2008-10-03 TCOUNTY COUNCIL - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

assigned to the South Hilo District. So in the way this was counted, it meant that there are more officers in South, it looks like there are more officers in South Hilo or in North Kona. So, again, the County was short. And there’s also the statement of one manned police station per 12,500 residents, it’s actually one manned station per district. So every district that has more than 12,500 residents is short. That would include South Hilo. And then, finally, a minimum of five firefighters per shift and 15 firefighters per fire station per district; and, again, the same analysis. Most of the fire stations had 15 personnel per district, except Laupahoehoe station. So that means when you add all these things up it means that all districts don’t match the standard. And so you would end up barring rezoning in all districts of the island. The recommendation is negative. If it’s meant to get the County to have more police and firefighters we can’t see how stopping rezoning leads to that result. If the County sets a goal of having a certain number of police officers per district it should fund having that number of police officers and go out and hire them, same thing with firefighters, and having certain number of police stations. That’s really up to the County to go and do. So the result of this is negative. In looking at the park situation, we could improve how we handle parks in rezonings and in subdivisions. We tend to, for the major projects we have had typically park requirements put into the rezoning. I can’t say that there has been any standard method for doing that; and we probably should have a more standardized expectation of what our park requirements should be in a particular residential rezoning. But the idea that rezonings should be stopped in an area because there aren’t enough parks again does not in itself lead to more parks. In fact, many of the rezonings which have been granted, particularly in the past 15 years, do require, typically the larger residential rezonings, do require park space to be dedicated. And the areas that are short on parks tend to be that way because like in Puna or in Ocean View they’re being developed on subdivisions that were granted in the fifties or sixties, or in North Kona they’re being granted on zoning that was, they’re being developed on zoning that was granted in the sixties or seventies, typically without park requirements. Waikoloa Village is the same situation. So in the end we are recommending negatively on this amendment. This is the first time you’ve looked at it and we’ll have it heard in Kona again before asking the Commission to take a vote on it. WATANABE: Thank you. Do we have any questions for Mr. Yuen? Yes, Mr. Woodward. WOODWARD: I don’t have any questions. But are we going to have discussion on this or -? WATANABE: Oh, yeah, we could discuss this also -. WOODWARD: Okay. WATANABE: Although we’re not going to take any action. EXHIBIT E 3