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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN GREDC 2018/10/02 (2016-2018)Committee on Governmental Relations and Economic Development 21st Session Hawaii County Building 25 Aupuni Street Hilo, Hawaii October 2, 2018 CALL TO The regular meeting of the Committee on Governmental Relations and Economic ORDER: Development was called to order at 2:40 p.m., in the Council Chambers, Hilo, by Dru Mamo Kanuha, Chair. ROLL CALL: Present: Mr. Dru Mamo Kanuha, Chair Mr. Aaron S. Y. Chung, Member Ms. Maile Medeiros David, Member Ms. Karen Eoff, Member Ms. Susan L. K. Lee Loy, Member Ms. Eileen O'Hara, Member Ms. Valerie Poindexter, Member Mr. Herbert M. Richards, III, Member Absent & Excused: Ms. Jennifer Ruggles, Vice Chair STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC ON AGENDA ITEMS The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, Statements from the Public on Agenda Items. The following individual registered to speak and came forward when called by the Chair: Robert Golden: Comm. 1073, comment. CHR KANUHA: Mr. Clerk, if you could read in Communication 1073. COMMUNI- The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, CATIONS: Communications. Comm. 1073: REQUESTS A DISCUSSION RELATING TO THE COUNTY'S DEVELOPMENT OF A REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL TO ESTABLISH A LAVA VIEWING SITE AND/OR PROGRAM IN THE AREA AFFECTED BY THE 2018 LAVA EVENT From Council Member Eileen O'Hara, dated September 7, 2018. GREDC-21 October 2, 2018 Motion to Close File: Ms. O'Hara moved to close file on Comm. 1073. Seconded by Ms. Poindexter. CHR KANUHA: Go right ahead, Ms. O'Hara. MS. O'HARA: Thank you. Quite a few members of the public have contacted our office about concerns about lava viewing sites and lack of lava viewing sites, and what are appropriate locations for the lava viewing site. Since the County had indicated through Research and Development that they were working on a RFP (Request for Proposal), I was hoping they could come forward and inform us on the status of that and what they consider this program is going to perhaps look like, give us kind of a snapshot of what it's like. (Note: At this time, Research and Development Director Diane Ley and Executive Assistant to the Mayor Barett Otani came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MS. LEY: Good afternoon, my name is Diane Ley, I'm the Director for the Department of Research and Development. I have with me MR. OTANI: Hi, Barett Otani, Executive Assistant to the Mayor. MS. LEY: Thank you for this opportunity to kind of share where the lava viewing initiative has been. Four months ago, we had a significant eruption occur in a residential area. It actually migrated back and forth for a while and finally settled down at fissure eight. A few weeks into the vat, the Mayor said to Research and Development that we need to share the majesty of this historic, geological event with our families, our community, and with our visitors. So, he says, "I want to make this right for our families. I want to do parking and I want to do a shuttle and I want it be inexpensive. I want it to be $5 a head." So, he was really looking at it as not a big economic gain for anyone, any individual, but just to share this incredible event that was happening in the lower east rift zone. So, it was a simple idea and it became very complex to implement. We looked at four options as lava viewing areas. One was quickly overrun, like the next day, by lava. One was discarded early, and that was the Leilani area because it's a residential area and we wanted to be respectful, even though the residents had been, for the most part, evacuated, up close, and then those others were under voluntary evacuation. So, we wanted to be respectful of that fact. Then another area had ongoing, heavy commercial activity with equipment and trucks hauling cinder. So, that one was kind of like—and it also, the access to that was through a single -lane road through other communities that were not used to a lot of traffic. So, we singled in on what we've called the `Y', and that's the intersection at Pohoiki Road and 132. We proceeded to implement strategies that we thought Page 2 GREDC-21 October 2, 2018 would work, like offsite parking close to Pahoa that would stimulate business in Pahoa. We would be able to shuttle folks and be able to control that shuttle so that only tour operators, they'd be responsible for a head count going in and a head count going out. And also, for keeping their people off of the active lava flow area or weren't wandering into the forested areas in that area, or other private property. So, that was kind of the initial run around that we were doing and working on that. Then, we had a subsequent meeting with Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, and they sat us down and they said, "Have you really looked at the hazards that are there?" You're looking at an area that is close to fissure eight with a high volume of lava coming out. High volume, high speed, and it was coming down and making