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<br /> Pete Hoffmann, Chairman <br /> and Members of the County Council <br /> Page 7 <br /> Kaahumanu Highway and Mamalahoa Highway in the Kailua-Kona area are <br /> already at LOS "E", subdivisions in these areas would have to come up with <br /> "transportation improvements or strategies to accommodate the impacts of the <br /> development and be made concurrent with the development," or the subdivision <br /> would have to wait for traffic to improve. Again, the requirement for <br /> "improvements or strategies" is vague, and does not give any guidance to what <br /> would be enough. The Planning Director would have to engage in negotiations <br /> with various subdividers to determine whether they could go forward, without any <br /> standards to guide what is fair. <br /> Property that is zoned but not subdivided has a different status than <br /> unzoned property. Normally, such property can be subdivided in accordance with <br /> the subdivision code. The owner is not asking for a new entitlement as in the case <br /> of zoning. Most subdivisions aze too small to support any meaningful <br /> improvement in traffic conditions. With respect to the larger subdivisions, <br /> properties have very different histories. For example, the lazgest pending <br /> residential subdivision in North Kona is the "Kaloko Heights" project, on the <br /> upper portion of Hina Lani Street. The owners of this property, as well as some <br /> others, paid into an improvement district that created Hina Lani Street in the <br /> 1980's. It wouldn't be fair to hold up this subdivision based upon current bad <br /> traffic conditions when the prior owners helped create a major road improvement <br /> years ago. <br /> 3. Bills 328 and 329: The Planning Director recommends denial of these bills. <br /> Both are very far-reaching and would result in a very profound change in the land <br /> use system, but both aze very sketchy on the implementation. <br /> • Bi11328 has the widest scope of the four bills. It requires that the Planning <br /> Director establish level of service standards for parks, roads, fire, water, <br /> police, solid waste, and wastewater systems. The director would have to <br /> deny development approvals unless the level of service is adequate, unless <br /> the developer constructed the necessary facilities. This poses a dilemma. <br /> On the one hand, you would not want to say that the current conditions in <br /> many parts of the county are adequate. On the other hand, if the director <br /> determines that the current level of service is too low, it results in a <br /> moratorium on new subdivisions, and possibly multi-family buildings, but <br /> development in the existing subdivisions can continue. For example, if <br /> the director determined that there weren't enough parks on the island, the <br /> development of new subdivisions, shopping centers, and apartment <br /> buildings could be stopped, but people could continue building in the older <br /> subdivisions, which maybe the areas that have the worst shortage of <br /> pazks. While lazger developers could proceed by building the necessary <br /> park space, it would not be practical for developers of small subdivisions <br /> and apartment buildings to do so, and their projects would be on hold until <br /> the county built enough parks to catch up to the required level of service. <br /> <br />