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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007-05-14 Public Access, Open Space and Natural Resources Preservation Commission MinutesHAWAII COUNTY PUBLIC ACCESS, OPEN SPACE AND NATURAL RESOURCES PRESERVATION COMMISSION MINUTES - REGULAR SESSION May 14, 2007 Department of Liquor Control Conference Room 75 -5722 Hanama Place, Suite 1107 Kailua -Kona, Hawaii 96740 Present: Chair Kenneth Kaneshiro Vice -Chair Hannah Springer Commissioner E. Kalani Flores Commissioner Bill Gilmartin Commissioner Kim Garcia Absent: Commissioner Paul Campbell Commissioner Laura Schuster Commissioner Benedict Yung Others Present: Amy Self, Deputy, Corporation Counsel Harry Yada, Property Manager, Finance Sharese Macomber, Clerk III Stacie Waltjen, Secretary CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order by Chair Kenneth Kaneshiro at 10:07 a.m. Chair Kaneshiro welcomed Kim Garcia as a new commissioner representing District 7 (South Kona) to the Commission. STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC AGENDA ITEMS None. DISCUSSION WITH NANCY PICCICHIO, PLANNING DEPT., REGARDING THE KONA COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE Ms. Nancy Piccichio introduced herself to the Commission. She's currently serving as a contractor with the Planning Department. Ms. Piccichio has been with them for over a year and a half and is currently working with the Kona Community Development Plan. Ms. Piccichio stated she came to this commission meeting by the way of Mr. Kaneshiro because both of them are on the board for the Hawaii Farm Bill Federation. Mr. Kaneshiro mentioned to her that he was on the Public Access, Open Space and Natural Resources Preservation Commission and she asked about how the Commission was evaluating the decisions and what frame work were they using to determine the priorities. She also asked Mr. Kaneshiro if they discussed the Kona Community Development Plan or any of the development planning processes as being part of the Commission's criteria for deciding what had priority. At that point, Mr. Kaneshiro invited Ms. Piccichio to come and have a discussion with the Commission. Ms. Piccichio stated the Kona Community Development Plan was the first plan that was funded; she also stated that the Puna Plan was funded and is currently underway. Ms. Piccichio stated the two plans in Waikoloa have been funded and they are just getting their committee and consultant on board. Ms. Piccichio stated this process for what amounts to regional planning for the island, is well on its way and her primary reason to come at this point is just so that when these plans move ahead a little further and the communities within each of these planning districts start coming to their own concepts of what they feel their priorities are within their own community, this Commission could take those issues into consideration as part of the big picture. Ms. Piccichio stated it's a fascinating phenomenon with these community plans since we have only County government and this is actually legal mechanism because these community plans will be adopted by Ordinance so they have the first affected law. Once these community plans are adopted, the recommendations that are made within them are not just a wish list, it's something that the community is going to be committed to implementing and it will be very important for them to be working with this Commission and coming to their own priorities and determining how those priorities can be implemented, whether its trails, regional parks, etc. Ms. Piccichio stated it's too early for her to come to this Commission with any recommendations because none of the plans have been completed yet however she wanted to bring the concept to attention. Mr. Flores asked once the plans are developed and gets approved does it have to coincide with the general plan or does it override the general plan. Ms. Piccichio responded that Chapter 15 of the general plan says that the broad goals of the general plan shall be implemented by the adoption of community plans. Ms. Piccichio stated in looking at the general plan, it makes many "feel good statements" such as, "protect farm land ", "protect trails" or "protect cultural sites" but it does not go into how or who is going to do it. Chapter 15, the implementation chapter of the general plan, says the job for determining this specific implementation should be done through CDP' s. Mr. Gilmartin asked if it was likely that any of the plans would be done this year. Ms. Piccichio answered that they are hoping to have a draft out this summer for the Kona plan. Ms. Springer informed Ms. Piccichio that as a part of this Commission's process, when they develop the criteria to evaluate different sites that are recommended to this Commission, they refer back to the Hawaii County General Plan as one of their guideposts. They will look forward to greater scrutiny at Chapter 15. 