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CHAPTER 4: AGENCY AND PUBLIC PARTICIPATION The subject of impact fees is complex, and requires a detailed understanding of many issues, including the legal requirements that test the validity of any adopted impact fee ordinance. Impact fees have been the subject of a large number of court cases thro ughout the United States, and the issues that have constituted these legal challenges are nationally reco gnized in terms of crafting defensible impact fee legislation at the county or municipa l level. It is also important to understand that impact fees can crafted to reflect important county values related to affordable housing and financial impact on builders and property owners, among others. It might be advantageous to hire consultants to consider a local and handing over a completed product in a relati vely short period of time. However such a view is short-sighted and does not allow a community to educate itself in the nuances of an impact fee ordinance by engaging in the discussion and debate of such an important policy program. Impact fees oftentimes produce strong emotions (both pro and con) during the consideration of impact fees by any community. Consequently, it is important for communi ties to educate themselves about impact fees, and educate consultants about the issues important to them, in order to reach a point where the adopted policy clearly reflects the personality of the community. A summary of the agency and public participation events and participants in those events are presen in the Appendices. Overview The process of developing an impact fee progra m for HawaiÓi County purposefully included a component that provided for community and public agency input and education. This aspect of the project included public agency briefings and collecti on of data, focus group meetings, regional meetings with small group break-out discussions, a video c onference, additional disc ussions with a group of individuals (the ÑLocal Resource TeamÒ) who were knowledgeable a provide a Ñbig pictureÒ sounding board for the pr oject team, and use of the HawaiÓi County website to circulate information and work products. The various elements of the agency and public part icipation and education effort are discussed in more detail below. Agency Liaison Team In order to provide the consultants with the necessary informati an Agency Liaison Team, consisting of representati ves from County and State agencies, was formed to provide data on the following type of infrastructure and public facilities: transportation, parks, po fire, solid waste and wastewater. A large volume of information needed to be compiled and organized by the agency liaisons for the consultants to compl ete the needs assessment. Without their assistance the needs assessment could not have been prepared. Public Participation and Education Public participation and education in the study pro cess was determined to be a critical component for this study. Initially, the contract allotted for only one stakeholder meeting, however, as the effort progressed, it became obvious, that without public education, preparing an ordinance that could be implemented would be difficult. The contract was amended twice H Ó C \I N A ÐI F S September 19, 2006, Page 23 AWAI I OUNTY NFRASTRUCTURE EEDS SSESSMENT MPACT EE TUDY