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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019-08-28 BDHRA Minutes BANYAN DRIVE HAWAII REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY COUNTY OF HAWAII MINUTES August 28, 2019 The meeting of the Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency was called to order at 2:05 p.m. in the County of Hawaii, Office of Aging Training Room, 1055 Kino`ole Street, Hilo, Hawaii, with Chairman Nathan Gaddis presiding. MEMBERS PRESENT: Nathan Gaddis (Chairman), Brian DeLima, Barry Taniguchi MEMBERS ABSENT & EXCUSED: K.T. Cannon-Eger ALSO PRESENT: Duane Kanuha(Deputy Planning Director), Ron Kim (Corporation Counsel), Alex Roy (Planner), Kim Tanaka(Secretary), Richard Onishi(Representative), Gordon Heit (DLNR Representative) A quorum was present with three members in attendance. STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC There were approximately 5 members of the public in attendance. At 2:05 p.m. Chairman Gaddis opened the floor to take statements from the public. GADDIS: Mr. Don Inouye if you can come up; you have a few minutes. Go ahead. INOUYE: Yeah, my name is Don Inouye, Reed's Bay Resort Hotel, and I've been there as an owner since year 2002. But I've lived on Banyan Drive from year two tho 1996. And one of the big things is that, you know, the declaration that came out that said that the hotel area blighted, I thought it was in regards to not only the buildings but the other areas like the banyan trees and all of those other things. And so I think all of these things should be brought into the question. My biggest gripe I have, do we have someone here from DLNR? Oh yes, anyway GADDIS: Be gentle. INOUYE: I don't believe they should be in the real estate business. You know? I'm one of those people. Now why do I say that? Is when Naniloa first came out for their bid with Ken Fujiwara, they were given a head start by legislature that was passa bill that was passed by the legislature allowing them to prepare ten years ahead of time to be able to make arrangements for their lease. Now, do you believe that that lease, plus my lease, plus Country Club, plus Uncle Billy's all ended at the exact same time but they gave Country Club ten years' head start. Now it wasn't DLNR that gave `um ten years' head start. It was our dear Senator Inouye. She's the one that passed the bill for that and I appreciated that. I thought oh, maybe I could get in on that bill, Page 1 of 19 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency August 28,2019 Minutes but no, we couldn't. But anyway, there were no, nothing figured out what they gonna do with Uncle Billy's, Country Club, or Reed's Bay because they had a good number of years to decide. Now, my problem right now, to make it short is, I've been on without a lease now going on five years in August. And we have another bill in the Legislature's gonna change everything I assume, and we're gonna start all over and I'll be on another five years. And so, you know, I have resided myself, and I was told years and years ago by a dear friend next door to me, his wife was named Alice, and you probably know his last name, I can't think right now. But he told me that, "you know Don,"he said, "if any one of the hotels over here gonna get a lease extension or anything done, it's all gonna have to be political." And I've come to that conclusion now. And you know, it's hard to blame DLNR and it's hard to blame the political legislature. They've passed bills and everything, they even passed the bill for me to extend my lease for 55 years and this was way back in year 2011 if I have it right. And you know, and then this carried on until my lease expired and then I thought, well, if they not going give me a lease and they said I had only about 15 years left, I will put a last effort in for 15 year lease. Put down that I will spend the funds that's required to qualify under the bill that allowed me to get a lease extension. I put it in, it came into the legislature, but DLNR said they had better use for my property. Now I don't know what they mean by better use. And even the task force that we had over here which was headed by George Applegate at that time, submitted a letter along with DLNR letter stating that they agree, that there's better use for the property. But everything is such in a big turmoil. So where are we going to go? And I resided myself to accept another five years of month-to-month because it was mentioned to me that you know, DLNR has had people on month-to-month for maybe over ten years already. And I figured well, ten years is better than nothing, but I sure would like to have had more of a lease so I can continue to upgrade and not be caught up with the fire that they had with the Alcapono [sic] or whatever you call it hotel and caused all the headaches. They've even got bigger headaches on Oahu because most of the condominiums don't even have sprinkler systems. Okay, so anyway, in conclusion, I hope everything works out and I'll try very hard to be patient, okay. Thank you very much. GADDIS: Thank you so much Mr. Inouye. I'd like to follow up with you more later. Yeah, with that being said, we're done with, I don't think we have any more statements from the public so we can move on to the Business of the Agency. BUSINESS OF AGENCY 1. Presentation and discussion by the Long Range Division of the County of Hawai`i Planning Department on the current status of the proposed General Plan (2020)for the Island of Hawai`i. Presentation and discussion will focus on the Hilo Bayfront and Waiakea Peninsula areas only. The Agency took this item up at 2:12 p.m. with approximately 5 members of the public in attendance. GADDIS: First item on our agenda is actually a presentation by the Long Range Division of the County Planning Department to discuss the current status of the proposed General Plan for 2020 for the Island of Hawaii, but we're going to be focusing specifically kind of on the Hilo Page 2 of 19 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency August 28,2019 Minutes Bayfront and Waiakea Peninsula area and those areas that pertain to our agency here. So please, go ahead. MORRISON: Aloha, thank you folks so much for having me today. My name is Bethany Morrison. I'm a Long Range planner with the County of Hawaii Planning Department, and I just wanted to come and provide to you where we are with the General Plan update. The draft has been released and so there's some information pertinent to Banyan Drive for you folks to take a look