2 Ms. Self stated that Chapter 15 says that you may make amendments to the general plan. Ms. Piccichio responded that you can't actually contradict the general plan. Ms. Self stated that if they needed to, they could go in and try to get amendments to the general plan. Ms. Piccichio stated only in this case where there is something stated as policy within the general plan that the CDP will directly be in conflict with. Ms. Piccichio stated she hoped to avoid a situation where they were going in to amend the general plan and at this point she doesn't see that rising to the surface. Ms. Piccichio stated it's an exciting process to provide the community the opportunity to look at the tools and detail. People are starving to see something that is going to be realized and the commitment that is involved. It's a difficult process because it's unprecedented but it's also an exciting opportunity for the islands. Mr. Flores asked if there was a timeline for the plans. Ms. Piccichio stated they have not determined that for the Puna plan and the Kona plan. The Planning Director gave an 18 month window for completion, which didn't turn out to be realistic because it took them eight months to get through the community input process. Once they sorted through, analyzed and worked on trying to draft implementation from approximately 3,500 comments from the public, they had passed the halfway mark. Ms. Piccichio stated they need to get this done as quickly as possible. Ms. Piccichio stated she was glad that the Planning Director put a shorter timeframe versus a longer timeframe because these issues are critical. It's in the best interest of the community to have something in put into place quickly. Ms. Piccichio stated they had a Green Infrastructure Consultant that helped with the Kona Plan. A Green Infrastructure Plan for the Kona district was recommended. Instead of looking at trails, parks, shoreline access, or watershed areas separately, they should start looking at how they all combine together. Ms. Piccichio stated a basic fundamental premises for all of the decisions that are made in Kona regarding urban, Green Infrastructure, watershed, coastline, or more environmental issues, should be viewed as a whole and not as a spot here and there. Ms. Piccichio stated it was easier to say that I have this property and I am going to put a subdivision on it and not take a look at the land around it; it's the same thing with the Green Infrastructure plan. We can say that we want to put a park here but it's much better overall for the community, and even the environment, to try to get an interconnected view of all properties. Ms. Piccichio stated they also wanted to look at all the trails that are known as historic trails and do a very in depth inventory; you'd think that all these inventories have been done but they haven't. With Na Ala Hele, they have developers coming through and make decisions of whether trails fragments should be protected for the state trail program or whether they could be bulldozed. But, even Na Ala Hele doesn't do comprehensive mapping. Ms. Piccichio stated she thought all districts should be doing a comprehensive mapping of all the trail fragments to decide which cultural sites should be protected but not used which could be linked to have a public access program and look at it from that perspective. Mr. Kaneshiro stated he's working on a project and was on the internet and looked at Hawaii 2050, which is a visionary type of process that Senator Kokobun started and the State legislature approved. Mr. Kaneshiro stated he hoped this visionary concept would move into all of the CDP's that will be happening on the Big Island. Ms. Piccichio stated the concept of preservation of agricultural land was a lot broader than just protection of agricultural lands; it's a growth management strategy. If you allow unplanned sprawling growth, it bankrupts the local governmental entities that provide infrastructure services. Ms. Piccichio stated the old idea was to keep approving development because it brings in revenue however they can't keep up with the services and infrastructure. Ms. Piccichio stated it raises the question, is this Commission going to be evaluating the concept of important agricultural land or does that fall under the criteria of things that you evaluate? Mr. Kaneshiro stated that agricultural lands are part of this but this Commission had not yet received requests for agricultural lands or protection of watershed areas. This Commission has been mostly concentrating on coastal areas. If you look at the way the law was written, first priority is coastal areas. Ms. Springer stated that when watershed areas or forest areas are mentioned, it's so nebulous that we don't have the specificity to evaluate those recommendations to us. Ms. Piccichio stated the Kona CDP have more people coming out with this issue of remapping the watersheds. There is a big push within the Kona CDP to do watershed corridor protection in the urban areas; they want to keep them as green belt buffers between new urban villages. They want to find ways of protecting those links of drainage areas by moving into this more environmentally progressive way instead of putting concrete channels for flood, to do more natural flow way systems. Ms. Piccichio stated in some places, in urban planning, they are doing this now. Ms. Springer stated while she was on the Planning Commission, they could not deny any application because the community prefers it not be there. There was an important discussion of cumulative affects which then allowed our discussion to say, a subdivision of this size should not raise any flags for us. However when approving them month after month there was a cumulative affect, so, she hoped that any of their discussions take that into account and make some sort of recommendation that the cumulative effects of any individual proposal are taken up as what it represents in the aggregate level; limited to that specific. 