a curve right at the `Y' and turning. And they said, "As you stand there, you're looking at the lava being above you," elevated above you. And they said, "So, when there's spillage or if the dike of the built-up lava had failed, you're looking at serious injuries possibly or having to evacuate people quickly." And then they said, "Well, there's also gases and lays, and when we go out to do our work, we're wearing masks and we're wearing the full gear, not just the dust mask." So, we talked to the Mayor about that and we kind of backed up a little bit. So, it's been a frustration for everybody. Businesses saw it as lost opportunity. Family members and community members saw it as a loss of opportunity to be able to safely view. We also—even practitioners were concerned that people were not having the opportunity to get up close to the lava. We know that there was a lot of illegal activity going on as well, and so, we continued to machinate on opportunities. We looked at, initially, it was emergency hire, we thought we could do that, which is hiring a bus under the proclamation that this was an opportunity. We looked at a pilot program; we looked at long-term projects; we looked at County funding it; we looked at Hawaii Tourism Authority funding it; we looked at the County getting reimbursed for all of its costs. And then we did a neutral option, we looked at no procurement because we were thinking about doing it under emergency operations. And then we thought about a grant under a pilot, as a temporary—and now, we're kind of back to the point where we're being advised that a bid process and a more formalized process would be important. So, the situation has also changed, at least for now. Fissure eight has quieted down and so, the risks have obviously diminished. So, we're looking at the possibility of establishing a concession as a designated site, and that would mostly likely be the `Y' within the Pohoiki roadway area so that we stay on public property. We're looking at establishing an opportunity to have people go up onto the lava, you know, a short trail with signage and appropriately keeping them contained. Page 3 GREDC-21 October 2, 2018 We also need to be in compliance with ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) requirements, so, we need to explore what that means. Do we need to make the trail accessible or can we just have, at the roadway area where you can still see fissure eight and you can still see the lava flow, as an opportunity and still provide for access for those with limited access? I think overall, and bear with me as I add to this, but I think overall, the outcome we're looking for is a managed viewing site that is respectful of adjacent properties. Residents that is also respectful of our environment and provides opportunities for businesses both in Pahoa as well as external to Pahoa, and then—yeah, I think that's kind of where we're at. Do you want to add to that? MR. OTANI: Yeah. I'll kind of give you the vision of what it'll look like now. So, as we'll be contracting a contractor, what IBarett Otani, Executive Assistant to Mayor Kim. The County will be contracting to an entity that will be managing this visitor site program. Under that management, there will be tour groups that manage the transit and also connecting to a visitor cultural center that is in process now with Gilbert Aguinaldo guys down at the hub there. So, what we want to create, too, is they don't have the capacity to handle parking on the potential of the amount of cars coming. So, we are in conversations with Luquin's, Akebono Theater area whether the—we're trying to establish that as a parking area, county leased from them or owned. That's where the conversation is in right now. But, we need to see how it all turns so that we can pay for this parking lot. Now, let's go back to this visitor cultural center that's going to be established at the hub. What will happen is Gilbert and his property will be—he'll be a landlord leasing out to non -profits because that is allowable. That's the way we can get it operating there where the primary purpose is not to make money but for public use. So, the facilities, that will be implemented, and the visitor center will be a cultural center, a theater, meeting space, cafeteria, those things that the public can also come in and use as a meeting facility or cook in there because it's a licensed kitchen, whatever. So, its primary purpose is—he's the landlord leasing out to non -profits, preferably from the community there. So, we want to look at this as an entire entity, a corridor. So, if the parking area, the overflow parking, the main parking is at Luquin's, there will be a shuttle that goes back and forth to the visitor center. So, there will be people, if you envision this, people parking at Luquin's or Akebono Theater, they're getting transferred to the visitor center to go on a tour. After they're done, they have to be brought back. So, you're bringing the people back into Pahoa town, or I call it the heart over there. So, you constantly have this flow of people going around