at and provide your input. The General Plan is the County's long-range policy document that guides the future of our island for the next 25 years. It's established both in Hawaii Revised Statutes and in our County Charter that we have to have this document, and it really provides priorities and guides any land use decisions; they need to be consistent with that General Plan. At this time Ms. Morrison provided a PowerPoint presentation of the General Plan updates and opened herself up for questions from the Agency. DELIMA: I have some questions. The commercial areas that we identified in our draft scenario, they've been incorporated into the proposed plan? MORRISON: So our consultant did the best they could've interpreting this map. That was the intent, was to apply whatever you folks had as a draft into that. And so we can kind of look back and forth, but if you have a specific question, I can certainly look on my GIS and find that. DELIMA: Well, I think we wanted to maintain the area that Suisan has commercial activities MORRISON: This over here? DELIMA: Yeah, and then across the street is the HELCO site. We wanted to provide some commercial ability for that to be used in a commercial way. And then the Ice House, we wanted to put that into a commercial use so that he can make it palatable so it can function. MORRISON: Okay. DELIMA: And I like the idea of a special design district so that they can be compatible with the area. I think that's a really good idea so that those people can do a commercial activity but it has to be compatible. So I think that's a great idea. And then we had along Kanoelehua some more commercial space, which you MORRISON: Maybe this one over here. DELIMA: Right. And I Page 3 of 19 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency August 28,2019 Minutes MORRISON: So let's take a look, Brian, and I'm looking at this area and it looks a little bit strange cause it's kind of smaller, and so we might have to, that might be a scale question about where that if that's the same kind of general area that this is being applied. But I think otherwise, those things have been captured. So what this is, is your folks plan had commercial mixed use in this reddish color and we translated that to a medium density urban, which would allow for multi-family and commercial. Let's see, the density would be, I think 30 units per acre. DELIMA: Okay, well, it's interesting you say that because in the `90s, when the previous owner of the Ice House had planned a mixed use, there was a lot of community opposition to hotel units being next to the park. So, you know, I think we should be cognizant of that, but at the same time the comments have been that if you want it to be more attractive, that site, you need to give the landowner the ability to, to invest. And I've previously disclosed that I represented Mr. Bockrath in him obtaining a use permit way back when, when Mr. Kanuha was the Planning Director. I'm not really sure. And so I've disclosed that I don't represent him, I haven't for a long time, I don't believe I have a conflict, but I think it's important to note that I had a previous relationship with Mr. Bockrath particularly on this site. And prior to that, I represented the previous owner, so I'm pretty familiar with that site and it's always been bothersome that you don't give the landowner the ability to make common sense use of their property so they can invest, so it doesn't become a blight to that peninsula. But at the same time, we don't wanna go to the extreme of doing things that people would be objectionable, which I think, I think having housing units that in the past has been a concern. But I'm open to that. And, oh, another comment I wanted to know is in terms of the resort designation, does it go all the way down to where Mr. Inouye's property is? MORRISON: I'm not sure where his property is. DELIMA: It goes right up to Reed's Bay, the vacant lot right by Reed's Bay. MORRISON: So it is intended to mirror where this was here. So we can look at that closer if it doesn't mirror that, but that was the intent behind the map. DELIMA: So the resort designation does allow for condo use as well? MORRISON: Yes. So just point of clarification for you folks about what this map does, right, it guides future land use decisions. So it does not change anybody's zoning, it doesn't change their permitted uses, they'd have to still go through that process. But, in going through that process, this map would then be guiding that decision-making. DELIMA: So the land use designation would allow for condo use? MORRISON: Resort, yes, does allow for condominium use. DELIMA: Okay. What about mixed condo? Page 4 of 19 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency August 28,2019 Minutes MORRISON: I wonder if I have DELIMA: Cause some of the thoughts was that maybe there might be a future investor that would come in, build like a senior citizen resort where you have mixed commercial, you know, commercial on the first two floors and then above that, you know, senior living units. MORRISON: So I do have the definition of resort in my notes that it is a mix of visitor-related uses such as hotels, condominium hotels, single-family and multi-family residential units, golf courses and other typical resort recreational facilities, resort commercial complexes and other support services. DELIMA: Well sounds like it encompasses everything. Okay. Thank you very much. MORRISON: You're welcome. DELIMA: Very intrigued by this whole process. Thank you. GADDIS: Yeah, I just had a quick question. You were talking about sort of these overlay zones that you're going to be identifying, you know, areas to in the future restrict new projects and things. Where, how are you guys ID-ing those zones and what studies are you pulling from, or do you have to do new studies to identify them? What's that process? MORRISON: So let me get back to that policy just so that we can see what it says here. So this one is talking about a natural hazard overlay zone and so we have many different geographic maps that show our hazard zones already, and so we'd have to get into the details of that particular policy and what, what's included in it, but for example on the coastline, right, we do have tsunami inundation mapping, we do have designated flood area mapping, we do have hurricane. We have quite a bit of information. GADDIS: I was thinking more sea level rise. If you guys were incorporating that into those overlays. MORRISON: Yes, and we do have the sea level rise