2020-12-17 Leeward Exh D (Discussion re permit extension)

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So, this is our current language in our Planning Commission rules for Special Permits as well as Use Permits, and if you look at it, you're not gonna see any language that talks about the, you know, what the commission is to really look at for approval or denial. It's basically just stating what the applicant needs to submit and the, if it's a time condition, the amount of time, and the reasons for the request. And on the bottom portion of the screen, it talks about if you're amending, or modifying, or deleting a condition. The same thing, you're, you're identifying what condition the specific amendment that you're requesting and the reasons. It doesn't go into any kind of detail as to what the commission looks at as far as criteria for approval or denial. The closest that we've come as staff is, we've, we've looked, we've utilized our language that's in our administrative time extension that you'll see in almost all permit conditions, as well as ordinance conditions. And more specifically, we're looking at, we do look at A, you know, it's like hey, it's been ten years, what happened here, what, what was the reason for the delay? Was it your fault or was it something else? And 99 percent of the time it's the economy, but now it's, it could be the COVID pandemic. So, you just never know, there are these outside factors that could really affect a project. In 2008, when the economy took a beating, for a number of years developers could not get loans, I mean it was just rough. And so, these, these permits just sat, they couldn't do anything. They couldn't move, and so that was the majority of the reasons that we would get when they would come back asking for more time. But B and C is what we really focus on. B says that the time, I mean, let me go to the next slide. So, wait, wait. I'm sorry. So, I'm gonna address some summaries at the end but basically what we look at that kind of ties in the original criteria that we look at for approval or denial and the original reasons for approval or denial, we tie that in by B and C, and that is that the time extension or the amendment request would not be contrary to the General Plan, the Community Development Plans, or the Zoning Code. There are times that something changes, either a General Plan amendment comes in, and the General Plan has change for that area, or a new Community Development Plan has come in or has been amended, or the Zoning Code has changed and has affected this particular request. So, if something's changed there and they're coming in for the amendment, that may affect the recommendation from the Director to the commission. C, this kind of ties in everything else. This says that the granting of the amendment or time extension would not be contrary to the original reasons for granting the permit in the first place, which is basically if you have a Special Permit, you have eight criteria for approval, we re-look at those. If it's a Use Permit, you have three criteria for approval, we re-look at those, and we see if they're still consistent with that. So that's why sometimes even though it's not really clear in a rule, which it should be, which I think that's gonna be the outcome of this, these are what we've been relying on up to this point. I'm going to go to the next slide, and this was provided by Commissioner Vitousek as an example of some of the areas we should be looking at when it comes to a change that might have happened over a period of time to a particular project and what we should look at. So, Commissioner Vitousek, I have this, as well as your reference to Hawaii Administrative Rules 11-200.1 on the next screen, if you wanted to kind of speak as to what you were looking at in regards to these. VITOUSEK: Sure, so what is shown here is from the National Historic Preservation Act, the Federal regulations that are designed to implement the National Historic Preservation Act for taking into account the effect of a project on historic sites. They're noting that the passage of 2 EXHIBIT D