HomeMy WebLinkAboutScenario Planning - Future Land Use Methodology Report - City Explained (2020)
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PROJECT DOCUMENT
County of Hawaiʻi General Plan Comprehensive Review
Future Land Use System Technical Report
Date: March 10, 2020 Author: Ian Varley
Introduction
This technical report documents the process used to update the County of Hawaiʻi’s future land use
system as a part of the comprehensive review of the General Plan. The process of updating the future
land use system relied heavily on work done by Hawaiʻi’s Community Development Plans (CDPs) and a
major portion of the effort included translating and reconciling land policy work that the CDPs had
completed over the last 11 years. In the years since the County has published its last General Plan
(2005), a large number of land use changes have occurred and new sources of information have been
published. Beyond land policy data from the CDPs, this update process used best available information
to address changes in state policy, local land use, utilities, neighborhood structure, parks, and natural
environment. Lastly, the update process introduced a new system of land use designations that update
and modernize the former designations.
About Future Land Use
The development of a future land use map provides a framework to more effectively realize the vision
and principles for the county and increase both the quality of life and the conservation of the natural
environment. The future land use map is not a zoning map. It is intended to show, in a general sense,
the desired types, locations, patterns and intensities of future development. By organizing the county
using future land use designations, intentional and informed decisions can be made about how the
county government organizes itself and efficiently delivers services. The map should guide revisions to
the county’s zoning and development ordinances (as needed) to ensure rules and regulations are
consistent with the vision set forth in the General Plan. These designations imply varying degrees of
land conservation and growth. They reaffirm the notion that development should grow primarily
within and near the county’s towns and villages to make the most efficient use of services and
infrastrucutre.
The County of Hawaiʻi (CoH) has an existing future land use plan called the General Plan Land Use
Pattern Allocation Guide (LUPAG). The LUPAG Map indicates the general location of various land uses
in relation to each other. The methodology used to develop the LUPAG reflected estimates of future
population based on economic and employment evaluations, existing land uses and zoned areas,
determination of community facility needs, and transportation demands for the entire island. As a part
of the update to the County’s General Plan the LUPAG designations are intended to be updated and
refined.
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Hawaiʻi County is unique in that its towns and villages do not maintain their own municipal
governments and land use authority. But in recognizing the size and diversity of the island as well the
need to organize and empower local residents, the county has developed Community Development
Plans (CDPs). These plans were created to translate broad General Plan statements to specific actions
as they apply to specific geographical areas of the county. Every plan is drafted through an extensive
community outreach process, in order to try to best reflect the values of each specific community.
There are six adopted CDPs: Kona, North Kohala, Puna, South Kohala, Kaʻū and Hāmākua.
Revisions to Hawaiʻi County’s Future Land Use
Incorporating the Community Development Plans
The first step towards revising Hawaiʻi’s future land use designations involved incorporating the future
land use maps from the CDP processes. All CDP plans provide guidance on intended land use via
written policy and explicitly defined geographic areas. Some CDPs (Puna, Kaʻū and Hāmākua) use the
same LUPAG designations as the county’s general plan, making interpreting the scope and intent of the
CDP’s land use policy very easy. Other CDPs (Kona, North Kohala, South Kohala) developed their
future land use maps using approaches that varied by location and shaped by their own unique planning
processes. Translating the future land use maps from these CDPs required some interpretation in order
to translate the intent of the CDP into the county’s LUPAG land use system. The consultant worked
closely with CoH planning staff to make sure that the scope and intent of the CDPs in these cases was
clearly reflected in the revisions.
CDP District CDP Growth Map Summary
North and
South Kona
The Kona CDP was adopted in September 2008. While the Kona CDP uses GP
LUPAG as a guide to appropriate land use and growth within defined locations,
Kona takes a different approach than other CDPs in setting up a framework for
proposed future development. The CDP defines an Urban Area boundary to steer
future development within and near existing developed areas. It also provides for
Rural Town areas where continued growth is anticipated and where growth outside
of the Urban Area is preferred.
