HomeMy WebLinkAbout2016-10-26 BDHRA Minutes
BANYAN DRIVE HAWAI‘I REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY
COUNTY OF HAWAI‘I
MINUTES
October 26, 2016
The Banyan Drive Hawai‘i Redevelopment Agency met in the County of Hawai‘i, Hilo Council
Chambers, Hawaiʻi County Building, 25 Aupuni Street, Room 1401, Hilo, Hawaiʻi, with
Chairman Brian DeLima presiding.
AGENCY MEMBERS PRESENT: Mary Begier, Brian DeLima, Elmer Gorospe, and Barry
Taniguchi
AGENCY MEMBERS ABSENT AND EXCUSED: Sigmund Zane
ALSO PRESENT: Duane Kanuha (Planning Director), Joaquin Gamiao-Kunkel (Planning
Deputy Director), William Brilhante (Assistant Corporation Counsel), Daryn Arai (Planning
Program Manager), Lucas Mead (Staff Planner), Christian Kay (Staff Planner), and Kim Tanaka
(Secretary).
A quorum was present with four members in attendance. The meeting was called to order by
Chairman DeLima at 1:00 p.m. At this time Chairman DeLima opened the floor to receive
public testimony.
STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC
There were approximately 36 people from the public in attendance.
DELIMA: Are there any statements from the public? Okay, we have Don Inouye. Mr.
Inouye, you can come up. There’s a microphone; if you could speak into the mic. We’ve
adopted the Rules and Procedure so you have three minutes for your testimony.
INOUYE: Yeah, that’s about all I’ll need. I consider myself a major individual in
Banyan Drive; I’ve lived there for over 20 years now. I’m the president of Reed’s Bay
Resort Hotel. This year we’re going over a million dollars of revenue. Dealing with the
economical area of tourist, and that’s my greatest concern. The greatest concern, I feel,
as far as the redevelopment agency, should be the thoroughfare on Banyan Drive. Now,
the Banyan Drive and the care for banyan trees within the Banyan Peninsula, to me this is
something that’s been neglected over the years and caused the real blight in the area. The
current Banyan Drive thoroughfare is so called blight area and not the buildings, etcetera.
Now let me look at this, you try coming into the entrance of Banyan Drive at Verna’s
Drive Inn and you look at the middle section there, divider, it’s a blight area because all
of the invasive weeds overgrowing the plantings. Invasive growth along the thoroughfare
of weeds and invasive trees all along Banyan Drive is blocking the beautiful greens of the
golf course.
I don’t advocate giving up the golf course either. This is a view that the tourists ought to
have. The majestic banyan trees have been ignored over the years to proper care and
beautification of the surrounding ground areas and the signage for each of the trees is not
at the best taste as to its significance of the people that they represent. The banyan trees
have an international interest, as depicted by your copy of international magazine, which
I have distributed to each one of the board members, Planning Commission \[sic\]
members. It’s very important. It’s a national situation. I hope you read that article. It
depicts the banyan trees on Maui, over on the O‘ahu, and the Big Island. I have
previously stated that the banyan trees come to being exemplary of being on the national
register for buildings. They should not be ignored. They should be developed and they
should become truly a tourist attraction. The first impression our tourists have to Banyan
Drive area is the most important to all of us, and the aloha spirit that is exemplified by
each hotel. My question is what concern has the Agency given to the subject addressed
above? Thank you very much.
DELIMA: Any questions? Thank you, Mr. Inouye. Ross Birch. Mr. Birch, you have
three minutes as well.
BIRCH: Aloha. I do apologize because I had the opportunity to provide information
prior to this, but I do have statistics. The main thing that I, main reason why I’m
testifying today is to provide statistics concerning the visitor plan inventory of the island,
how it’s spread between east and west, what the arrivals are, comparing east and west,
also the cruise ship industry and how it’s changed over the years. So I’ve actually got a
document that I can provide you that has all this information including that. In a nutshell,
the overall is if you take the entire visitor plant of 11,000 individual units on the island
between Honoka‘a and South Point east, there’s only about 1,500. So about 15 percent of
the entire inventory of rooms are on the full eastern side of the island. The good news is
that the arrivals and the air lift is about 30 percent coming in to Hilo, or to the east side.
So we still have arrivals, we have the lift provided for that for the amount of arrivals that
we’re getting based off the inventory. What that also shows us is that the East Hawaii
hotels are running at a much higher occupancy than those of West Hawaii based off of
the inventory plan and the arrivals versus those percentages. So, mainly just providing
information so you know where we’re at, at this state in time, to move forward and be
able to provide the necessary visitor plant inventory that we may need for Hilo moving
forward. The cruise ship industry has decreased 60 percent since 2007 to 2016. That’s
going from about 250,000 visitor arrivals a year to about less than 100,000. So that’s a
huge impact on it. Our total arrivals are almost matching that of 2007. So in 2007 we
had 1.6 million visitors to the island, in 2016 we’re going to be at 1.55. So we’ve been
able to replace that cruise ship and we’re replacing it but they’re actually flying into, and
the lift is in the West Hawai‘i. So you’re getting a lot of the visitors coming through
Hilo. Fortunately they are staying a night, one or two nights, because that’s coming
through our records, but the majority of the visitor industries is happening on the west
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side of the island, and there is an opportunity for East Hawai‘i to capture that. So I’ll
provide this information for you as well with all those statistics.
