HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0898.089 2020-2022 P/C,ound
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From: Antu Harvey
Sent: Tuesday, April 18, 2023 9:26 AM
To: Council Testimony
Subject: I Support Bill 194 {c )
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County Council Chair Kimball and Members of the Council, '
Thank you for this opportunity to testify. My name is Antu Harvey.
Please vote to override the Mayor's veto of Bill 194- re ReZoning Application Extensions. 'J
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I am concerned now with Kona because it is the area of greatest large-scale development activity. But,your concern as
our County Council is governing oversight to protect the future livability and health in ALL our districts. Kona may just
the 'Canary in the Mine'.
If you allow the Planning Dept.to possess exclusive control of allowing extensions on re-zoning applications,you will
not be able provide oversight checks. Zoning Application Extensions are Problematic:
1. Extensions become part of the normal process—but they introduce 'back-wash'to good process and
decision making. Increasing risks and costs of:
a. Developers are forced to build-in margin to cover the uncertainties of changes in requirements,
and for the risk of being denied and the resulting possible delays of starting over after delays to pursue
an extension instead of starting over with a new application right away.
• An example might be 'Kaloko Heights'—in the 1980's it was allowed to design for
cesspools. Within the 5 extensions over 30 years,the requirement changed to IWS septic, and
later to sewer. (HI LUC just denied a 6t'extension of their State Land Use petition to complete
the change to 'Urban'.)
b. Planning Director—not applying the rules nor imposing requirements equitably across
applications as well as over time. Resulting in a checkered case record and exposure to justified
litigation.
c. Planning Department—extra cost of processing extensions—assuming there is analysis to
determine whether to extend or not. A better use of time is processing compliant applications.
d. 'Grand Fathering'out-of-date requirements to extended applications—without transparently
assessing the changes by the intervening cumulative As Built landscape impacts, and wiser regulations
currently in place.
Planning Dept. making case-by-case decisions without complying with a clear CUMULATIVE Concurrency Management
System* is problematic. (The absence thereof makes Transparency, Council oversight and Public Testimony more
critically important)
1. Does the Planning Director provide you with a Concurrency report demonstrating we HAVE sufficient
infrastructure to meet the cumulative needs before approving or extending each application (not could have,
might have, wish we have)?
a. Is the Planning Director providing you the information you need to make informed decisions and to
trust in his/her recommendations?
b. If not, are you confident that the Planning Director has and uses this information when making re-
zoning and permitting decisions?
Comm. No. V-Q®1sr‘
1 Ref.To: P (UMW
Ref. Date APR 1, 9 2023
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2. Even just for North Kona, do you know the'current capacity(incl its management and an adequate M&R
budget, as well as is compliant, reliable, maintained):
a. Sewer systems—a known issue that is getting worse.
b. Water system (as working, NOT including wells that have been down for years)
c. Schools—we have NO extra capacity in North Kona elementary schools, (example: Holualoa needs
to be rebuilt, but cannot temporarily shift enough students temporarily to other schools so it can
reroute the access road in preparation for the rebuild'.)
d. Roads—a known issue that is getting worse.
e. Hospital—needs replacing, and made larger
f. Civic Spaces—Parks, Community Centers, Greenways—
g. Police Stations-
h. Fire Stations—
i. Open Space—it isn't just 'vacant' or'fallow' land waiting to be harvested.
j. Cultural and Historic Resources—Planning doesn't even have a full list of what we still have.
*Concurrency Management System
Requires that infrastructure be available to accommodate new development.
Public facilities and services needed to support development shall be available concurrent with the impacts of
such development."17 The required public facilities are roads, sanitary sewer, solid waste disposal, drainage,
potable water supply, parks and recreation, schools, hospital, emergency services (Fire/Police), as well as mass
transit.
The County should be required to adopt a concurrency management system, which must include a monitoring
system and provide that concurrency be determined for a project by the time an application containing a
specific plan of development is requested. Required public facilities must exist at the adopted levels to serve
new development.
Please HELP the Planning Department as it works hard to manage the growth surge with limited budget and conflicting
public opinion (we want large houses spread out AND enough fast speed arterial capacity to get everywhere we want
without delay). The Planning Department NEEDS the County Council's thoughtful (and informed) review and your
oversight, including your discouragement of Re-Zoning Application Exensions.
Please override-Mayor Roth's veto of Bill 194.
Mahalo nui for this opportunity to participate in civic engagement and for your dedicated service to our Community.
Anne ('Antu') Harvey, Holualoa -96725
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