2016-34 Puna Community Meeting111916

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ensued about accountability and oversight of the County police department. A full service police station for Upper Puna is needed, as response from Pahoa station for the entire Puna district is not working. Current and anticipated population growth justifies this. Open up the county shower facilities at the pool, even if more personnel needed. It was noted that the Water Department only serves customers it has, no obligation to serve customers in need. Lack of water development is holding up economic development in Pahoa. We need systemic change to the way Water Dept. is managed which will likely take a charter amendment. Increased concerns about public health threats from water borne organisms (rat lungworm, dengue, Zika, etc.) puts greater onus on residential water catchment systems to maintain quality. Building Codes and County Approvals: Jen Ruggles would like to start an ad hoc committee to focus on streamlining the approval process. Matt Purvis, Jon Olson, Rob Tucker, and Sara Steiner offered to be part of this group. They will need to address how to make buildings safe, yet economic, for the home owner. How to deal with the unpermitted structures and how to encourage compliance? Currently the only path is to meet the current code. Discussed an amnesty program that provides a relaxed code that unpermitted structures must meet. County Tax office currently gives homeowner exemptions to unpermitted homes which impacts revenues to the county. Some unpermitted structures built are vulnerable and need to be evacuated if they are not safe or causing a public health nuisance. Even structures built to current code can't withstand a hurricane category 2. Must consider equity issues if extending a relaxed code to permit currently unpermitted structures as those who have met requirements will feel discriminated against. One idea was to eliminate all home exemptions on unpermitted buildings built after a certain date (1995?) and offer a "transient" permit if structure is inspected and meets the relaxed code. With this new permit homeowners then qualify for a reduced (75%) home exemption. Provides incentive. Unpermitted structures do not qualify for insurance for buyer or owner of a structure and sell at around 50% the value of a similar permitted structure. Financing is limited and often unavailable. Subdivision covenants are up to the subdivision to enforce and are not supported in the planning approval process at the County. That is a very difficult situation and creates added problems for new construction. Discussed having separate standards for lots over an acre where the structure would not be a threat to a neighbor. Scheduling of another meeting discussed but will not occur until after December 5th when new council members are sworn in. Meeting ended 3:00 pm.