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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007-09-07 TENVISION PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAI‘I HEARING TRANSCRIPT SEPTEMBER 7, 2007 A regularly advertised hearing on the presentation by ENVISION DOWNTOWN HILO was called to order at 9:11 a.m.in the County of Hawaii, Aupuni Center Conference Room, 101 Pauahi Street, Hilo, Hawaii with Chairman William R. Graham presiding. PRESENT: William R. Graham ABSENT & EXCUSED: C. Kimo Alameda Takashi Domingo Alvin Rho Andrew Iwashita Shelly Ogata Rene’ Siracusa Rodney Watanabe Rell Woodward Ivan Torigoe, Deputy Corporation Counsel Christopher Yuen, Planning Director Jeff Darrow, Staff Planner And approximately 16 people from the public in attendance ENVISION DOWNTOWN HILO Presentation by The EnVision Downtown Hilo 2025 (EDH 2025) VisionKeepers on their first Annual Report covering the period from January 2006-June 2007. The Annual Report summarizes the first 1-1/2 years of the VisionKeepers accomplishments for the EnVision Downtown Hilo 2025: Community-based Vision and Living Action Plan for Downtown Hilo. The EDH 2025 Plan was adopted by County Council Resolution 192-05 on November 22, 2005. GRAHAM: Our first agenda item is a presentation by the EnVision Downtown Hilo 2025 VisionKeepers, and it’s a presentation of the first Annual Report. And the objective of this EnVision Downtown Hilo is a Community-based Vision and Living Action Plan for the Downtown Hilo area. Jeff, you want to give us a few words on that? DARROW: Sure. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning, Members of the Planning Commission, Mr. Chairman. The EnVision Downtown Hilo Plan 2025 was originated in December of 2005, for those of you that may have been on board with the Planning Commission might remember the plan coming before the Planning Commission. The group that put this plan together has requested that they come before the Planning Commission to be able to do an annual progress report and report on the progress that has been made over the past year with the report. I’ve been asked to introduce Kylie Ann Alexandra who’s the community planning assistant, as well as Paul EXHIBIT A 1 Nash who’s the chair of VisionKeepers. They’re going to be the members today that will bring forth the presentation. GRAHAM: Thank you, Jeff. I have one testifier; and I guess it’s sort of discretionary whether testifiers speak first or speaks afterwards.But maybe it’s good to take the testimony first in case they bring anything to our attention that we should be paying attention to while we get the presentation. So, if you would, please, Larry Black, could you come forward and sit up at the table. BLACK: Could I ask a question? GRAHAM: Yeah, but usually if you’re going to give testimony we’d like you to sit down and swear you in, do all of that. BLACK: Okay. I guess I’d like to wait and hear the presentation first, if I may. Okay? GRAHAM: Okay. We’ll hold off on public testimony for now since that’s better for you. BLACK: It would be. GRAHAM: Sure. BLACK: Thank you. GRAHAM: So with their presentation, folks, please come up here first. And part of our protocol is to swear you in before you give any testimony. So do you swear or affirm to tell the truth before the Hawaii County Planning Commission today on this matter? NASH: I do. ALEXANDRA: I do. GRAHAM: Thank you. And we’d like your name and your address before you speak to us. But either one of you can start with that and go right into your presentation as to however you’d like. Okay? ALEXANDRA: Okay. My name is Kylie Alexandra and my home address is 342A Ohai Street, Hilo, 96720. NASH: And I am Paul Nash. My address is 15-2724 Welea Street, Pahoa, Hawaii. GRAHAM: Good. Then carry on. Thank you. EXHIBIT A 2 ALEXANDRA: Okay. Well, first of all we’d like to thank you for allowing us to be here today. And we’d also like to especially appreciate Chris Yuen for his continuing support for EnVision -. SIRACUSA: Excuse me. Could you either speak up or get closer to the mike. ALEXANDRA: Okay. Okay. Is that better? SIRACUSA: Thank you. ALEXANDRA: Sorry. SIRACUSA: I want to hear you. ALEXANDRA: As I was saying, we’d like to extend our appreciation to Chris Yuen for his support of EnVision Downtown Hilo 2025 as a model implementation project. Now in September 2005 Alice Moon and Susan Gagorik from the Friends of Downtown Hilo Steering Committee came before the Planning Commission to present the original document which was entitled EnVision Downtown Hilo 2025, a Community-based Vision and Living Action Plan. So this is the document that they presented to you at that time. If anyone was not on the Commission at that