HomeMy WebLinkAboutCommunication No. 2022-20 Chuck Flaherty Article Sierrra ClubIs the Hawaiʻi County Planning Director Disabling Community-Based Planning?
by Chuck Flaherty, Hawaiʻi Island Group Executive Committee Chair | Reading time: 4
minutes
On August 18, 2022, the Hawaiʻi County Planning Director, Zendo Kern, sent a letter
to the county’s six volunteer Community Development Plan Action Committees
(CDP AC) that began:
"Aloha CDP Action Committee Members,
Due to recent staffing changes in the Long-Range Division within the Planning
Department, it has become necessary to adjust staff time and resources. This
means staff will unfortunately not have the capacity to organize or facilitate AC
meetings for the foreseeable future."
This announcement caused great alarm and consternation among the members of
the CDP AC, the county council and the many, many hundreds of residents who
volunteered their time, energy, and expertise to develop the CDPs, as well as those
who have served on and supported the Action Committees over the years. The
Planning Department’s withdrawal of support for the CDP AC’s has coincided with
several luxury developments submitting applications to build in one of the last
undeveloped areas of the Hawaiian islands where the traditional culture of Hawaiʻi
remains a way of life in the southwest part of Hawaiʻi Island, an area that is larger
than the island of Oahu. The six CDPs were adopted as law beginning in 2008 and
require the Planning Department to work with the CDP ACs to manifest the goals,
objectives, and actions detailed in each. One of the biggest questions is whether
the Planning Director has the legal authority to withdraw support of the CDP ACs
since that undermines the ability of the CDP laws to be administered as intended
by those laws. Also, there are questions as to whether the Sunshine Law was
violated when at two publicly noticed CDP AC agendas did not list a discussion of
changes being made, though that was an agenda item during the meetings. The
CPDs can be seen here.
The alarm increased when one month later, invitations were sent to "key
stakeholders" that began:
"Aloha: The County of Hawaiʻi (COH) is embarking on an approximately 18-month
process to review and update its zoning and subdivision codes (Chapters 25 and 23
of the 1983 Hawaiʻi County Code, respectively). COH is supported in this effort by a
Communication Number 2022-20
consultant team including Rundell Ernstberger Associates, Orion Planning and
Design, and SSFM International."
The consultant team are all mainland-based companies, which the community
knows from past unfortunate experience will be inherently unable to understand
and give proper consideration of Hawaiian cultural values and the environmental
resources upon which these values depend. The Zoning and Subdivision update
website is here.
Further complicating the situation for Hawaiʻi Island community-based volunteer
efforts, the county Planning Department is also in the midst of a revision of the
county General Plan, the comprehensive law that guides development on Hawaiʻi
Island. The legality of the revision process is also in question because rather than
truly revising the current GP with changes shown through Ramseyer formatting, the
draft GP has no references to the current GP. The new GP would would effectively
be “gut-and-replace” legislation rather than a revision or update of existing law. The
current and draft GPs can be seen here.
After being nominated and confirmed, the Planning Director was required to
implement a “firewall” because his planning consulting firm had many past, current,
and future clients making applications to the Planning Department. Despite
numerous requests, the Planning Director has not produced a copy of an internal
memo containing written procedures that would allow an independent party to
determine whether or not the “firewall” is sufficient to prevent the Planning
Director’s conflicts of interest from having any undue influence on the employees
of the Planning Department involved with any application process.
A final concern is the fact the Planning Director has reportedly invalidated all past
internal memos, which would have included, for instance, one that prescribed
Planning Department policy and procedure to assure adequate protection of
historic and cultural resources in light of a historically “broken” State Historic
Preservation Division.
The bottom line is the Hawaiʻi County Planning Director is taking actions without
consideration of pragmatic effects on volunteer community-based planning
efforts. The pandemic and the social and economic challenges it has brought into
the homes and families of all residents of Hawai’i have been overwhelming for
many. The Planning Director’s actions over the past year have increasingly
challenged the community’s ability to provide constructive, effective input, while at
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the same time further assisting paid, wealthy special interests which already
dominate planning decision-making processes.
We urge the Planning Director to take actions, such as funding and staffing to
restore the partnership the Planning Department had with the CDP ACs, and
proposing a true revision of the current GP while also revising the CDPs to have
uniformity of format with GP to ensure more effective and efficient administration
of these laws, thereby providing for a safe and healthy future for all Hawaiʻi citizens.
We also strongly urge County Council to hold a public hearing, as soon as possible,
on these sweeping and extremely troubling changes.
Communication Number 2022-20