DELIMA: Okay thank you. Any questions? Thank you very much for coming.
TANIGUCHI: I have a question.
DELIMA: Oh, Mr. Taniguchi.
TANIGUCHI: On your 1,500 unit, East Hawai‘i, does that include all the bed and
breakfasts, all these other units, or just hotel rooms?
BIRCH: Yes, I have a complete breakdown of the specific units. About 1,100 of the
1,500 units are hotel rooms. The rest are bed and breakfasts, vacation rentals, timeshare;
breaks everything down into about eight different categories.
TANIGUCHI: Thank you.
BIRCH: Thank you.
DELIMA: Any further questions? Okay, thank you very much. We now call on
Rocklyn Spencer-Dicey.
SPENCER-DICEY: I’m speaking as a private citizen and also as a participant in the
Special Olympics program. I’d like to just read off of my written testimony. The
question number one, what is your connection to the Banyan Drive Redevelopment Area?
Regularly use the Naniloa Golf Course. Number two, what types of land use activities
would you like to see? My answer is no more development. No redevelopment. No
more wasting tax payer dollars for unnecessary projects. Number three, what features of
the conceptual land use and master plan maps do you like? Answer, none. Number four,
what features of the conceptual land use and master plan maps do you not like? Answer,
all. So, number five, what questions or concerns do you have about the conceptual land
use and master plan maps? Kay, my answer, Hilo already has many parks that need to be
maintained at tax payer expense. Queen Lili‘uokalani isn’t exactly flooded with people.
We don’t need any more parks. On the other hand, there is a beautiful golf course,
privately owned, that does not put an extra burden on tax payers. This golf course
provides an alternative to the crowded municipal golf course. It keeps the area as open
space in a tsunami zone. Also, let’s not forget the concern for rising sea levels. We, and
the County, would be irresponsible to erect any new buildings in that space. The streets
of Hilo are in terrible condition. The curbs in many areas haven’t been painted for
visibility in decades. This is especially important in our rainy climate. Puainako and
Kīlauea intersection direly needs a paint job on the curb that‒‒of that grassy divider strip.
Please, County officials, just concentrate on maintaining what we already have. Your
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proposals will not increase tourism, nor improve the lives of the people who live here.
The third business tenant of the Prince Kuhio Plaza is closing.
DELIMA: Your time is up. You can just wrap up.
SPENCER-DICEY: Okay. There‒‒so in wrapping it up, the mall is empty, people only
go there to hang out, eat, and there are many economists predicting an economic crash.
DELIMA: Thank you. Our next testifier is Jack Rossen.
ROSSEN: Good afternoon. I’m here representing UH Hilo Anthropology Department
and the Master’s Program in Heritage Management there, and we have a whole bunch of
our students here. Can you show us‒‒from the Heritage Management Program. And our
concern is about the heiau at Baker’s Beach. And I’ve been looking at the most recent
development map and the heiau is still in the development area. It’s been on the
Environmental Impact Statement, we’ve had folks in our department do extensive
research on this heiau; Kathy Kawelu, Joe Genz, the Uncle Don Pakele is one of the kahu
who’s keeping track and watching it over, there are other locals, Uncle Herring Kalua.
We a‒‒
DELIMA: You know, I don’t think Baker’s Beach is in the district.
ROSSEN: Well, it’s on the‒‒if we look at the map of the, it’s right‒‒
DELIMA: Is it in Duane? Yeah, it’s not. I’m not trying to cut you off, but I think it’s
inaccurate what you’re just saying.
ROSSEN: Oh okay, because I was just looking at‒‒we have the map.
DELIMA: Yeah, I’m pretty certain the heiau is not in the area.
MEAD: Yeah, the redevelopment area stops‒‒
ROSSEN: Right at the heiau?
MEAD: ‒‒east of‒‒so nothing more east of Ice Pond. So it’s all within the peninsula.
The actual Banyan Drive redevelopment area is within the peninsula.
ROSSEN: Okay.
MEAD: The map shows connectivity as it would connect. So there’s, should be the
green kind of showing connections to harbors where visitors come in, so that swath
showing‒‒
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ROSSEN: Okay.
MEAD: ‒‒green, which is connectivity swath, not part of the redevelopment.
ROSSEN: Okay, great. So the heiau is definitely outside the impact area of the
development?
DELIMA: Yes, it is.
ROSSEN: Great. And the other thing I would say is‒‒
DELIMA: See how effective you are?
ROSSEN: Yes. And no, I would urge you to utilize that in terms of exhibits and
enhancing the experience for the visitors to our city as well and enhance the cultural
vitalization of the area.
DELIMA: We’ll keep that in mind.
ROSSEN: Okay, okay. Thank you.
DELIMA: Thank you very much for coming. Thank you, all your colleagues and
students for coming as well. Okay, next speaker is George Lewitzki.
LEWITZKI: I’m George Lewitzki and I’m here representing East Hawai‘i Special
Olympics golf. I have in‒‒seated here I don’t know how many, guys stand up please.
There’s four out of approximately twenty participants that participate in the golf program,
which is in its tenth year. The home for this golf program is the Banyan’s Golf Course,
and I am thoroughly in favor of keeping the Banyan’s Golf Course in your redevelopment
project. I’m not saying that we don’t need more, or some kind of improvement down
there, but I don’t think the loss of this golf course is something that we can do with. It’s
an exercise area for the golfers, especially the seniors that can’t walk the Muni course. I
think we could do a little bit more work in cleaning up around Banyan Drive and get the
County to do their easement work, possibly trimming the banyan trees. I don’t think it’s
a good thing to do away with those because it’s a part of history, from what I can see.
