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Aaron S.Y. Chung, Council Chair and Members of the County Council County of Hawai`i Page 16 A Project District may be established whenever the public necessity and convenience and the general welfare require that a comprehensive planning approach for an area should be adopted. Project District zoning is intended to provide for a flexible and creative planning approach rather than specific land use designations. It will also allow for flexibility over time in the location of specific uses and mixes of structural alternatives. The planning approach would establish continuity in land uses and designs while providing for a comprehensive network of infrastructure facilities and systems. A variety of uses as well as open space, parks, and other project uses are intended to be in accord with each individual Project District objective. A Project District is an amendment to Chapter 25, Zoning Code, which changes the district boundaries in accordance with the individual Project District. Since the WPD was approved in 2010, the applicant has taken a number of steps in having the pre-development phase of this property completed in accordance with the terms or conditions of approval. These included such things as the preparation and approval of the overall Master Plan;the Water Master Plan; payment of the water commitment fee; and the like. It also sought and has been working with a developer experienced with residential and commercial developments. Potential tenants, including a major supermarket and a pharmaceutical company, expressed bona fide interests. However, during their due diligence process, the high upfront infrastructure cost regrettably diminished their interest. Regrettably, in spite of the uptick in the global and national economy, securing the required financing to initiate and complete the project and all of the infrastructural obligations continue to be a problem. Much of the attention has thus been directed towards finding reasonable modifications of the conditions, as proposed herein. Understandably,the high development cost was clearly something that the applicant did not anticipate when it agreed to all of the conditions. It should be noted that since the site was rezoned,there has not been any significant land use regulatory change in this area. The Hilo Community Development Plan has not been updated, and thus,the only relevant planning policy document still rests with the County General Plan. The proposed amendments are not contrary to the General Plan's Land Use Pattern Allocation Guide (LUPAG)Map that defines the subject property and its immediately surrounding area for Medium Density Urban. The Medium Density Urban designation allows for village and neighborhood commercial, single-family and multiple- family residential uses (up to 35 units per acre) and related functions, but does not allow for warehousing, manufacturing, and light-industrial uses.