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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2015-07-16 Leeward Exh E (GPA 14-002) LEEWARD PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAI‘I HEARING TRANSCRIPT JULY 16, 2015 PLANNING DIRECTOR INITIATED AMENDMENT A regularly advertised hearing on the TO MAP 14 OF THE LAND USE PATTERN ALLOCATION GUIDE MAP OF THE COUNTY OF HAWAI‘I GENERAL PLAN was called to order at 10:54 a.m. in the West Hawai‘i Civic Center, Community Center, Building G, 74-5044 Ane Keohokālole Highway, Kailua-Kona, Hawai‘i, with Chairman Brandi Beaudet presiding. COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Brandi Beaudet, Scott Church, Collin Kaholo, Barbara Nobriga and Keith Unger ABSENT AND EXCUSED: Sonny Shimaoka and Thomas Whittemore ALSO PRESENT: Danny Patel (Counsel for the Commission), Duane Kanuha (Planning Director), Daryn Arai (Planning Program Manager), Jeff Darrow (Planner), Maija Jackson (Planner) and Noriko Sauer (Commission Secretary) And six people from the public in attendance. INITIATOR: PLANNING DIRECTOR (GPA-14-002) An amendment to Map 14 of the Land Use Pattern Allocation Guide (LUPAG) Map of the County of Hawai‛i General Plan (adopted by Ordinance No. 05-025, amended by Ordinance Nos. 06-153 and 14-087) by changing the land use designation for portions of Kea‛au Village and immediately surrounding area as follows:  Low Density Urban to Medium Density Urban A-1: encompassing a contiguous area of approximately 475 acres from approximately 0.3 miles northwest (makai) of the intersection of Kea‛au-Pāhoa Bypass Road and Highway 11 (Volcano Highway) to and including the area in the vicinity of Ulupono and Milo Streets, extending south of Kukula Street and then in a westerly direction to the boundary of the Kea‛au Ag Lots Subdivision to the Highway 11-Old Volcano Highway intersection along the Old Volcano Highway leading to the Village core.  Important Agricultural Land to Medium Density Urban A-2: encompassing the triangular area of approximately 112 acres from Kukula Street-Kea‛au Bypass Road intersection south to the Kea‛au Bypass Road-Kea‛au Pāhoa Road intersection, and then approximately to the northeastern corner of the Kea‛au Ag Lots Subdivision. BEAUDET: Next item on today’s agenda, Initiator: Planning Director, General Plan Amendment 14-002. ARAI: Thank you, Commissioners. If I may direct your attention to the presentation screen. This particular amendment request to the General Plan LUPAG Map is for an area in Kea‘au located on the east side of the island, and we bring it to you today simply because it is an amendment to the General Plan, which is a County-wide policy, land use policy document, and it affords those 1 EXHIBIT E landowners who may be interested on the west side of the island to also provide commentary on this proposed amendment request. So with that, I will begin with the presentation. Why Amend the Land Use Pattern Allocation Map for Kea‘au Town? On July 18, 2014, last year, the Council adopted Resolution Number 464-14, Draft 2 requesting that the Planning Director initiate an interim amendment to the Land Use Pattern Allocation Guide Map in the vicinity of the Kea‘au Regional Town Center as defined by the Puna Community Development Plan, based on findings that the County of Hawai‘i General Plan LUPAG Map designations for the Kea‘au Regional Town Center area are inconsistent with the objectives, actions and land use recommendations of the Puna CDP; second, there are inconsistencies between the existing zoning designations and the LUPAG Map designations in the vicinity of Ulupono and Milo Streets – and I will show you those particular streets when I get to the maps; and in order to meet, third item is, in order to meet the objectives of the Puna CDP to facilitate future land use entitlements and enhance the role of the Kea‘au Regional Town Center, including the Puna CDP’s statement that zoning for residential development and associated neighborhood-oriented services may occur within the LUPAG alternate urban expansion areas, the General Plan should be more closely aligned to the Puna CDP; fourth, inconsistencies between the LUPAG Map and the Puna CDP recommendations, growth within the Kea‘au Regional Town Center has been primarily confined to the core in which specific settlement patterns have not yet been fixed and which is currently designated Medium Density Urban by the LUPAG Map, with limited opportunities in the Low Density Urban area for higher density residential