2004-09-03 TACKERMAN - Laserfiche WebLink

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You also have to look at the question of whether you will deny the application in front of you because youre concerned about what people might do in the future; and, I guess, Im more for drawing the line at the point where we see it as a problem. As far as North Kohala, specifically, what was happening in North Kohala is that it is almost impossible to subdivide even with the existing zoning now because of the water restrictions. I was surprised that this lot was able to get a second meter. It was apparently on the grounds of there being two meters to the property originally. And when I saw this application and I thought theres just no way this is going to happen because theres no water. Be as it may, they do have a meter for the additional rezoning so we were able to support the rezoning for that. That condition is likely to continue, a lack of availability water for sometime. We are on the administration side because we have an affordable housing problem, we have talked with the Water Department about freeing up water for really affordable projects. Im not talking about the, you know, 100- foot,youknow,the$300,000housingaffordableproject,butself-,thiscontinuationofa self-help housing project that went in a few years ago. And the Water Department has indicated that theyre willing, on a scale its not going to break their system that they will, and for a truly, a project that really fits community needs that they will loosen up water because nobody likes the trend that the people here at the table are talking about where only people with an extreme amount of money can move into North Kohala, or many of the other communities on the island. As far as where were going, you know, we tend to see things in the Planning Department, even the Planning Commission, you come every two weeks and you see an application, you see these applications to break up agricultural land into smaller parcels. If we step back, I think in the last few years were basically doing okay. We dont want to see the island agricultural land fragmented, we dont want to see the open spaces turn into residential subdivisions or large, or these agricultural subdivisions everywhere. If you were to step back and look at what weve actually done in the last few years, there really have not been that many. We havent had a massive rezoning of agricultural land. Most of the rezoning that have taken place have been special situations like Kaloko Mauka, youve seen quite a few, the Kalaoa area, which is a, frankly, its not actually an agricultural area. It is definitely on the way to becoming a residential area. So if you look at, then weve had Mr. Komos today, little pockets. So if thats any comfort, that is, that has been the trend for the past few years at least. GALDONES:Commissioner Graham. GRAHAM:I would just like to ask you, Mr. Yuen, like a future applicant comes in with six lots and its for a similar purpose and it has support of the landowner and neighbor and there is no plan for agricultural activity which is credible, or if there are three hundred of them, or if there are two of them, or whatever, is there any basis by which you will say thats different from this or is that what it now takes to get an agricultural, higher intensity zoned used in North Kohala? 7