Alaska Fishing Village Prohibits Big Boxes

HOMER, AK-The Homer City Council has limited the size of retail buildings in its CBD to 35,000 sf. The move effectively bans large-format retailers including Fred Meyer, which has proposed a 45,000 sf store for the city’s CBD.While cities across the US are enacting similar legislation in order to keep retailers such as Wal-Mart out of their communities, Homer is the first city in Alaska to pass such a law. The council approved the ban by a 5-to-1 margin.The vote follows two years of public meetings and work sessions, but it could still be trumped by a vote of the people. At the behest of petitioners, the city council also set a June 15 special election that would raise the size limit for new construction to 66,000 sf.While the new law bans anything over 35,000 sf in the CBD, the bar has been set at 45,000 sf for a newly annexed area east of Downtown. The area is now dominated by gravel pits and industrial buildings.