time, we do have some spare copies that we have with Sharon, so you can collect those today. Since then, a new committee has been formed to oversee implementation of EnVision Downtown Hilo, and that is the VisionKeepers. The mission of the EnVision Downtown Hilo VisionKeepers is to energize, guide, inspire, and strengthen partnerships within the community to implement the living action plan. We are now 1 ½ years into the phase of implementation and so we’re presenting our first Annual Progress Report which outlines the progress that has been made from January 2006 through June 2007. At this time we’d also like to request to amend the cover page of the Annual Report to include the date it was published, which is August 2007. And if I may please move over to the board to make a presentation. Okay. First of all, I’d like to identify the project area by referring to the map of Downtown Hilo. So you can see here the project area for EnVision Downtown Hilo which follows the Commercial District in the Zoning Code for Downtown Hilo. But some of the actions within the plan do extend beyond the boundary area. And we recognize that Downtown Hilo is a very unique place, partly because of its location, nestled in between Mauna Kea and Hilo Bay. Now I’d like to refer to the Overarching vision for EnVision Downtown Hilo, which is this here. Now this was the community’s vision that they articulated for 2025; and it’s a pretty broad vision. So because of that, the Living Action Plan itself is fairly EXHIBIT A 3 comprehensive. Within the Living Action Plan we have it broken down into six different Focus Areas. Those Focus Areas are creating economic vitality, preserving our environment, strengthening and sustaining our community, enhancing education, culture and the arts, promoting health and safety and managing growth. Those Focus Areas themselves are then broken down into numerous strategies, which are then broken down into individual actions which are to be implemented in order to then achieve the overarching vision. Now at the time that the community developed this plan, they nominated Lead Solution Partners whom they felt would be most suitable for implementing the specific actions. And right now we have 28 Lead Solution Partners who have committed to implementing their actions within the plan. Now the process of Community Visioning and developing an Action Plan is a very powerful tool that’s not often used in traditional planning approaches. It brings people together to develop a common vision of their future and then it brings those people back to work on the actions that are necessary to achieve that vision. It enables greater community involvement to develop a foundation for building partnerships and leadership capacity in order to achieve their vision. But the process does have its challenges. Being a model implementation project, the VisionKeepers find themselves responsible for educating both community groups and government agencies about the need for greater partnership and collaboration by working with a plan. Sometimes we’re not used to working with plans since many of them seem to “sit on the shelf.” And that’s why the VisionKeepers are such an essential committee, because we are the ones who insure that the plan does not sit on the self. We take it out to the people who need to hear about it, who need to know about it, and ultimately will then buy into it. And I’d like to pass over to Paul now.He can explain a little bit more. NASH: Thank you, Kylie. So we’ve been at this for the past 18 months and we have had successes. As far as successes, you can see the handicap ramps there in the Action Plan. There are some lamp posts that have been put in. We have started up, there have some actions started up, including -. The Hilo Bayfront trails, includes a lot of the actions that are in this Plan. And we’re working with Public Works and DIA in order to put in more trash cans Downtown, and also looking into the recycling bins Downtown. But one of our key accomplishments in these 18 months is not something quite so tangible. It has been the development of our organizational structure and learning new skills and new roles in order to assist the Lead Solution partners, the people who are going to be taking the ball and running with these actions in the plan. We’re finding a way to shepherd the implementation of this plan, and encourage and help initiate these actions. EXHIBIT A 4 When we stared, of course, there was no manual. There was no manual on how to do this. This is a new process, at least to us, and I think to this island. As we go along, though, we are writing the manual for other communities to follow. We have set ambitious goals for this coming