0 Ms. Piccichio stated ideally that's where more regional planning was exactly serving the purpose it should be. When dealing with a plan that's covering an area the size of Delaware, you really can't look at the details sufficiently to do it justice. Mr. Flores gave Ms. Piccichio some Suggestion Forms. He explained that if there were any sites that she thought were important, she could submit those forms in to this Commission for their consideration. Ms. Piccichio said that it will be great to work with this Commission and she was glad that it existed and she knows it will serve an important role. Mr. Kaneshiro thanked Ms. Piccichio. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Ms. Springer moved for approval of the minutes ofApril 9, 2007 regular session as amended, seconded by Mr. Gilmartin and carried unanimously by voice vote. WRITTEN COMMUNICATION NONE DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE REPORT Mr. Yada passed out some information from the State Legacy Land. On the second page; it listed the applications that are in with the Legacy Land Fund. Mr. Yada stated one of applications was from the County of Hawaii for the Kawa`a property. Mr. Yada stated some of the TMK's were familiar to the Commission because they are parcels on the overall list. Mr. Yada's understanding was that the Legacy Land Commission will be meeting and considering these applications for funding. He was not exactly sure what their total funds were at this point but his understanding was that it was supposed to be in a range of 4 -5 million per year. Mr. Yada stated there has been no communication from the previous offer on the Kawa`a property. His understanding was that they have been reviewing the appraisal, but have not provided any feedback yet. Mr. Yada stated the County met with Mr. Olsen to talk about his properties. One of the things they were pursuing or at least considering was a grant program from the US Fish and Wildlife for coastal wetlands. One of the Olsen properties may qualify under that program. The Trust for Public Lands was helping in reviewing those parcels and seeing what the potential of that grant would be. Mr. Yada stated Mr. Olsen was cooperative and not in a rush. He was willing to see if the County qualified for the property under that grant program. Mr. Yada stated they should by the end of June. The applications are due by the end of May so the Trust for Public Lands was trying to find resource information on the properties because there has to be justification for the grant. Mr. Yada stated he was hopeful that it would work out but at this point they didn't know. Mr. Yada stated the owners of Waipi`o asked for an extension till the end of July; they were doing a separate appraisal. The appraiser they are working with is fairly busy so he asked for more time to get that done. Mr. Yada stated that he sent out an e -mail to the Commissioner's about the Council's consideration of a resolution for the purchase of Punalu`u. Mr. Yada stated the reason why he e- mailed everyone was because it was a resolution that refers to using this Commission's funds to authorizing acquisition. His concern was whether the Resolution accurately described some of the assumptions that went in to the Resolution. If some of the statements and assumptions in there were not correct, at least the Commissioners were aware of and they could make comments if they wish to. The result of that Resolution was that they took it off the public hearing so there was no action on the Resolution. He has not heard when that public hearing will be. Ms. Self stated there were going to be corrections on this. Bob Jacobson's aide called her and she corrected different things. Mr. Jacobson was actually looking at the first report that this Commission sent to the Mayor instead of the most recent one. Mr. Jacobson had the ranking wrong and she corrected that. However, there still was a problem that they brought up at the Council meeting that they have the wrong TMK numbers. Mr. Yada noticed that some of the TMK's are not even in that area. Mr. Yada mentioned that he noted the Commission's recommendations had "various coastal areas" and Mr. Jacobson's resolution had specific TMK's. Whether the TMK's reflected what the intent of the Commission was when they said "coastal areas" he has no idea. He was not around for discussions earlier last year. That was a reason for his concern as to insuring that it truly reflected what the Commission intended in their recommendations to the Mayor with regards to Punalu`u. Ms. Self noticed that in the Resolution it said, "2,000 feet inland" and she didn't think that the Commission put that in the report. Mr. Yada stated that was some of the issues they had when the Council came up with their various Resolutions for acquisition. He would hate to see the Commission's recommendations interpreted in different ways to suit someone else's purpose. Mr. Yada wanted to make sure that the Commission's intents are accurately described in these actions. Mr. Yada stated the other thing he wanted to follow up on was the drafted notice letter that Stacie mailed out to prior applicants. Those were mailed out together with the new suggestion form. He asked Stacie if she knew exactly when she mailed it out. Ms. Waltjen replied that she mailed out approximately 190 envelopes last week. So far, she received five envelopes back because of "wrong address" or "no longer there." 