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<br /> Stacy Higa, Chairman <br /> <br /> and Members of the County Council <br /> <br /> Page 9 <br /> Although the soil type would have been justified putting this property in the <br /> "Important Agricultural Lands" LUPAG category, this is the type of area referred to on <br /> Page 14-8 of the General Plan: "Certain areas that could have been classified as <br /> Important Agricultural ]ands have been placed within urban land use categories. <br /> Generally, these are adjacent to existing urban areas. This represents a decision that the <br /> orderly development of those urban areas justifies the eventual conversion of those lands <br /> to urban use." <br /> The rezoning of this 15-acre area from an A-20a to a RS-7.5 zoning designation <br /> will not be detrimental to the reduction of the agricultural land inventory in the County of <br /> Hawaii as the property has not been intensively used for agricultural purposes for a long <br /> period of time and is designated for urban growth. From a land use perspective, it is a <br /> more feasible alternative to infill urban development within this particular area of North <br /> Kohala. In doing so, it would tend to alleviate the conversion of more productive <br /> agricultural lands in more appropriate locations within the North Kohala area for urban <br /> types of uses. <br /> There are no significant adverse impacts that maybe generated by rezoning of the <br /> project site to a RS-7.5 zoned district upon public utilities and facilities. Potential <br /> impacts have been identified and assessed and appropriate mitigative measures will be <br /> incorporated within this favorable recommendation. Therefore, the request would not <br /> unreasonably burden the public agencies to provide roads and streets, water, drainage, <br /> police and fire protection. Access to the proposed development would be from the Hawi- <br /> Niulii Road, which is a State highway that has a 22-foot pavement with paved shoulders <br /> within an 80-foot right-of--way. A Traffic Impact Analysis Report (TIAR) was conducted <br /> by M&E Pacific, Inc. in October 2005, which concluded that the proposed project would <br /> generate a relatively small number of trips that would not adversely affect traffic on <br /> Akoni Pule Highway. The levels of service with the proposed project would be <br /> considered acceptable and no mitigating actions are required. <br /> Water can be made available for the development from an existing 12-inch <br /> waterline that runs along Hawi-Niulii Road. Although there are only 30 units of water <br /> available at this time, the development will construct the additional single family units as <br /> additional water units become available to the project site. The project site is not situated <br /> within the service limits of the County's sewer system and will utilize a septic system <br /> meeting with the approval of the Department of Health. <br /> According to the Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) prepared by the Federal <br /> Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the property is within Zone X, area <br /> determined to be outside the 500-year flood plain. The Kumakua Gulch is situated along <br /> <br />