The main thing, like I said, it’s all about Special Olympics golf. This program’s been in,
you know, going on for 10 years now, and this is where these guys play. So thank you
again.
DELIMA: Thank you George. Any questions?
TANIGUCHI: I have a question George. I have a question.
DELIMA: Mr. Taniguchi.
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TANIGUCHI: How many participants do you have in the program?
LEWITZKI: I had 18 Special Olympics golfers in the program last year. They practice
from May to August of every year, every Friday, and the third week of August we hold a
fundraising tournament for them, probably a lot, I don’t know if any of you participated
in it here. Tournament (inaudible), yeah. I think you know about it Barry. And it’s
grown from originally four athletes nine years ago up to the 18 and I’ll probably be
expecting somewhere around 20 to 22 this year.
TANIGUCHI: Thank you.
DELIMA: George, thanks again for your service. Appreciate it.
LEWITZKI: Thank you.
DELIMA: James McCully.
MCCULLY: No comments.
DELIMA: Okay. Any other person who forgot to sign in? Kamuela Plunkett.
PLUNKETT: Aloha. I’m one of the students at UH Hilo that Professor Jack just talked
about and thank you for addressing that‒‒the proposed development that you guys
talking about is on the peninsula only. The only thing is that if you look at the white
arrows with the dots that represents pedestrian and bike circulation, that goes out to the
pier, that is right where the heiau is. Yeah, so, and one thing that we research is not just
direct developments and how the development affects the direct vicinity or the TMK, but
we also need to address surrounding heritage. Yeah, so what I’d like to say is one, the
development does affect that area. It does. And just to propose that the committee would
put more time and effort into working with community members. Like we’ve done a
research project last semester, working with people that lived in front of that heiau, so
just want to put that out there and us and the professors have more info and also we work
with the people that are connected to that place, so we would like you guys to consider
them in the process. Thanks.
DELIMA: Appreciate the comment and I think an important point, we don’t have
jurisdiction over that area so the connectivity is going to have to involve other entities.
And I know there’s a trail group that needs to be involved, but I appreciate the concept of
you’re a stakeholder, you’re interested in it, you want to be involved, and I think that’s
the most important thing. At least we know.
PLUNKETT: Yeah, thank you for your time. Just last thing is when you have drawings
like this including the area, whether it’s not the direct area proposed development,
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conceptual drawings indicate that there is already conceptions going in that direction.
Thank you.
DELIMA: Right. I think that’s a good point and we appreciate that comment.
TANIGUCHI: Excuse me, can you, Kamuela.
DELIMA: Kamuela, sorry, Mr. Taniguchi has a question.
TANIGUCHI: Sorry, I’m not familiar with the area. Can you kind of point out exactly
where you’re talking about, on the map.
PLUNKETT: If you look at registered map 2539, it will have, it’s an older map showing,
I think, the railroad, the old railroad, but it has‒‒
BEGIER: Talk in the mic so we capture it for the record, sorry.
PLUNKETT: Just answering Mr. Taniguchi’s question, if you look on, in the historic
registered maps, specifically 2539, you’ll see the polygon of the hēiau that was
documented and mapped on that same peninsula where that proposed pedestrian bike and
circulation path goes through.
TANIGUCHI: Thank you.
PLUNKETT: Thanks.
At this time Chairman DeLima asked Mr. Plunkett to point the area of discussion out on the large
map for the members of the public in the audience.
DELIMA: Thank you very much. Our next speaker is Richard Devine.
DEVINE: I missed your previous hearings so I might be redundant. I just wanted to
make some comments. I’m not following the agenda you have there but, because I
missed those meetings. I was a youth when the Kaiko‘o development, redevelopment
was done. My mother was one of the people involved with doing that, and as a youth I
was stunned that they would close off all this area down here to development, but as an
adult I’m really happy about that because everybody who comes here is so happy to see
Hilo open and green. We have an awful lot of green space out there, which we didn’t
have 50, 60, 80 years ago. Banyan peninsula of course was developed at those times.
Now we’re addressing the blight of Banyan Drive. What is the blight again? I hate to
say it, but yeah, the banyan trees. They’ve outlived their usefulness. Fifty years old
banyan trees kind of had it. I have one in my yard that’s just as old as the trees down
here. It’s a mess. We need to take out at least half. It’s too bad they didn’t plant kamani
trees and we hadn’t called it Kamani Drive. It’d be wonderful if all those trees looking
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like Lili‘uokalani, Coconut Island parking lot. Of course also to point out in history that
the Hilo Hawaiian Hotel is built on land that was designated to be part of Lili‘uokalani
Park. I don’t know if many of you realize that, but I remember it well when Tsunao
Okita \[sic – Tsusumo Ono\] was head of the Land Department and he and George
Ariyoshi mysteriously got the zoning change for the Japanese developer to build that
hotel there, which fortunately is the nicest hotel on Banyan Drive now. But I don’t know
how far your jurisdiction goes but as far as property for developing, you’re going across
the street, going across Kamehameha Avenue‒‒I don’t know if this is in your pocket, but
the property between Wailoa Park and Hilo Civic Auditorium, there’s a huge area there
that’s just undeveloped and I don’t know what it is, it’s just a jungle where homeless live.