vulnerability report that the State put together and so that's what we've incorporated into this plan. GADDIS: Okay. And just for a point of clarification, so you said that the open zoning, open space is basically been converted to the word"natural" and kept all its MORRISON: In some places GADDIS: bolts and nuts so to speak. Page 5 of 19 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency August 28,2019 Minutes MORRISON: Yeah. So we'd have to look at the definitions of those different things but really, it's about understanding what the appropriate use is of that property. And so, I think again, I'd appreciate some guidance or discussion about if natural is the appropriate GADDIS: I think just like Brian's been mentioning, and it seems like you guys put a lot of leg work into trying to make that happen, but just that it would fit, whether it fits kind of the intended use that was developed in the conceptual plan. You know, community and cultural center was like a huge part of the future, you know, idea. MORRISON: Yeah, so I think recreational GADDIS: What restrictions, what restrictions would be placed MORRISON: —might make sense. GADDIS: on a building like that? You know, what that would encompass in the future. That would be my main question, I guess. MORRISON: Okay, okay. That's good. GADDIS: Does anyone else have any questions pertaining to General Plan, draft General Plan? ONISHL I have a question. GADDIS: Go ahead Mr. Onishi. ONISHI: So if you go back to your map MORRISON: Yes. ONISHL So around the resort area on the coastline, you have that recreation. How does that relate to the current footprint of that resort area zoning? And so it looks, it seems like looking at this other map that that recreation area has expanded significantly. I don't know how proportional that is. MORRISON: Thank you for that question. So part of the definition of that recreational area is that it applies to the shoreline setback area, and so in order to show that on a map the scale gets a little bit skewed so that it shows up. Otherwise it's a very thin line around the island. So in this particular case you'll notice that it goes the whole way, right. That is just the shoreline setback area so it wouldn't, it might not be the scale to which you're seeing in here. ONISHL Okay, and so in regards to one of the issues which is sea level rise, how do you determine where the existing coastline is, and what is the potential impact on sea level rise over Page 6 of 19 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency August 28,2019 Minutes the 25 year plan? How do you, you know, determine where the boundaries are that you would allow for development? MORRISON: We are incorporating the 3.2 foot recommendation that the State report put together, and so I don't have it reflecting on this map, but we do have it in our, in our mapping component. And then that doesn't, let's see—the way that we're using that is looking at coastal hazard areas. We don't have a specific policy saying to apply sea level rise and assume any kind of managed retreat from that line or anything like that, but we are incorporating it into this hazard area which will have then the conditions for land use, citing, and design within that area. ONISHL So again, when you're looking at development, you're looking at a long-term project, somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 to 60, maybe even 70 years. Given what a lot of people believe in terms of climate change and sea level rise, this plan may not be incorporating the total impact of sea level rise over the life of a project. So you may be exposing a potential development to that impact, right? Because I mean I know on Oahu, in Waikiki, they're talking about how do they begin to migrate from the coast inland and where inland. Because right now their map shows flooding all the way up to Ala Wai Canal. So, how do you guys look at this? Because this is a guiding factor, right, for future development, but that future development has a long life span. MORRISON: So I, I'd have to get into all of the different policies and the plan that talk about sea level rise, but we—the next part of this process, General Plan lays out a kind of a broad framework and then we get into our codes and our regulations and start to make adjustments to be in line with that broad framework. And so the broad framework is telling us that we need to understand these hazard areas and set appropriate conditions and then when we start to go and look at our codes, and look at our shoreline set back policy, that's the opportunity to have that more defined, I guess, conversation. And we are working in partnership with the rest of the counties right now to understand how to best incorporate sea level rise into these codes and regulations. And so working with City and County certainly, Kauai„ we're all working together with the Climate Commission to really kind of get into the—now we have the maps, we understand our vulnerable areas, but it's not as easy as just saying, "Okay from this line makai we're not gonna have any more developments," it's a little bit more refined than that. So I'm hoping that we continue these conversations with the Climate Commission folks and other counties, and in the meantime, we'll be moving forward with the General Plan and then start doing our code updates so that we can incorporate those kind of best practices about how to include sea level rise as a shoreline setback policy or as if we're trying to do managed retreat, I don't think we're going to get to that level, but I think it could be a shoreline setback policy. ONISHL I guess my concern is that the resort area is very limited in terms of where it is now, and what you're proposing to continue. But something like sea level rise moving forward 40 years from now could change that area significantly inland to eliminate lot of that resort designation. And at this point, there's no, nothing in the plan except I guess where Seaside is that allows for additional resort development. Whether it gets developed or it doesn't get developed, I think how would you go about saying, okay, well we won't approve the, because of hazardous Page 7 of 19 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency August 28,2019 Minutes issues we won't approve a project unless it is set back say 50 yards from the shoreline because your projects gonna be there for the next 70 years or more, but there's nothing across the street to allow for any development if that's what's needed in order to redevelop this whole