Cook Inlet View Drive, located on the outskirts of Kenai directly across from Wildwood Drive, will be renamed Cook Inlet Drive after unanimous consent by the Kenai City Council on Wednesday.
Council member Deborah Sounart, who sponsored the resolution that renamed the road, said she had heard from residents that the road is used “incorrectly.”
Because the road was named Cook Inlet View, she said, “summer traffic turns to go down to see the view.”
“There’s not a view.”
The resolution cites “an increase in complaints over the years” that visitors, tourists, motorhomes and tour buses regularly drive through the residential neighborhood and on the “unimproved dead-end street that leads to the edge of the bluff.”
Other efforts have been made to solve the traffic issues on the road, Sounart said, like adding signs that say no parking and other barriers to keep traffic from stopping on the road, but the road still sees heavier than expected traffic.
“It is a very residential neighborhood,” she said. “There are children in the streets riding bikes and playing ball. With all this extra summer traffic, it creates a dangerous scenario.”
Another contributing factor to the traffic, Sounart said, is a large State Department of Transportation sign that directs to Wildwood Drive and Cook Inlet View Drive. Directing to Wildwood, where Wildwood Correctional Complex is located, is important, but spotlighting the other road in that way “kind of looks like you’re headed towards a state park.”
Action on the resolution has previously been delayed while the city communicated with the department regarding how to handle that sign. Kenai Public Works Director Scott Curtain said that the department said that the state was fine with the city changing the state’s sign, but that the department would not see it changed themselves “for some time.”
“My recommendation would be to allow our streets department staff to go ahead and do that,” Curtain said. “I’d likely have it done next week with your approval.”
No other members of the council commented on the resolution.
A full recording of the meeting can be found at kenai.city.
Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.