year, including some Easy Wins. Easy Wins are something that are highly visible, fairly easy to implement. And one of the things that we hope the Easy Wins will do is generate the excitement in the plan and get people, more people involved with this and enthusiastic about implementing the plan. And then there are also some larger actions which have been prioritized according to surveys that we have done from the community, both in the initial information that we got in order to put together the community-based action plan; and from our recent town meeting we put out some surveys to find out what is important. And these include the Hilo Bayfront Trails project; development of the Wailuku River Walk; tsunami preparedness training; interpretive signage for Downtown Hilo; a transportation plan that will include traffic circulation, pedestrian safety, and multi-modal transportation systems. Some of these actions we’ve already have been pushing along and trying to get underway; and others we are set to start this coming year. The Implementation Guidebook is, like I said, we are writing a manual for other communities to follow so that they can learn from the things we did right, the things we did wrong. And there are a lot of other communities - as I know the people in the Planning Department and probably all of you on the Planning Commission know about in the different communities - that are trying the same sort of process. So hopefully we’ll be able to guide them along in their efforts as well. And, also, we will be having a second town meeting to report to the community the things that we accomplished in our second year. So I’d like to thank everybody, again, for the support that we have been given in this process for the first 18 months. We’re very dedicated to this; and we hope that you will continue to support us. Thank you. ALEXANDRA: Thank you. GRAHAM: All right, hold a second. Do we have any questions from the Commissioners? Commissioner Iwashita. IWASHITA: Thank you, Mr. Chair. I commend you on your dedication and commitment to improving the Downtown Hilo area. I have just a couple of, I guess, these are more challenging kind of goals to suggest to you in looking at what you’ve done so far. And you probably don’t know but all of my Fellow Commissioners know that I’m a staunch advocate of the community development plan process and, you know, my position is it really should be going on an island-wide basis at this time. And we have some resource challenges on that; but that’s my belief. And in that regard, as far as your transportation plan that you mentioned earlier, I would like to suggest that you on the multi-modal aspect of it that, you know, you really look at what would be an ideal kind of scenario for train stations in Downtown Hilo when 50 EXHIBIT A 5 years from now we have half a million or seven hundred thousand people living here and we can support a train system, where should those train stations be, to get thousands of people to Downtown Hilo without having to provide parking spaces, like Portland does. I saw your picture of the Portland light rails car in there. So I would like to see that considered in your process. The other is, as far as education is concerned, I can’t really tell if your area extends up to the schools on Waianuenue. But in terms of the goals to make Downtown Hilo a magnet for educational kind of, I don’t know what the exact word is -. But, you know, to develop the educational aspect of your plans it seems to me rather obvious that Hilo High School, Hilo Intermediate School and Hilo Union School should be incorporated, you know, and tasked somehow to do that. You know, the schools are working independently to try and improve the children’s performance. So I think if they can work together, obviously if the community really wants to help, you know, the schools and the students do better, that will be a great help. So, no questions, just those comments. GRAHAM: Commissioner Domingo? DOMINGO: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’d like to commend both of you and the organization for doing what you’re doing.I recall in the mainland that there are many communities and towns which have gone into a similar kind of planning process. And I’ve seen some of the results of their work, and it’s just wonderful. It brings a sense of ownership and pride in the community or town that they reside in. And it really motivates people to do things which bring positive movements within the town and the community. I’d just like to commend you folks for that. The line is from the Wailoa River until up to what point, the planning boundaries? ALEXANDRA: The boundaries extend from Bayfront, up to Kapiolani; and then