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that pertains to, we were following it, but as it pertains to the Banyan Drive redevelopment area
<br /> properties that are within that blighted designation, we don't really see any impact on that right
<br /> now. There—it is worth mentioning again that this is the first year of the legislative biennium,
<br /> which means that those bills that did not pass are automatically carried over into the 2018
<br /> legislative session. We are following eight bills which are down there 575 and 274; 575 did
<br /> become law, House Bill 1469 and its companion, 1310 and its companion, and 1479 and its
<br /> companion. So we will keep track on those, and see if there's any action on those, or any
<br /> amendments put forth for the new Act 215 in this upcoming 2018 legislative session. So if
<br /> there's no questions on that we'll move on to the second agenda
<br /> DELIMA: Any questions? Okay, go ahead.
<br /> MEAD: Okay, so what we wanted to do is, because there's been a lot of, there's been a lot of
<br /> publicity regarding the Uncle Billy's, the former Uncle Billy's, and the Pagoda property, we
<br /> wanted to just give an update of how Planning has been involved in the actions that have
<br /> transpired that—and its current disposition right now. So a brief history of what has happened
<br /> on that property, the lease to the Hilo Bay Hotel that was doing business as Uncle Billy's expired
<br /> in March of 2015. It proceeded to have a holdover in a month-to-month revocable permit until a
<br /> different disposition could be handled. In last year, February of last year, there was a month-to-
<br /> month revocable permit issued to Savio that was doing business as Pagoda. So they had taken
<br /> over the hotel and were operating it as Pagoda on a month-to-month revocable permit. This
<br /> permit, on last month, the Board of Land and Natural Resources held a meeting regarding two
<br /> items on this property. The first being a proposed, after the fact, renewal of this revocable permit
<br /> for the period to extend to December of this year, and the second item that was going to be
<br /> considered was the proposed DLNR [Department of Land and Natural Resources] three-year
<br /> lease of the property to be awarded through a public auction. Planning, the Planning Department
<br /> did comment on this lease, actually on both items; the after-the-fact renewable—renewal of
<br /> revocable permit, and the three-year lease, and we essentially said the same thing based upon the
<br /> information provided in the Erskine report. There were numerous life-safety issues with the
<br /> structures that were identified and Planning had concerns on the use of the property and spoke to
<br /> that in testimony to the Board of Land and Natural Resources. The outcome of that meeting was
<br /> the BLNR actually canceled the month-to-month revocable permit to Savio for the hotel resort
<br /> purposes, and that was to be effective this month, on the 14th. However, there was a provision in
<br /> there, they requested a County of Hawaii inspection of the property, with Building Division and
<br /> other agencies to include Fire. And those inspections actually supported the closure of the hotel
<br /> sooner than anticipated; actually last month on the 17th was the last day. So, that was the,
<br /> essentially the result of this June meeting. In July, on the 14th, there was, it was supposed to be
<br /> the cancellation of this month-to-month revocable permit to Savio, and an issuance of a new
<br /> month-to-month revocable permit to Tower, Tower Development, for securing the property.
<br /> Tower Development is the same entity running Naniloa right now. The Planning Department did
<br /> comment on this as well, and the Planning Department was supportive of closing the structure
<br /> due to the identified life-safety issues that were brought up both in the Erskine report and
<br /> confirmed by County inspection, and was also supportive of the Department of Land and Natural
<br /> Resources through the Board of Land and Natural Resources in securing the property, again, for
<br /> life-safety, life-safety concerns. The outcome of that meeting was the cancellation of the permit
<br /> to Savio, and this will be effective August 4, and they did award a month-to-month revocable
<br /> permit to Tower effective the next day, on the 5th, to secure and manage the property. And I did
<br /> bring, I did ask Gordon Heit, our district land agent, if there are questions from the Agency, if
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<br /> Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency
<br /> July 26,2017 Minutes
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