2018-3-15_HCDP_RATIONALE FINAL UPDATED REVISION 05.21.2018 FINAL

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Note: See Policy 6 for Industrial Change of Zone flexibility. This policy clarifies that the urban boundary in the Hamakua CDP Land Use Guide Map establishes specific Urban Growth Boundaries (UGBs) at the intersection between Urban and Rural/Agricultural land uses. The CDP strategy of mapping parcel -specific Urban designations whenever possible adds clarity and specificity, increases transparency into the land use designation process, and more accurately reflects the County's and the Community's land use goals and intentions. Rationale: The Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) identifies areas where growth will be encouraged and areas that are to be protected for agriculture. UGBs are intended to accommodate anticipated growth and to separate areas appropriate for future residential development from areas intended for agricultural use. This is sometimes referred to as "Town and Country" zoning, which requires that development occur only in towns and villages, with the surrounding rural areas remaining undeveloped and available for farming, forestry, natural area preservation, and recreation. The LUPAG map includes land use categories that effectively establish an UGB between the agricultural categories (Orchard, Extensive Agriculture, and Important Agriculture), the rural category, and the urban categories (Low, Medium, and High Density Urban, Industrial, Urban Expansion, and Resort). This policy clarifies that the UGB established with the Hamakua CDP Land Use Guide Map establishes parcel specific UGBs whenever practical. This strategy of using more specific parcel recommendations for the Hamakua CDP Land Use Guide Map reflects a shift from the 2005 General Plan's LUPAG direction of being generalized mapping guidance. (See the rationale for Policy 1 for a further discussion of the General Plan LUPAG). As noted, the LUPAG maps were originally broad, flexible tools intended to guide the direction and types of desirable growth for each area of the County. This general approach to guiding land use and growth allowed for interpretive flexibility and was based, at least in part, on the challenges of creating detailed maps specific enough to demonstrate land use designations at a parcel level. However, by allowing general, 'blob' style LUPAG maps, parcels were often split into various LUPAG designations in ways that were more arbitrary than they were intentional. This, at times, led to property owners desiring clearer direction about their land use designations and future development options, and this has led some property owners to seek further Planning Department interpretations of their property in relation to the general LUPAG designations. Now that the CDPs have the opportunity and the technology to easily and efficiently create more specific maps, it is a more proactive planning strategy to clearly articulate future preferred land use designations at a parcel level, whenever practical, and decrease the prevalence of splitting LUPAG designations arbitrarily. A compelling reason for an exception to this approach would be when part of a parcel is in an Open LUPAG designation (such as when part of a parcel is within the State Land Use Conservation district — e.g., along the coastline or in mauka forests). Any part of a parcel that is designated as LUPAG Open would remain Open for that specific area of the parcel. Other exceptions to this parcel - specific strategy would be when the parcel is large and may need to reflect two (or more) different types of LUPAG designations. For example, when the parcel borders a town where part of it would be within the Urban Growth Boundary, and yet the large parcel stretches farther into agricultural areas where an Agricultural designation is appropriate. APPENDIX v5: HAMAKUA COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PLAN I Section 3: Policy Rationale — Preferred Settlement Patterns & Land Use