Gravel pit work group lays out plan

After more than a decade of fiery debates about gravel pits operating near homes, the Kenai Peninsula Borough is taking another look at its regulations on the sites.

This spring, a group of eight people on the borough’s Material Site Working Group are debating possible code changes. The group is scheduled to meet every other Wednesday until the end of May, considering input from members of the public, industry and borough regulators.

More than 300 gravel pits dot the Kenai Peninsula Borough, some operating constantly and others not at all. Each time a new permit comes before the Kenai Peninsula Borough Planning Commission, the members gear themselves up for a fight. Neighbors often turn out to protest the incoming application, saying it will decrease their property values, increase traffic and be too noisy for a neighborhood. However, the Planning Commission has to approve it if the applicant has met all the requirements, whether or not the neighbors object.

ADVERTISEMENT
0 seconds of 0 secondsVolume 0%
Press shift question mark to access a list of keyboard shortcuts
00:00
00:00
00:00
 

One of those neighbors has been Sterling resident Dave Cleveland. He lives close to a gravel pit operated by Granite Construction off Adkins Road near the border of the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. The operations in the pit are loud, particularly the rock crusher during the day and the beeping sounds when trucks are backing up. Cleveland took sound readings on a decibel meter on his porch, noting spikes when the backup warning alerts go off.

“I had five kids living with me,” he said. “And by the end of the summer, they were all running around outside going, ‘beep, beep, beep.’”

Cleveland said he applied to be on the working group but was not selected. Nevertheless, he plans to continue attending the meetings and weighing in to help change the code to give property owners more say when a landowner applies for a gravel pit operation. He said he wasn’t sure exactly what he wanted that to look like yet, though.

“To me, the basic issue is that the other property owners really can’t do anything about it if (the gravel pit applicants) meet that criteria,” he said. “I’m glad to see them trying to rework the ordinance. It’s very one-sided. It’s very slanted toward the operators.”

The gravel pit ordinance was last revised in 2006, after a long scuffle in Anchor Point over a gravel pit there. There are about 80 gravel pits that the borough Planning Department inspects and issues permits for, while there are about 250 that preexisted regulation. At the Material Site Working Group’s meeting Wednesday, the borough Planning Department staff presented preliminary recommendations for revising the code.

Borough Planning Director Max Best said the department began looking at the code at the request of the Planning Commission because of the volume of complaints it regularly receives whenever a conditional land use permit for a gravel pit comes up.

Among a number of other changes, the department’s suggestions include requiring the contractor to place a $2,000 bond per acre of developed material extraction site so the borough has some funds to help cover the reclamation costs if the owner does not reclaim the land after finishing operations. It would not completely cover the costs, though, Best said.

The revisions would also change the language to use “disturbed” property instead of “exhausted,” and require that an operator only disturb five acres of property at a time. That’s in part to keep gravel pits from continuing to grow, said Borough Planner Bruce Wall at the meeting.

“The other big thing here … is we’d like to get away from the term ‘exhausted,’” Wall said. “…’Disturbed’ is more quantifiable. And really that’s what reclamation is about. We don’t want more than five acres disturbed at a time. We want it to be incrementally reclaimed so we don’t have those growing eyesores.”

The revisions would also require the operator to report the elevation of the proposed excavation rather than the depth, in part to make it easier to determine if the operation will dig into groundwater tables. That’s a key concern for residents that the Planning Commission has heard, Best said.

“I’ve sat there many, many times and had to listen to the public say they didn’t have water because where the test hole was dug, they didn’t have water, but you could move down the hill and hit water if you had dug a test hole there — how do you monitor the fact that they’re not going to dig in the water?” Best said. “I had to go send people down to the gravel pit and dig holes in the bottom of the gravel pits to see that there’s not water. That’s not something I want to have people have to do.”

The department’s suggested changes also include limiting hours of operation to between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. with processing hours ending at 7 p.m., and possibly limiting noise levels at the parcel boundary to 60 decibels. The suggested changes could be debated and changed depending on the working group’s thoughts and public input, Best said.

Group chairman Robert Ruffner, who is also a member of the Planning Commission, introduced a rough timeline with presentations from various experts related to material site excavation to the group and opportunities for public comment at the end of March and beginning of April.

He said he wanted to allow the public as much of a chance to speak as possible, and scheduling public comment at every meeting would probably lead to them being limited on time, so there are no times for public comment at the meetings currently. However, comment is available on the borough’s website and the meetings are open to the public, he said.

“I hate to limit the public if they show up here,” he said. “… I feel like it would be really valuable for us to talk internally for several of these meetings to make sure we’re all on the same page … and don’t spend any time at all talking about amendments or changing the code, but really getting familiar with what we have already heard from public comment and the assembly and operators about what their concerns are.”

The group agreed on a mission statement at the beginning of the Wednesday meeting to evaluate the current codes and ensure that they are balanced to achieve both quality of life and affordable development. Group member Wayne Ogle noted that an important part of that mission statement was the inclusion of the phrase “appropriate balance.”

Reach Elizabeth Earl at elizabeth.earl@peninsulaclarion.com.

More in News

The Kasilof River is seen from the Kasilof River Recreation Area, July 30, 2019, in Kasilof, Alaska. (Photo by Erin Thompson/Peninsula Clarion)
King salmon fishing on Kasilof to close Thursday

If any king salmon is caught while fishing for other species, they may not be removed from the water and must be released immediately.

Un’a, a female sea otter pup who was admitted to the Alaska SeaLife Center in June 2025, plays with an enrichment toy at the center in Seward, Alaska. Photo courtesy of the Alaska SeaLife Center
SeaLife Center admits 2 seal pups, 1 orphaned otter

The three pups join the Alaska SeaLife Center’s ‘growing’ patient list.

James Wardlow demonstrates flilleting a salmon with an ulu during a smoked salmon demonstration, part of Fish Week 2023, on Wednesday, July 19, 2023, at the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center in Soldotna, Alaska. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Refuge to celebrate all things fish during weeklong event

Fish Week will take place July 16-19.

President Zen Kelly speaks during a meeting of the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District Board of Education in Soldotna, Alaska, on Monday, July 7, 2025. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
School board finalizes budget with deep cuts to programming, classrooms

Multiple members of the board said they were frustrated by the state’s failure to fund education.

Former KPBSD Finance Director Liz Hayes speaks during a Kenai Peninsula Borough School District budget development meeting at Kenai Central High School in Kenai, Alaska, on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
School district finance department earns national awards

The two awards are based on comprehensive reviews of the district’s budget and financial reporting.

Children leap forward to grab candy during a Fourth of July parade on South Willow Street in Kenai, Alaska, on July 4, 2025. (Photo courtesy Sarah Every)
Celebrating the 4th in the streets

Kenai comes out for annual Independence Day parade.

Fire crews respond to the Bruce Fire, July 4, 2025, in Soldotna, Alaska. (Alaska Division of Forestry)
Firefighting crews respond to wildfire outside Soldotna

The 8-acre fire and two “spot fires” of less than one acre each are located near Mile 102 and 103 of the Sterling Highway.

Robert Weaver was last seen at the Doroshin Bay public use cabin on June 25, 2025. (Photo provided by the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge)
Updated: Refuge ends search efforts for missing man

Robert Weaver was last seen near Skilak Lake on June 25.

Most Read

You're browsing in private mode.
Please sign in or subscribe to continue reading articles in this mode.

Peninsula Clarion relies on subscription revenue to provide local content for our readers.

Subscribe

Already a subscriber? Please sign in