Soldotna adds annexation proposal to ballot
Published 9:30 pm Wednesday, July 9, 2025
Soldotna voters will be asked this year whether the city should annex 2.63 square miles of territory.
The proposed annexation is split across five small areas around the city — including an area surrounding Funny River Road through to the Soldotna Municipal Airport; the area including Tsalteshi Trails, Skyview Middle School and Arc Lake; some area on the south side of Kalifornsky Beach Road near and including the Kenai Peninsula Food Bank; an area north of the city along the Kenai Spur Highway; and an area on the far side of the Soldotna airport where Foster Construction is headquartered.
According to the text of a resolution unanimously adopted by Soldotna’s city council on Wednesday, placing the question on this year’s ballot, the city in 2019 filed with the Local Boundary Commission to annex the territory. The commission in 2020 found that the territory both “exhibited a reasonable need to be annexed” and “is compatible in character with the city,” but only approved the annexation if voters approved the move.
Residents of the territories proposed for annexation will also be able to vote on the issue.
City Manager Janette Bower said during the meeting that the city clerk’s office is working to “clearly identify” all voters in the proposed annexation area — as of Wednesday, 136 voters had been identified. She said that a majority opinion would annex all the territory — the five individual sections are not eligible for individual decisions. Each of those voters will receive postcards as notice of the ballot measure.
Per previous Clarion reporting, the city had hoped to annex the territory by legislative review — approval by the Alaska Legislature — rather than requiring voter approval. The commission’s decision to convert the city’s petition from legislative review to “local option” was unprecedented.
The Alaska Supreme Court in 2024 ruled against an appeal by the city of that decision, as reported by KDLL 91.9 FM. Bower said that collaboration with the city attorney had identified moving forward with the vote as “a path forward to resolve the annexation petition.”
A full recording of the meeting, and extensive documentation and maps of the proposed annexation process, can be found at soldotna.org.
This story was corrected on Friday. A previous version incorrectly said that the city was looking to annex 2.63 acres, rather than square miles.
Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/peninsulaclarion.
