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<br />DELIMA: Well, I know that we had a discussion, but and it’s actually the next agenda item
<br />anyway so, I think the problem for Mr. Bockrath is that the General Plan designates the area as
<br />open, and because it designates the area as open, I think the county has always considered the
<br />use of the ice house as a nonconforming use. The problem is, if you’re a private landowner and
<br />the zoning is declared to be open, then the landowner doesn’t have a reasonable use of his land
<br />except you can consider the, the consideration of the fact that he has been allowed to continue to
<br />operate as a ice house. Now from the public’s perspective, and I think the reason why the
<br />Redevelopment Agency thought that the zoning of the existing use would be to amend the
<br />General Plan so he as a landowner can have a more reasonable economic interest in developing
<br />the parcel to the point that it is not deteriorating because of the inability to get financial
<br />investment because of the designation of the open zoning and the nonconforming use. So from
<br />the Redevelopment Agency’s perspective, we wanted the landowners to be able to have, the
<br />private landowners, to be able to have a fair opportunity to utilize their private lands without the
<br />county having to necessarily compensate them for the continued designation of open. So from,
<br />you know, from this perspective of Mr. Bockrath’s property just to give an example, the thought,
<br />the thoughts has always been if you’re not going to, you know, pay for the, pay for the open
<br />designation then you need to allow him to be able to protect his property by giving him
<br />reasonable use of the property. And reasonable use of the property would be not to increase the
<br />density of that particular parcel, but perhaps make it commercial usage, or the state should
<br />consider trading land that would allow Mr. Bockrath to have a reasonable commercial parcel of
<br />property somewhere in the Hilo designation that approximates the value of his parcel and then
<br />the county would have, or state, would have an additional piece of property next to the
<br />Lili‘uokalani Park. So these are tradeoffs and valuations that need to occur. Now the other
<br />private landowners have different, different interests and different scenarios. For example, the
<br />parcel that’s next to the Naniloa parcel, owned by a family trust, that designation I believe is not
<br />open, but that designation is I believe in the hotel designation area. The parcel owned by Helco
<br />is, the parcel owned by Helco is open as well. Looks like it’s open too. And then the question is,
<br />you know, Helco has been, has abandoned that, that parcel for energy generation but you know,
<br />what is the best use of that particular parcel that is complementary to that Banyan Drive plan.
<br />And then the other thought was, you know, we, anyway, there was a lot of different discussions.
<br />But the bottom line is I think there really needs to be moving along of the—it’s not fair to the
<br />property owner to have an open designation for as long as it’s been without compensating him
<br />and allowing the—I mean the ice house has serves a valuable purpose for economic interest and
<br />Mr. Bockrath, to be frank, he has generated other ice producing facilities elsewhere, but you
<br />know, there comes a time where we need to treat, as Mr. Yee says, everybody fairly. And it’s not
<br />fair to Mr. Bockrath to sit on a piece of property without the inability, without the ability to even
<br />maintain what is existing right now. So with the present open, open zone, open General Plan
<br />designation, it really handcuffs his ability to get financing to do what other property owners in
<br />Hilo are able to do. So, so I, I identify with his plight and I previously represented Mr. Bockrath.
<br />I made disclosure. I do not represent him on this matter. I represented the previous landowner
<br />prior to Mr. Bockrath, who has since deceased. So I have no interest, but I wanted to, for full
<br />disclosure and transparency, indicate that on the record. Thank you.
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<br />CANNON-EGER: Mr. Chairman, if you don’t mind. I’d just like to pose a question. I think
<br />most of my question may have been answered by posting this graphic, thank you. But my
<br />question relates to Suisan, the power plant, and the ice house, all of which are in excess of a
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<br />Banyan Drive Hawaiʽi Redevelopment Agency
<br />March 27, 2019 Minutes
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