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Summary of Purpose The Pahoa Regional Town Center Steering Committee and Design Working Group have attempted to embrace this proposition of"Place" in part by utilizing the unique characteristics of Pahoa and present this collection of guidelines to create a positive village design environment for daily life and commerce. These guidelines attempt to identify the underlying design principles that define Pahoa's unique historic and architectural character. The design guidelines are intended to help preserve Pahoa's historic character, allow for new development that compliments and is comparable to Pahoa's historical character and improve the streetscape to make Pahoa a more pedestrian friendly environment. History of Pahoa It is believed that the general area of Pahoa was first developed around the mid 1880's. Prior to that, it was a lush tropical lowland rainforest. This tropical rain forest and its by- products provided an environment that facilitated the first wave of immigration. The immigrants required housing and services, and this catalyst was the beginning of development of the town of Pahoa. The first Sugar Plantation in the area was started in 1900 as the Puna Sugar Company and later became the Ola'a Sugar Company, which outlasted all others, ending its operations in 1984. In what is now the center of Pahoa Town the first lumber mill was erected in 1907 and was named the Mahogany Lumber Company, which stayed in business until 1918. The company supplied all the timber for the town's construction needs as well as exporting over millions of railroad ties for the construction of the various railroads in the Southwestern United States and the Sugar Plantation railroads in Hawaii. The majority of the early residents were Japanese immigrants who came to Hawaii on a 3 year worker's contract. Those few who decided to stay after their 3 year contract expired and had managed to save enough money, built simple wood houses on stilts with wide lanais, gabled style, metal clad roofs and redwood catchment systems located at the back of the lot. The rest of the immigrants lived in 6 Camps provided by the lumber mill. Virtually all the buildings along the main town road in the early 1900's housed some type of business offering from shoe repair to hotel lodging. There was very little private land ownership in the early years as the majority of the land was owned by the Roman Catholic Mission, the lumber mill and the Territory of Hawaii, so most of the land being utilized for private residential and commercial purposes was leased. When land ownership finally became available in the late 1930's the lots were very small to several acres and haphazardly laid out as there was no such thing as land planning. Electrical power did not come to Pahoa until 1938 and domestic water in 1962.ii 4 1 P a g e