COM 0045.025 2002-2004 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Honorable Leningrad Elarionoff, Chair and Members of the Committee on Planning COUNTY COUNCIL Page 2 December 15, 2003 changes. The Council should allow at least four months for the Planning Director and Commission to finish their review of any Council-initiated amendments, because the Planning Commission will have to hold hearings before taking a vote on them. It will take a concentrated effort by the Council to adopt a revised General Plan before the end of the current council terms. If it is not done by December 2004, there will be at least some new councilmembers who will have to become familiar with the revisions (based on announcements that have already been made by members that they will not run), and we will possibly have a different administration. The importance of a timely comprehensive revision to the General Plan cannot be overstated. According to the County Charter, "no public improvement or project, or subdivision or zoning ordinance, shall be initiated or adopted unless the same conforms to and implements the general plan." Sec. 3-15(b). Under state law, all zoning must be done within the framework of along-range, comprehensive general plan. Without a comprehensive general plan, specific zoning decisions can be attacked legally as arbitrary and capricious. Much has changed since the 1989 General Plan. That plan was based on population projects for 2000 that ranged from 155,000 (Series A) to 212,000 (Series C). The actual population was 148,000. The 1989 Plan projected westbound visitor amvals in 2000 to range from 1,485,000 (Series A) to 1,664,000 (Series C). The actual figure was 925,000. The largest agricultural employer, sugar, has disappeared. A comprehensive revision to the General Plan is overdue. "Housekeeping" Issues With a project of this magnitude, it can be difficult to keep track of all of the paper that comes in. To assist the council, this portion of the letter discusses some of the key documents. The councilmembers have two bound volumes of the revised General Plan. The volume bound in green, entitled "County of Hawaii General Plan Revision December 21, 2001 Draft" contains the Ramseyered version of the current General Plan with revisions proposed by the Planning Director. New additions to the General Plan are show in bold, deletions are shown by [brackets]. The thinner volume, bound in pink, entitled "County of Hawaii General Plan Revision December 21, 2001 Draft Appendix A" contains the