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Heather Kimball, Council Chair and Members of the County Council County of Hawaii September 09, 2024 Page 4 ■ Overall Land Use Strategy 4.2.2 states "Any development outside of the rural towns and villages should be directed to suitable areas that are not important for agriculture, in clustered patterns that will optimize the preservation of rural open space." ■ Land Use Policy LU-3.4 states "the Clustered Rural Subdivision Guidelines in Attachment C apply to proposed subdivisions outside the Kona Urban Area." ■ The "Applicability" section of the Guidelines state that they apply to "a special type of "Planned Unit Development" (PUD) for North and South Kona for lands outside the Urban Area zoned Agricultural, Intensive Agricultural, Family Agricultural, or Rural Agricultural." ■ Land Use Policy LU-3.8 states "Rezoning of areas currently zoned agricultural, outside of the Urban and Rural TOD areas shown on Figure 4-7 Official Kona Land Use Map, and outside of urban designations on the General Plan LUPAG, shall not be allowed, except in the following limited circumstances: (1) the rezoning allows only a small number of additional lots, consistent in scale with the transfer of lots to family members," Whereas these polices encourage the use of Clustered Rural Subdivision Guidelines for development of lands outside the Kona urban area, this is not a strict requirement and, in this case, would be difficult to apply given the specific characteristics of the subject property. Specifically, only half of the property is situated outside of the Kona Urban Area, thus the Clustered Rural Subdivision Guidelines would not apply to the whole property. Furthermore, the property is nearly bisected by an adjacent DWS reservoir property, making the layout of a clustered rural subdivision very difficult. Finally, as stated above, the property is not well suited for commercial agricultural use, lessening the need for such a clustered layout. Land Use Policy LU-3.8 allows for rezoning of agricultural lands outside of the urban and rural TOD's, which correspond to the existing villages, if it is to create only a small number of additional lots, provided that the scale is consistent with the transfer of lots to family members. The current zoning change request aligns with this policy, as the applicant proposes to rezone the property in order to create a four -lot subdivision for conveyance to family members. Based on the preceding, the proposed change of zone is consistent with the General Plan and KCDP.