2011-05-19 Leeward Exh A - 327 Kona

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The reason why I kind of like provided all that background with the Commission is that to basically concede that, yes, you know, the Director’s recommendation is what it is, because she has an obligation to look at what the Community Development Plan says and provide its interpretation, and it’s an interpretation that unfortunately we concur. But we don’t necessarily agree with the Plan. And this is what we are trying to say that if this policy is continued, you know, adding for an item not necessarily only for this application, what happens is that you have de facto moratorium on rezoning for not only this but almost all area within the Kona Urban Area, because no single landowner can develop the called-upon road improvements, you know, listed in the Plan. These improvements, they cross many properties, which are out of the control of a single landowner, and the completion of these required improvements are regional and not local in nature and cost prohibitive for any single development. It also creates an incentive for landowners to develop outside of the Kona Urban Area, mostly in the agricultural or rural areas, to escape the major road improvement requirement. If you remember, like this concurrency requirement applies only if you fall under Urban Area; so if within the Urban Area, all of these roadways have to be in, what is does is like, I can’t make the improvements, and so what happens is, there is still a demand for lots, then the tendency is to look outside of the properties, outside of the Kona Urban Area, because it’s easier to develop, easier to rezone, because there is no concurrency requirement. Then the other thing is that, you know, it does not foster an incentive for landowners to participate in helping make the improvements, because the only option outlined in the CDP is all or nothing. This would result in the landowner not doing anything, or developing the property under the existing zoning, which in turn does nothing toward helping address the infrastructure shortfall. Like in this particular instance, the 327 acres, they are zoned 5 acres; so if they are coming in to create smaller lots based on what the urban plan is saying, the urban plan is that you want to create smaller lots to accommodate the added growth in this area, but if it comes at such a high price where no person can develop, then the alternative is to say, well, I’ll just develop based on the 5-acre zoning. And if you develop based on the 5-acre zoning, then you escape that requirement. And you have large lots, and the large-lots doesn’t help out the Plan, doesn’t really implement the Plan, because the Plan talks about trying to have smaller lots and not agricultural size lots in this area. Let’s talk about like, what has Kona 327 done to date? Over the last three years, what they have done is they’ve worked with the adjoining property owners – on one side of their property is, on the south side, it’s owned by Greenwell Lanihau, and on the north side, it’s owned by Stanford Carr Development. So they’ve worked with these two property owners, and then they’ve worked with the County to establish this Kealaka‘a Street corridor between Palani Road and Hina Lani Street. So that general corridor has been established. They’ve spent over $750,000. They’ve conducted archaeological survey not only of their site but also of the adjoining property to the north, the Stanford Carr development. They did the archaeological studies. They went before the Burial Council. They got the Burial Council’s approval, you know, this is only as it relates to the applicant’s property. They’ve done a topographic survey. They’ve done a flora and fauna study. They’ve completed a topo and archaeological survey also of Stanford Carr’s development. So over the last three years, this is what they’ve done, you know, trying to work with the County to establish this Kealaka‘a Street extension. Right now they have in their hands a draft of the right-of-way agreement that was provided by the County to say like, can we do this, can we use your land, can we do this to accomplish the Kealaka‘a Street extension. But it’s a question of like whether they will actually review and continue to execute that Kealaka‘a Street extension. In addition to, you know, working with the County and the adjoining property owners on the Kealaka‘a Street extension, what they’ve also done over the past three years, you know, they’ve also worked with the 5 EXHIBIT A