units and retail and office commercial uses to support the regional town center; fifth item, or fifth reason I should say, for those reasons, the County Council, through this resolution, expressed its support of “these amendments because it supports the Kea‘au Regional Town Center principles and designations adopted in the Puna CDP and determines the development of the Kea‘au Regional Town Center will serve the interest of the public by stimulating growth through sustainable principles that will provide for improved public infrastructure systems and facilities, direct and indirect employment, and a continued sense of place outlined herein, in the Puna CDP, and in the General Plan.” Public informational meetings regarding the proposed Map amendment as directed by the Council Resolution were held by the Planning Department on February 11, 2015 in Kea‘au and February 12, 2015 in Kona. During the Kea‘au meeting, some concerns, among others, focused on the overly broad nature of the proposed Urban Expansion designation that could allow industrial uses within the village town center and in close proximity to existing residential uses and schools, creating an issue of compatibility between these two distinct uses. Based on comments received during the workshops and public agency review period, the Planning Director recommends that the proposed LUPAG Map amendment identify a Medium Density Urban designation that would be more appropriate as it would expand upon the existing Medium Density Urban designation that encompasses the existing commercial area in Kea‘au Town while limiting the potential for potentially incompatible industrial uses within the town center. Just to give you a bit of background, this is an excerpt from the Puna Community Development Plan and it shows the preliminary boundaries of the Regional Town Center. In this particular area – just to orient you, this is Highway 11 in this direction to your right heading to Hilo and in this direction to your left heading to Volcano, and this alignment here coming off of Highway 11 is the Kea‘au-Pāhoa Road, or Bypass as they call it now, and it heads off to the map heading toward 2 EXHIBIT E Pāhoa – this is the Kea‘au commercial core, this red area here, right at the junction of the Old Kea‘au-Pāhoa Road and Highway 11, and this purple area here, which is mauka of the highway, is the existing Shipman Industrial Park. This is the Gateway proposal for which zoning was granted but has yet to be developed. Like we spoke previously about Ulupono and Milo Streets, those streets are located in this area here, and this area does have zoning, industrial commercial zoning, that supports a commercial industrial subdivision upon which we already have an existing credit union complex. And this yellow represents the areas where you have existing single-family residential uses. You may note on this map that the mauka side of Highway 11 is defined by this plan for regional uses, and on the makai side toward Pāhoa this area is defined as appropriate for community-based commercial uses. Oh, and, I’m sorry, the preliminary Town Center boundaries are actually identified and defined by this series of, this dotted line here, and you can see where it follows Pāhoa Bypass, then come back along Kea‘au Ag Lots up to Highway 11, along Highway 11, and then crosses the street mauka of the highway. This is the existing General Plan LUPAG Map oriented differently with the top of the map pointing basically makai and the bottom of the map basically representing the mauka side of Highway 11. You can see where the crosshatch is the Urban Expansion Area. That area basically, it’s the same type of designation that was originally proposed by the Council resolution, that will basically infill the area currently designated Low Density Urban. Low Density Urban is basically single-family residential uses. Medium Density Urban represented by this orange color here is for commercial type of uses and higher density multiple-family residential type of activities. The grays represent industrial areas, here encompassing the Shipman Industrial Park and then this particular location makai of the highway in the vicinity of the HELCO power plant. This map, trying to maintain the same orientation, basically identifies the scope of the current proposed density for you. As you can see, the area, the proposed amendment is limited to the particular area, basically covered by a crosshatch, and that includes approximately 475 acres within the Kea‘au Regional