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HomeMy WebLinkAboutREP PC 051 01/19/2006 2004-2006 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON PLANNING DATE: January 19, 2006 Re: Comm. No. 615/Bill No. 198 PLACE: Councilroom TIME: 1:30 p.m. Council Chair and Members Hawaii County Council Hilo, Hawaii 96720 Your Committee on Planning, to which was referred Bill No. 198, reports as follows: Bill No. 198, transmitted via Communication No. 615 from Mayor Harry Kim, dated December 14, 2005, presents a Change of Zone request by The Newton Family Limited Partnership, at Kukuau ls`, South Hilo, Hawaii, TMK: 2-4-8:por. 33. Bill No. l98 seeks to amend Section 25-8-32 (South Hilo 'Lone Map), Article 8, Chapter 25 (Zoning Code) of the Hawaii County Code, by changing the District Classification of approximately 885.40 acre s of land from Unzoned to Agricultural - 80 acres (A-80a). Communication No. 615 reports that the Hawaii County Planning Commission, as required by the Hawaii County Charter, Chapter 4, Section 6-4.3(C), considered this rezoning request and accompanying Bill No. 198 on December ]4, 2005. The Commission concurred with the Planning Director's favorable recommendation on this matter. The Planning Director's findings and recommendations, transmitted via Communication No. 615, can be summarized as follows: 1. 'I~he applicants, members of the Newton family, are the owners of the property. The applicants are requesting a Change of Zone far 885.40 acres of land from the Unzoned district to the Agricultural - 80 acres (A-80a) District in order to subdivide the property into eight smaller lots. ranging between 80-153 acres in size. Five of the proposed lots will remain in the Newton lamily, and the other three tuts are proposed for sale at market value. 2. The 885.40-acre parcel of land is part of a larger 1,645.82-acre parcel. The subject 885.40- acre portion of the property was re-designated from the State Land Use Conservation District to the Agricultural District on November 16, 2001, in order to allow the proposed subdivision. "The remaining 760.42-acre portion of the property remains in the Conservation district. 3. The property is located in Upper Kaumana, approximately 3,000 feet southwest of the Hilo Country Club Estates Subdivision, in South Hilo. 4. Access to the subject parcel is proposed from Wilder Road. a paved County road with a 24-foot pavement width. An access road to the property will need to be constructed from PC REPORT' NO. 51 Communication 615 Bill 198 Page 2 Wilder Road along an existing 40-foot wide easement. HELCO and another private landowner have given preliminary consent to allow the applicant to cross their propetties along this easement, to gain access to the project site. The proposed subdivision access road will be required to conform to County Subdivision Code roadway standazds. 5. State Land Use Commission Docket No. A99-729 which reclassified the 885.40 acres from the Conservation to the Agricultural District, lists 23 conditions of approval, including a 20-year restriction on further subdivision of the proposed eight lots. Condition H of the proposed Bill No. 198 prohibits construction of a second dwelling unit and condiminium property regimes on each of the eight lots. 6. The County Department of Water Supply, in a letter dated October 3, 2005, states that current "water is limited to a maximum of seven lots. or units, of water at a maximum of 4,200 per day," and that the applicant will be required to connect to the County DWS system along Wilder Road. The applicant responding via letter dated November 2, 2005 that "the eighth lot in the Newton subdivision would require possible off-site improvements or modification of water usage by the subdivision." The applicant stated that they will work with DWS during the subdivision review process to "determine the needs for obtaining water allocation approval for the last lot." 7. According to Commwrication No. 615, the approval of this Change of Gone request from the Unzoned to Che Agricultural - 80 acres (A-80a) zoned district would result in an appropriate land use pattern that will further beneftt the public based on the following: The proposed change of zone is located in an area designated in the General Plan as Extensive Agriculture, with "poor" and "very poor" soils. The applicant is proposing small-scale agricultural activities within the proposed subdivision, possibly including grazing, orchards, and/or small vegetable gardens or plant nurseries. Significant flora and fauna occur primarily in the portion of the parcel remaining within the Conservation District. The applicant will be required to preserve the one kipuka in the project area, by leaving "intact large stands of native forest trees and clusters of native vegetation." • Wastewater will be disposed of by individual wastewater disposal systems approved by the Department of Health. Water commitments are available for seven of the eight proposed lots (reference No. 6 above). All other essential services and utilities are available to the project site. • The Federal Emergency Management Agency Flood Insurance Map (FIRM) identifies the site as "X" or outside the flood plain. 