2005-10-07 TOSHIRO - Laserfiche WebLink

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development of a community, because that community 40 years ago had to reinvent itself. It was on a total down hill and it basically put in these, after a year of working together as a community in a community development plan process came up with doing design, they had very strict design requirements and so forth for a Bavarian village. And today its, you know, over a million people a year visit Leavenworth, Washington, which is at minimum a two-hour drive from Seattle, and longer in the winter when its most popular, as opposed to driving through a town like Cle Lum, which is down by I-90 and its basically a strip mall town. It advertises on I-90, you know, come by Cle Lum. Its easy access, yes, it has 40-, 50-foot wide road with basically strip mall kind of development on each side. And, to me, the distinction is very clear, you know, that we dont want that, I dont want that. And, you know, we keep going down this road that were going, you know, lot by lot. I dont see any way to avoid it. So this is my plug for this meeting on getting the community development plan process rolling immediately or as soon as possible. We really should be spending the money there; and then, you know, all of these types of proposals on how development should occur in this and other parts of the island, I think, wouldbeaddressedspecificallybymorespecificlawsondevelopmentanddesign. SPRINGER:Mr.Chair? GALDONES:CommissionerSpringer? SPRINGER:Thankyou.IjustwonderifeithertheDirectororthestaffcouldcomment on Commissioner Iwashitas comment and let us know where we are in the planning and calendar for those scoping meetings for the community planning. YUEN:Right now we have two major community development plan projects underway. One is North and South Kona. The other is Puna. For the rest of the island, we have what were calling a community readiness program, which is more an educational process. Theres a project for that. I cant promise a timetable for the community development plans for the rest of the island. Theres limitations on how many things we can have cooking at any one time; and thats my concern in committing that were going to move ahead with community development plans for the other parts of the island. I do think that we need one specifically for Hilo for the kinds of issues that Commissioner Iwashita is talking about because we have these broadbrushed General Plan designations which are not necessarily sensitive to neighborhoods on a street-by-street or block-by-block basis. GALDONES:Commissioner Siracusa. SIRACUSA:I would like to echo Commissioner Iwashitas concerns. I look at that map and I dont see that as an island, you know, as much as an intrusion into a residential area. And in order to get here for the meeting I drive along Kilauea Avenue coming from Puna; and I was noticing this morning how even though there are commercial, is commercial development along Kilauea theres enough of a mix of the old homes, whether theyre zoned commercial or not and some of them are, and residences that make it a rather charming drive and give Hilo a lot of its ambiance. And to keep, you know, to open up a new block, oh, sure, across the street, yes, I can see that zoning there. But to open up a new block to that kind of development, its like a cancer cell spreading, you know. 5EXHIBIT A