I can’t see why that can’t be added to that Banyan Drive development and a great place to
put a cultural center which would add on to the complex at the, for the Merrie Monarch
and the Civic Auditorium, the Tennis Stadium. I realize I’m going out of bounds on that
but I’m just throwing these ideas out because as I play golf in Banyan almost three times
a week and it’s such a beautiful place to play golf, I see no reason for the golf course
going out.
Years ago there was a two story driving range there, lighted till 10:00 at night. We used
to go down there hit balls 8:00, 9:00 at night after having a few beers and have a few
more beers afterwards. And the two people that ran it, which many of you know, if two
people ran the driving range you know it was successful. That was Amy Miwa and Paul
Bello, which many of you in this room know those people, and they were running the
golf course driving range which now the golf course unfortunately those buildings have
all gone downhill. Herkes Tavern was there, great steakhouse and bar, turned into Foxy
Lady Nightclub, but those buildings have outlived their usage too. So I’m all for the golf
course. I wish that we could get a better golf club there, maybe put a nice restaurant,
pave that whole parking lot, a steakhouse, or a something like California Pizza Kitchen
which attract not only tourists but local people. Something that would fix the blight and I
don’t think, you know this plan we have here is a beautiful plan, but I think it goes
beyond addressing the blight that we’re looking at, at Banyan Drive. I think it’s little bit
expansive. Anyway, that’s just my opinion. I hope you appreciate it and I would like to
see something happen between Wailoa Park and the Civic. I see that might be outside of
your realm, it looks like it is but something for‒‒Duane Kanuha can look at that. Duane?
Anyway, thank you very much.
DELIMA: Okay, thank you. Any other people didn’t sign up? Oh okay. Okay, we have
K. T. Eger. K. T. Cannon-Eger. Good afternoon.
CANNON-EGER: Good afternoon Mr. Chair, members of the committee. I’m just here
to represent at the request of my board of directors involved with Friends of Lili‘uokalani
Gardens to help the County with maintenance issues and training to deal with this type of
landscaping in proper fashion, to suggest to the County some capital improvement
projects, and to plan for centennial events. Those are the three paths that our
organization is following. So just to let you know, we’re here, we exist, we’re concerned,
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and we wish to stand in favor of maintaining Nihon Koen as the cultural treasure it has
been for nearly 100 years. Thank you.
DELIMA: Thank you. And we have‒‒is it Patty Heidenfeldt?
HEIDENFELDT: You said that right. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to
speak. As a resident of Banyan Drive, I wanted to emphasize the beauty of those banyan
trees and the history of those banyan trees. And if any of you have driven recently down
Banyan Drive, I hope some of you have, and looked at Reed’s Bay’s banyan tree it has
been cleaned and it has been beautified. You can see skylight through them. Recently I
took a trip to O‘ahu and low and behold in the Hana Hou magazine, or the Hana
magazine, was a huge article on the beauty of banyan trees and the history behind those
banyan trees. And having read that, it touched my heart. I think those banyan trees just
need to be cleaned, new signs put up for those people who planted them many, many
years ago, and clean up the walkway areas of the tourists. I live on Banyan Drive and I
see the tourists walking down Banyan Drive and I know that they love those banyan trees
because they all stand underneath them and they all have their pictures taken. So, it’s
something that is part of our history here in Hilo and I kind of agree with maybe taking
on something that we don’t need at this time which is bigger hotels and more resorts. I
think if we beautify what we have and utilize that, our tourists will be very happy, and
our tourists are coming here to see what we have already. It’s not what is in the future,
it’s what we have right now that they love old Hawai‘i. And I hear a lot of people that
stay at our hotel say they love this island because it is old Hawai‘i. So, that’s all I have to
say and I hope that we can beautify those trees. I know it can be done and I know the
people who can do it, who have a gracious heart and a giving heart, and we can probably
do it with little or no expense because I do know a group that wants to do a non-profit
type organization to clean up those trees. So, something to consider. Thank you.
DELIMA: Thank you very much. Okay, that concludes statements from the public. We
will proceed to‒‒oh, okay. Have a seat. Okay, calling on Masa Sumida.
SUMIDA: Good afternoon. My name is Masa Sumida. I was born in Hilo. I was born
in 1944, and I was raised right behind the electric plant there. I stayed all my life there
until the 1960 tidal wave. We had a residence there and my father owned a number of
properties that were commercial. And I go back in history and I’ve lived there and all the
people that I’ve known that go back in history from there met many families of Hawaiian
ancestry, and much of all the community you have here started out like Mr. Barry
Taniguchi. My parents go back, way back, as theirs. I’d like to keep this place as unique
as it is. It’s a small beautiful community, and I’d like to incorporate that the history of
this island, this Hilo Bay, how it started, and how all the people that have migrated here
to be part of this. I’ve seen it all. I go down there every 24/7 to this day and I would like
to just entrust this to Barry. I saw him on the airplane, I had no time, but he knows who I
am and I know who he is, alright. So maybe I’ll make an appointment with him in the
future, alright. And the key is, to me, is that it’s a beautiful place that’s why I came back
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to live here. On my note there, it is all the individuals that I know in the st‒‒that live
elsewhere in the state of Hawai‘i, especially in Honolulu, and on the mainland. They
have all this interest back here on this rock, or this island and this community, and
their‒‒I’m keeping in touch with them and keeping them informed, what is being
developed there. There’s concerns about the word use “blight.” What is blight? I see
Waikīkī all my life, yes there were a lot of different things happening there because the
community was, the whole street of there, but today it’s beautiful. I would like to see that
place kept in some form that there is some history‒‒go back, all the way back to the first
Hawaiian people that lived here on this rock, place. Now I don’t think much many of
you know this, but if you go to Burger King and you’re going to the restroom, that’s the
one in the‒‒by Kentucky Fried Chicken here, if you go there, turn, go in to the restroom,
just across the men’s restroom, there’s a picture of a river and an old Hawaiian man on
one side and the bay is turning. That is Wailoa River. And there is a tree there, a
monkey pod tree, and that’s the same tree that’s there now. That’s how that tree is
veryākea peninsula I think, Barry’s ‒‒I would look at it as history. And the whole Wai
parents and I go back, way back. I’d like to keep that area as‒‒so that we can get
everybody in there that wants to, but keep it‒‒
DELIMA: Mr. Sumida, your time is concluded.
