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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2008-09-19 TSKCDP PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAII HEARING TRANSCRIPT SEPTEMBER 19, 2008 A regularly advertised hearing on the SOUTH KOHALA COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PLANwas called to order at 1:35 p.m. in the Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel, Hau Room, 62-100 Kaunaoa Drive, Kohala Coast, Hawaii, with Chairman Rodney Watanabe presiding. PRESENT: Lani Bowman ABSENT & EXCUSED: C. Kimo Alameda Takashi Domingo Andrew Iwashita Frederic Housel Shelly Ogata Rodney Watanabe Rell Woodward Ivan Torigoe, Deputy Corporation Counsel  Christopher Yuen, Planning Director Norman Hayashi, Planning Program Manager OgxkkhrEtihlnsn+Rs`eeOk`mmdq Jeff Darrow, Staff Planner Maija Cottle, Staff Planner Deanne Bugado, Planner, Kona Office Allen Salavea, Planner, Kona Office And two people from the public in attendance. SOUTH KOHALA COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PLAN Review and action on the draft South Kohala Community Development Plan (CDP) submitted by the South Kohala CDP Steering Committee and its consultant, Townscape, Inc. WATANABE: We are on our last Agenda Item. This is the third reading of the South Kohala CDP. So I’ll turn it over to you, Mr. Salavea. SALAVEA: Thank you, Mr. Chair. Allen Salavea, Project Manager for the South Kohala Community Development Plan. At this time, Mr. Chair, we do not have any new comments to offer to the Planning Commission, but would be happy to answer any additional questions. WATANABE: Okay. Fellow Commissioners, you’ve been over this twice. Do you have any comments or questions – well, more questions? None? Seeing none, okay, if not, then I do have two people who are signed up to testify; that would be Margaret Wille and Alice Tinsman. Is Alice here? She left? Okay, okay. Then can I swear you in, Margaret? Would you raise your right hand? Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth now before the Planning Commission? EXHIBIT D 1 WILLE: Yes, I do. WATANABE: Thank you. Would you, name and address, please, for the record. WILLE: Yeah. Margaret Wille. Waimea. 65-1316 Lihipali Road, Kamuela, Waimea. I’m on the Steering Committee, and I really just want to emphasize a few points. And one is just that this document is really one step in a process; the next step would be the action committees and really tying to work on implementing this Plan. In South Kohala, and I guess North Kohala, we were really under a really tight time constraint, and it was, sort of didn’t get us far, it isn’t, in terms of implementation plans we didn’t progress as far as, say, in Kona or Puna. And so the action committee is particularly important for our areas. We sort of set up a platform for the district concerns and for the different local area concerns. So I want to just stress that you all are an important part of that next process and how to empower and utilize these action committees to really gather more information and make decision making more participatory process and more enlightened decisions. I think even just taking an example of this morning when you were doing the Greenwell case, when I read that, I really didn’t, just reading what you had for the public, I wouldn’t have known that that was really dealing with more of an imported labor process of housing just from, you know, what you had that I could have read. I happen to be rally knowledgeable in that area; I probably would have testified on that. And I think the only thing really there would be, I thought it could, where you have projects like that, truly again stress the accountability and doing periodic reports. I think when there is new and uncertainty, the more information and feedback you can have, that’s good. So I just want to stress to you all to be supportive of the action committees and maybe work or meet with them; and how can they help you in your job and you help to really help them work on their local areas and try to, and at the same time also that we now, like these four different Community Plans, or presumably we will, support in trying to get some kind of regional understanding. I’ve read through the others, and just looking at similar themes, and so it’s really you all that sort of come together and sort of see them all and how can, so I’m asking for your help. And I think that now there’s so much energy right now, the sooner before it sort of dissipates and these get lost on the shelf, look to for your help. Lastly, I just want to mention something Jojo testified earlier, and she brought up a number of concerns and things that she felt were not there. Some of those were like error; she pointed out that are in the map where the lighthouse is, and I think maybe Bruce Tsuchida, there were a few other errors that he’s found. Maybe those could be addressed at the County Council because they’re non-substantive. And others are sort of the to-do list, which is again do the action committees and certainly Kawaihae in our area is critical with the Superferry coming in that we look at those issues as soon as possible. So I hope you’ll not just vote but really get there and, like, let’s move forward and do something and really work together. And as this island faces a lot of new problems from agriculture and traffic and everything, how can we all work together towards the future? Thank you. EXHIBIT