2007-03-02 TBILLS (2) - Laserfiche WebLink

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HARRIS:I do. GRAHAM:Thank you. And could you startwith your name and address please, and then share your thoughts with us. HARRIS:My name is Roger Harris, PO Box 803, Kamuela, Hawaii. I didnt intend to testify but I think I would like to say a few things. This is a, you know, very sober serious subject; and its surprising there arent more people here. I guess they feel the action is going to be at the County Council; but youre a very important part of the system. And Id like to say that I pretty much support a lot of things the Planning Director said in his position, particularly that hes fundamentally against all the bills but not against the problems. And, actually, the woman who went before me I think she expresses a lot of things that I believe, too, and that is that there are community based problems and they need community based solutions. An overall concurrency set of bills likethisisjustabigsplatteracrossthelandscapeandamajorchangefromthetradition of planning and zoning that weve been operating under in the legal framework for years. So the impact of it is unestimatable actually. And I think youve got to be very careful with it. Specifically, Ill just make a few small points. The bills, a couple of them say that you would be subject to anyone, an applicant, which could include the County of Hawaii who is as you know trying to develop 1200 units in Waikoloa for affordable housing now or any other person. When they come in for plan approval -- it says site plan approval, but I pretty much believe they mean plan approval -- they would be subject to this ordinance. And plan approval would apply to, if you wanted to put in a small convenience operation anywhere, no rezoning, no subdivision, no nothing, if you want to build a school building or a small, you know, anything but a single family residence, you need plan approval; and you would be into this system. And it wont be long before level of service reaches the critical point. So theres no way that, I think, the County of Hawaii on its own for instance can magically mandate that the Queen Kaahumanu Highway gets widened before they build, you know, a school in Waikoloa. And so the unintended consequences could be unbelievable. Really what we need is our system that we have now working better. The reason this has come up is because our system isnt working so good. Public facilities have really lagged, you know, the general private growth or public growth as well. So I would just support dealing with the diverse issues in a diverse way. Community based efforts I see are best. I see really working with the General Plan, the community development plans, the facilities plans and the funding of those facilities as a way to go. I think you have to deal with the fees and how to finance public improvements. Frankly speaking this is as good as its going to get. Were raking in the money right now from property taxes. You should be building, the County should be building roads and parks and everything they can now. You know, if they have to leverage it through bonding and everything, we should be doing it. I think overall planning and the big issues of growth management and how we deal with it, those are huge things that wont go away; and I think we should deal with that community by 16EXHIBIT D