Within the Urban Area, the Kona CDP also establishes guidelines and some
recommended locations for Transit Oriented Development (TOD) and Traditional
Neighborhood Development (TND). TODs are represented as circles, or nodes,
along a potential future transit corridor
During the LUPAG revisions, the Regional Center TODs were classified as high
density urban, while the Neighborhood TODs were classified as either medium or
low density residential. All secondary area recommended by the CDP were
classified as low density urban.
Puna The Puna CDP was adopted in September 2008. The overarching plan goals center
around reversing the potential consequences to environmental and agricultural
uses of continued rural and suburban development. Much of Puna has been
subdivided into lots varying in size from 1 acre to 5 acres. These subdivisions rely
mainly on services and infrastructure through private means (homeowner’s
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association, initial developer provision, site-maintained cesspools, septic and
water, etc.). Additionally, there are safety concerns given the myriad of hazards
these communities are exposed to with limited public infrastructure.
The Puna CDP establishes the concept of Regional, Neighborhood, and Village
Centers to help serve local communities with commercial and civic uses.
Additionally, these centers provide a focal point for future urban growth. The
concept is that where development has not yet filled in, new homes should be
concentrated in and around the Centers, reducing the need for new roads and
expanded water infrastructure.
The regional, neighborhood and village centers approach was largely maintained in
the updated LUPAG designations. Generally, these areas were assigned low-
density urban designations but several areas of medium density urban were
maintained from the 2005 LUPAG in Kea’au and Pahoa.
North Kohala The North Kohala CDP was finalized in November 2008. North Kohala more than
other plans focuses on limited growth and change for the community. The strong
policies in the North Kohala CDP center on agriculture, cultural and view
protections. The plan identifies “Centers” in the small urban communities along the
northern highway and this approach was maintained in the LUPAG updates by
assigning the low-density urban designation to the centers.
South Kohala The South Kohala CDP was adopted in November 2008. The plan developed
community goals and policies around land use and growth. In addition to district-
wide policy, each urban center (Waimea, Waikoloa Village, Kawaihae and Puakō)
was assigned a chapter in the CDP and analyzed individually. The future land use
guidance provided for each urban place was depicted in concept plans. In most
cases, concept plans showed where future intent differed from existing LUPAG
plan areas.
The South Kohala CDP provided maps and policy language that made clear
adjustments to LUPAG plan areas while not explicitly using the LUPAG
designations. In many cases, the CDP advocated for reducing the areas classified as
Urban Expansion and Low Density Urban near the existing urban centers.
Hāmākua The Hāmākua CDP was adopted by the county council in August, 2018. The CDP
included proposed changes to the LUPAG, primarily shrinking urban classes,
focusing development near village centers and expanding agricultural areas. The
Hāmākua CDP used LUPAG designations and its CDP map was incorporated
directly into the update process.
Kaʻū The Kaʻū CDP was adopted by the County in October 2017. Similarly to Hāmākua,
Kaʻū used GP LUPAG classes to define areas where the community is interested in
changing the direction of land use. As with Hāmākua, the LUPAG was updated in
Kaʻū with amended LUPAG classes from the CDP. The Kaʻū CDP was incorporated
directly into the update process without any need for reconciling.
Hilo Hilo does not have a CDP, using the General Plan LUPAG as its sole guiding
document. The only changes made during this update included incorporatingmaps
made for the Banyan Drive Concept Plan.
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During the process of incorporating the future land use from the CDPs, additional information was used
to refine the boundaries of the updated LUPAG. This data included:
• State Land Use Districts. Originally adopted by the State Legislature in 1961, the Land Use Law
establishes an overall framework of land use management whereby all lands in the State of
Hawaiʻi are classified into one of four land use districts: urban, rural, agricultural, conservation.
The most recent version of the State Land Use Districts (version published February, 2016) was
used.