from Ponahawai Street over to the Wailuku River. DOMINGO: I see. Then you’re in a very compressed area, aren’t you? ALEXANDRA: Yes. DOMINGO: As Commissioner Iwashita mentioned, many times he has been concerned about having a community development plan for Hilo, and not necessarily specifically for the Downtown in itself. I don’t know, might be a -. Mr. Yuen, is there anything in your vision of the future to see that something would be done with respect to a Hilo Development Plan? Because what we see here is the pressures of development not only being concentrated in the Downtown area, but it’s expanding, you know, expanding and even as far as perhaps Puainako. And before, 10 to 15 years ago, the boundary was probably up to that street going up to the University. That was somewhat like a demarcation line; and we were saying that all developments or all commercial rezonings and development should take place up to this point and not beyond. Because what we were having then, the Prince Kuhio was being planned, you know. But I think what EXHIBIT A 6 we’re seeing is phenomenal, I think. I describe that as phenomenal growth taking place and demands are coming in fast. And I was thinking if there’s anything in your vision of the future that something like that could be done. GRAHAM: Mr. Yuen? YUEN: Well, the long-range idea in the Planning Department is that we will have community development plans for all districts of the island. We started with North and South Kona because of the degree of activity there. We lumped that into one. A feedback that we got was that people wanted to see smaller areas rather than regional, but that also means more plans. So we also, we started on Puna. And we’re doing North and South Kohala, but it’s separate instead of doing together, as is the case of Kona. So we have four on-going right now. In a couple of months, the staff has been working on it, that we have available in the Planning Department. And we are going to meet and decide are we going to launch another one in the next budget cycle. Because if we did then we would go - you know, we prepare a budget request for the 2008-2009 budget that starts in June 2008, actually July 2008 - and try to get funding for that, and see whether we’re far enough along to either move staff out or if we can add staff, because it is quite a bit that’s being juggled right now. So if we did one in the Hilo area, we’d probably do a South Hilo District, because of this idea of covering the whole island. What happens though, especially on the land use side, there are hot areas in any district where if you think about what happens with the Commission here a lot of the rezoning that we see is really Waiakea House Lots area. So that might be an area of special focus. But the Planning Department will do one, eventually do plans for the whole island; but it’s a question of resources and timing right now. So that decision we’re going to get to pretty soon. DOMINGO: But going back to this, I think it’s a positive movement in the right direction and I think it’s wonderful. Perhaps in time to come there will be special themes that you would concentrate on.I know of some other areas for economic development, you know, they’re attracting tourists to come to that area because of a certain thing. Aside from that, I don’t have any questions. I just congratulate you guys for doing what you’re going. GRAHAM: Thank you, Commissioner Domingo. Anything further from our Commissioners? Commissioner Siracusa. SIRACUSA: Thanks for coming in to give us the update on this plan. I was on the Commission and so I’ve been sort of following from the sidelines what has been going on; and I’ve been very interested in it, especially because I’m also involved with the Puna Community Development Plan. I have noticed that some of the older structures have now been at least repainted and in some cases renovated; and that was a very happy thing to see. And I was wondering if your group had anything to do with that, if you’ve been encouraging property owners to spruce up their places, and if not why not? But then if you have, is that on your plan to EXHIBIT A 7 continue to try to encourage or possibly find assistance in some way to help these owners? It looks funny when you see something really nice with the modern colors and all the little detailing and then something else that looks really seedy right next door. So I was wondering, that was my first question. And I’ll let you answer that first before I go on. GRAHAM: Ms. Alexandra, go ahead. ALEXANDRA: Okay. Yes, that is definitely within the plan. And the Hilo Downtown Improvement Association is one of our Lead Solution Partners who are actively seeking the property owners