2007-03-02 TBILLS - Laserfiche WebLink

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YUEN:Well, I think the things that youre talking about are some of the concerns and issues that led to these bills. The question is what are the solutions? Because not every solution is the right one. The housing, we did take a major step two years ago in revising the affordable housing policy. Before there were loopholes that let almost everybody get out of affordable housing. Because we have a demand for land here, a very strong demand for land from people who have a good deal of money, typically often moving from areas that are more expensive than this island. And yet we have on this island a low wage base, you know, the kinds of jobs that are here are typically lower wages, and they pay lower wages than California, for example, for the same kind of work. Were always going to have this affordability issue. So weve made requirements that you have, you know, that you must set aside a certain amount of affordable housing. Youknow,Igaveyouapacketofthingsfromwhenyoustarted.Ididwritealetteron the Kona Community Development Plan saying they should talk about this issue of growth very explicitly, because I dont think it is explicitly discussed in the General Plan, and really talk about desirable levels of growth. You do always though have to understand that theres only so far you can go with controlling it through the land use system. Because its almost like you have a, you have the power through the land use and zoning to put it in certain areas, to encourage that growth be in some areas and not in other areas. Theres the power to encourage preferred types of growth, you know, preferred types of density, neighborhood layouts, whether you have cul-de-sac layouts or you have grid interconnected layouts. But we really do not have a way of turning off the spigot. Theres an aspect of this that you cant control; and if youre trying to control it by limiting, by really restricting zoning and land use, then its especially important to work on the affordability side. Because when you reduce supply and you cant do anything about demand, then price has to go up. WOODWARD:Let me just ask one question to clarify. Youve been talking about 100 trips per day. Here in the paper it says 100 trips per hour during peak hour which would be considerably more than -. YUEN:If I said per day I was misspeaking, it should be in a peak hour. I hope the write-up says 100 per hour. It should be 100 per hour. WOODWARD:Okay, thank you. WATANABE:Ive got a question, and this speaks to, I guess its page 3 of your recommended Section 25-246, and it comes under E, Mitigation Required. And, so, you know, I believe this is the section thats referring to like a regional, where you have a regional type of problem. And I wondered if you could express it in maybe some specific terms as far as -. Like we had approved a project, I dont think the Council acted on that, the project above Lowes that was Kona Coffee Plantation or something like that. And with that particular project we also were envisioning a connector road, a north-south connector road. But obviously that developer only has entitlements to a section thereof in 9EXHIBIT D