• Parcels Existing Land Use. A basic classification of land use was created using Real Property
Tax (RPT) data in 2016, primarily using the RPT “Land Class” classification system and
residential and non-residential structures. As an RPT product, the land use is by-parcel and
does not address land use at a finer scale. This land use classification does not include space
dedicated to roads and other rights-of-way that are generally not included in the CoH parcel
maps. RPT’s Land Class uses nine classes, and to create the base scenario three classes were
added to create a more comprehensive land use palette. Existing land use was used
occasionally to refine land use designations in certain areas.. An example of this was the
refinement of an area at the Waimea airport where LUPAG had classified a 604 acre for
Industrial use. Using the parcel-based existing land use and guidance from the CDP, the area
classified for industrial development was reduced to 161 acres. This was rare however as most
development had occurred in areas already classified as urban by the LUPAG.
• Neighborhoods. The CoH neighborhoods were originally created by county staff to bridge the
divide between county tax parcels which were the focus for land use scenario modeling and
areas used for forecasting future growth, the Forecast Analysis Zones (FAZs). The
neighborhoods were also intended to represent how county residents think about places.
Neighborhoods may be shaped by the predominant urban form (e.g., suburban or rural),
subdivision (e.g., Hawaiʻian Paradise Park or Orchidland Estates) and physical features that may
divide or unite certain areas. They were revised for the 2016 public workshops and afterwards,
incorporating stakeholder input. There are over 400 neighborhoods, which include most of the
144,000 parcels in the County. Areas not encompassed by the neighborhoods layer are in
protected areas and/or classified as Conservation by the State Land Use. The formation of the
neighborhoods incorporated multiple information sources, including tax parcel boundaries,
existing land use, municipal water and wastewater services, best available hazard areas (in
particular flood, tsunami risk). Complete documentation on the layer is available from the
Hawaiʻi County Planning Department. Neighborhood boundaries were often used to help
refine the proposed land use where the CDPs used written policies or conceptual land use
shapes (e.g., circles for nodes or centers) to show intent, such as in Kona, North and South
Kohala.
• Ahupuaʻa. Ahupuaʻa is a Hawaiʻian term for a large traditional socioeconomic, geologic, and
climatic subdivision of land. While the Ahupuaʻa weren’t explicitly used in this review process,
their use is apparent in the 2005 LUPAG in many instances. For example, north of Hilo the
Ahupuaʻa boundary provides the boundary between areas classified for Low Density Urban and
the Important Agriculture Lands. This distinction was maintained in the revised future land use.
.
• Department of Hawaiʻi Home Lands (DHHL). The DHHL oversees management of the lands
held in trust for Native Hawaiʻians by the State of Hawaiʻi. The DHHL maintains a separate land
planning process for areas under its jurisdiction. Its plans were reviewed and incorporated
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where applicable into the LUPAG updates, in particular where the DHHL has near-term plans to
develop housing (e.g., Lālāmilo near Waimea).
• Development Projects. The CoH planning staff maintains a list of land development and master
plan projects that are approved and/or under construction. During the development of the
Trend Scenario, CoH staff identified a set of development projects that were deemed likely to
occur called pipeline projects. The pipeline projects were divided into two groups. Group one
consists of two projects, Kamakana Villages and Kealakehe Homesteads, which are very likely
to develop or are in the process of development. The second group includes five projects that
are less advanced in the planning process but have greater than average chances of developing.
These projects are documented in the Trend Allocation Technical Report and in the Evolution of
Scenarios Technical Report. Also reviewed are cases where a property includes approved
master plans such as Lili`uokalani Trust Master Plan and Parker Ranch Master Plan. Where
county planning staff felt an update was appropriate, LUPAG designations were assigned (e.g.,
low density urban) to reflect these development projects and plans as a part of the update
process.
• Parks and Protected Areas. The most recent data showing the county park system was
incorporated as necessary to show additions to the county’s system of protected and recreation
areas.
Spatial locations in the form of GIS data was obtained for all of these sources. The editing process itself
involved comparing the CDP land use designations against the existing LUPAG. The LUPAG
boundaries were then adjusted to reflect the intent of the CDPs. While this process was underway,
LUPAG was also compared against the additional data sources described above. For example, if the
SLU was used to refine boundaries in the Waimea area, both adding and subtracting areas designated
as Low Density Urban..