peninsula. MORRISON: Right. That, that's a very good question and frankly internally we've, we've been struggling with this a little bit. About, you know,would it be more appropriate to have some areas on this side more mauka, but we don't have anything really guiding that unless, unless we're just relying on kind of the hazard conversation. And so I think I'd look to you folks to say, you know, this is what the plan was that you guys had put together, but we could have a conversation—because the other thing, right, is that this whole area becomes problematic too, right, with sea level rise. It starts to, as the king tides come in this entire area is a low-lying area. So when you look on the map, what's the highest elevation I think in this area and that would mean probably somewhere over in this area will be the highest elevation if we wanted to try and put, start allowing for that movement to happen from the sea inland. So I think that's a great, great conversation. ONISHL Well one of the discussions at the State Legislature in terms of the idea of the redevelopment of Banyan Drive peninsula is that it has to be something that people would be able to invest in. So location is paramount to where they would be willing to site development. So, you know, I mean again, if you're putting it too far away from the best locations, you might have it designated but nobody's gonna be willing to develop it because just the development situation. Where the primary resort area is, at this point, is probably the, the best locations, but it also has these hazard threats. Right? Like sea level rise, king tides. We already see it flooding. MORRISON: Right. ONISHL So again, you know,there's, there's very little designation or options designated for future development. And you know, I don't propose to have any expertise on what are, what would be the criteria for somebody to come in with 200, 300, half a billion dollars to invest in Banyan Drive, so. You know, what would be the site location that they would be looking for, or the criteria, so. I know it's hard for you guys to come up with an idea of that not knowing what developers would be looking for, right? So, I just want to bring that up. MORRISON: I think the other thing that I didn't include here was the economic study that was done maybe 2015, I can't remember. Kind of understanding what the, what the visitor unit counts were on Banyan Drive and if those were sufficient or not. And so that could be another place that we look a little closer to understanding kind of what the capacity is for Banyan Drive versus what it might be 50 years from now if some of those impacts start to happen. GADDIS: I actually just had one more question on that and I do want to keep it moving, but where do County and the State either match up to this or to what extent is the County in charge of setting these overlay zones and to what extent might that conflict with State planning? Or are they really nicely fused, or I'm just bringing that up in the event that, you know, because we're dealing with this situation sometimes a proposed plan can come out and the State might Page 8 of 19 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency August 28,2019 Minutes say, "okay, excellent," and the County might have something that conflicts with that, so. I'm assuming the answer is not simple, but I'll turn it over to DLNR and Planning here. HEIT: Gordon Heit, DLNR Land Division. I think it's always been the intent that the State agency would work collaboratively with the County on any type of developments. We did the studies back in, I believe 2014, I came up with the sea level rise, the economic future, potential future of the area. So, going forward with that, we would need to work with you folks on any type of plan, design, and development. GADDIS: Any other questions before TANIGUCHI: I have a question. Barry Taniguchi. Pardon my ignorance, but where else in East Hawaii are you going to allow some kind of, not necessarily resort development but hotel development? I can foresee where Hilo will grow, we're gonna need hotels of a lesser quality like Courtyards for business travelers and things like that, but I don't know where we do we have any land? MORRISON: I would have to look at the overall picture. I know there's still some out Keaukaha, a little bit farther, and then all of Downtown Hilo is a high density urban which would allow for those type of uses. Again you'd have to, you might have to change the zoning to do those things, but at least the future land use designation would allow for those type of uses. So I think that we do have other areas. The other thing that we're seeing in this plan is that large resort kind of areas are not really what is driving visitor accommodations. It's more of the retreat, lodge, or bed and breakfasts that are accommodating folks traveling. And so there's a lot in the plan about where those smaller scale type of facilities should be located, and I think we could look at Hilo but also understand that the other areas around Hilo also accommodate visitors too. TANIGUCHI: Right. MORRISON: Right? But I think that, that's a valid question. GADDIS: Thank you so much for the presentation. We really appreciate it. MORRISON: Thank you, Nathan. 2. Open discussion between the Banyan Drive Hawai`i Redevelopment Agency (BDHRA) and Representative Richard H.K. Onishi regarding future government actions, near and long- range plans, and legislative initiatives relating to the BDHRA's fulfillment of its obligations within that portion of the Banyan Drive Redevelopment Area as defined by Hawai`i County Council Resolution 481-16. Page 9 of 19 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency August 28,2019 Minutes The Agency took this item up at 2:47 p.m. with approximately 5 members of the public in attendance. GADDIS: So we can move on to the next business of the agency which is open discussion between agency and Representative Richard Onishi who was kind enough to join us today regarding any future government actions, long-range plans, and legislative initiatives regarding the agency's fulfillment of its obligations and, Mr. Onishi if you want to say anything you can start, if not we canoh, go ahead. ONISHL Okay. Thank you, Nate for this opportunity to be here. Last year there were two specific bills introduced regarding the development of Banyan Drive. The first one was 1219, which is the establishment of a planning committee, I guess somewhat under the Department of Land and Natural Resources, although