PD Background Report (PL-SPP-2023-000040)

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yet reasonable in such districts,the legislature has provided for the Special Permit process to allow certain unusual and reasonable uses within the Agricultural District. In addition,the State Land Use Law and Regulations are intended to preserve, protect and encourage the development of lands in the State for those uses to which they are best suited in the interest of the public health and welfare of the people of the State of Hawaii. In the case of the Agricultural District, the intent is to preserve or keep lands of high agricultural potential in agricultural use. The land on which the proposed use is situated is classified as "E"or"Very poor' for agricultural productivity by the Land Study Bureau and not classified on the ALISH Map. Notwithstanding the poor agricultural resource quality of this site, one can argue that there is always the potential. However, given the fact that the requested area is already built upon,there should be very little, if any, additional area to be removed from potential agricultural productivity. The existing and additional improvement can easily be removed to make the land usable for agricultural or other purposes should that be deemed necessary in the fixture. Accordingly,the continued use of this area as a heliport with a hangar and runway should not have a significant, if any, adverse effect on the State and County's agricultural land inventory. In sum,the requested time extension to allow the continued use of this site coupled with the construction of a hangar for the heliport and air landing strip is an unusual and reasonable use of lands situated within the Agricultural District and should not be contrary to the objectives of Chapter 205, HRS, as amended. 2. The proposed request is not contrary to the General Plan policies and objectives as well as the recently adopted South Kohala Community Development Plan ("CDP"). The County General Plan Land Use Pattern Allocation Guide (LUPAG)map designates the site Extensive Agriculture with the Urban Expansion overlay. The Extensive Agriculture designation refers to "Lands not classified as Important Agricultural Land Includes lands that are not capable of producing sustained, high agricultural yields without the intensive application of modern farming methods and technologies due to certain physical constraints such as soil composition, slope, machine tillability and climate. Other less intensive agricultural uses such as grazing and pasture may be included in the Extensive Agricultural category. " Relative to the Urban Expansion overlay,the overlay allows for a mix of high density, medium,and low density uses, as well as "industrial, industrial- commercial and/or open designations in areas where new settlements may be 4