2014-07-17 Leeward Exh A (Amend Zoning Code App Review within Special Dist

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BROWN: Good morning, Chair Beaudet and Members of the Leeward Planning Commission. Good morning, my name is Larry Brown. I work in the Long Range Division of the Hilo office in the Planning Department. And before you today we have a piece of legislation that’s being introduced as part of an overall package for the Pāhoa Village Design District. The four pieces of legislation are shown on the slide, part of this very brief PowerPoint presentation we have for you. The four pieces are the one before you today, the, what we call, the Design District Plan Review ordinance; the other three pieces include the Pāhoa Village Design District ordinance, and the third one is the Pāhoa Village Design Guidelines, being adopted by resolution, and the fourth one is the Pāhoa Village Signs ordinance. And we’ll talk a little bit more about each one of those as we proceed. So the Design District Review ordinance, the primary features, as you can see hopefully at least on the top part of the screen, requires review of development projects within special districts against adopted design guidelines and/or standards. So what that’s saying is is that any special district created under the Zoning Code, Article 7, for which there are also adopted design guidelines or standards, would be subject to the review processes outlined in this ordinance. It also amends application requirements for Plan Approval and Planned Unit Development applications for projects that are within those design districts, and also subject to the design guidelines or standards. It also amends processing requirements for Plan Approval and P.U.D. applications, mainly providing a process or means by which local community design review boards can be established and provide, have an opportunity to review and comment to the Planning Director on individual applications subject to the design review. It also articulates process for review by local design review committees, which is what I just said. We noticed in our presentation to the Windward Commission that we did have an error that needed to be corrected; it was the intent of this ordinance to not have any impact or affect on the Kailua- Kona Village Design Commission. And so we had to add some language to Section (h) of 25, Part (h) of 25-2-71, at the bottom in red, which specifies that this process is not applicable to any special district having adopted design guidelines and/or standards established under this chapter prior to the adoption of this sub-section. And we made similar language changes to 25-6-7, Part (a), regarding Planned Unit Development applications. The Windward Planning Commission approved the first one, but this was a last minute error that we noticed, and this correction was not presented to them; but it is being presented to you, and this is the form in which we hope to present it to the Council, with an explanation as to why there is a difference. The other piece of legislation, the second one in our package, four-piece package, if you will, is the Pāhoa Village Design District ordinance, and what this does is actually creates a new special district under Article 7 of Chapter 25, called the Pāhoa Village Design District. It also provides exemption from off-street parking requirements for special properties within the old village core, acknowledges adoption and applicability of architectural design guidelines for the Pāhoa Village Design District. And it also provides for recognition of community based local review of development projects in the Pāhoa Village Design District. And one thing I would add to this is that the entities in Pāhoa, which are essentially community associations that have recently formed or have been in operation for quite some time, are being encouraged to draft and approve operating guidelines and procedures for their local design review board that can be approved and presented to the Action, approved by the Action Committee for the Puna CDP, and to the Planning Director and 2 EXHIBIT A