2018-07-16 NKCDP Minutes Final - Laserfiche WebLink

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list down from 12 to the top 4 priorities for the Action Committee to focus on moving forward. Ms. Gloor explained the exercise specifying that the different strategy categories are important to look at when ranking the top 4 priorities. She clarified that this exercise is to approach prioritization strategically based on what the type of action is, and who the implementer will be. Ms. Gloor suggested that the Action Committee try and choose some priorities that the committee themselves can have a direct role in implementing. Chair Hoffmann asked what the implications are of choosing something as a priority. Ms. Gloor responded that it means the Action Committee is saying they want to take an active role in working on that goal, forming a group that can work on it, or possibly creating a subcommittee to address the goal. Ms. Gloor also clarified that the priorities will be the main focus for the Action Committee but that does not prevent AC members from working on other goals as well. Committee Member Ah Sam proposed to group priorities into overarching themes and then focus on progressing each category or theme. Ms. Ah Sam suggested possibly forming subcommittees to address issues that community groups currently are not addressing. The Action Committee discussed topics they believed were most important or relevant to the North Kohala CDP. Steve Hoffmann and Richard Elliot commented on the urgent need for affordable housing. Jack Olson stated that he believes affordable housing is crucial for economic development and provides work force housing. Jeff Coakley stated that he would like to see more creative collaborative efforts between the Action Committee and the community to make some real progress on projects. He also stated that he believes affordable housing to be the number one priority. Affordable housing was decided to be the first theme. Ms. Ah Sam suggested that affordable housing be broken into subsections, i.g. agricultural housing and family housing. Ms. Ah Sam proposed infrastructure and community facilities to be the second theme with the top infrastructure priority being water. The priority is to increase water sources either through wells or allowing water tanks and catchment systems. Agriculture was discussed. Ms. Ah Sam suggested the formation of an agricultural subcommittee to investigate the current state of agriculture in the community and what the agricultural needs are within the community. She also suggested allowing the community to define what agriculture means to the community and what is feasible for agriculture in North Kohala, and then using that input from the community to inform a plan to preserve and further agricultural pursuits within the community. Ms. Ah Sam stated that maintenance of parks is an important issue to address that would fall under the infrastructure category. Ms. Gloor suggested that the Action Committee should try to find ways to collaborate with private entities. She stated that one of the gaps identified is that the County department lacks grant writers. Grants are a tool that the County is not currently using effectively and this is a possible tool to address the lack of funding. Mr. Coakley suggested that the Action Committee invite grant writers to come and teach members of the community how to properly write grants. Mr. Hoffmann stated that he would like to see the Action Committee working to get more people from the community to attend the Action Committee meetings and get involved. The Action Committee agreed that collaboration with the community should be a goal and overarching theme for all priorities moving forward. Agriculture/economic development and public access were also decided as two of the main themes to frame goals for the Action Committee. www.hiplanningdept.com northkohala(dhawaiicounty.zov Page 3