Kenai Peninsula Borough, AK Building Setbacks & Zoning: Structure Height Limits (2026)

The borough imposes no general building-height limit for the unincorporated area; height caps exist only where property owners have petitioned to form a Local Option Zoning District (LOZD) under KPB 21.44.030. In a Single-Family Residential (R-1) LOZD, KPB 21.44.160(C)(2) limits structures to two and a half stories above ground or 35 feet above average grade, whichever is less. KPB 21.44.230 defines average grade as the mean of the grade elevations at the four points where an imaginary line parallel to the front and rear setback lines, and touching the proposed structure, intersects the required side setback lines, a method that lets the borough measure height consistently on sloped Kenai Peninsula terrain rather than from a single ground point.

The identical two-and-a-half-story, 35-foot standard repeats verbatim in the Small Lot Residential (R-2, KPB 21.44.165) and Residential Waterfront (R-W, KPB 21.44.175) LOZD types. The Rural Residential (R-R, KPB 21.44.170) and Multi-Family Residential (R-M, KPB 21.44.180) district standards omit a separate numeric height cap from their development-standards lists. Outside an adopted LOZD, and outside the cities of Kenai, Soldotna, Homer, Seward, Seldovia and Kachemak, no borough ordinance limits how tall a residential structure is built.