COM 0045.033 2002-2004 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Honorable Leningrad Elarionoff, Chair and Members of the Committee on Planning HAWAII COUNTY COUNCIL Page 6 June 14, 2004 Draft 2 removes this statement, and some of the language may create some confusion, particularly language about the General Plan maps becoming more general and being supplemented by more specific community development plan (CDP) maps. The language on p. 340 of Draft 1 is important and should be retained. Although it would be a good idea for the County to move toward more specific CDP's, we cannot abandon the legally binding nature of the LUPAG maps before formulating the CDP's. The City and County of Honolulu, for example, has a very short and broad General Plan, with non-specific maps, but it also has District Development Plans with much more specific maps. Rezoning in Honolulu must conform to those Development Plan maps. We also have to be realistic about our ability to prepare and enact CDP's. The County has not enacted a CDP by ordinance since 1979, and only three plans have been enacted by resolution since 1987 (Kailua, Keahole to Kailua, and Hawaiian Paradise Park). All plans require hard choices, and so will become points of contention. (If the plan ducks the choices in a haze of generalities and ambiguities, it is worthless.) So the CDP's will take time to adopt. The statement in the "Introduction" to Draft 2 that the General Plan "is not intended to be regulatory" needs some explanation. The General Plan is not itself a regulation in the sense that, for example, the zoning code is a regulation. So a parcel that is zoned for residential use maybe used for residential, even if the property is "Open" in the LUPAG map, and a building permit cannot be denied based upon the LUPAG map alone. But the General Plan and LUPAG maps do have the force and effect of law, and discretionary decisions such as rezonings and SMA permits have to follow the General Plan and LUPAG map. LUPAG map consistency does not mean that the boundaries in the LUPAG maps are precise. The 1989 LUPAG map is on a scale of roughly 1"=11,000'. It was meant to indicate the general location of various land uses, not to be precisely scaled. (Except for map amendments that were adopted by specific metes and bounds.)