HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0267.023 2006-2008~Iawaii Island 106 xamehuntehu Avenue
Hilo. Hawaii 96720
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October 16, 2007
Chairman Pete Hoffman
Hawaii County Council
County of Hawaii
State of Hawaii
Chairman Hoffman and Fellow Council Members, I come before you today to speak
about Bill 79, Draft 2 regarding the proposed changes to Section 25-4-51, the required
number of parking spaces. I am here today as President of the Hawaii Island Chamber of
Commerce and I represent our more than 700 members.
[n the 31 years that I have lived on Hawaii Island, I have always enjoyed the convenience
of finding parking as compared to Oahu or the Mainland. The only real serious parking
problems are in downtown Hilo and downtown Kailua-Kona. Both of which are
exempted from parking requirements. I can hazdly ever recall going to a business outside
of the downtown areas that I could not find parking. Even the extremely busy Walmart
parking lot in Hilo or the Costco in Kona always has a place to park somewhere.
While our organization can support some of the proposed changes in this Bill, we can not
support the tripling of parking requirements for retail and office uses. In Hilo, we already
have a shortage of commercially zoned properties. If you require one stall for every 100
squaze feet of improvements, many commercially zoned lots will not be usable.
Let me give you a personal example. In 2005, my wife and I purchased the Hilo Surgical
Center at 101 Hualalai Street in Hilo. The lot is 2Q,276 square feet and the building is
4,875 square feet. We have some landscaping, but the bulk of the property supports 29
parking stalls. Since in most instances Section 25-4-51 (20) (b) allows a change of use
without imposing new parking requirements, even with the proposed changes, we would
have been able to remodel. However, if we tore the building down and tried to rebuild in
the same footprint, we would be prohibited unless we could meet the required 49 parking
stalls. And please remember, we have a nearly half acre commercial lot. Many, if not
most of the commercial lots on this Island are not that large.
The question becomes, with the shortage of commercial and industrial zoned lots on the
Island, do you want to eliminate using the only choices available. That will be the
outcome of passing this Bill as written-
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ANiliated with the Chamber of Commerce of the United States