COM 0964.017 2004-2006 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Honorable Stacy K. Higa, Chair and Members of the County Council COUNTY COUNCIL Page 2 August 16, 2006 The various General Plans all identify four basic types of resort areas: "major", "intermediate", "minor", and "retreat." This is sec. 14.7.4 in the 2005 General Plan. A "major" resort has a maximum of 3000 visitor units, an "intermediate" resort has a maximum of 1500 units, a "minor" resort has a maximum of 500 units, and a "retreat" resort has a maximum of 50 units (100 were allowed before the 2005 General Plan.) Because of their relatively small scale, the retreat resorts are the only resorts that are not always specifically mapped in the LUPAG map. There is no listing of Honokohau or Kealakehe as a resort area of any kind in the 2005 General Plan, and no listing is proposed with Amendment E-4. In the 1989 General Plan, there was an "Intermediate" resort listed at Kealakehe and a "minor" resort listed at Honokohau on p. 81. These listings were removed along with the corresponding LUPAG map resort areas in the 2005 General Plan. The 2005 General Plan explains the purpose of the various land use designations on the LUPAG map on p. 14-7. "Resort Node" and "resort area" are two described categories where hotels are specifically mentioned as a use, and it is very clear that a major proposal such as the Jacoby development fits within one of those two resort categories. The General Plan describes an "Urban expansion area" as allowing "for a mix of high density, medium density, low density, industrial, industrial-commercial and/or open designations in areas where new settlements may be desirable, but where the specific settlement pattern and mix of uses have not been determined." The description in the 1989 General Plan was similar, but also had this sentence, which has been removed: "Within areas designated for development as resorts, portions of the resort area may be included in the urban expansion area." The removal of this sentence in the 2005 General Plan makes it clearer that a "resort" and an "urban expansion area" are different, but even under this sentence, the urban expansion area would have to be within an area designated in the text of the General Plan as a resort to allow resort development. The Jacoby development for Honokohau Harbor proposes 1700 timeshare and about 800 hotel units, for a total of about 2500 units. This clearly constitutes a "major resort" in the General Plan. To authorize zoning for a project of this size, the General Plan would have to be amended to list the area as a "major resort" on Table 14-5, and the LUPAG map would have to be amended to show a "resort node." If the project were scaled down to a maximum of 1500 visitor units, it would still need a General Plan amendment for an "intermediate resort" designation on Table 14-5, and a "resort area" designation on the LUPAG map.