SUMIDA: Oh yes, thank you.
DELIMA: Thank you very much. Okay, anyone else? Otherwise we’ll turn to the
business of the Agency.
At this time Chairman DeLima directed the Agency to the first item of the agenda under
Business of Agency.
BUSINESS OF AGENCY
1. Review, deliberation, and action on draft conceptual maps for the redevelopment of the
Banyan Drive area based on public comments and recommendations received during the
informational meetings held on June 28, 2016 and July 5, 2016, along with comments
and recommendations received from agency members.
MEAD: So this is just going to be a, because this was continued from the last meeting,
this is going to be just a very abbreviated PowerPoint that I have. It mainly just deals
with the maps under consideration today. Just a quick review, and this might help clarify
some of the testimony that was received earlier, this is the properties‒‒this right here is
the map of those properties that are designated as “blighted” in that Banyan Drive
peninsula. So you can see where those properties are; again green properties, State
owned properties, blue properties are private, and there’s a small federal‒‒the lighthouse
property.
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Mr. Mead oriented the Agency and members of the public to the location of the lighthouse on the
map, as well as Reed’s Bay, Hilo Hawaiian, Naniloa hotels, and Suisan.
MEAD: These are the properties designated as blighted. This is the development that is
going in right now, the sports field development at Kuawa. And so these are the
properties that are actually involved in the redevelopment area. And this is the second
version of the conceptual land use. So this is based off of testimony that was received at
our outreach meetings and feedback that we’ve received in general. You can see here,
based on the color code, we do have‒‒you can kind of orient everyone to this, this kind
of node here, again this is a conceptual land use plan, so this would be what the identified
desired uses would be in these areas. The peninsula here at the top has a primary resort
node, we’ll call it, in purple, and this is where the existing Hilo Hawaiian, the existing
Uncle Billy’s, as well as the Naniloa and the private parcel to the right hand side of
Naniloa are. This kind of yellow-gold area is an area designated as a cultural/community
center; some sort of cultural community center in there. We do have a secondary, what
we’re calling an expansion, or resort expansion node that may be a place to put additional
units if it is required. Red identifies commercial. We have the existing use here on the
State properties right next to the Kuawa Sports, which you guys see the development
that’s happening there right now. Here we have a node that encompasses the HELCO
plant as it exists there across from Suisan, going up into the Hilo Bay. This is a mixed
commercial node. We also include here ice house which is also a private parcel next to
the gardens. We have a small, kind of a mixed commercial expansion, or mixed
commercial node right here along Banyan Drive, and a little bit of frontage on
Kamehameha Avenue. This is the old entrance into Waiākea Town. And here we have
the existing, our hotel properties, over here; also includes the gas station and Verna’s, I
believe.
And so it’s worth pointing out here that this green here is not part of the redevelopment
areas, not part of the blighted designation. What we are showing here is just the
connectivity, how the related or adjoining properties or adjoining uses would tie into the
redevelopment area. We do show connectivity on the left side over here which would be
where Hilo Bayfront Trails, which broke ground just a little while ago, will be tying in
right here across by the Wailoa River Bridge. So it does show that connectivity. Again,
that’s outside on the makai side, this is outside of the redevelopment area, and we also
show this going over here. There is a 2035 Harbors Master Plan of which we’re not
involved in, but we’re just showing here, depicting that there is a master plan for the
harbor as well, and we’re showing that there may be logical connections between these
uses. The second version of this map, and I can toggle back and forth, and it might be
easier to see, is this little expansion right here. And this expansion encompasses what the
current, kind of mixed residential, condo, hotel uses are in that area. So there’s several
properties here, and what this does‒‒toggles between, is having it in this green which is
designated essentially as kind of open space versus pushing that resort node expansion to
encompass those properties as they exist on the ground today. So these are the two
versions. Again this is the second version, scenario one and scenario two. What I can
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do, the last slide here that I’m going to show you is just the changes that came from
scenario one, or from version one, excuse me. The major changes that we made were
again, we removed the‒‒the first version did have the Ken’s House of Pancakes, kind of
corner here, included in the redevelopment area, which it’s not. So this map here takes
that out. We also removed‒‒before we were calling this a proposed sports field
development but if you’ve driven by there recently, you can see that it’s well underway,
so we just recognize that it’s the Kuawa Sports Field Development. We did
remove‒‒there was a commercial node right here on the interior side of Lihiwai, which is
no longer included. We did kind of encompass this, these other properties here into this
larger kind of commercial tie-in right here, so including the new Hilo Bay Café, inclusive
of the ice house and HELCO.