not really specific, but really under the—sort of attached to that. GADDIS: Sub-agency of sorts? ONISHL Yeah. Okay, that bill, that particular bill, that's the second time that it was introduced. It got all the way to conference committee. There were House and Senate conferees appointed, but the bill did not come out of conference. The second bill was HB 910, which was funding for an infrastructure study to be done by the State Office of Planning to try to determine what is the current condition of the infrastructure Banyan Drive, what items are in current need of repair, improvement, modification, or alteration. The barriers that hinder or prevent the timely redevelopment, enhancement, or reconstruction of Banyan Drive area and recommendations regarding repairs, improvements, modifications, or alterations to reduce or eliminate the barriers to the possible redevelopment, enhancement, or reconstruction of the Banyan Drive area. That bill passed the House but was not given a hearing in the Senate's last committee which was the Ways and Means committee. GADDIS: What was the required funding for that bill, or do you recall? ONISHL I don't have the original version of the bill which has the funding. GADDIS: No problem. ONISHL But obviously as most bills initially get introduced there's a funding amount. I think it might have been about $250,000? ROY: Yeah, it was $250, I have it here. The study will be funded with the $250,000 appropriation. ONISHL Right. So typically those bills out of the first committee get blanked out as they move through the process and then the funding gets added back at the end. Page 10 of 19 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency August 28,2019 Minutes GADDIS: And what was the funding for House Bill 1219,just to remind all of us, the funding that had been approved for that one as it went into conference. ONISHL I believe the funding mechanisms was 50 percent of the revenue in the designated zone, in this case would've been the Banyan Drive peninsula. I believe it's somewhere, $900,000 annually, so it would be half of that, plus I think there was a $300,000 appropriation by the Legislature. GADDIS: From the House. Okay, yeah. Okay. ONISHL So it would've started out with about $800,000 for the committee. GADDIS: Yeah, so just to clarify for everyone, so that one's technically still alive. ONISHL Well both technically are still alive. GADDIS: Both are technically still alive, yeah. So for them to move through at this stage they would need to be scheduled for conference basically? Scheduled for conference committee? What would be the next step? ONISHL Yeah, because in the conference the House was ready to move the Bill, the Senate was not, so in order for it to go back to conference you'd have to get the Senate to agree to re- designate conferees and then be willing to move the bill. TANIGUCHI: At this stage it's back into the Legislative houses? ONISHI: No. No. It's in conference. It's still in conference. So the conferees are probably discharged at the end of session. So what would need to be done is new conferees or the same conferees re-appointed and then because it is a house bill, the House would then take lead on hearing the bill in conference committee and then trying to come up with an agreement on the bill and then moving it to the floor for vote. GADDIS: So just a little bit of my own ignorance here cause I wasn't too familiar with 910, House Bill 910, before I came into this, this position, but to what extent did that differ from the proposed peninsula-wide environmental impact statement that have been proposed in the past? ONISHL I don't know. GADDIS: Yeah. ONISHL Because this was more specific GADDIS: Economic impact study. Page 11 of 19 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency August 28,2019 Minutes ONISHL to looking at what are the, what's the infrastructure that's there, what is the condition, what would need to be done in order to facilitate the redevelopment or the development of the Banyan Drive. So, it was really more specific to look at what may be, at least the initial costs, and what may be the needs on redevelopment of that area, whether it's utility, the utilities like electrical, water, sewage, the roadway conditions, you know that kind of stuff so. GADDIS: Are there any existing studies, Gordon, for those things that have been done on the DLNR side as far as HEIT: Yeah actually, we have done studies, again going back to 2014, we did studies on the sea level plus the economic conditions of the existing properties. All those three that Mr. Inouye mentioned, Country Club, the former Uncle Billy's, and Reed's Bay Hotel. Plus we've also done, I believe, analysis on the potential future of those buildings and the resulting conclusion was those were suitable for demolition and renovation with the exception of Reed's Bay Hotel which did have an extended lifeline on it. TANIGUCHI: Fifteen years. HEIT: So we're probably at ten years now, but definitely Country Club and the Uncle Billy's was slated for complete demolition. GADDIS: Okay. Yeah, I think those two bills are pretty clear. Anyone can ask any questions they want about them at this point. Go ahead Barry. TANIGUCHI: I have a question. What's happening with Uncle Billy's? HEIT: We're in a holding pattern right now. It's, you know, we've had quotes on the cost of demolition. Actually, we presented a bill to the Legislature for getting funds to demolish it and it didn't make it through the House, I don't think. I guess the cost was anywhere from eight to ten million dollars. So we were asking for four million, five million, but we couldn't get the funding so right now it's just in a holding pattern right now. It needs to be taken care of, it needs to be addressed. We just, you know, trying to find the funding to do it. ONISHL So I think just to update what Gordon is saying, the bill did get introduced. I think the House's concern was that DLNR put out an RFI, which required the demolition by the proposer. And they received one response and that one response was willing to only provide funding for partial, the partial cost. Not the full cost. So in essence it wasn't responsive to the RFI and so the question was why is DLNR coming in for funding when it's part of the RFI for the development of that property. And, you know, again, I think the House has concerns on the issue of sea level rise, king tides, that's now affecting all of the Waikiki, almost all of the Waikiki properties. So the last, not, not this, well, I'm not