and visiting different places and bringing them around. That's critical, and that transportation there will be managed by this entity that we contract. Page 4 GREDC-21 October 2, 2018 So, that is just one segment of the viewing -controlled area. On that bus or that transit or whatever goes down there, they will also be the cultural monitors, or the people will be able to educate on culture. I kind of want to give it the Hanauma Bay experience where we give them the rules and those things of "don't kick the lava" and "don't take it home," and all of those kinds of things, etiquette kind of things. Also, teaching them about the culture because this is what is going to be key, is that the lava has kind of subsided and that's why we call it the lava viewing experience. So, we have to focus a lot on the cultural and the resiliency of people. So, at the hub, there will be a lot of things about how the people is resilient, how we worked together, how we this disaster and how everybody worked together and perpetuate that so people would want to come and see and be part of the experience, because that's what it's all about. Again, at the hub, it's also the destination for people to get down to Pohoiki because we cannot say, "You can't go down there." Because we're only going to have a guard, this place is at the `Y'. So, people can still go down to Pohoiki, still can go down to Kalapana. But, the good thing is that you could leave your car at the parking at Luquin's and it's going to be guarded or safe, catch a shuttle to the beach, spend a day, and then come back. So, your car is safe. I don't think there's going to be that much parking down at Pohoiki. So, again, it's just trying to get people moving around in this circulation pattern or just being shuffled around so that they're generating business for the whole economy there. The good thing about this method of looking at this cultural center focused thing is trying to look at the bigger picture, to cookie cut this idea and possibly move it to other destinations around the island, being that every community has a different type of cultural center. An example would be maybe Waimea's paniolo, Kona would be Kona coffee. Honoka`a has got its own cowboy and Portuguese Festival over there, and we're looking at Na`alehu, maybe—somebody was trying to do a tea farm, making like a tea place or whatever. So, every place can be focused on something different as part of a whole and not everybody doing the same thing. That way, it would be a visitor experience for everybody, and especially everybody who's living here. That's a mouthful, so, thank you. CHR KANUHA: Ms. O'Hara, you still have the floor. MS. O'HARA: Thank you. Yeah, lovely to hear these plans because I don't know how much has been communicated to the public. The parking feature, and I'm glad you're speaking with Sal Luquin on that. You said the options were to either lease it or purchase it, and I know the County was in the process of trying to purchase it some time ago and that failed. But, is this going to be paid parking? MR. OTANI: We want to make it free parking because that's why Sal took over that parking lot, to guarantee the free parking to the community. That's why the County would want to do that. We're just trying to find a way that would be Page 5 GREDC-21 October 2, 2018 feasible to keep this parking lot open. So, we might have to look to the fees charged to come out of the contractor or out of the tour groups that they subcontract too. There might be a fee on that part for the parking center side. MS. LEY: If I can add, also, some of the package that we've put together for legislative request also includes funds for business improvement district for Pahoa. MS. O'HARA: Okay. MS. LEY: Whether that gets funded by state or federal, we hope that there's advocates for that. MS. O'HARA: Okay, and I have some familiarity with the property that you're talking about, Mr. Aguinaldo's property. He currently has a use permit on it, it's residential, for a professional medical building. Has that been worked out? MR. OTANI: Yeah, that's whyso, if you look on—its allowable, let me find that section there. When it's used for that purpose of a public use facility, so, that's why they're classifying it as all of these sections will be run by a non-profit and available to the community for use. So, that's allowable. MS. O'HARA: So, that's all doable? MR. OTANI: Doable. MS. O'HARA: But of course, we're all aware that there is no building there now. MR. OTANI: Okay, so, that's in process right now. He has a temporary permit being reviewed right now, temporary structure permit. So, he's going to put up a temporary structure with a portion for a video screen, portion to intake visitors to schedule this tour. While this is there, he's going to be constructing his main building. We're looking at the temporary site to—the quickest will be the end of this month. The longest we'll try is the end of November, depending how fast the permitting process is. MS. O'HARA: The temporary site? What do you mean the temporary site? I'm sorry. MR. OTANI: