COM 0120.000 2018-2020 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Aaron S.Y. Chung, Council Chair and Members of the County Council Page 2 to better time and stage developments to achieve growth determined by the General Plan and related planning documents. The implications of these evaluations and decisions must be also considered as they may have an impact on similar areas in the County. The proposed Change of Zone from an Agricultural (A-5a) to a Family Agricultural (FA-la) zoned district will conform to, among others, the following goals, policies and standards of the Land Use and Economic General Plan Elements, the General Plan LUPAG Map, and the Kona Community Development Plan. The Land Use Pattern Allocation Guide (LUPAG) Map component of the General Plan is a representation of the document's goals and policies to guide the coordinated growth and development of the County. It reflects a graphic depiction of the physical relationship among the various land uses. The LUPAG Map establishes the basic urban and non-urban form for areas within the County. The proposed request conforms to the LUPAG Map, which designates the property as Low Density Urban. The Low Density Urban designation allows for residential, with ancillary community and public uses, and neighborhood and convenience-type commercial uses with an overall residential density of up to six units per acre. A change of zone from A- 5a to FA-la to allow for smaller lot sizes would be consistent with this low-density urban designation. A major concern in allowing a rezoning of agricultural land that creates smaller lot sizes is that this will reduce the potential use of the land for commercial agriculture by fragmenting the land into areas too small to be farmed on a commercial scale. While a few crops can be intensively cultivated on very small acreage, usually these crops have a very limited market. Reducing the size of the lots can reduce the range of potential agricultural uses and the range of market opportunities for those crops. Soils within the property are identified as Punalu`u Extremely Rocky Peat, 6 to 20 percent slopes (rPYD). The Land Study Bureau's Detailed Land Classification System identifies soils of the property as "D" or "Poor" soil for agricultural productivity. Lastly, soils in within the subject property are identified as "Unclassified"by the ALISH System. The site has not been used for intensive agriculture recently as it has been used more for limited cattle grazing given the less than optimal soil conditions of the site. That said, given the proposed lot sizes, the potential for small-scale orchard and/or ornamental farming activity exists for the newly created lots. Additionally, a condition limiting the number of dwellings on the lot to one (1) will be added to this ordinance, which will help preserve land area for agricultural purposes as opposed to additional residential uses.