The previous map did show a realigned version of Banyan Drive, so this right now in
gray, it’s kind of hard to see, but this gray alignment right here is the current alignment of
Banyan Drive. The previous version also showed this kind of resort node expansion on
the interior of that realigned road, which was kind of misleading in the sense that I think a
lot of people saw the hotel as going in the gardens, which it’s not. The previous version
showed the Uncle Billy’s node, or where the Uncle Billy’s property is right now, it
showed that parcel as open space, and I believe it showed a kai pool concept off of that.
This resort node has been included to, or expanded to include that. We also include, you
can see here, there’s a small bit of red, it’s kind of hard to tell between the red and purple,
but that red acknowledges where the current existing, kind of small scale commercial is
that supports some of the resort development over here. Again I just covered this where
we have kind of red node here, it identifies the commercial, kind of roadside commercial
frontage that is mauka of the hotels.
We also scaled down, the first version of the map had a much larger kind of depiction of
where the cultural center would go, so we did kind of scale this down a little bit to kind of
reign in that size. We also did cut back on this commercial expansion that was fronting
the road here, so there’s that existing commercial that happens right there, so we show it
kind of going a little bit down, across the hotel on the other side of the street from the
hotel here, and a little bit of frontage right here to, essentially, the old entrance road into
Waiākea town.
And lastly the first version of this map, again it’s worth saying that this redevelopment
area does not encompass any of these lands where the harbor is doing its work or
expansion. Our previous map, we did try to realign where this, where the cruise ship
proposed Pier 5 in the 2035 Harbors Master Plan. Before we did show the pier much
closer to the peninsula, but it’s actually a little further away over here, and again this is
not part of the redevelopment area, we’re just showing connectivity and trying to tie into
existing plans.
That is it for what we have here. Right now I’ll turn it over to our Director, Duane
Kanuha, to further elaborate on any questions you might have.
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KANUHA: Okay, thank you Luke. As you recall at the last meeting, we pretty much
gave you the same presentation of these two alternatives for the conceptual land use
plans, but we also asked for a deferral of consideration for these plans based on some
discussions we had just had prior to your meeting with the leaseholder for the Naniloa
Hotel, which also holds the lease for the entire golf course. What he is supporting is he is
supporting additional use of the golf course properties for a cultural center, convention
center purposes. But what the discussion was, it evolved into a discussion between the
Mayor and the leaseholder in terms of what kind of agreements would happen between
the leaseholder on the golf course side which would be put in a form, some kind of a
memorandum of agreement, whereby he would allow the County to enter the golf course
property for the purposes of a lot of the clean-up work that you heard about today.
Within the parking lot, the banyan tree areas, which are, the banyan trees are all within
the right-of-way, within the County right-of-way. But the effort that the Mayor put forth
was, if you let me, if you let the County, give the County right of entry on the golf course
property, we go in there, the County would go in there, besides doing more maintenance
work on all of the banyan trees along Banyan Drive, but the County would also go in
there improve the parking area, take out some of the buildings that are in disrepair,
etcetera, just on a MOU between the leaseholder and the County. The offer made by the
Mayor was this was like a one shot, we’re going to do it right now if we can come to
some agreement, and that was the reason I asked for you to defer on that, on any adoption
of this plan. Subsequently what happened was we were not able to reach an agreement.
There’s other negotiating points that the leaseholder has with the State that are still in
flux. Some of his proposals went more than just this, “Let’s go in and do a clean-up,”
and everything. It would have worked a lot to his benefit, we felt, because just due to the
current lease arrangements they have, they got a lack of parking for the hotel at the
present time, so the parking is happening across the street. So that would improve the
situation there. There’s a requirement for public access parking to the hotel that’s also
supposed to be across the street. But again, knowing the Mayor, he said we do this deal
I’m going to go right now, but we gotta do it quick. Again unfortunately, there’s other
negotiated points that he has that he still has to work out with the State that are still
pending, so we weren’t able to enter into that kind of agreement.
That being said, what we also have, and we posted on your website, is the final draft of a
consultant study that the State did, the State Department of Land and Natural Resources,
and it was a Useful Life Study related to the Country Club, Hilo Bay‒‒Banyan Hotel, and
Uncle Billy’s. That was in draft form for quite a while; they just released it as a final so
that’s available to you on the website, on the Agency website. That’s some updated data
there. We’ve also had some preliminary calculations on potential hotel sites. As you
look at the project here, there’s actually three potential new hotel sites in there. One of
them is the redevelopment of Uncle Billy’s, the other site is a private parcel that’s right
next to the Naniloa, it’s held by the Bender trust, the Country Club‒‒and the Country
Club Hotel. So those are all current leases, short-term leases. We anticipate that based
on the Useful Life Studies, that the State is probably going to go in for a capital
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improvement allocation through the Legislature to proceed with the recommendations
found in that study. What we’ve gotten is some proformas in terms of number of units
that could go onto those three sites. There’s a lot of variations because depending upon
what size, what clientele those sites would attract, the rooms sizes would get different.