Temporary structure. We want to put that up while the main building is being built. MS. O'HARA: So, vans or small buses and large buses would be going to the `Y' area and then parking, so, we would need parking down there as well? Page 6 GREDC-21 October 2, 2018 MR. OTANI: The parking would be at his place for now because the site plan doesn't encompass this whole big building. It's going to be smaller tents, so called, like fire retardant tents in the front, and the main building area would be used for overflow parking at this point. MS. O'HARA: I think maybe I miscommunicated, or you didn't understand. I was actually talking about the actual viewing site, the `Y' down in Pohoiki. MR. OTANI: Right. So, that would be the contractor that they hire that would be managed by them. So, we would have parking down there just for those buses under them. Residents who live down there would be allowed and their families, but only them and it would be the contractor allowed through the viewing site. MS. O'HARA: So, the question is if there's to be some parking, and it sounds like there has to be some parking for vans and buses at the `Y' area, the County doesn't own any other land but the roadways, so, is there going toI mean it's state land in that area. MS. LEY: So, what we've end up doing is working in conjunction with Public Works and Civil Defense to come up with a strategy for that specific area. What's the carrying capacity? How many buses can be parked there? Small buses or large—can we accommodate some large ones? So, that would need to be worked out with the contractor to actually to a site plan. MS. O'HARA: And in the process of doing that, please be aware that there is, already, efforts and consideration for rebuilding that section of 132. That's why I bring this up because we were having meetings with the large landowners and Public Works on that top section that was covered about a mile or a mile and a half of 132. And PGV (Puna Geothermal Venture) is also looking at gaining access on that corner as well. That's why I'm querying where would the parking be? MS. LEY: Right. Yeah, we definitely need to take into awareness all of the competing potential uses for that area as we move forward with plans. MS. O'HARA: Okay. Thank you. MS. LEY: It needs to be a bit of a fluid situation. MS. O'HARA: Well, thank you for that. I don't know if anyone else is familiar enough with the area or has questions about how this might proceed, but I'm glad to hear that some of the other locations, which brought up a lot of controversy and contention from the public, at least my office was hearing from them, have been excluded from the choices that we're looking at. There is still a lot of illegal lava Page 7 GREDC-21 October 2, 2018 viewing going on and I don't know in the long run, how that's going to be handled, but it's still a problem in the area. Okay, thank you. CHR KANUHA: Thank you, Ms. O'Hara. Ms. Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Chair. Thank you Barett and Diane. Right now, it's all very fluid. So, let's just kind of keep pushing forward. My comments really are, I like the idea of not one particular property carrying the ball. I like the idea that there might be offsite parking at another location in which another property would do an educational piece, and then another property further down the road would kind of be, you know, the turn style to count people going in and out. I like that shared impact type of vision. I think for that particular area, just because of some of the unknowns and the risks associated there, I think keeping those as corner stones or guiding principles we hear all the time with our Planning Director, I think those are good first steps. Then, of course, I have to check under the Zoning Code, there's a provision, it's a permitted use as long as it's compliant with section 25-4-11, plan approval. So, who is getting plan approval? Is it plan approval for the `Y', the hub, Luquin's? MR. OTANI: It's Gilbert, so, his property. That's the plan approval. The rest are zoned for—we could put a parking lot there for Luquin's. MS. LEE LOY: So, with plan approval, if there's not enough parking for whatever square footage for the facility, would there be a variance for overflow parking being established somewhere else or would the building be fixed in size because of the amount of parking that could be provided? Do we have an answer or is that a question for our Planning Director? MR. OTANI: That would be the Planning Director. Again, it's such a fluid and hypothetical number that we don't even know how much—because Ross has said, from Hawaii Visitors Bureau, they need 250 parking spaces. That's what we're going based upon, but reality is, we don't really know at this point. MS. LEY: Yeah, I would like to add that I don't believe anybody has done any formal assessment of visitor interest. We all know the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park opened last weekend. They had planned for large crowds and they did not necessarily see that. I know a number of you folks were at a gathering with