Updating the LUPAG Categories
A second round of update to the LUPAG introduced an updated land use category system. This
category system is intended to replace LUPAG while keeping many of the same concepts. The new land
use category system was developed by CoH long-range planning staff and provided to the consultant.
The new land use categories are described below.
Proposed Future
Land Use
Designation
Description
High Density General commercial, multiple family residential and related services (36 to 60
units per acre).
Medium Density Village and neighborhood commercial and single family and multiple family
residential and related functions (7 to 35 units per acre).
Low Density Residential, with ancillary community and public uses, and neighborhood and
convenience-type commercial uses; overall residential density may be up to six
units per acre.
Light Industrial Uses in this category include, but are not limited to, business parks, research and
development centers, product assembly, distribution centers, laboratories,
cottage industries, and light service industrial uses.
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Heavy Industrial Uses in this category include, but are not limited to, landfills, quarries, chemical
plants, heavy equipment baseyards, towing yards, and other uses with the
potential to create public nuisance conditions (e.g., noise, environmental
impacts).
University Public university, including ancillary public uses, residential, and support
commercial uses.
Resort These areas include a mix of visitor-related uses such as hotels, condominium-
hotels (condominiums developed and/or operated as hotels), single family and
multiple family residential units, golf courses and other typical resort recreational
facilities, resort commercial complexes and other support services.
Rural Areas are situated outside of the urban growth areas. Except where noted, these
areas should retain their rural character with low density residential
development, supporting small scale commercial development, and agricultural
land uses. Rural areas should not be targeted with the development of major
public infrastructure or the extension of public sewer service except where a
documented health, safety, and/or welfare condition warrants such an
expansion. (1/2 to 5-acre lot sizes)
Productive
Agricultural
Productive agricultural lands are those with better potential for sustained high
agricultural yields because of soil type, climate, topography, or other factors. (5-
acre minimum lot size) Productive agricultural lands were determined by
including the following lands:
• Lands identified as “Important Agricultural Lands” on the 2005 General
Plan Land Use Pattern Allocation Guide maps.
• Lands identified in the Agricultural Lands of Importance to the State of
Hawaiʻi (ALISH) classification system as “Prime” or “Unique”.
• Lands classified by the Land Study Bureau’s Soil Survey Report as Class B
“Good” soils. (There are no Class A lands on the Island of Hawaiʻi) Lands
classified as at least “fair” for two or more crops, on an irrigated basis, by
the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service’s study of suitability for
various crops.
• In North and South Kona, the “coffee belt”, a continuous band defined by
elevation, according to input from area farmers.
• State agricultural parks.
Pastoral Includes lands that are not capable of producing sustained, high agricultural
yields without the intensive application of modern farming methods and
technologies due to certain physical constraints such as soil composition, slope,
machine tillability and climate. These lands are better suited for other less
intensive agricultural uses such as grazing and pasture. (40-acre minimum lot
size)
Natural Area Lands not considered suitable for productive agriculture; areas to be kept in a
largely natural state with minimal facilities consistent with opens space uses.
Includes areas vulnerable to natural hazards, steep slopes, lava fields, and areas
set aside for cultural and/or natural resource preservation purposes.
Conservation Forest and water reserves, natural and scientific preserves, areas in active
management for conservation purposes, areas to be kept in a largely natural
state with minimal facilities consistent with open space uses, such as picnic
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pavilions and comfort stations, and lands within the State Land Use Conservation
District.
Recreational
Area
Parks and other recreational areas, such as golf courses, historic sites, and
shoreline setback areas.
The following chart illustrates the conversion of the LUPAG designations to the proposed future land
use types. At left the chart divides the County into areas within and outside of the proposed Urban
Growth Boundaries and includes the State Land Use designations which form the framework of the
land use policy system. The existing LUPAG designations are contrasted against the proposed future
land use designations and comments are provided to illustrate how and where categories are applied.
