COM 1153.000 2014-2016 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Dru Kanuha, Council Chair and Members of the County Council Page 4 2015 the County Council created the Pahoa Village Design District. The subject property is situated within the design district; therefore, plans for the proposed expansion will be reviewed by the design committee to ensure consistency with the design guidelines. Based on the above findings, the request will conform to the General Plan and Puna Community Development Plan. All essential utilities and services are available to the site. Access to the property is from Pahoa Village Road, a County owned and maintained roadway with a pavement width of approximately 20 feet within an irregular width right-of-way fronting the subject property. The General Plan identifies Pahoa Village Road as a collector street which requires a minimum right-of-way width of 60 feet. However, recently the Planning Department and Department of Public Works (DPW) have recognized that due to the location of existing structures in or abutting the current right-of-way, it is highly unlikely that a 60-foot wide right-of-way can be achieved for this road. Instead a 50-foot wide right-of-way is more realistic. Therefore, and since the right-of-way fronting the property is irregular, DPW recommends the applicant provide a 25-foot wide future road widening setback taken from the roadway's existing centerline. Since the travel lane is about 10 feet wide, this would mean the future road widening strip would be about 15 feet wide, but since the right-of-way width along the property is irregular, in some areas the road widening strip would be less or greater than 15 feet. The provision of this future road widening setback would also resolve the encroachments within the right-of-way and subject property. In the past, the Planning Department and County Council have not required future road widening strips along Pahoa Village Road from landowners that have rezoned their properties to a commercial zoning district. However, in 2008 the Puna Community Development Plan was adopted, which recommends that village/town centers incorporate walking and bicycle paths into the roadway network. In comments regarding this application, the Department of Public Works recommends the applicant or successor landowner provide a pro rata share of the cost of constructing roadway improvements, to include curb, gutter, sidewalk, pavement widening and utility relocation, at the time when such improvements are implemented by the County. The Planning Department concurs with these recommendations. In order to provide these multimodal facilities, additional right-of-way will be needed. Therefore, the Department recommends that the applicant provide a future road widening strip and pay a pro-rata share of the cost of constructing the improvements when DPW initiates a sidewalk improvement project along this section of Pahoa Village Road.