sure if it was the beginning of this year, but there's about a half a dozen Waikiki properties that basements flood when there's the king tides, so again the problem is growing. Page 12 of 19 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency August 28,2019 Minutes HEIT: The real(inaudible) issue of Banyan Drive the Hilo Hawaiian Hotel experiences the same issue with the king tides. Water's actually reached the building. So it is a concern with us, you know, and how we move forward with it. Very much a concern. GADDIS: Go ahead, please. DELIMA: It's kind of interesting because when they, the way they designed the Hilo Hawaiian, it's designed to anticipate the rising tides. So I think in a lot of ways I don't disagree with anything the Representative has said in regards to planning for the rising tides, but I think in the long run it really comes right down to design and planning. I mean this is a tsunami area, usually a building code requires structures to be built with the idea that water would come in and inundate that area. So you would not build it where you're—I mean look at the restaurant, what is that HEIT: Nihon. DELIMA: Nihon Restaurant's built on stilts. But I do wanna, I do wanna just have a practical comment about the reality of everything in regards to the land. The land there is mostly State land leases. I made a comment about a fee simple piece of property at near the Lilikoi [sic] Park because I'm concerned that if we don't give a land owner reasonable use that the previous designation of open was a regulatory taking because it denies the land owner reasonable use. So they're coming up with a different term, but in event I'd really appreciate recognition that some of these land owners who own their properties fee simple need to have a basic fair return on their ownership of the property. Now there are some people who have leases and the term of the leases have expired. When they got the lease they knew what they were getting and I have less sympathy for them but I realize the circumstances that if they're operating a viable business that has, they've taken care of it and there's no one to step in or bid, you know, I got no problem with them continuing on a month-to-month basis until some interest comes about. So that takes us to the reality of what is. And what is, is that you have a land owner, a person who has a lease on the Naniloa propery and we weren't in existence when that lease was given out. But that lease provides a lease for the golf course. So in reality, the only player in that area for development of any resort is that lease holder. Because Uncle Billy's, there's no parking. You cannot replace the density of Uncle Billy's with the existing regulations regarding adequate parking. So the only person that could actually put together an investment proposal is the leaseholder of the Naniloa property. So the liability to the State to have a depleted hotel that needs to be knocked down they gotta deal with it sooner or later cause it's attractive nuisance. They know it is. It's going to, the first teenager that goes,jumps over the fence, goes in there, gets injured is gonna have a lawsuit against the State because it's an attractive nuisance and the State is not being diligent in knocking the structure down. So I agree with the Representative, you gotta come up with a proposal but we gotta basically come up with a, let these people develop what is possible to be developed. Not give it away, but give them a fair opportunity to, to develop. Now I've talked to that, I forget his name, Ed Bushor. I've spoken to Mr. Bushor and his vision is trying to develop a mini Hilton Village in the peninsula by developing a Hilton brand, I guess ais it a Courtyard? Double Tree. In that Uncle Billy's place using the parking in the area, maybe you know, Page 13 of 19 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency August 28,2019 Minutes switching it, who knows. But I—and then the Country Club they would try to redesign that into some type of suite type of hotel. Hey, I think that's a great idea. If they can find investors to invest in our community, and then I think that would have a domino effect on the other properties in the area. Whether there'd be senior, senior upper, senior housingI'm not talking about senior housing where you get assistance, I'm talking about senior housing where people wanna come and retire, look at the ocean and have money in their bank accounts where they love walking around the area, maybe going in, going to a gym. Cause Hilo is a great community to live in. It has good weather, I mean people complain about the rain but the truth is the rain is really not that bad. It's a well-kept secret. And you know, we have a lot of nice, beautiful days like today, a little hot but we have beautiful breezes, and if you really wanted to, go up thirty miles you got air condition up Volcano area. So the long and short of it is I think we don't need to solve all the problems one time. I think we need to embrace someone who was smart enough to get a good lease with the State and we should allow them to leverage their position to create more opportunities for our community. We should have a can do attitude for that developer. Hey, he was smart enough to leverage that lease, let him try to attract other investments in that area. And I, you know, I got no problem that we go out of existence and have a super agency from the State. Whatever works to facilitate that. We should give him the key to the city if he can get a hotel built in Uncle Billy's place and fix up the area around the Country Club area. Hey, if he can make a lot of money so be it for him. I don't, I don't begrudge his ability to make money from his ideas and efforts. But we should give `um a chance. But unfortunately things are going too slow and then, you know, you gotta hit when the iron's hot and there's a lot of interest in the activities at the Naniloa. And I have no interest whatsoever. I don't represent the guy, never did, I just think that this is an opportunity that we need to embrace. So that's my two cents. TANIGUCHI: I have a question. What is the possibility or probability of doing a master lease development that somebody else run rather than the State? That whole peninsula. HEIT: Well we've looked at that possibility. Right now we have two existing leases on Banyan Drive, well with the exclusion of the Hilo Bay Cafe. Sorry three leases, two hotels, one apartment complex. So we have Hilo Hawaiian, Naniloa Resort, and the Bayview Banyan. We have