the cruise ship industry today, and they indicated that was part of the reason they brought media from across the nation and international to this event, was to share Hawai'i island, to share the fact that even though we don't have a glow, we don't have fresh lava to see or liquid lava, we have great lava vistas and great things to see and do, and the great people to visit with. So, that was a really nice opportunity and I was glad that many of you were able to visit with the media there. But, it's going to take some, if I may call it, reeducation of people and their Page 8 GREDC-21 October 2, 2018 expectations particularly if we don't have active lava erupting along the rift or the caldera. MS. LEE LOY: Yeah, and that's just my larger concern, is managing expectations, and I understand the eagerness to get down there because it's new and inviting. But, I'm also at a place where do we really have to? Why can't we keep some of those areas pristine? And it helps with the educational piece. So, I do like the idea of through these shuttles, it's a captive audience, just like being in the airplane, you're told what you can and cannot do. I think all those pieces are really great pieces, but, I think the most important thing is to manage the expectation. But, the overarching goal I'd like to see is the management of that brand-new resource and maintaining somewhat of that pristine quality. So, thank you. I understand it's fluid, I've been a part of a number of conversations. MR. OTANI: I guess the other important part, too, is about the parking area at Luquin's. No matter what, even if the lava flow didn't happen, that's a critical area that would revitalize Pahoa. So, whether or not it should be an important piece that if the County doesn't take over, somebody else should and it should be free parking for the community. So, whether it stops or not, I think it's an overall big picture because we might be, in the future, looking at restoring Akebono Theater again and using that, possibly, as a community center there. We do need a cultural center there. I totally believe in different cultural centers in different areas to invigorate communities. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, I yield. CHR KANUHA: Ms. Eoff MS. EOFF: Thank you. I was following that vision, too, when you were speaking earlier because today, we spoke about trying to help the businesses in Pahoa in a different way by reducing some of their property taxes. But, in a way, this vision will actually help too. It would help invigorate the businesses just by making it an interesting and exciting place to come and slowly, everybody will revitalize and it's sort of like a circular thing, the more there is to do and the more businesses are flourishing, the more people may come, and so on. I think we have a great opportunity here and pulling all the resources together is really good. I'm thanking both of you for sharing with us today. MR. OTANI: Thank you. CHR KANUHA: Ms. O'Hara. MS. O'HARA: I just want to say thank you for all of the information that you just provided, and Barett, you're absolutely right about the parking issue. It has been the problem that my town has been suffering from since the January 2017 Page 9 GREDC-21 October 2, 2018 fire and it has caused—we were having an economic downturn, largely because there's no where to park and nobody can go to town and visit the restaurants and stores, long before May third. So, that is a real key issue and I would like to point out that Puna Kai Shopping Center, Jon McElvaney there, has also offered help. He's going to have a lot of parking places up that side of town as well. So, connecting the sides of town will eventually be a really good benefit to all of the business owners as well. Thank you. CHR KANUHA: Thank you. Anybody else? Any last things? Well, just mahalo, Barett, mahalo, Diane, for being here and updating us. Okay, all if favor of filing Communication 1073 say "aye." Vote on Comm. 1073: The motion to close file on Comm. 1073 was carried by the Filed following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Chung, David, Eoff, Lee Loy, O'Hara, Poindexter, Richards, and Chair Kanuha — 8. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Member Ruggles —1. Excused: None. CHR KANUHA: Can I have a motion to adjourn? ORDER OF The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, RESOLUTIONS: Order of Resolutions. (There were none.) BILLS FOR The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of ORDINANCES: business, Bills for Ordinances. (There were none.) Page 10 GREDC-21 ADJOURN- MENT: Approved: October 2, 2018 There being no further business, at 3:15 p.m., Ms. Poindexter moved to adjourn the meeting. Seconded by Ms. David and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Chung, David, Eoff, Lee Loy, O'Hara, Poindexter, Richards, and Chair Kanuha — 8. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Member Ruggles — 1. Excused: None. CHR. KANUHA: We are adjourned. Mr. Dru Mamo Kanuha, Chair Governmental Relations and Economic Development Committee DMK/jm (Date) Page 11