31 Mr. Yada stated he knew the Commissioner's were concerned if the notice went out with the new suggestion form. Ms. Self explained to Ms Garcia about the new Suggestion form that was created to gather more information so that the Commission can better evaluate properties. Mr. Yada stated they were interviewing for the Clerk III position. Recess: 11:00 a. m. Reconvened at 11: 04 am. Mr. Gilmartin asked if they could do site visits. He stated if they had maps, they might be able to better tell what the ground situation looked like and hopefully it might help the Commission better evaluate some of these properties. They will have a better picture of what ought to be recommended. OFFICE OF THE CORPORATIN COUNSEL'S REPORT Ms. Self stated that she didn't have anything to report. CHAIRPERSON'S REPORT Mr. Kaneshiro stated the Commission should consider some type of status report on what was happening; we owe it to the public to report to them about what was happening. It has been a while and we have not seen any successes. Ms. Self stated that the North and South Kohala committee puts out a newsletter for them and it's on the website so members and the public can see the status of what's going on. Ms. Self suggested they produce something on their website that gives status of offers that have been made and anything that's public knowledge. Mr. Gilmartin asked about press release. Mr. Kaneshiro agreed that was a good idea. Mr. Kaneshiro also mentioned the Hamakua Times. Mr. Flores stated if the Commission puts in an ad before the end of this month, they could announce that the Suggestion forms are due by June 31, 2007. Mr. Flores also stated if this Commission does a public release article about what's going on, they could add in the deadline to turn in the forms. He also suggested adding in the website information. Mr. Gilmartin stated he knew a woman that writes for the West Hawaii Today and her articles also gets picked up in the Hawaii Tribune - Herald. 7 Mr. Kaneshiro stated that anyone who wants to write this article needed to coordinate with Harry and Stacie for follow up. They would have to include what we talked about during these meetings, the new intake forms and an overview of what's been happening with this Commission. The Commission decided to use the Notice letter that was sent out to the public with the new Suggestion Form, add in the negotiation portion and form it into a press release. It was agreed that Mr. Gilmartin and Mr. Yada will work together to draft the format of the Notice letter. UNFINISHED BUSINESS • Report from Commissioners on community meetings Mr. Gilmartin stated he had two meetings, one in Volcano and the other in Na` alehu. Mr. Gilmartin stated the Volcano meeting was mentioned in the local Volcano newsletter, however, no dates or times were mentioned in it. Mr. Gilmartin stated no one showed up but he did solicit and talked to people that were there for other things; he got some forms distributed. Mr. Gilmartin stated the Na` alehu meeting was pretty interesting. There were approximately 6 or 8 people there. There were concerns of management issues once a property was purchased, such as, who will take care of the maintenance and where will the funding come from? Mr. Gilmartin stated he thought the Commission should bring this issue to the County Council. They need to know how it would be dealt with in the future. Mr. Kaneshiro suggested the possibility of using the 2% fund for the maintenance of the properties. Mr. Kaneshiro stated it's usually Parks & Recreation that's responsible for maintaining these properties however he doesn't know if they are funded adequately for maintenance. Ms. Self stated when Resolutions by the Council come up for purchase, they should be thinking about the maintenance issue. They have to create funds for maintenance because it can't come out of this Commission's fund. Mr. Yada stated in the Ordinance there's discussion about how the funds would be used for stewardship. However, it's very vague so they could take a liberal interpretation of that and say that we could use funds for maintenance. Ms. Garcia agreed that maintenance funds were important. She stated there was an article in the newspaper where a piece of land was marked for a park. They gave it to the County; however, the County didn't want to take it because they didn't want to spend the money to maintain it. So, they lost a park and leased the land to the YMCA and now YMCA wants to build a building. Ms. Garcia stated she agreed that the 2% fund should have a maintenance funding. Mr. Flores stated his second meeting was in Hawi at the Kohala Cultural Center. There were about two dozen people who showed up for the meeting. Mr. Flores stated there was a question that surfaced was about the money that is put into the Public Access, Open Space and Natural Resources fund; is interest accrued from that fund? Mr. Yada stated monies are accrued and then invested in the investment accounts. Mr. Flores asked if the interest goes back into the Commission's fund or back into the County's general fund. Mr. Yada stated he thought it goes back into the PONC fund however he needed to confirm that. Mr. Flores stated that some of the people were concerned about specific lands in Kohala, one of those lands being Mahukona. They had specific issues about what was happening with it. Mr. Flores stated he couldn't give them any specific answers. Mr. Flores stated he explained that the County were negotiating for the Waipi`o and Kawa`a property and had not gone beyond that as far as pursuing a negotiation. Mr. Yada stated on the State list there were a couple of parcels that have been the focus in Kohala. Mr. Yada stated there are two rectangular parcels along the shoreline; those are the two of focus. One parcel is surrounded by Lapakahi and the other is a little further down