2008-03-20 TKOHALA LLC - Laserfiche WebLink

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letter – this was a island-wide effort by the County to first amend the General Plan and the Land Use – I’ll call them – LUPAG Maps for several areas across the whole island, then followed those up with downzonings to match the new zoning with the newly enacted General Plan. In this particular case, there has been absolutely no change to the General Plan, LUPAG Map. And even if you accept the Planning Director’s logic that the 2005 General Plan text amendments authorize him to pursue the downzoning, why didn’t the County re-designate this subject property, the Kohala LLC property, just like they did the property to the north. The property to the north was reclassified on the LUPAG Map in 2005, relatively recently, from Extensive Ag to Conservation. No such action took place for this subject property. It is, you know, one of the conclusions of the applicant that part of the reason for the proposed downzoning and revocation of the SMA permit is that the Mayor and the Planning Director have taken a position as the administration to further an agenda to minimize development along the shoreline. I know that you’ve heard and I’ve heard both the Planning Director and the Mayor saying more than once to the Commission that he and his administration have not upzoned any oceanfront properties since they came into the office in the year 2000. We believe that this proposal to downzone the Kohala LLC property and take away the SMA permit is part of that agenda, which is improperly targeted against an individual property owner and is not being processed through the required General Plan amendment procedures. I think that relieves -, I won’t bore you with the takings and substantive due process and equal protection violations that we’ve talked about before; I’ll leave that for the lawyers to fight about later on. But I think what we are trying to do in this particular proceeding is to recognize some of the concerns by the Commission over the potential density for the property. The density of this property at RS-15,000 square feet has a potential maximum density of 107, approximately, single-family residential lots. The SMA permit that was approved in 1997 was for 50 lots. In th our March 18 submittal, we’ve submitted to you a redline version of the proposed conditions for both these SMA Permit No. 379 and for the Change of Zone amendment for Ordinance No. 97-102. I think for purposes of the Commission’s consideration on the policy on what they should do on this is pretty -, it’s, I think, similar in some respects to one of the matters that the Commission ruled on previously in which they modified the SMA permit but did not take away the permit, and certainly didn’t even consider taking away the zoning as the Planning Director has you looking at right now. We think that the existing conditions of zoning and SMA will protect the property. We think that the existing conditions will provide a vehicular public access road down to the shoreline, something that’s sorely lacking in the North Kohala district. This even includes one accessible ADA parking space and three regular stalls. The County of Hawaii, as you can see, if you’ve been paying attention over the last 12 months or so, they have various methods by which to effectively further their goals to create open space along the shoreline. One of those is the Public Access, Open Space, and Natural Resource Commission. That commission appointed by this Mayor recently finished their work and forwarded their list of selected properties to the Council. At no point in time has the Kohala LLC property ever been listed on the Mayor’s wish list on that. Additionally, there is a newly adopted ordinance called the scenic corridor program as part of the Zoning Code; that is a tool that would essentially amend or revise the zoning conditions for various properties, provided that the County Council feels that it is important to adopt such a scenic corridor for protection of views and open spaces. There has been no adoption or no attempt to float that ordinance by the EXHIBIT A 14