You can run all the way from all suites to more bargain type hotel. But what it’s done is
it’s given us some envelopes of what the actual potential for those sites could be. We
also have the similar numbers for that proposed new hotel site. If all of these three hotel
sites fall into the plan that you approve, you’re looking at a possibility of maybe 800
more hotel rooms spread out over four hotel sites, two leases, and the new one that’s
shown over there in purple. In conjunction with that, we’ve also had similar numbers run
out for the potential convention center, and or cultural arts facility. That’s kind of tricky
because the square footage, what the amenities would be involved with, depend not only
on what the carrying capacity is for the hotels, but also for other functions that would
occur throughout the community. So that number is kind of a raw number and again its
wide range of variables. But if the Agency feels that from a conceptual standpoint that
one of these two plans are ready to go, those are the kinds of further information and
further research we’d be doing when we come back to the Agency with the actual
development plan, Master Plan. That’s the one that we’ll pass through the Agency, go to
the Planning Commission, and get final approval by the Council. So those are some of
the detailed work we’ve been involved with since your last meeting. We also have a
schedule of certain environmental components that we have to do for this particular
property.
As we all know, this peninsula was selected because over 90 percent of it is owned by the
State, so it’s still public land. I could address really quickly one of the suggestions that
came up in terms of the property that’s across the Civic, on the park side of the Civic, that
area and that potential has been looked at for quite a while, except that it’s privately
owned. It’s owned by the Kamehameha Schools. So that’s‒‒the Banyan Drive area is
public lands, we’ve got a signed agreement in principle to support the plan both in terms
of implementation and compliance with the Department of Land and‒‒the Board
actually, of the Department of Land and Natural Resources. Again, that gives you, and I
think gives the audience some idea of why we selected Banyan Drive and why we’re
continuing to move along those lines. Any other questions I’ll be happy to respond to.
DELIMA: Mr. Taniguchi.
TANIGUCHI: Thank you. Mr. Kanuha, on the Kamehameha School lands, do they have
any kind of conceptual idea what they want to do with those lands?
KANUHA: No, not that I’m aware of.
TANIGUCHI: Because I’ve talked to some of the Kamehameha people and they said
they have thoughts about doing that, but have we ever thought about trying to swap
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lands? To get those lands into some kind of public‒‒and swap lands with, offer them
elsewhere.
KANUHA: Yeah, no. That’s been in discussion under a number of administrations I’m
aware of, but I’m not aware of anything that went any further than that.
DELIMA: Any other questions? So the‒‒you folks are still advocating for that other
hotel across from the park in the area that’s presently in the golf course?
KANUHA: That purple area?
DELIMA: Yeah.
KANUHA: Yeah, that’s an alternative site. Mainly because based on our consultation
with some of the visitor industry folks, they felt that we needed more critical mass in
terms of hotel development. We may be able to accomplish that or through the use of the
three sites that are currently available; Uncle Billy’s, the Benda Trust property, and the
Country Club Hotel. So that purple would just be an alternative in case there wasn’t
enough critical mass to get the lift capacity that we need to make that go.
DELIMA: And the present lease to the Naniloa leaseholders is for how long?
KANUHA: Fifty-five years, I believe.
DELIMA: Okay, so there’s about 50 years left, around?
KANUHA: It’s close enough. Yeah, 50, 55.
DELIMA: So, that hotel expansion is within the lease area that the Naniloa leaseholder
presently holds?
KANUHA: Correct.
DELIMA: So, it could be kind of unlikely that they’re going to agree to do that,
considering. Okay anyway, that’s one of my concerns. And then the other version, one
version had only where the present condo/hotel on the Reed’s Bay area is located. One
version is parks and the other version maintains structures in that area.
KANUHA: Correct.
DELIMA: I’m for maintaining the structures in that area. Anyone else has any other
comments?
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Member of the public, Mr. Lewitzki, asked for clarification of the structures Chair
DeLima referred to.
DELIMA: The condos. Because as I understand it, the hotel that Mr. Inouye operates
has a lease for considerable amount of time remaining, I forget what it is.
KANUHA: That’s correct, and I think‒‒
DELIMA: Seventeen years or something like that?
KANUHA: That’s correct, and I think, actually I don’t think the Useful Life Study that
the State conducted, actually recommends the retaining of Mr. Inouye’s property. They
felt the compromise between what’s still there structurally, versus what kind of
improvements could be made to rehabilitate the hotel pretty much was a wash so the
recommendation in that study, if you look at it, suggests to retain that facility.
DELIMA: I think what we’re trying to say is at some point conceptually, whether the
others that are on a month-to-month, whether there’s another investor or developer that
would be interested, at least it has, it’s an option rather than just open space.
KANUHA: Correct.
DELIMA: Okay. I’ll yield. Mr. Inouye, I’m sorry but this is not your time already, this
is our time now.
INOUYE: What I wanted to say is that I’m on month-to-month. I don’t have a lease.
DELIMA: No, I think you have a 17 year lease? Mr. Inouye’s?
KANUHA: No, I think it’s month-to-month.
DELIMA: Oh, he is month-to-month. What one has a 17 year one?
KANUHA: I think it’s the condominium right next to it.
Members of the audience clarified that the condominium next to Reed’s Bay Hotel is Bay
View Banyan.
DELIMA: Thank you for clarifying that. Mr. Taniguchi, you had something?
TANIGUCHI: Can you just give an overview on the structural lives for the other
buildings in that area? Like the Travel Lodge and those.