for some of the more rundown building in Downtown Hilo and trying to sort out what their plans are for those buildings. So they’ve been our leader in that respect. But, yes, it is in the plan and we understand the importance of it. GRAHAM: Thank you. SIRACUSA: And my second is that I did notice that the planters had been painted and they had been replanted, and in some cases are not even being used as ash trays and garbage cans, which is amazing to me. And I sure would like to know how you accomplished that trick, because I’m struggling with it in Pahoa. And I was wondering if there were any plans to continue along those lines in terms of plantings and beautification of, you know, using natural materials, like plants to beautify the streets, whatever, and medians. I notice there are a lot of places where there are medians where it would be really nice to have some kind of vegetation. Is that in the plan? GRAHAM: Mr. Nash, go ahead. NASH: Yes, that is in the plan. We have been working with the Downtown Improvement Association’s beautification committee which has been at work with those planters and getting the store owners or store, the people who are renting the stores or, you know, the business owners to keep that up, to keep up the maintenance of that. And they themselves, the beautification committee, have been going out and painting the planters. As far as the medians are concerned, we are looking into initiating a project, the VKs (VisionKeepers) themselves, into doing a pocket park which might end up instead of being really a park be a landscaping, a median or an island somewhere that, you know, that could use some landscaping to beautify Downtown Hilo. And, again, we would work with various community groups, no doubt the Beautification Committee too on that. GRAHAM: Thank you. ALEXANDRA: If I could just -? GRAHAM: Go ahead. EXHIBIT A 8 ALEXANDRA: Sorry, I’d just like to add one more thing. With the planters that were painted, in addition to the DIA Beautification Committee, the Rotary Club of Hilo, and also Connections Public Charter School were involved with that. So I’d just like to acknowledge them. GRAHAM: Thank you, Ms. Alexandra. DOMINGO: Mr. Chairman? GRAHAM: Mr. Domingo. DOMINGO: Out of all those participants, potential participants, that there may be, how many percent buy-in do you have with regards to the plan and what are you folks doing? ALEXANDRA: Could you repeat that, please. Percentage of participants -? DOMINGO: Yeah. Of all potential participants, how many percent of them are buying into the plan? ALEXANDRA: Oh, okay. So in terms of the Lead Solution Partners, as I mentioned, we have 28 so far who have committed. I think the total Lead Solution Partners identified is between 40 and 50, so I’d say roughly half so far of Lead Solution Partners. DOMINGO: I guess when they see the progress and they see that it’s beginning to develop and become something of worth, then they’ll come in and participate also. Typical human behavior, I guess. ALEXANDRA: Yes. As we said we’re in the first 18 months so far of implementation. So it’s very early on. And one of our goals for this next year is to encourage greater participation with the Lead Solution Partners who have not yet committed to their actions. So we’re working with them to figure out how they can participate and what needs to happen. So it’s definitely one of our goals for this next year. GRAHAM: Mr. Nash? NASH: And if I can add, I know you, when I heard you use the word “potential,” you know, we have these 40 or 50 Lead Solution Partners that were identified by the community, and that was not these Lead Solution Partners at that time stepping forward and saying, hey, I’ll do it. So we’re not going to, we’re not intending to push this on anybody who does not want to be a participant. And for those who say, no, I’m sorry, I just don’t have the time, we go out and we find more. So when you say potential, there are so many potential Lead Solution Partners out there. I think we’ve really barely EXHIBIT A 9 tapped it. And I think once the momentum gets going, like you were saying, human nature, people would want to get on board. GRAHAM: All right, thank you both. We have one public testifier still, so we thank you for presentation. You all can be seated. ALEXANDRA: Thank you. GRAHAM: And Larry Black, could you come forward now. Could I swear you in first. BLACK: Yes. GRAHAM: Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth on this matter before the Planning Commission today? BLACK: I do. GRAHAM: Thanks. So start your testimony with your name and your residence address, and then go right ahead and speak to the Commission. BLACK: Okay, well, thank you. My name is Larry Black