three that are on month-to-month permits. The Country Club now has 121 oceanfront properties, is an apartment unit. Naniloa's Hilo Bay Resort is a hotel, and the Uncle Billy's is basically on month-to-month permit just for security purposes. Owners of the Naniloa have it just for security; they keep an eye on the place, they have, you know, guards going through so to keep it under control to prevent any type of unauthorized entry onto it. So to get a master lessee take over the place and entire peninsula would be a little difficult because of existing leases. Unless you're going to exclude them and just work with the properties that we do have available that we kind of put out. TANIGUCHI: You know like for example, Naniloa, I don't know whether they really want the golf course property. There's seven leases, I understand, under that one lease, with seven different parcels. Can they break it apart? If a master lessor comes in, can they break it apart and work with the lessor? Page 14 of 19 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency August 28,2019 Minutes HEIT: No. Actually it'd be difficult because the previous lease was like that. It was, actually was a separate lease for the golf course and I think there was like two or three other leases for the Naniloa complex. When they canceled that one and reissued a single lease included all those properties. But there is a, there is a provision in the lease that any, a government agency can come and claim the property. So they can withdraw portions of it with compensation. So it can be worked out, but it would require a lot of negotiation. Anything's possible. TANIGUCHI: I can foresee the golf course area all being redeveloped with new, new roadways, you know,just improving the whole thing. Giving more space inland so that the high water rise will—it's gonna affect the ocean side of the hotels but you gotta give them area to maybe make up some space. HEIT: Right, and if you looked at some of the previous plans that were submitted to this agency, I included that realignment of the Banyan Drive. So it was considered. And that's why again, we want to work with you folks on some type of master plan agreement before we can move forward with this. TANIGUCHI: But the State not going put in the money. HEIT: Yeah. ONISHL So I guess I wanna make two comments. One in regards to Uncle Billy's, there was, DLNR did provide the opportunity for people to look at that property and meet the minimum requirements of that RFI in order to develop that property. Like I said earlier, there was only one proposal and they didn't meet the requirements. So if that particular proposer felt like he could make money off of the minimum requirements then he should have done it, but he did not. So, you know, that's a moot issue to me at this point. The other thing is HB 1219 specifically establishes this committee in order with the expertise that's necessary to look at a plan that's developable. So right now, I, you know, and one of the problems that I have with the County's plan is I don't think anybody in terms of development has taken a look at this to look at, okay, what part, what parts would I be able to do, or am I able to do the whole thing given the fact that DLNR is able to establish a general lease with the exclusion of what's leased already, or something like that. Right? Or, working with these other lessees in order to come up with a master lease. But this particular bill allows for this committee to look at the leases, make adjustments to it, as with compensation as is provided by law. So what you are asking, Barry, is what this bill allows for. And initially we had, we had in the first bill established a two-year period for the committee once it's organized to come up with a master plan. That master plan then has to be vetted, well the process would be having it vetted in the community and then eventually presented to the board, the Land Board for approval at which time upon approval the committee could move forward with the development. So the people that were supposed to sit on the committee were specific. Hotel resort developers, land managers, you know, those people with expertise in the area of resort commercial development so that they would be able to look at, okay what makes sense. Page 15 of 19 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency August 28,2019 Minutes TANIGUCHI: And they would make the decision? They would make the decision or DLNR would make the decisions? ONISHL No, the board has to approve whatever the master plan comes up with. But it requires the whole process to include the community input. It has community representatives on that committee. TANIGUCHI: Is two years reasonable? ONISHI: I'm sorry? TANIGUCHI: Is two years reasonable? ONISHL Well, you know, that's why it got, that two year requirement got taken out of this bill because that question came up. So this bill now specifies that the committee would be disbanded once the plan is executed. The previous bill only gave the committee ten years. At which time whatever status would then be passed back to DLNR for continued management. After this plan is, if this bill passes and the committee comes up with a plan and it's executed, upon the execution and disbanding of this committee, everything would revert back to DLNR. TANIGUCHI: What about the possibility of a Kaka`dko kind of ONISHL That was explored couple years ago and to put it under the Hawaii Redevelopment Agency would require additional board members because, again, there's a structure already there to develop Kaka`ako and also Kawailoa. So that's both on Oahu. So all those people that are currently on the board are from there. We kinda looked at that as a model but establishing that anywhere in the state. So this bill, once passed, you could designate a development area anywhere in the state that is commercial resort, the lands designated except for, I think initially it was any land and there were problems with that so we identified specific types of lands that could be designated. That area has to be designated by the Legislature and then the committee appointed by the Governor, and you know, it would move forward. So it was in response to HCDA. TANIGUCHI: Yeah, okay. Thank you. GADDIS: Thank you, Mr. Onishi. I had just one more quick thing to put on—it's kind of been on the backburner from the Planning Department which is this idea of a peninsula-wide environmental impact statement being done. The current setup is if you take on, my understanding, if you take