HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0927.025 2004-2006
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June 19, 2006
Honorable Angel Pilago, Chair
Pete Hoffman, Vice Chair
Hawaii County Council
Committee on Planning
25 Aupuni Street
County of Hawaii
Hilo, Hawaii 96720
RE: Proposed Resolution No. 381-06
To postpone County Council action on rezoning applications in the districts of
North and South Kona until the North and South Community Development Plan
is adopted by ordinance
Aloha Mr. Pilago and Mr. Hoffman,
The Kona-Kohala Chamber of Commerce does not favor a moratorium on rezoning
applications and therefore does not support passage of Resolution No. 381-06.
While the Chamber does support and is an active participant in the current Community
Development Plan process, it recognizes that the Community Develop Plans are just
one facet of the overall, ongoing planning effort for the County of Hawaii.
We do not believe it is in the best interests of the island's economy to bring a halt to
rezoning, or any other planning and execution of such, until the recommendations of just
one aspect of the process are considered.
The impact a moratorium would have goes far beyond the Kona districts and will likely
have a negative impact on the Island's and the State's business climates as a whole.
Additionally, it will most likely exacerbate an already scarce housing inventory and have
a serious negative effect on the islands workforce pool.
Opportunities will be lost and we believe the effects of such a moratorium will be long
lasting and far reaching. Zoning change requests have provided for roads, water
systems, school sites, parks, biking and walking paths. This resolution will probably stop
the forward momentum to build affordable housing in North and South Kona while
driving already sky rocketing land prices even higher. The goal of placing a substantial
percentage of our workforce, our most valuable asset, closer to their workplace will be
lost indefinitely.
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We too have concerns about infrastructure keeping up with the rate of growth in West
Hawaii. However, we believe that in order to ensure that growth is accomplished in
concert with consideration for the area's environment and quality of life, equal effort has
to be given to executing a plan. The Chamber would like to see the County turn its
efforts toward carrying out projects in a timely fashion that improve the existing
infrastructure. Thus we urge the Council to turn their focus toward initiating and
completing development of the promised road infrastructure in West Hawaii. Mayor Kim
gave Kona traffic and infrastructure "top priority," but we have yet to see any substantial
movement toward achieving this goal.
Finally, there is no mandated time frame to adopt the Kona Community Development
Plan by ordinance thus allowing this moratorium to go on indefinitely. Recognizing that
one of the economic drivers of our community is development it is clear that halting all
development and construction will have a dramatic impact on the quality of life of
virtually all our local businesses and workforce.
Simply put we feel that it is the County's responsibility to facilitate the building of the
infrastructure to support our community and that it has the means to do this through the
existing planning and property tax structure. The County should focus on taking an
active role in developing the needed infrastructure rather than stopping all rezoning
efforts.
Sincerely,
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Eric von Platen Luder,
President
Kona-Kohala Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors