2007-05-04 TPITTULO - Laserfiche WebLink

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GRAHAM:Thank you. Other questions from Commissioners? Mr. Yuen, I had a question maybe you could help me with. Generally we act on rezoning applications with a lot of attention paid to the General Plan, whether it conforms or not. And I think on these two applications we have here this afternoon they both conform, so theres no fault to be found with them in that regard. However, we do have sort of a substantial portion of green land here which, you know, can be urbanized. And given the General Plan designation there are a lot of different urbanizations possible. Like these two here we have today are different. So Im just thinking, we do have individual property owners and individual property owners have their own plans that they like and what they like to do with their property, but, you know, there is some way that youd like the whole package to come up with some kind of conformity that sticks together and works as a unit. Does the Planning Department really have any way to deal with that concern? Could you just speak to that, please. YUEN:We dont have a master plan for Ponahawai Street. And the difficulty withPonahawaiStreetisthatitwassubdividedintoone-acrelots.Sothismeansthattheyhavea variety of owners, some of whom see their future as a multi-family, and some see it as a commercial; and thats what youre seeing. To give you a contrary example of trying to send a direction in the General Plan, in the General Plan revisions last time, you know, Waiakea House Lots is where a similar thing happened in a way because you took, there was an area that was previously Low Density Urban in the General Plan and then put into Medium Density. All right? And then it opens the door for a lot of decisions which can be made by a particular landowner and then decided on at the rezoning stage on a case-by-case basis like were doing here by the Planning Commission and by the County Council. That was starting to feel a little haphazard in the Waiakea House Lots; and so we proposed a text amendment to the General Plan which suggested that Commercial rezonings should take place along certain streets, Manono Street, Lanikaula Street, which are the major streets for the movement of traffic and that along the side streets like Laukapu Street, Hinano Street, the General Plan is encouraging Residential rezonings. So you would have the Residential rezonings more on the interior. So thats an example of trying to send a direction. But we havent done that for Ponahawai Street, and yes we have been just seeing a series of applications. And if these are passed and they developed according to the application, what youre going to see are a mixed group of some commercial and typically office type buildings and a few relatively small apartment buildings. Its unfortunate, and to tell you the truth, the property was subdivided according to an Ag-1 zoning. There was a tentative subdivision approval when we came in, my administration came into the Planning Department. I knew this was exactly what was going to happen, but it did have tentative subdivision approval and was approved with the one-acre lots. And when I say thats whats going to happen, that once you start, you know, its a lot easier to master plan an area or to have a coordinated development of an area when you have one owner who has 5, 10, 15, 20 acres and they can create something. And typically from both a planning and an aesthetic point of view youll have a better area when you have an area where somebody owns 10 acres and they come in and -. If we had one owner come in with 10 acres wed probably wind up a more, almost certainly will wind up with a better plan and more coordinated area; but thats simply not what we have. GRAHAM:Yeah, thank you. It seems to me like maybe this is sort of a situation where the community development plan process can be helpful if the community wants to push a 3EXHIBIT B