and I live in Hilo at 104 Kapaa Street. And is that adequate? GRAHAM: Yes. BLACK: And what I’d like to suggest in terms of the Downtown area is that the State, I believe it’s a State property, at the Tree Nursery on Kinoole Street be considered as a possible arboretum. Right now it’s a very attractive park-like area, turfed, with probably several hundred trees in it that are for the most part labeled for anyone who’s interested to be able to walk through and just, you know, admire them or identify trees that you see periodically. But I think it might become a very attractive, I’ll call it an arboretum with perhaps more plantings. I think that most people who visited, unless you’re like I am especially interested in plants, might not find too much going on there or too much of interest, but I think that could be changed. And I know being a State property that presents some issues that would have to be resolved to maybe make it changed from a tree nursery to something that might have, oh, a small restaurant perhaps, handouts that would explain the plant material and maybe tips on gardening, that sort of things. But I think it really could be quite an attractive addition to Hilo’s, the things that visitors and the locals like to come and see. So essentially that’s my suggestion; and I’ll do everything I can. I’m working now with, I believe I’m a member of DIA. It’s, the enrollment process for me was kind of informal; but I believe I am a member and I did help with the painting of trash cans, cleaning up of planters, that sort of thing. And I, you know, will continue to do that. But, anyway, thank you very much for taking my testimony this morning. EXHIBIT A 10 GRAHAM: Thank you, Mr. Black. You want to hold on a second in case we have a question? BLACK: Sure. GRAHAM: Commissioner Siracusa? SIRACUSA: Yes. The area you’re referring to, that park-like area actually is called the Hilo Tree Arboretum. BLACK: I see. SIRACUSA: The Tree Nursery is behind it in some of those buildings. So when you go in from the other side where the DLNR building is, if you were to go, if you were facing the DLNR building and you would move off to the right and go behind, that’s where the buildings are where the tree nursery actually is. Okay, that’s No. 1. I know the area you’re talking about very well; and, you’re right, a lot of the informational signage is no longer there. There’s a handout you can get in the office that gives you the numbers, and then you refer to the list that tells you what the tree is. Unfortunately it’s just a list.It doesn’t tell you really anything about those trees. And a lot of cases those numbers are so faded off or totally missing that it’s not helpful at all. What I would suggest to you is that you deal directly with the DLNR who runs that arboretum and make those suggestions to them; and maybe they would be open to a small group, you know, a friends group, like Friends of Hilo Arboretum, helping them out with doing those things for them, and doing a proper interpretative sheet on the trees that are in there so that the public is really informed. And I don’t know about a restaurant. But it sure would be nice, I’ve thought often that to have a couple of picnic tables in there that, you know, or at least some benches where you’re wandering around if you got a little tired, especially senior citizens, you could sit down for a while and admire the trees, something like that. But that’s just a suggestion to you. Yeah? BLACK: Sure. Well, thank you. That sounds great. SIRACUSA: And thank you for caring about our arboretum. We have some beautiful trees in there; and whenever I go in there I don’t see anybody else enjoying it. BLACK: I know. I was the only one that day, so -. Thank you. Okay. GRAHAM: Thank you, Mr. Black. Jeff, do you have anything further on this? DARROW: No, I don’t, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. GRAHAM: Okay, that will -. EXHIBIT A 11 SIRACUSA: Procedural, do we have to vote to accept or something the report, or vote to approve the report? GRAHAM: Commissioner Siracusa, I don’t know of anything to that effect. Mr. Yuen, is there any action we need to take before we move on? YUEN: No, this was just for the information of the Planning Commission to let you know what’s going in this effort in Downtown. GRAHAM: Thank you. IWASHITA: Mr. Chair, just for my information. GRAHAM: Commissioner Iwashita. IWASHITA: Is this presentation going to be made to the County Council also? NASH: Right. GRAHAM: I think the presenters indicating that it will be. IWASHITA: Okay, good. Thank you. The discussion ended at 9:42 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Sharon M. Nomura, East Hawaii Secretary EXHIBIT A 12