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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2005-09-02 TPDO1 PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAII HEARING TRANSCRIPT SEPTEMBER 2, 2005 A regularly advertised hearing on the AMENDMENT TO CHAPTER 25 (ZONING CODE) was called to order at 10:07 a.m. in the County Building, Councilroom  Room 201, 25 Aupuni Street, Hilo, Hawaii, with Chairman Fred Galdones presiding: PRESENT:Fred Galdones ABSENT & EXCUSED: William Graham C. Kimo Alameda Jeffrey McCall Andrew Iwashita Rodney Watanabe Allen Salavea Rene€ Siracusa Hannah Springer Ivan Torigoe, Deputy Corporation Counsel ChristopherYuen,PlanningDirector Norman Hayashi, Planning Program Manager Phyllis Fujimoto, Staff Planner Jeff Darrow, Staff Planner And one person from the public in attendance. INITIATOR: PLANNINGDIRECTOR Amendment to Chapter 25 (Zoning Code), Hawaii County Code, by deleting the Plan Approval and Landscaping requirements for the construction of one single family dwelling and accessory buildings per lot within the various zoning districts. GALDONES:Commissioners, we are on Agenda Item No. 4. The initiator is the Planning Director. This is an amendment to Chapter 25 (Zoning Code), Hawaii County Code, by deleting the Plan Approval and Landscaping requirements for the construction of one single family dwelling and accessory buildings per lot within the various zoning districts. Mr. Yuen. YUEN:The current Zoning Code requires a stage called plan approval for all construction in the commercial, resort and industrial zones, including single family homes. Plan approval is a step where the applicant submits something that€s close to the plans that they would submit for a building permit, not necessarily with all the structural details but it would show the building, the setbacks, the parking, the proposed landscaping; and it would be reviewed by staff and then given, and signed off as a plan approval. And then after that, there€s a submission of the building permit which is then also reviewed by staff and signed off from the planning point of view. 1EXHIBIT C What Planning Department looks at for plan approval typically in a commercial or resort building is setbacks from the property lines, landscaping which is required by Rule 17 for those types of buildings, and the adequacy of parking. And they also look at things like the way the parking flows around the building. So this is more of a site design issue and it€s done -. You don€t see them here at the Planning Department, I mean, at the Planning Commission. It€s done as a stage typically after a rezoning has been done. You€ll notice that in some of your applications we will say they have to get plan approval; and that€s, for those it€s a way of checking up on the conditions, that the conditions of approval are followed through in the actual thing that€s submitted. Then at a building permit typically you look at many of the same things all over again. You wouldn€t look at the parking but you would still look at the setbacks from the building to the property line. What we€ve seen in the last few years is that we have a lot of single family homes that are being built in resort zones. This has been one of the biggest trends in land use on the island in the last decade.ManyofthesitesthatwerezonedforhotelsinplaceslikeMaunaLanihave,orzonedin some cases for multi-family buildings have been subdivided and sold for single family residences, really typically high end single family residences. Examples would be 49 Black Sands Subdivision that actually just came in for rezoning from RM to single family residential, the Pauoa Bay Estates residential development in Mauna Lani, and there are many other examples of this. So what happens in these, and we€re talking, Kukio is another example, the Kaupulehu Resort is another example. So what we€re seeing here is that right now we see dozens of homes. In the future we€ll have hundreds of homes coming into these resort areas. And the Planning Department side there€s two steps of processing that essentially duplicate each other. The first comes the plan approval. Because they€re in a resort zone or in a multi-family zone, it needs a plan approval. And second comes the building permit stage which is also necessary. In looking at this we decided that the plan approval is not necessary for a single family residence. In a single family residential zone, you don€t need plan approval. You don€t, the issue of the use of the property is checked at the building permit stage to see that it is an allowed use. The setbacks will be checked at the building permit stage. And any other conditions of approval, say, of a rezoning ordinance, will be typically done at the subdivision review or at the stage of, or also could be done with the building permit. So to try to eliminate unnecessary work for both the Planning Department and for the private applicant, we€ve suggested this amendment to the Zoning Code. 2EXHIBIT C 3EXHIBIT C 4EXHIBIT C Sharon M. Nomura, East Hawaii Secretary 5EXHIBIT C