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<br />The bridge, we also received several pieces of comment regarding the bridge. They liked <br />the idea of connecting the Reeds Bay Park area here, the County park on this side to the <br />Kuhio Rotary Park on this side. We received multiple pieces of comment in support of <br />that. Additionally, there were several pieces of comment regarding the new slips. Again, <br />this isn’t very well fleshed out but they do like the idea of new slips for boats. They <br />were‒‒liked the idea of these boardwalks that were included here, as well as the new ship <br />terminal. It is worth saying that there are concerns on the ship terminal and the security <br />zones around the ship terminal which regulates, you know, there is a safety zone there <br />and so there is concerns on the impact of that regulation upon the users of the bay. <br /> <br />There was a lot of favor to remove blighted buildings from the area, and there was a lot <br />of favor, or there was favor here for additional kind of commercial zones that we had <br />identified the new commercial. There also a lot of favor for, or concern towards keeping <br />the existing commercial. It’s not necessarily very well described on the map here, but <br />there’s concern that the existing commercial namely Suisan, the Hilo Bay Café, and <br />concerns for how the ice house does support Suisan. So there is concern that those may <br />have been, or were being removed, but that wasn’t explicit in this map. <br /> <br />And so finally, or coming up next here, this is kind of the general themes that we <br />received that weren’t specific to actually any one item on the map but more, more <br />thematic. And we did receive comments, several comments actually, including‒‒to <br />include museums in this redevelopment area. Not specifically in this location, but there’s <br />ideas for a museum of Hilo, a new tsunami museum, a museum of hula, and a museum of <br />the Hawaiian people. There’s a lot of like for open space and land near the ocean. So <br />that includes these areas over here, the lands‒‒keeping the gardens open. Several <br />comments regarding securing a name brand hotel. Name brand‒‒the comments were <br />revolving around the ability to be able to cash in on kind of on your credits or your <br />frequent use credits there, so that would help with having a name brand hotel in the area. <br />There were several concerns on the displacement of affordable housing in this zone. The <br />comments included inclusion of a transportation hub and those comments really were <br />talking about bringing people from the airport into the Banyan Drive area; from the <br />terminals into the Banyan Drive area, and of course connecting into Downtown Hilo. <br />Again, we covered this earlier, the maintenance of existing commercial, namely <br />comments were on Suisan, Hilo Bay Café, and consideration of how these businesses <br />may interact with the ice house. Strong emphasis on culture; many comments asked that <br />we‒‒that this plan kind of promote a, or have a small‒‒have a strong cultural backbone <br />to it. Focus on sustainability, living wages for workers. There is support for a new hotel <br />if it’s shown that the need exists, but there are concerns on locating it appropriately. <br />Finally, there are concerns for the known hazards. This is in the tsunami zone and <br />comments were raised on new construction within this zone. <br /> <br />Mr. Mead introduced Planning Director Duane Kanuha, who provided a review of revisions <br />made to the original conceptual plan. <br /> <br />Page 7 of 20 <br />Banyan Drive Hawai‘i Redevelopment Agency <br />July 28, 2016 Minutes <br /> <br /> <br />