Town Center area as defined by the Puna CDP that will change the classification from its current Low Density Urban, which is in support of single-family residential uses, to a Medium Density Urban designation. And what that, this proposal, would accomplish is basically expand upon the existing Medium Density Core that currently exists, or is currently designated in the Kea‘au Town Center area. The existing core area comprises of approximately 52 acres. So again, the proposal is to go from 52 acres to an area that would encompass at least 475 acres, including an additional 112 acres taken from currently designated Important Agricultural Land, into Medium Density Urban. Just to note that this particular area here currently is the site of Kea‘au High School. Just to briefly go over, and I mentioned this earlier, Low Density Urban includes residential units, up to six units per acre, with ancillary community and public uses, neighborhood convenience-type of commercial uses; typical zonings that you would see within Low Density is Single-Family, Double-Family, Open, Limited Neighborhood Commercial or Village Commercial zonings. Important Ag Lands are those lands with better potential for sustained high agricultural yields because of soil type, climate, topography or other factors; typical zonings include Agriculture, Family Agriculture, Important Agriculture and Open. But, again, I emphasize once again the current IAL designated area is basically where Kea‘au High School currently sits. The proposed Medium Density Urban classification that we are asking for would support village and 3 EXHIBIT E neighborhood commercial and single family and multiple family residential and related functions, up to 35 units per acre; typical zonings you would see in the Medium Density area is Single-Family, Double-Family, Multiple-Family, Residential-Commercial Mixed Use, Neighborhood Commercial, Village Commercial, Project Districts and Open zoning designations. This is just to give you some perspective. This is the current zone district map for the Kea‘au area. The dark green color represents Agricultural 20-acre zoning. This white area off to your left is Industrial zoned lands, and encompasses Shipman Industrial. This is the Gateway project identified by a mixed use Commercial Industrial zoning. The yellow represents Single-Family Residential uses. This white here at the intersection of the Old Kea‘au-Pāhoa Road and Highway 11 is the current commercial core for Kea‘au Town, and off to your right is the Kea‘au Agricultural Lots, which is basically zoned Ag-1 and supports one-acre agricultural parcels. And finally this map attempts to show you spatially what is on the ground when overlaid with the proposed Land Use Pattern Allocation Guide Map. Again, the focus of the proposed amendment is just this particular crosshatched area here around the existing Kea‘au commercial core, roughly 475 acres going from Low Density to Medium Density Urban and an additional 112 acres from Important Ag Land to Medium Density Urban. And I believe just under crosshatch you can see the Kea‘au High School complex. So with that, I think that concludes my presentation, and I stand ready to answer any questions that you may have. BEAUDET: Commissioners, any comments or discussion, or questions of staff? I’m not aware of anyone in the audience who had signed up to testify on the application. So with that, Commissioners, I’d like to move for a motion of action, please. NOBRIGA: I move that the applicant for Resolution Number 464 14 be approved by the Planning Director. Kea‘au Village – here we go, okay, now I’ve got the number – I move that a favorable recommendation be forwarded to the County Council on the application for the General Plan amendment, Docket Number GPA 14-002, pursuant to the Planning Director’s findings and recommendations, which shall be adopted. KAHOLO: I second. BEAUDET: It has been moved for a favorable recommendation by Commissioner Nobriga and seconded by Commissioner Kaholo. Any discussion before a roll call? Daryn? ARAI: Commissioner Nobriga? NOBRIGA: Aye. ARAI: Commissioner Kaholo? KAHOLO: Aye. 4 EXHIBIT E ARAI: Commissioner Church? CHURCH: Aye. ARAI: Commissioner Unger? UNGER: Aye. ARAI: And Mr. Chairman? BEAUDET: Aye. ARAI: Mr. Chairman, motion carries with five aye votes. BEAUDET: Thank you, Daryn. ARAI: Thank you very much. The discussion ended at 11:09 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Noriko Sauer, Secretary Leeward Planning Commission 5 EXHIBIT E