2019-06-20 Leeward Exh B (Amend Kona CDP)

Home

The CDP was based on the vision and guiding principles that were formulated by the community. Those remain unchanged in the amendments before you. The vision was for a more sustainable Kona characterized by deep respect for the culture and the environment and residents that responsibly, and responsibly, accommodate change through an active and collaborative community. That intent remains true in this, I believe. I served on a sub-committee that reviewed these with the Action Committee, and I believe that the intent is consistent here. The CDP approved the proposals were a paradigm shift for Kona in land use focusing future growth within the urban area of the General Plan. A form-base code was proposed to guide that urbanization. It is that aspiration that has run into the conflicts and stymie forward-progress toward our vision. On reflection I realize that the last time I testified before the Leeward Planning Conference, I mean Leeward Planning Commission, was in 2008, asking for your approval for the CDP. Today I ask for your approval, favorable recommendation of the package of amendments that go a long way toward helping unlock the conflicts with the code that have held a progress. Some further wordsmithing might help as this goes forward in the legislative process. You know, I would particularly like to thank the administration and Nancy Pisicchio and Roy Takemoto for bringing the initial package forward. They were the staff members for the Steering Committee and they on coming back in the administration under Harry Kim’s second term saw the need to help make these amendments. And the Planning Department, I wish to also appreciate for reaching out to the other agencies. I mirror Mike Matsukawa’s comments in that the initial review of the CDP was not broadly circulated and input received from other agencies. And I think that’s part of where we also find many of the conflicts that are trying to be amended here with this package. So, and I appreciate the, the work of the Action Committee who continues in the hinterlands of, of public recognition to make these, this Plan continue to work. Thank you. LOGAN: Good morning. My name is Christy Logan and I live in Kailua-Kona. And I’m here representing myself. I think something interesting that Mr. Matsukawa said earlier was that this document was an experimental one. And for the impact that it’s had, there have been a lot of unintended consequences that have come from it. And I think everybody can agree that we want smart planning in our communities and where we live, but I don’t think we intended for it to stop us in our tracks from growing smart; I think what it did basically was create moratorium without calling it one. And so, I support these amendment changes and I urge you to also support them. We still have to grow smart and put things in their proper places, and some of the unintended consequences have caused people to go outside of the Urban Core and created something that we were trying to stop or not have happened. I’ve also seen personally families, you know, that have a certain size of land and they want to be able to rezone it and subdivide it so they can give it to their kids. They are not, they are not a massive developer that’s coming in to put in a hundred houses or, you know, thousands of units, and the CDP has impacted their ability to do that greatly; they can’t get entitled to another portion of their property because of the way the language reads. For something that’s been an experimental document to have that type of impact on our local families seems a little absurd to me. And so, this idea that, that we can’t change it and it’s in stone just doesn’t seem to be what our democracy and how our system is supposed to work. I hear what these people are saying about we committed hundreds of thousands of hours of our time, and I even recall participating in a few of those meetings. I never thought that the document that we 15 EXHIBIT B