6. Requisite of the Planning Director's favorable recommendation for the Change of Lone request are 16 conditions contained in Bill No. 198 that outline specific requirements for PC REPORT NO. 51 Communication 615 Bill 198 Page 3 the proposed project. Condition C requires the applicant to submit the required water commitment payments for seven lots within 90 days of the effective date of the rezoning ordinance. Condition G requires the applicant to design, purchase, and install street lights and traffic control devices as required by the Department of Public Works. Jim Bell of Belt Collins Hawaii and Dr. George Newton were present. Mr. Bell gave a brief presentation of the application as the Newton Family Partnership representative. Council Member Holschuh inquired whether there will be impact fees assessed at this point in time. Planning Director Chris Yuen stated it hasn't been council practice to put fair share assessments on very large lots and he believes the cutoff is one or three acres. He said it is definitely not assessed for an 80-acre lot in an agricultural subdivision. In answer to the question if applicant would he allowed to have a 2"d farm dwelling despite Condition H restricting a second residence or Condominium Property Regimes on the lots, Mr. Yuen stated there is a process for having an additional farm dwelling or more than one lot. Mr. Yuen said that for lots created by subdivisions within the State Land Use Agricultural District after June 4, 1976, the law essentially grandfathers single family dwellings on older lots like those created in Paradise Park or Ocean View. But in post 1976 subdivisions like Kohala Estates and Kohala Ranch it provides people notice for the first farm dwelling and then anything after that requires an application, a farm plan, and they also have to show the need for an agricultural worker to get a 2"a or subsequent farm houses. That is something we approve or sometimes deny and enter into agreement with the lot owner that they will in fact implement the farm plan. Council Member Jacobson asked if there will be affordable housing and that he is concerned that 8 lots aren't all that damaging, but these are pretty big lots and three are being sold. Is there any way to limit some of the uses of these ]ands so we don't end up with 3 new residential subdivisions up there? Mr. Yuen stated it would take a further rezoning to do anything other than the 80-acre parcels. It"snot going tojust happen. Council Member Hoffmann stated there is available water for 7 lots but we're subdividing into 8 lots and didn't think we go ahead and make 8 lots and thought the Planning Director regulations states a lot could not be established without water. Mr. Yuen stated on a level of rezoning they will sometimes rezone without existing water availability on the condition that applicant go and get water availability. "I"hat's generally done in larger projects. In a situation where there is really no prospect of developing more water he would recommend against it. As far as this application, they have 7 commitments and potentially they can get 8 but they have to do something with the Department of Water Supply to get the 8`h one. If they don't get the 8`h at the subdivision level we will only subdivide 7 lots. They could apply for variance for 8`~ lot. [ would deny variance on this one because they are zoning into this situation here. PC REPOR"f NO. 51 Communication 615 Bill 198 Page 4 Council Member Hoffmann said if there is a need that something else would have to be done before he would agree, his concept would be, to make sure he has a clean application, is to stick something in here that would indicate that for the 8`~ lot. He didn't need an answer and it's not going to stop Mr. Hoffmann~s approval of this at the moment, but wants to make sure we're not doing something or setting a precedent that we don't want down the line with some other application. Chairman Pilago stated he is not going to support the application because page 5, paragraph 2 explicitly states that water for 8 residential lots are not available for the subject change of zone request at this time. Because of that and because of his strong belief in adequate infrastructure for all developments, cannot support this application for rezoning at this time. Asked Planning Director if it is time to look at applications such as these and begin considering levying fair share and impact fee assessments. Director Yuen said we don't get many rezonings for relatively large agricultural lots. Many of the so-called agricultural subdivisions are really more residential than agricultural, the lots being in the one to three acre range and he does not think we should collect fair share for those large agricultural lots. He wouldn't change the practice at this point and doesn't think this is a point to tweak a fair share system while we have the impact study going on. Council Member Isbell said she will support this based upon the Planning Commission and Planning Director's approval and recommendations and that the Director is fine with rezoning. The proposal was to have 8 lots, they have 7 water commitments in hand and if they can get another water commitment he's fine with letting them subdivide the 8 lots. If not, he will hold them to 7 lots. Council Member Ikeda stated the subdivision is in his district and he used to hunt in this area when he was young. Most of surrounding areas are agricultural 20-acre and this is an A-80. thinks it's more than fair and really supports this subdivision. If it was agricultural 1-acre he would vote against it, but this is A-80 and thinks it's more than fair. Council Member Holschuh stated he agrees with Ms. Isbell and Mr. Ikeda. If there ever was a time to consider a variance this is probably it. Mr. Bell noted both he and Dr. Newton would be out of town the first two weeks in February and i C it this has to go before the Council in the first two weeks of February he respectfully asks that it be delayed. Chaiman Pilago stated every effort will be made to accommodate. PC REPORT NO. 51 Communication 615 Bill 198 Page 5 Your committee concurs with the Planning Commission's and the Planning Director's favorable recommendation for approval of the Change of Zone request. Your Committee on Planning is in accord with the intent and purpose of Bill No. 198 and recommends it pass first reading. and Hues roes sae ex Respectfully submitted, A RA KA KI RICA _ X COMMITTEE PLANNING HOFFMANN X ~ ~ HOLSCHUH _ • ~ IKEDA ISBELL g K. Angel Pilaff, hair JACOBSON X PILACO X SAFABIK PC REPORT NO. 51 Aaoptea: FEB 0 ~7nns