in approximately $100,000 from several grant sources to fund public outreach, meetings and consultation with planning and design professionals as well as university professors and students.
Current Project funding has been made available by the State of Alaska. As a result of two capital project requests, several million dollars have been appropriated for the Project. In 2006 (for FY 2007), a $2 million appropriation was granted for "construction of a new City Hall." In 2007 (for FY 2008), the Legislature approved $2.5 million for the University of Alaska Anchorage to purchase and renovate the existing City Hall building. The existing City Hall is expected to sell for approximately $1.3 million. The Homer City Council has identified another $3.8 million for the project and additional revenues for infrastructure are available from the Homer Area Roads and Trails Program and Homer Area Water and Sewer Program.
How to be Involved
There are many ways for the public to participate, and the project team welcomes (and needs) public input. This project is on a rapid timeline, with several public workshops and meetings planned over the next few months (see the project Schedule).
The City Hall-Town Square Steering Committee meets regularly, and these meetings are open to the public. All steering committee meetings will take place at the City Hall, City Council Chambers unless noted otherwise.
In addition, preliminary designs for the town square and City Hall, will be available for public review and comment. Drafts will be presented on this website and available at City Hall. Finally, there will be Planning Commission and City Council work sessions and meetings to review project products that will be open to the public.
Read local news coverage of the project featured in the Homer Tribune and Homer News.
You can also send your comments to comments@homertownsquare.com.
Newsletters
November 2007
For more information, questions or comments, please contact:
Anne Marie Holen – City of Homer (907) 235-8121
Tanya Iden – Agnew::Beck Consulting, Anchorage (907) 222-5424
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