on a significant enough project it'll trigger a pretty costly environmental review at the time that you submit your, part of submitting a bid to take a lease would be a pretty costly environmental review on the part of the developer upfront before they even know whether or not they would get the lease. So there's been some discussion from Planning Department, I understand, about having a master environmental impact statement done Page 16 of 19 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency August 28,2019 Minutes to sort of streamline that process and hopefully remove that element from it so there's a little bit more incentive for people to step in without the burden of that costly environmental review upfront. And some of the concerns I've heard about that process, or having a peninsula-wide review have been, you know, how do you plan for that, how do you, you know, what if somebody wants to do something different. So I just wanted, if Planning can chime in briefly on that, you know, how flexible something like that could be. Like could you do a programmatic environmental impact statement where you say these are the basic parameters of what we would want to see at these various sites and if you step outside of that it's going to cost you more. What are the possibilities for, for that scenario? KANUHA: In order for that to be worthwhile, there needs to be more structure. I think that's where some of these bills were heading towards,providing more structure. There was some school of thought that perhaps to seek the funding to conduct this overall EIS would be an encouraging factor, but without the structure in place it's actually kind of premature. GADDIS: Anyone else have any questions, or comments, statements regarding the discussion? Go ahead Mr. DeLima. DELIMA: I do want to indicate that I agree with the Representative that if you, if we need to have an agency, preferably by the State to have the lead authority on getting this thing moving because I don't think this group is gonna have the ability to effectuate anything. Because even that RFI process, the RFI process was to develop whether there was any interest of someone to obtain a long-term lease. And the reason only one person had any interest was cause only one person had the leverage to do so. And you know, they wanted to condition their ability because it required that whoever showed interest and was going to obtain it had to put up the money for the assessment and EIS for the actual demolition itself. So here we want someone to indicate interest, there's really only one player in town to do it, and then we want them to put up the money in order to potentially be able to get the lease. So I think if we had a board like what Representative Onishi is proposing, and get the thing moving, maybe they can enter into a memorandum of understanding on that aspect of it and everything else can fall into place. But the sooner we get this thing moving in that direction the better it is for all of us. I appreciate the Representative,he is our representative from Hilo so I think he's doing a good job at moving this along so, thank you Representative Onishi. GADDIS: Yeah, I just want to echo that. Thank you so much for coming out. If no one else anyone else have anything they wanna add? Go ahead Mr. Onishi. ONISHL One final comment. So, you know, DLNR has a responsibility of managing the lands and trying to get the appropriate use and to generate income to help support the department. They, it is difficult for them to consider something like, "hey, you know what, if you're willing to give up Banyan Drive, I mean the golf course, and revert it back to the State so the State can redevelop it, we might consider assisting you with securing the Uncle Billy's property for your use, right? And come up with some agreement on, ok, how do we take down the old place, etcetera. That is very difficult for the department to do under the current law, under the current Page 17 of 19 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency August 28,2019 Minutes staffing situation. And again, you know, I mean I think that's the challenge of the department. Brian, you mentioned that DLNR is not necessarily the best player to be looking at land development. Again, that's why we specifically looked at this bill. We've done a number of studies, we've done a number of task force over the years that has really gotten us nowhere. So this was more of a concrete getting people together, coming up with something, and then trying to move forward from there. So even a good example, Brian, I think is once a plan is developed the board can then say, "hey you know what, before we gonna approve this, we want an EA done to give us an assessment," and go to the Leg, get the funding, to have it done before we'll consider doing it. Or they may even say do an EIS, or they may say, "you know what, we feel like we're willing to approve it, let whoever's going to develop take on that challenge,"right? So, but again, without something like Brian said, "really concrete,"it's hard to move forward and I think Duane mentioned the same thing. Thank you again for the opportunity. I'm available anytime. GADDIS: Thank you so much for coming. With that said we'll move on to Administrative Matters which is basically just approval of minutes from our last board meeting on April 24, 2019. ADMINISTRATIVE MATTERS 1. Approval of minutes from the April 24, 2019, Banyan Drive Hawai`i Redevelopment Agency meeting. The Agency took this item up at 3:21 p.m. GADDIS: We would just need a motion to approve. DELIMA: So moved. TANIGUCHI: Second. GADDIS: Second by Mr. Taniguchi. All those in favor say aye. ALL: Aye. GADDIS: Ayes have it. Minutes are approved. ANNOUNCEMENTS 1. Next meeting tentatively scheduled for Wednesday, April 24, 2019, at the Aupuni Center Conference Room. The Agency took this item up at 3:21 p.m. Page 18 of 19 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency August 28,2019 Minutes GADDIS: Only announcements we have are our next scheduled meeting, it is on Wednesday, September 25, 2019 at County Building, Aupuni Center Conference Room, and we'll keep you all posted on that of course and confirm in advance. Thank you everybody for coming, so much. Meeting adjourned at 3:22 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Kim Tanaka, Secretary ATTEST : Nathan Gaddis, Chairman Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency Page 19 of 19 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency August 28,2019 Minutes