D 2 WATANABE: Okay, thank you. Fellow Commissioners, do we have any questions of Ms. Wille? Seeing none, you may be seated then, Ms. Wille. Okay, we have had an opportunity to review this South Kohala Community Development Plan over the course of three meetings – I guess that’s approximately a month and a half now. Would anyone care to make a motion? I have no one else signed up to testify. Yes, Mr. Domingo. DOMINGO: Mr. Chairman, would it be appropriate that a motion be made to forward this South Kohala Community Development Plan to the County Council for review and approval? WATANABE: Favorable recommendation? DOMINGO: Yes, favorable recommendation. BOWMAN: I second. WATANABE: Very good. Thank you, Ms. Bowman. Discussion? Mr. Woodward. WOODWARD: Yeah, I’ll just go over a few points that I’ve made in the past – some positive and some not so positive. I think that one thing that the Community Development Plan has done that we have not seen done is addressing the light pollution question, and I think that was a very positive effect. I have problems with a couple of things. One is on Page 48, 1.2 “The County Planning Director is requested to submit a draft of a bill to the County Council that sets out a concurrency management system for South Kohala. The purpose of the bill is to create a system that will impose reasonable and fair infrastructure concurrency requirements on developments within the district that already possess zoning entitlements, and are therefore not currently subject to the concurrency requirements of HCC 25-2-46.” Essentially, retroactive concurrency requirements, and I have a problem with that. One other thing – well, two other things actually – on Page 106 where they are talking about Action Program, constructing a second access road to Queen Kaahumanu Highway, it says on the lower part of the page there, “The County recently retained a special consultant to develop a financing plan for this second access road …. The consultant’s draft report estimated annual costs to Waikoloa Village home owners as follows: Existing Single Family Homes $90 per year …. New Single Family Homes $1,463 per year ….” And there are some other things I won’t go into there. But I specifically asked this question and I said, “Well, per year, I mean, how many years are we talking about?” This is a 30-year bond. So they are talking about -. Is that fair? You know, if you build a new home there and you are paying $1,500 a year for 30 years, that’s $45,000; and the guy that has an existing home there is paying $2,500. I can’t go with that, I just can’t go with that. I mean, I don’t know where they pulled that one out of. The other thing when you get to the thing about the Puako Community Plan says, “…. the overwhelming majority of residents in Puako oppose any development in this area that is not in EXHIBIT D 3 keeping with the existing character of the community. Multi-family, resort related, and multi- story structures should be prohibited.” What does that say about affordable housing? I mean, aren’t we for affordable housing? Well, you can’t do that with that restriction. So those are the problems I have with it. So I just thought I would make that known again. WATANABE: Okay, so noted. Any further comments? Yes, Ms. Bowman. BOWMAN: I just have a question with the affordable housing in Puako. But it could be 15 miles, right, a radius, I mean, it wouldn’t be in Puako, would it? YUEN: Well, see, none of the zoning in Puako now has an affordable housing requirement. Puako is a very expensive area, so anybody who comes into Puako -. In the first place Puako is pretty limited right now in development and has been for many years because of lack of water to Puako. And so there were areas that were zoned for Multi-Family or Resort that have never been developed in Puako for that very reason. The General Plan then, the revisions in 2005, took the Resort and Multi-Family designations out of Puako. Now, the zoning is still there, but for the sites that need SMA Permits, those would not be consistent anymore with the General Plan, and so you wouldn’t be able to get an SMA Permit. Be that as it may, for these reasons it’s not likely that somebody would put affordable housing into Puako. Whether the County, you know, wanted to promote it or not, there is no water for it. You can’t make, you know, somebody who had water and had the zoning, they would sell it for whatever they could get on the market because that’s good business and they could get a lot of money for it. So that’s really the present situation as far as any kind of affordable housing going into Puako. BOWMAN: Thank you. WATANABE: Okay. Any further questions or comments? We do have a motion that’s live, right? Yes. Seeing none, then, Mr. Darrow? DARROW: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The motion before us is to send a favorable recommendation to the Hawaii County Council. With that, I’ll take the roll. Commissioner Domingo? DOMINGO: Aye. DARROW: Commissioner Bowman? BOWMAN: Yes. DARROW: Commissioner Housel? HOUSEL: Aye. DARROW: Commissioner Ogata? OGATA: Aye. EXHIBIT D 4 DARROW: Commissioner Woodward? WOODWARD: Kanalua. DARROW: And Mr. Chairman? WATANABE: Aye. DARROW: Commissioner Woodward? WOODWARD: No. DARROW: The motion passes, five to one. WATANABE: Okay, thank you very much. The discussion ended at 1:48 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Noriko Sauer, West Hawaii Secretary EXHIBIT D 5