the coast. Mr. Yada stated the County got a letter from an attorney representing the further down the coast. They had applied for a CDUA with the State and got into a contested case. Mr. Yada stated the owner got frustrated with process. The attorney sent a letter to the State and the County saying that the owner was willing to sell the property at "X" price and wanted an offer. Mr. Yada stated he drafted a response to the attorney saying that the property was not at the top of their priority list and they don't have the funds to respond. Mr. Yada stated both those parcels are surrounded by State land therefore he suggested them pursue the Legacy Land Fund. • Discuss with the Commission the need to adopt a rule regarding notification of property owners on the priority list. Ms. Self stated it was a big debate in our office right now therefore she was going to have to continue this until the next meeting. Ms. Self stated the Commission couldn't do anything with the existing list now. Ms. Self stated the Council would have to adopt a bill that would insert language into the code stating if a property owner did not want to have their property on the list, there would be a way for the property owner to get their name off the list. Ms. Self stated she was looking to see if they were going to get sued or threatened with litigation. Ms. Self stated she doesn't know what will happen if the Commission ended up with no properties on a M list to submit to the Mayor. Ms. Self stated for the properties already on the list, it would take an Ordinance to change. This Commission doesn't have any authority once it goes to the Mayor. Ms. Self stated it would be up to the Council to make a change to the Ordinance. Ms. Self stated she has no problem with this Commission sending a letter to the landowners prior to finalizing their list to the Mayor, explaining what this list was and if they had any objections to call. Ms. Self stated the problem was how to deal with the list that's already published. Ms. Self stated she had already received a phone call from an attorney whose client's property was on the existing list. He wasn't threatening a lawsuit but wondered if they would condemn her property if she doesn't accept the offer. Ms. Self stated she told the attorney that she was not able to answer that because she doesn't know what the Council would do; only the Council can authorize condemnation. Mr. Yada stated if you look at the ordinance he didn't think it was written around a concept of condemning property; he thinks it's written around negotiating a sale. Mr. Yada stated in this situation, having someone's property on the list where they are unwilling to sell, it is pointless unless the County was willing to take it to the point of condemnation and no where in the Ordinance does he see that written. Mr. Gilmartin stated that was the point he was going to make. Mr. Gilmartin stated it's worth making the inquiry if the landowners want their property on the list. There was also the question of whether or not they would consider selling. If they don't want to sell their property, then this Commission shouldn't put it on the list. Mr. Gilmartin stated it would just take up space where another property could be listed as a higher priority. Ms. Springer asked Mr. Gilmartin if he was anticipating some sort of outreach to property owners whose properties was on the list prior to our submittal. Mr. Gilmartin stated yes. Mr. Kaneshiro stated he was sure there were going to be a whole bunch of resubmissions. He believed the letter should be written asking the landowners if they had any objections of their property being on the list. Mr. Kaneshiro stated he didn't think the Commission should mention acquisition or anything else. Mr. Kaneshiro stated the landowner might want to donate his property. Ms. Self stated before this Commission thinks about doing a letter, we should wait and see what kind of submissions we get. Ms. Self stated this Commission may not have to write a letter. • Mailing database Stacie Waltj en stated she sent out 190 letters last week. That included the notice and the new suggestion form. She said she didn't receive anything back. 10 Ms. Garcia asked why the new suggestion form was developed. Mr. Kaneshiro stated so the public can provide more information which in turn this Commission would be able to do a better evaluation. Ms. Springer stated the first pass was this Commission's learning curve. Ms. Springer stated this Commission might anticipate periodic refinements of the process. ANNOUCEMENTS The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, June 12, 2007, 10:00 a.m. at the Dept of Liquor Control Conference Room, 101 Aupuni Street, Suite 230, Hilo, HI 96720. Mr. Kaneshiro stated he would not be able to make it because he has a meeting in Maui. The Commission then went into a discussion regarding the Legacy Land Conservation committee meeting on Friday, May 18, 2007. Motion: Commissioner Springer moved that Chair Kaneshiro submit testimony to the Legacy Land Conservation Commission on Friday, May 18, 2007 in support of the County purchase or County request of one million five hundred thousand dollars for property at Kawa`a and also align recommending consideration of the properties at Lapakahi and Pao `o. Commissioner Flores seconded. All members voted aye, motion carried. ADJOURNMENT Ms. Springer moved to adjourn the meeting; Mr. Gilmartin seconded the motion and all members voted aye. The meeting adjourned at 12:35 p.m. Res ecffally su fitted, Stacie T. WAen, Secretary 11