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ALAMEDA: Let me check with Commissioner Iwashita and then I’ll go to you,
<br />Commissioner Siracusa.
<br />IWASHITA: I’ll defer.
<br />ALAMEDA: Okay, Commissioner Siracusa, so ahead.
<br />SIRACUSA: Thank you, you’re a gentleman and a scholar. Yeah, I, for the same
<br />reason that Commissioner Ogata said she would vote against it is the reason I would vote for it.
<br />And if it ended right here then I probably wouldn’t. But I’m voting for it because I want to send
<br />a message to Council saying, and, you know, to administration as well, saying we really do need
<br />to revisit the entire Subdivision Code and look at revamping it, because so much of it no longer
<br />serves the purposes of our community. And it doesn’t matter at this point if it means that the
<br />Planning Department has to hire more staff, you know, and that will cost us more money,
<br />because in the long run by allowing the current situation to continue it costs us more money in a
<br />lot of other ways. For example, increasing density in areas where there is no infrastructure then
<br />binds the County to put out money for the infrastructure, things like that. So I don’t think we
<br />could look at just one expense, say the expense of hiring two more staff members for the
<br />Department, and use that as a reason not to do something. If something is the right thing to do,
<br />then we should do it because it’s the right thing to do, and not because it’s going to cost a little
<br />amount of money on this side of the ledger as opposed to that side of the ledger. I really do
<br />think, I’m glad that Deputy Director Kurokawa is saying that they are aware of a lot of these
<br />problems and they’re looking at them. I think, as Commissioner Ogata says, we do need a total
<br />revamping. What I would really like to see, I guess, is the Council and the Commission going
<br />out to the general public in a series of public meetings all around the island, just the way the
<br />Public Works did with the roads in limbo, and getting everybody’s manao; and then coming back
<br />to the drawing board and seeing what they could put together as a general rework of the plan.
<br />ALAMEDA: Thank you, Commissioner Siracusa. I think that’s a nice lead into
<br />Commission Iwashita. Commissioner Iwashita?
<br />IWASHITA: You know, I just want to reiterate that, I mean expand upon my prior
<br />comments on the prior matter. Because this really is another example of tweaking. Okay? And,
<br />you know, the Subdivision Ordinance has been part of planning, right, since day one. And, you
<br />know, we have essentially the same kind of law that Maui has, that Oahu has, that LA has; and
<br />we’re heading down the same road. So the concern about needing to do something different is
<br />there.
<br />But I just wanted to point it out that if you look at the Subdivision Ordinance, it has some rather
<br />broad language. And I want to make it clear on the record that I really appreciate, and I want to
<br />acknowledge all of the effort and the work that the Department and the Director puts into doing
<br />their job here in implementing the Subdivision Ordinance and working with what they have. I
<br />have a suggestion though. If you look at Article 2, Division 1, Section 23-6, of the Subdivision
<br />Code, which was last amended in 1975, it says that “This chapter” referring to the Subdivision
<br />Ordinance, shall be applied, “shall be applied and administered within the framework of the
<br />County general plan which is a long range, comprehensive, general plan prepared or being
<br />prepared to guide the overall future development of the County.” In the beginning of 2005 the
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