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KAHELE: Thanks, Chair DeLima, and aloha. Mayor Kim, it's good to see you. Thanks for
<br /> coming, and also Councilwoman Sue Lee Loy. Mahalo.
<br /> You know, at the legislative sessions, we're pretty busy yeah, from January through May. Of
<br /> course we had a lot of different ideas and different bills and many different legislative proposals
<br /> through the years. Different, my predecessors, you know, my dad and Representative Tsuji and
<br /> others who have tried different things on the Banyan Drive peninsula. I think what was most
<br /> concerning to me over the course of the legislative session was when I would get about every
<br /> month, a notice that the Banyan Drive Redevelopment Agency was canceling the meeting
<br /> because we had no agenda, nothing to talk about. And I just felt that was a problem that I
<br /> observed but was too busy to address over the course of the session, and so I was really, it was
<br /> really important for me to reach out to, to the BDHRA and say, "Hey, let's have this July 25th
<br /> meeting." It's time for us to come together and to talk about how we move forward on, on
<br /> Banyan Drive given one legislative success in Senate Bill 3058, and definitely spirited
<br /> conversations on the Banyan Drive peninsula over the last few months. So, I can tell you that
<br /> whatever we do on Banyan Drive is one of my top initiatives and legislative priorities for the
<br /> future. Working together with Mayor Kim and his vision for Banyan Drive and the greater Hilo
<br /> community and the County administration. It's a partnership between State, County, the
<br /> Council, and the leadership there, on what we do on Banyan Drive. And given what has
<br /> happened to our island's economy over the last two months, the declining in hotel occupancy
<br /> rates, the cancelation of flights to East Hawaii, the—what has happened to our agriculture
<br /> industry, and everything as a whole, Banyan Drive is a big part of East Hawaii and our
<br /> economic future. And, and so I'm happy we're having this meeting. I'm here to answer any
<br /> questions we have. Have a lot of different things that I could talk about. I will address one thing
<br /> in Senate Bill 3058 and previous testifier for Country Club was, is, 100 percent accurate. I'm
<br /> sorry that you were not able to take advantage of that bill back in 2011. That bill has sunsetted.
<br /> There's nothing we can do about that. That bill's gone. But Senate Bill 3058 is a vehicle you
<br /> can use that is now a law that you can move forward with by following the nature of the
<br /> legislation, which is to take your development plan that you had submitted in 2011 to DLNR and
<br /> resubmit that under the terms of the new law and it will require a 30 percent investment of the
<br /> market value of Reeds Bay. And of course that requires Board of Land and Natural Resources
<br /> approval, but that legislation is a vehicle that you can use today and anyone that is in the defined
<br /> Hilo Economic, Community Economic District zone, whether they're industrial, commercial,
<br /> luxury resort, can use that piece of legislation to extend your current lease for another 30 years.
<br /> And so I would encourage you to do that. I know some businesses are already finalizing their
<br /> development agreements or development plans to take to the Land Board, but that is definitely
<br /> something that you can utilize for a long-term lease extension for Reeds Bay. And you could
<br /> arguably say could be the same thing for Country Club.
<br /> But thanks Chair, for convening this meeting, and I have other things I can talk about, I don't
<br /> need to talk about it now, but um
<br /> DELIMA: Yeah, I appreciate. Well, we've been postponing it because we didn't know well,
<br /> the bottom line is if you look at the state law, and Corporation Counsel can correct me if I'm
<br /> wrong, but if you look at the state law, it says that the Agency is only empowered after adoption
<br /> of a Master Plan. And the Conceptual Plan is, to be frank, I've been trying to argue that the
<br /> Conceptual Plan is the Master Plan, but I've been corrected by the planners that, "No, that's not
<br /> Brian," the Master Plan is much more involved and detailed, and it would require approximately,
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<br /> Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency
<br /> July 25,2018 Minutes
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