Urban
Growth
Boundary
State
Land
Use
Existing LUPAG
Designation
Proposed Future
Land Use Comment Inside Growth Area Urban High Density Urban High Density
Urban Only exists within Urban Service Areas
Medium Density
Urban
Medium Density
Urban Mostly confined to Urban Growth Areas
Low Density Urban,
Urban Expansion
Low Density
Urban Mostly confined to Urban Growth Areas
Industrial
Light Industrial Uses ML, MCX zoning districts to distinguish the
Light Industrial class
Heavy Industrial Uses MG zoning districts to distinguish the Light
Industrial class
University University No change
Resort Area, Resort
Node Resort Two resort designations become one. Outside Growth Area Rural Rural, Urban
Expansion Rural Urban Expansion areas become Rural outside of
urban growth area. Inside Growth Boundary
become Low Density Urban. Agriculture Important
Agricultural Land,
Orchard
Productive
Agricultural
Use LUPAG Important Agricultural Lands
designation. The LUPAG Orchard class becomes
productive agriculture.
Extensive
Agriculture, Orchard Pastoral
Pastoral uses a 2015 University of Hawaiʻi
agricultural classification for pasture areas,
removing areas classified as Important
Agricultural Lands which become Productive
Agricultural Conservation Conservation Conservation Keeps existing areas and includes all State Land
Use conservation
Extensive
Agriculture, Open Natural Area
Includes any Extensive Agriculture areas that
are not included in other designations. Includes
Urban Expansion areas outside of the Urban
Growth Boundaries.
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Others Open Recreational Area
Recreation includes a 300-foot buffer from the
coastline. Other areas classified as Open in
LUPAG revert to nearest land use classification.
Recreation also includes any county, state and
national park unless it is already designated
conservation.
Additional Refinements to Future Land Use
A third round of revisions updated the proposed future land use categories based on the proposed
urban growth boundaries, urban service areas and areas impacted by lava in recent volcanic eruptions
in the Puna District.
Proposed Urban Growth Area Boundaries
Urban growth area boundaries represent an attempt to manage urban growth, orienting future urban
development to suitable areas inside the boundary and encouraging areas outside the boundary to be
used for agriculture, rural use or preserved in their natural state. Urban growth areas were developed
using the CDP future land use maps, interpreting where urban growth is intended to occur where the
CDP shows a clear desire to encourage urban development. Where the CDPs were not clear or not
available (as, “Priority Development Zones” were used to guide the development of urban growth
boundaries. These areas were developed by the consultant and CoH planning staff during the technical
studies phase of the comprehensive plan review. The Priority Development Zones used a set of criteria
and a scoring system that was based on the existing zoning and land use, housing types, road density,
and the presence of utilities and public facilities such as schools or parks. A complete description of the
priority development zones can be found in the Alternative Scenarios Technical Report. The land use
designations that imply the most urban uses (low, medium, high density urban; light and heavy
industrial; university and resort) fall within the urban growth area boundaries. The rural designation
which allows some development falls outside the urban growth area boundaries.
Urban Service Areas
The Urban Services Areas are locations where utilities, services and transportation networks exist to
support denser urban growth. Key inputs to the Urban Services Areas are the county’s water and sewer
distribution networks which are the most limited in distribution. While most of the county’s water and
sewer services are delivered by the county government, a substantial portion of these services on the
leeward side of the island are privately owned and managed, such as the Waikoloa area. A best effort
was made to include these private infrastructure systems in the Urban Services Areas . The intent of the
Urban Services Areas is to signal where higher density urban development would be appropriate
because the existing utilities are present to support that higher density. Urban development can occur
outside the Urban Service Areas, but at a lower density because one or more utilities are absent. The
land use designations for high density urban is entirely within the Urban Services Areas ; most resort
areas are also confined to Urban Services Areas .
