Growth, housing and taxes take center stage in Kenai council race
Published 5:30 am Friday, October 16, 2026
Two former Kenai City Council members are vying to return to the dais this fall, while the lone incumbent in a three-way race says one term has left him with unfinished work.
Alex Douthit, Phil Daniel and Tim Navarre are competing for two at-large, three-year council seats in the Nov. 3 election. Daniel is seeking reelection. The other seat is currently held by Glenese Pettey, who was appointed last November to fill the vacancy created when Henry Knackstedt became mayor. Pettey’s appointment lasts through this year’s election, and she is not among the three candidates on the ballot.
Citizens of Kenai are telling the city to concentrate on the basics. In a statistically valid survey of 300 residents conducted last fall, 55.7% selected roads, utilities and core infrastructure among the city’s top five-year priorities. Economic development and support for local businesses followed at 53.3%, with housing availability and affordability at 46.7%. Jobs and the economy were also the most common answers when respondents were asked to name Kenai’s most important issue.
Those concerns repeatedly surfaced in the Clarion’s interviews with all three candidates.
Experience and approach
Douthit served on the council from 2022 through 2025 before running unsuccessfully for mayor last year. He has since returned to the Planning and Zoning Commission and remains vice chair of the Kenai Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Center board, according to his candidate filing. He also owns Kenai Peninsula Driving Instruction.
That mix of business and municipal experience has made him impatient with problems that linger, he said.
“I don’t want to see stuff stay stagnant,” he said.
During his previous term, Douthit said he learned that government moves more slowly than a private business, and another term would find him pushing harder when he believes the city has enough information to act.
Daniel came onto the council in 2023 with no previous elected experience. Three years later, he said the complexity of city government is one reason he wants another term. Two measures he sponsored in 2025 established memorandums of understanding between Kenai and both the Kenaitze Indian Tribe and Salamatof Tribe, creating frameworks for cooperation and government-to-government communication. Both passed unanimously. “There’s more work to be done,” Daniel said.
Navarre previously spent nine years on the Kenai council and also served nine years apiece on the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly and school board, in addition to three years as borough chief of staff.
That experience, Navarre said, taught him to seek consensus rather than treating government decisions as a choice between winners and losers.
“You have to find common ground,” he said.
Property taxes and the city budget
Whoever wins will enter office as Kenai implements another decision on the same ballot.
Proposition 2026-C would exempt the first $75,000 in assessed value of a qualifying primary residence from the city property tax. At Kenai’s current 4.35-mill rate, eligible homeowners could save as much as $326.26 annually. Officials estimate about 1,421 properties could qualify, reducing municipal property tax revenue by roughly $433,885 each year. If approved, the exemption would take effect Jan. 1, 2027, for fiscal year 2028. All three candidates said they support the measure.
Douthit, however, questioned how quickly it moved to the ballot. Given more time, he said he would have liked the city to study whether larger relief could be directed toward residents on fixed incomes, particularly seniors and veterans.
To replace the revenue, Douthit said Kenai should broaden its tax base rather than immediately look for cuts or higher rates. That means putting underused city land into private development and attracting projects that create new taxable value.
Daniel said the city can absorb the projected loss under current financial conditions. If revenues were to change significantly though, he said council members might have to delay capital work or reconsider nonessential spending, but he does not expect the exemption by itself to force major service reductions.
Navarre also believes the city can manage the change without increasing its mill rate. In his view, keeping costs under control while expanding the local economy gives Kenai room to provide tax relief without sacrificing basic services.
Business, housing and development
Douthit wants Kenai to shift more of its economic-development attention from tourism promotion toward attracting year-round residents, businesses and construction.
Other organizations already market the peninsula to visitors, he described, while the city can distinguish itself by making permitting and development easier. “I think the city needs to focus more on marketing itself as business and residents friendly,” Douthit said.
Short-term rentals are one area where he would streamline the process. Kenai currently uses conditional-use permitting for some short-term rental operations, to which Douthit said the city should examine whether a simpler system could retain oversight without making applicants work through an unnecessarily cumbersome process. Daniel reached a similar conclusion on permitting but put greater emphasis on housing partnerships.
Kenai’s land inventory identifies property on Redoubt Avenue where portions were conditionally donated to the Kenai Peninsula Housing Initiative for restricted-income and senior housing. The council has also approved a cooperative agreement involving the Kenaitze/Salamatof Tribally Designated Housing Entity for senior or low-income housing. Daniel said he wants the city to keep working with developers where government can remove practical obstacles without taking over private projects.
Navarre likewise described himself as pro-development, arguing that a stronger private sector offers younger residents a reason to stay in Kenai. “You have to find ways to incentivize new businesses coming into your community,” he said.
At the same time, Navarre said officials need to hear from companies already operating in the city before changing codes or incentives.
Roads, facilities and unfinished work
Kenai’s current capital plan includes a streets assessment, work on Wildwood Drive and other road repairs. Douthit explained that studies and community surveys pushed during his earlier tenure have given the city information it lacked several years ago. Another term, he said, would be about turning that data into projects.
Daniel places a new or substantially reworked public-safety facility near the top of his list of priorities.
Kenai’s existing building dates to 1973 and now houses the police and fire departments and dispatch center. A city assessment was commissioned because staffing and operational demands have grown while the building has undergone decades of additions and modifications
And then there is the Challenger Learning Center property. Kenai assumed responsibility for the building after the former lease arrangement ended, leaving the city to determine a long-term use while paying for maintenance. Daniel said deciding whether that property can play a role in the city’s public-safety needs — or whether Kenai needs an entirely different solution — should not drift indefinitely.
Another unfinished project for Daniel is the push for direct air service between Kenai and Seattle. The city previously pursued federal support for incentives aimed at establishing service to Seattle-Tacoma and the Lower 48.
Preparing for gas development
Navarre sees one issue looming over many of the others: the possibility of large-scale gas development.
The Alaska LNG project is now being developed in two phases. Glenfarne’s first phase calls for a 739-mile pipeline carrying North Slope gas into Southcentral Alaska, while a second phase would extend the system and build an LNG export terminal