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Planning commission backs adoption of 2025 Safe Streets and Roads for All plan into borough comprehensive plan
Summary
The commission voted to recommend adoption of Ordinance 2025-11 to add the 2025 Safe Streets and Roads for All comprehensive safety action plan to the Kenai Peninsula Borough Comprehensive Plan, making the borough eligible for federal implementation grants and highlighting data-driven priority locations for interventions.
The Kenai Peninsula Borough Planning Commission on June 9 voted to forward to the assembly a recommendation to adopt Ordinance 2025-11, which would amend borough code to adopt the 2025 Kenai Peninsula Borough Safe Streets and Roads for All comprehensive safety action plan as an element of the 2019 Kenai Peninsula Borough comprehensive plan.
Robert Ruffner, Planning Director, said the plan — produced with a Federal Highway Administration grant — spans eight chapters and appendices and identifies priority locations and countermeasures based on crash data and conditions. Ruffner said the consultants and staff selected 20 priority areas by distilling accident data (time of day, location and conditions) and recommending countermeasures such as lighting at night for intersections that show night-time crashes. He summarized the plan’s aspirational goal as “driving towards zero serious injuries and zero fatalities on our road system.”
Ruffner said adoption into borough code will make the borough and municipalities eligible for federal implementation funds and that the plan covers conventional roadway issues and also addresses pedestrian and bicycle safety, parking-lot conflicts and collector/high-speed road interactions. He urged the commission to consider frontage and collector road planning as part of borough strategy, saying the borough currently lacks requirements to require construction of frontage or collector roads once platted; cities commonly require subdividers to build roads as part of final plat approval.
Commissioners discussed being proactive versus reactive in safety planning. Commissioner Whitney said she liked the report but urged proactive attention to areas with the potential for severe accidents before fatalities occur. Ruffner and others said adoption will make the borough eligible for the next round of federal implementation grants and could inform future code or legislative work to require installation agreements or other measures linking subdivision approval to road construction.
The commission voted in favor of forwarding the ordinance to the assembly. The recorded roll-call in the transcript shows unanimous support from commissioners present.
If the assembly adopts the ordinance, the borough and participating municipalities would be positioned to apply for FHWA and other federal funds for engineering, education and enforcement measures recommended in the plan. Ruffner said staff posted plan copies and FAQs and emphasized that the plan’s priority sites were data-driven.