Puna Volcanic Area
An 18,387 acre area in the eastern district of Puna that was affected by the Kilauea volcanic eruption is
being addressed in a separate long-term recovery plan. No future land use designations were suggested
for this area at this time and maps delivered to the CoH by the consultant used the designation of
“pending” to describe this area.
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Results
During the entire course of the update process, each edit to the LUPAG map greater than one acre was
noted. Edits to the LUPAG feature layer in the GIS data have a comment field that records the type of
change and the source. For example, if the CDP class differed from the LUPAG class, the rationale,
source (e.g. Kona Community Development Plan) and conversion (e.g., low density urban to medium
density urban) were recorded. Two phases of comments are noted. The first documenting the
incorporation of the CDP data and the second documenting changes that were done during the
category updates. Merging GIS layers together typically creates many thousands of minor changes.
Generally, edits smaller than an acre were not recorded in the database. This process also created
remnant GIS errors that should be corrected for the final product.
The image below provides a glimpse of the attribute table created during the revision process. The
table was structured so that any change to the LUPAG could be tracked and a rationale understood.
The table uses a combination of codes (e.g., ind) and definitions (e.g., industrial) to track land use
designations. A comments field notes the source and reason for a particular change. For example, the
top record shows where LUPAG Urban Expansion is converted to Low Density Urban, conforming with
the Kahului Puapuaa Village Transit Oriented Design (TOD) Center (a feature from the Kona CDP). As
described above, the table shows two phases of edits: the incorporation of the CDPs (and supporting
information) and the incorporation of the new future land use category system and accompanying
edits. A metadata document (including as an appendix) was developed so that each attribute and any
specific terminology were defined.
The following charts illustrate the changes made to the LUPAG and proposed future land use classes.
For purposes of visualization, the charts split the classifications into two groups. Each district has its
own graph with the County wide totals following.
Hamakua
In Hamakua, the amount of area dedicated to urban uses drops significantly. Most of this is due to the
decrease in Low Density Urban designation but Medium Density Urban also decreases significantly.
The areas classified as Rural increases slightly while areas classified as Recreation increases
dramatically, mostly due to the inclusion of the 7,000 acre Mauna Kea State Recreation Area.
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Hilo
In Hilo district large areas that LUPAG had classified as Low Density Residential become Rural. This is
largely due to the application of the Urban Growth Area Boundary and policies to reduce urban density
outside of it. Urban Areas dedicated to Industrial uses increase slightly while areas High and Medium
Density areas decrease slightly.
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Kau
Kau makes a number of land use shifts under the proposed designations. Significantly, the CDP
expanded the Rural designation to the existing subdivisions south of the Ocean View area. These areas
had previously been classified as Extensive Agriculture in LUPAG but as residential subdivisions, the
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CDP likely felt that the current use was more appropriately described as rural residential than
agriculture.
Kona
In Kona, most areas classified as Urban Expansion under LUPAG are converted to Low Density
Residential, falling within the Districts Urban Growth Boundaries. Industrial areas, High and Medium
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Density Urban decrease slightly while Resort and Rural classifications increase modestly. Areas
classified as Open under LUPAG become Recreation, Resort, and Natural Area.
North Kohala
In North Kohala, the Open category becomes a mix of Rural, Recreation and other non-urban uses. Low
Density Urban and Rural increase slightly in the proposed future land use. The North Kohala CDP
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focused on village center areas such as Hawi and Kapaau. In other areas of North Kohala, concepts from
2005 LUPAG were maintained.
Puna
In LUPAG, Puna had a number of Urban Expansion areas that in the proposed system are largely
converted to Natural Area and Productive Agriculture. Smaller areas of Urban Expansion near Kea’au
are converted to Low Density Urban. Areas classified as Low Density Urban in LUPAG are significantly
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reduced; most of these areas are reclassified as Rural, Natural Area and Productive Agriculture. Areas
designated as Rural in LUPAG increase slightly under the proposed future land use. An 18,000-acre area
in eastern Puna district that was affected by the Kilauea volcanic eruption remains pending to be
addressed in a separate long-term recovery plan.
