2008-05-22 TPUNACDP - Laserfiche WebLink

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the goal of an attractive and well-designed center that will benefit the local businesses as well as the community. Ulupono can help achieve the goals of the Puna CDP. One central goal of the Puna CDP is to expand services in Puna, so that the demand for travel to obtain goods and services is reduced. One major challenge identified in the Plan is the lack of available and suitable sites with existing infrastructure that is needed to support the desired development for these services – I think this is something that Larry Brown touched on in his testimony. Ulupono is serviced by overhead electrical service by HELCO, phone service by Hawaiian Telcom, and a 60-foot wide access road soon to be dedicated to the County. Additionally, it is immediately located off Highway 130 and Milo Street where a traffic signal and turn lanes have already been in place. Ulupono Center provides local business owners an opportunity to establish a business in a first rate commercial center with easy access and frontage along Highway 130, the major corridor to lower Puna. Further, it will bring much needed goods and services in the very near future for the underserved residents of Puna. I also submitted another map – I’m sorry, I wanted to refer to Figure 5.8, which Steve had just referred to, which is the Keaau regional center, and point out to you that we are not included in that. Now, I think we all are confused on these designations here and these color codings. Based on Larry Brown’s testimony today, all existing commercial properties, things that are already zoned commercial, should be shown in red. Is that correct? Did I -, I thought that that was something -, or is that the proposed? Because now I’m very confused. I thought at one point somebody just said, when we started this discussion, that the red zone it should be existing. Is that correct? WATANABE: Yeah, I believe he indicated that that’s existing zoning. SULLIVAN: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. You can see that – when you look at our vicinity map as a reference – you can see that our first phase there is outlined in the State Land Use Urban, dotted line; but it’s not color-coded red. So we were essentially ignored in that, and I’m not sure why. I believe that that has been zoned commercial for at least 10 years – that’s what I was told. So why I’m here today is because we want to describe to you why Ulupono is a natural candidate for inclusion in the Puna CDP as a regional or community center, or whatever other commercial center designations happen to be designated in this Plan. Ulupono Center Phase III is already zoned commercial. Infrastructure for the site is already in place. There will be a high profile retailer in the center in the near future. The potential of donated acreage by Foster Kern from Phase IV, which is the currently zoned Ag parcel, could be a viable location for any number of community services including recreational centers, park space, medical facility or park-and-ride. The Ulupono Center can be part of the immediate solution to the challenges facing our community today. Although no specific timeframe has been set for implementation or approval of the Puna CDP and much work will be needed to gain broad support from the community, Ulupono center is positioned to be part of the solution immediately. If the County insists on approval of the current draft of the Puna CDP within a limited timeframe, adoption of the plan by resolution would be a viable solution that would recognize the hard work by so many, while still EXHIBIT C 15