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Honorable Gary Safarik, Chair and Members of the County Council HAWAII COUNTY COUNCIL Page 3 January 18, 2005 6. "Important agricultural lands" on p. 345. While the state has a constitutional mandate to identify important agricultural lands, it has not done so. The county has the power to enact a program to protect agricultural lands through its zoning and land use planning authority. 7. "Steering committee" for community development plans (p. 426). The steering committee is advisory to the Council and the planning director. Because the community development plans would be adopted by ordinance, the Council will have the final approval power, subject of course to potential mayoral veto. 8. Budget process, on p. 429. As mentioned above, General Plan goals and policies should be considered in the budget process. The term "reconcile" appears only with respect to the CIP process, and means that the CIP program should track goals, policies and courses of action in the General Plan. There was also public testimony that the Genera] Plan process was flawed from the beginning because public input should have preceded any of the drafts. The Planning Department had eight informal public meetings about the General Plan in 1998, well before the release of any of the drafts. The current draft is similar to the one considered by the Planning Commission beginning Apri12001. The Planning Commission held eleven hearings and workshops on this draft before finishing its work in December 2001 and sending it up to the Council. I would be happy to respond to any further questions the Councilmembers may have about the current General Plan draft. Sincerer 7 L~1_ i J CHRISTOPHER J. YUE~ Planning Director CJY:pak Wpwin60/Chair Gary Safarik Bill 163, Dratl 4 (General Plan) Enclosures