South Kohala
In South Kohala, large areas designated Urban Expansion near Waikoloa and the coastal resorts
become Natural Area, Pastoral, Rural and Low Density Urban. Areas designated as Urban Expansion
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within the Waimea Urban Growth Boundary become Low Density Urban. Open primarily becomes
Natural Area and Conservation, with a mix of other designations depending on the location.
County Totals
Overall the removal of the LUPAG Urban Expansion and Open categories present the largest changes
for the county. As noted in the sections above, areas classified as Urban Expansion in LUPAG are
largely reclassified depending on where these areas fall relative to the proposed Urban Growth Area
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Boundary. Open areas mostly convert to Recreation however, depending on the existing land use and
direction from the CDPs, these areas convert into other uses as well.
As the proposed land use system works to implement the Urban Growth Area Boundaries, strategically
placed areas of medium and low density residential in particular should develop accordingly to meet
the needs of the County. Areas classified as Rural increase under the proposed plan and while most
Rural areas exist outside of the Urban Growth Area Boundaries, significant residential growth has
historically occurred in these areas and may continue to do so without additional policy mechanisms to
reverse this trend.
Another issue that arose during the revision process was the discrepancies between areas that were
classified as Low Density Urban (in particular) and areas that were classified as Agriculture under the
State Land Use system. This was particularly common in North Kona where the CDP focused on a
handful of growth nodes but didn’t provide explicit guidance regarding what the intended land use
should be elsewhere (in particular, where future growth should be discouraged). When the County’s
land use and the State Land Use systems disagree about the fundamental use of the land this creates
uncertainty and confusion for landowners, neighbors and other community members. In other areas
such as Waimea, the State Land Use Urban classification was used to better align where the County’s
Low Density Urban designation would be applied.
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Appendix 1
Hawaii Draft General Plan Future Land Use Map Metadata.
The present document is a metadata (description of data) that accompanies an ArcGIS map package
(.pmf) file which is available to open for users of ArcReader, a free ArcGIS tool.
https://www.esri.com/en-us/arcgis/products/arcreader
Below are descriptions of key attributes.
Draft GP Future Land Use
This layer shows draft updates to the 2005 General Plan Land Use Pattern Allocation Guide (LUPAG).
Updates to the future land use designations is one component of the county’s general plan
comprehensive review. For more information on this process see:
http://www.hiplanningdept.com/general-plan/general-plan-comprehensive-review/
Several rounds of updating are contained in this layer. The first round involved the incorporation of the
Community Development Plans (CDP) for Puna, Hamakua, North Kohala, South Kohala, Kona, and
Kau. Hilo does not have a CDP but information from the Banyan Drive Concept Plan was incorporated.
The CDP updates to the LUPAG used the same category system as LUPAG but interpreted the intent
and vision of the CDPs whenever possible. This round of changes is recorded in the attribute table with
a “CDP_” designation.
A second round of updating introduced an updated category system and set about updating the future
land use designations based on updated state land use districts, proposed urban growth boundaries,
urban service areas and areas impacted by lava in recent volcanic eruptions in the Puna District. This
second round of updates is recorded in the attribute table with a “CAT_” designation and this is the
attribute information symbolized in the map package for review.
Key Attributes
CLASS: The LUPAG future land use designation, as a three-letter code. See description of the LUPAG
layer below for more information.
CLASS_DEF: The LUPAG future land use designation, defined.
CDP_CLASS: The three letter LUPAG class designation adjusted where appropriate, based on input
from the Community Development Plans (CDPs). The CDP class uses the same LUPAG category
system.
CDP_CLASS_DEF: The CDP_CLASS definition.
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CDP_COMMENTS: If the CDP class differs from the LUPAG class, the rationale, source (e.g. Kona
Community Development Plan) and conversion (e.g., ldr to mdu) are recorded here.
CAT_CLASS: The three letter CDP_CLASS designation adjusted where appropriate, based on County
of Hawaii suggested category changes and other general updates to the LUPAG.
CAT_CLASS_DEF: The CAT_CLASS definition.