2010-06-04 T-MALOOF - Laserfiche WebLink

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th to 34 Street. The communityÓs response at that point in time, at the Council, was uncomfortable with that decision. One it was kind of in a, you know, initiated from the Planning DirectorÓs chair, it didnÓt come out of a broad community conversation. And the community testimony from the President of the Association at that time said, you know, one, going inland only, I mean there are already houses on those streets that already residential; and now weÓre turning them into kind of, you know, putting commercial on them. It also said that a buffer off the highway doesnÓt need to be a 400-foot buffer, it just needs to be a buffer, just needs to be a place that you can create that distinction. And they said, you know, to do this right, let the community get involved in the process of defining where this boundary should be, and letÓs defer to the CDP process just to say where that is. So the Council in their wisdom at that time said, thatÓs all right, weÓll take that one off of the table. It did not go through with some of the other amendments to the General Plan at the time. But it was based on a request that, one, the community take a look at that and try to come up with their own answers. Since that time the CDP process, you know, went its course. The community had that conversation; and you saw on the map what the community thinks as a reasonable identified location for a CDP. It includes the church, which is a special permit outside the GP, and it includes the area that is in the special permit, the Trade Center, which is not in the GP but has a special permit, and the one thatÓs right above ours which is some small office operation, and this property. So to say today that this, you know, to get that kind of clarity coming out of the community and then go back to say, well, this line is more important than any of these other lines that are drawn, to me, is a challenge; and itÓs going to create a series of challenges. This whole plan does. It creates sort of on-going challenges for the Commission to try and balance, you know, are these lines fixed or are they general lines, and how do we deal with that. YouÓre going to wrestle for years with this concept of new commercial nodes in Puna. TheyÓre identified in the Puna CDP. But it really is a retrofit to what was a whole body of decisions made in the 1960s about residential development. The reason the plan identified these locations is not really to, is to try and create services within these residential communities so that they donÓt have to get out on the highway, they donÓt have to go out and travel. And this is an unchartered territory, really, for Planning. It says here weÓre going to create a bunch of little lots that are owned by individuals and weÓre going to make it a commercial circumstance. So youÓre going to be faced with a who who wants to take steps and who isnÓt ready to take steps to make those kinds of commercial courses happen. ItÓs certainly going to happen in all throughout Puna and in Kau as well. Hawaiian Ocean View has similar kinds of issues as to where are the boundaries of this commercial center. So hard lines and preconceived notions of those may get in the way, not only here but in other of these commercial centers that are going to come up. And youÓre going to have to make decisions. ThatÓs, you know, thatÓs the process that this Commission is intended to do. So I think what I see as a planner is that flexibility of simply going to be part of the need; and you going to have to look at how each one of those things work out, decision making. ThatÓs part of what I think weÓre asking for in this consideration from you folks. 12 EXHIBIT A