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Home My WebLink AboutREP PC 085 06/18/2002 2000-2002 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON PLANNING DATE: June 18, 2002 RE: C-480/Bill No. 157 PLACE: Councilroom TIME: 2:20 p.m. Chair and Members Hawaii County Council Hilo, Hawaii 96720 Your Committee on Planning, to which was referred Bill No. 157, by Councilman Aaron S. Y. Chung, per Communication No. 480, dated January 11, 2002, regarding the amendment to Chapter 25, the zoning code, reports as follows: Bill No. 157 amends Chapter 25 (Zoning Code) of the Hawaii County Code by amending Article 4, Division 6 relating to nonconforming uses and buildings. Originally heard at the January 23, 2002 Planning Committee meeting, this measure was referred to the Planning Commission pursuant to the Zoning Code Bill No. 157 was then heard by the Planning Commission on April 19, 2002, at which time a favorable recommendation, and additional language to place a time frame upon which construction would begin to establish parameters for development and to avoid further nonconformity over a period of time was sent to the County Council. Mayor Harry Kim then transmitted the Planning Commission's recommendation to the Planning Committee on May 20, 2002. On January 23, 2002, Councilman Chung explained the bill is a result of the Keaukaha community's stand on the mass downzoning of all the properties from the resort zoning to the single-family residential designation back in the late 1970's or early 1980's, as follows: "What happened, though, and I think, this was an unintended consequence of that downzoning, was the underlying fee for many of these multi-family, multi-residential units were actually non- conforming. I think these large condominiums rested upon maybe four, three or four RS-10 zoned properties. That would mean that if this property were somehow destroyed, and hopefully that will never happen, but if the property were destroyed, that means people could only build four, possibly eight, single-family dwellings on those properties. And that caused a lot of concern for the residents in those high rises." "So what was proposed at the time by those various condominiums, was to rezone those properties again to resort. And what happened was, we have a Leleiwi Community Association. It's a very strong community association and I would say very attuned with what's going on in the community. They objected to the upzoning to resort and they felt that if those properties were again rezoned, it would open the flood gates, they felt, psychologically, to more resort zonings in that small community and they were very concerned about that." PC-85 PC-85 -2- June 19, 2002 "...So we all came together...and found a common ground... It was just a matter of striking some kind of reasonable compromises to how we could address this problem, and this is what they came up with. And it has met with the approval of all of those residents, and I have to admit, there may be a few people who might feel that, well, if these things get destroyed, then maybe they shouldn't be able to build up but, and at the same time, people have vested interest, you know, they've invested money into these properties and all they want is the peace of mind that if something does happen, I think the law is that if it's destroyed more than 50 percent, you have to build up in compliance with all applicable laws. And one of the laws would be the zoning law." Councilman Aaron Chung had introduced Bill No. 157, Draft 2, after the April 19, 2002 Planning Commission meeting. The Planning Commission had also transmitted basically the same bill after their April 19, 2002 meeting in the form of Bill No. 157, Draft 3. Your Committee provided a comparison of the differences between the two bills as Bill No. 157, Draft 4, which was amended by deleting asemi-colon. At today's meeting Committee Member Julie Jacobson stated she would be voting against this measure because she sees no public purpose for this amendment. Your Committee concurs with the Planning Commission and the Planning Director for recommending a favorable consideration for the amendment to the Subdivision Code. Your Committee on Planning is in accord with the intent and purpose of Bill No. 157, as amended to Bill No. 157, Draft 5, and recommends it pass first reading. AYES NOES A & E F,X Respectfully submitted LEITHEAD-TODD X COMMITTEE ¢t~l PLA ING~ TYLER X / ~ ~ ARAKAKI X ~ . • .~~/L--~t ~ E,•j i ~ CHUNG X BO& JEAN LEITHEAD-TODD, CHAIR ELARIONOFF X $ 5 JACOBSON X PC REPORT NO. P[SICCHtO X ADOPTED: 2~OZ SAFARIK YAGONG X