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CASE: Yeah, the way I look at the Request For Interest is it's really a market test. You know, is
<br /> there somebody out here, out there who's got an idea for something that would make Banyan
<br /> Drive great and be profitable? Well, let's see. Could be any kind of ideas and, you know, we'll
<br /> get a better sense after that.
<br /> YEE: Going off the analogy of the "elephant," I can't help but wear my Planning hat, my
<br /> comprehensive Planning hat, which is do we really know what that elephant is though, right? I
<br /> think we're sometimes so close to it we only, we kind of know we have an elephant in front of
<br /> us, but what is it really, and we've just started to pick on some of it. Some of it is what about
<br /> kids, what about local folks using the project. When we piecemeal, which I understand the
<br /> reality, you know, that may have to be the case to get something started, when we piecemeal, we
<br /> can end up in the situation where we end up developing something and that doesn't end up fitting
<br /> the entire thing ten years from now, fifteen years from now. And so it goes back to the question
<br /> of how much time do we want to spend investment into comprehensive planning versus piece-
<br /> mealing and stuff, and what's that balance? So that's one question. Trying to understand what
<br /> that elephant is takes resources, and the Planning Department's been, you know, feeding this
<br /> infant of BDHRA, right for, for a couple of years now, and we were supposed to sunset our
<br /> support, you know, earlier this year. And it's been really important to us, we know the jam of
<br /> Banyan Drive so we don't want to just give it up, but at a certain point, we need to understand
<br /> what resources are gonna help feed the child into the next phase and that's where we're looking
<br /> at, you know, what is County's role, what is the State's role, you know, in providing the
<br /> resources to be able to do something. And there were different bills put forth to try to get there.
<br /> And so I kind of go back to the questions were up on the board, you know, in reality what's
<br /> gonna get us there? It's still kind of out there that I'm still trying to figure out.
<br /> KIM: Let me belabor a point
<br /> ONISHL Go ahead.
<br /> KIM: I'm sorry, Richard I'm sorry. No, go ahead, please.
<br /> ONISHL Well, I wanted to address what Mr. Yee just talked about, is, you know, the County
<br /> went through a process to come up with a picture of a design, but to me the question is, the land
<br /> belongs to the State. And the State has other priorities and interests in that particular land, unless
<br /> you're saying "no we don't" then maybe we should be giving it to the County. But right now in
<br /> our experience in the Legislature, when looking at the bills that move forward, one of the biggest
<br /> issues that the State brought up, DLNR brought up was, "hey, we get income from this land; you
<br /> can't take that income away from us," so you know, right Mr. Yee? I mean, what is the picture?
<br /> What is the State's interest in the property? What is their final goal? You know, what is the
<br /> County's? You know, and I mean, what is the public's? What is the economic issue with Hilo?
<br /> I mean, we have very—other than government and the school, there's very little economic
<br /> opportunity for people. Lot of people see Banyan Drive as an expansion of that economic
<br /> opportunity, if nothing else, in the tourism industry. You know? Great, you can make the whole
<br /> area a playground, but that generates no economic opportunity. So, I mean, I would agree with
<br /> Mr. Yee; there has not been enough discussion of all of the stakeholders as to what we want to
<br /> see at Banyan Drive. You can't do a development plan without knowing what do you want and
<br /> how is it gonna affect this community. You know, for years I think many people have looked at
<br /> how do we generate more new economic opportunity for the people in Hilo on the, for the east
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<br /> Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency
<br /> October 25,2017 Minutes
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