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Chapter 4: Waimea Town Plan The details of any changes to the Waimea section of the County General Plan LUPAG map will need to be worked out at a future date. Strategy 2.5 Develop a secondary commercial center on the east end of town -- By providing a secondary center that services people's basic daily necessities, a small-scale commercial center located on the east end of town would help to alleviate traffic congestion that develops around the existing commercial center in the town center. Residents who live on the east end of town could instead patronize the secondary commercial center for daily necessities instead of driving to the town center. POLICY NO. 3 ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP Strategy 3.1 Protect Important Agricultural Lands — The Hawai'i County General Plan (February 2005) defines "Important Agricultural Lands" (IAL) as "those (lands) with better potential for sustained high agricultural yields because of soil type, climate, topography, or other factors." (See General Plan p. 14-8 for the full definition.) The LUPAG maps for South Kohala show Important Agricultural Lands in a broad band about 1.2 miles wide north and south of the first 1+ mile of Kohala Mountain Road, in a broad area that includes most of the DHHL Pu'ukapu lands, and in the southeastern sector of the South Kohala District in the vicinity of the Saddle Road/Mamalahoa Highway junction. (See LUPAG map for details.) These lands should be used for extensive and intensive farming and ranching, and should not be rezoned for urban or suburban-type land uses. POLICY NO.4 DEVELOP AFFORDABLE HOUSING FOR WAIMEA Strategy 4.1 Develop a Waimea Affordable Housing Program — In 2006, State and County housing agencies sponsored an update of a state-wide "Housing Policy Study." This study included a special analysis of the "homeless" issue. For Hawai'i County, the study found that approximately 1/3 of the County's 150,000 residents were either: (1) homeless, or (2) only a paycheck or two away from becoming homeless, or (3) doubled up or tripled up with other families because they were unable to find affordable for sale or rental housing. Clearly, affordable housing is a state-wide— and national — issue and problem, and one that is very difficult to solve. During the CDP process, Waimea residents have said: "Please find a way to provide affordable housing so that our children can live in the town where they grew up." There is also a need for affordable housing for many of the key employees that work in Waimea, including teachers and hospital workers. An effective affordable housing program that would build affordable for sale homes and provide affordable rentals could be developed using a non-profit, locally-based housing corporation and the "land trust" model. See the Affordable Housing Action Program for further details. Strategy 4.2 Encourage policies that would provide more affordable rental units in Waimea -- The County should work with the Waimea community to develop programs that would increase the number of affordable rental units. Ideas such as revising the Ohana Dwelling section of the Zoning Code should be further studied. POLICY NO. 5 TIMELY IMPLEMENTATION OF NEEDED TRANSPORTATION AND CIRCULATION IMPROVEMENTS Note: with the exception of, Policy 5.1 "Walkways and Bikeways along the main roads," the projects described below are all at some level of planning by various community, county and state entities. We have included a brief description of these projects because they are very important for the future of Waimea. However, the CDP cannot devote a significant amount of time and resources to evaluating these transportation plans or develop any detailed alternatives to proposed new roadways or traffic improvements. The CDP can, however, reflect community priorities and South Kohala CDP November, 2008 FINAL Page 72