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KANUHA: Okay, I believe the consultant’s recommendation for the Country Club, old
Travel Lodge, was that the Useful Life, I forget what the number was, I think it was
maybe eight years. Five to eight years. And that combined with the substandard
construction of the structure has lead the consultants to recommend that that structure
eventually be raised. The consultant came to the same conclusion for Uncle Billy’s, and
then the third property that they were looking at was the month-to-month lease that Mr.
Inouye has, and that’s the one that the study is recommending to rehabilitate.
DELIMA: Okay, what’s your pleasure? What are you recommending that we do?
KANUHA: Well you have two alternatives here. I can say the State is recommending
approval of this alternative.
DELIMA: Oh, you guys are recommending this alternative?
KANUHA: The State‒‒
DELIMA: Well I like this alternative.
KANUHA: ‒‒is also recommending approval of this alternative as well.
DELIMA: Okay, is there, go ahead Mr. Taniguchi.
TANIGUCHI: Another question. I still say you know on that lower right corner, where
that, you have commercial, why do we need commercial there?
KANUHA: You know that corner, we’ve been going round and round in terms of an
entry feature, or some kind of structural component that would lead to an entry identity as
you get into Banyan Drive, notwithstanding the rest of the landscaping improvements
etcetera; maintenance of the banyan tree area. So that commercial structure was, that
commercial concept, was along those lines and I think it’s designated as kind of a mixed
use resort/commercial area in the event you had a real, not a Travel Lodge, but Holiday
Inn type hotel, there was a market for something like that. That kind of a facility could
also go in there. And conceptually speaking, that commercial corner, the way we’re
envisioning it, and as we go down into the master plan components, the frontage for that
would primarily be on the inside. In other words, access road, there’d be a connector that
fed to the inside of the commercial area. So the commercial components would primarily
be oriented back up to Banyan Drive instead of taking access right off Kamehameha.
One thought was the existing private property right on the intersection. One design
thought was perhaps if that gets integrated into the plan either by condemnation, or
acquisition, that structure may serve a better purpose entry feature wise as maybe some
kind of a plaza; an open area type supplemented by the commercial uses in the back. So
those were the kind of thoughts that are floating around on that, but that commercial
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component is a real flexible thing right now. That’s the goal, to try and create some kind
of an either an entry feature or entry component to Banyan Drive.
LEWITZKI (member of the public): The original commercial development you were
talking about in your sentence in that‒‒wouldn’t that consider taking part of the golf
course also?
DELIMA: I really appreciate that it calls for some informality but the same token, we
cannot really run a meeting like that. But given that everybody heard it, we’ll let Duane
answer it. Is it taking commercial property from the‒‒right now the commercial that’s
proposed on that side, that is within the golf course.
KANUHA: Extends within the golf course, yes.
DELIMA: Yes, well I don’t think‒‒it might affect the first hole green. That’s about it
looks like.
LEWITZKI: The water hazard.
DELIMA: Anyway, any more questions Mr. Taniguchi?
TANIGUCHI: Yeah, you know, I still, personally I like the concept of a maybe a
Holiday Inn type of hotel or Courtyard type in that corner versus up in the corner closer
to the park. I would prefer the park area be kept open. And I don’t know that we need to
develop commercial activities within the peninsula because we have Downtown Hilo, and
we’re trying to promote that. Whether that commercial activity there will be of any
benefit‒‒you know, we have the walking trails that gonna come in, hopefully we’ll get
better parking Downtown, and you know the visitors as well as the locals can go
Downtown and patronize that area rather than creating new space here, commercial
space, which I don’t know that we would have the draw to that area. I think we do need a
Courtyard or Holiday Inn type facilities to accommodate the business traveler or the not
the real “visitor type” visitor. I would prefer it being in that corner versus closer to the
park area and keep the park area open. I’m not sure that I really agree that the golf course
is, should be maintained, but I would rather keep that area open somehow if we can.
KANUHA: You know the balance we have to look at all the time is that how are some of
these things going to be financed. One of the components that’s available to
redevelopment areas like this are concepts like tax increment financing or business
district development, and in order to provide incentives for whatever types of
improvements you want to do. That being said, you kind of selectively have to target
certain properties for increased usage to capture the value. The difference here is that
because Banyan Drive is primarily public, the only recapture we’d be able to get would
be on properties that are leased and actually used for that purpose. The properties that are
not leased basically don’t generate any tax revenue. That’s why there’s this balance
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between, and the biggest available area is the golf course. That’s why they‒‒we’re
looking at this balance between how much we really take to maintain the ambiance of
that, but still enough that we can create a foundation, a funding mechanism to move some
of these things forward.
TANIGUCHI: I agree with that, in fact, I was going to comment earlier too that when
people talk about maintaining the area and stuff, like I know Waikīkī and some of those
areas like that they actually have improvement districts where they assess the property
owners so that it is maintained. They have assessment funding stream. We might have to
look at this, that mechanism for this area too. You know, could be the hotel apartments;
whoever’s there now would probably have to look at participating and not say the County
gotta do it all the way because I don’t think the County can do all of the maintenance.
Gotta look at those kinds of things too.
KANUHA: That’ll show up during the next phase of the master plan development
because what may be necessary in order to implement those things is that besides being
designated as a redevelopment area, the Agency would have to make a determination to
overlay the redevelopment areas as a tax increment district, or tax facility district, or a
business improvement area district at the same time so you have the options of these
various funding mechanisms in order to implement the program that you want to go to.
TANIGUCHI: That’s the next step. Is that the next step?
KANUHA: Yes, yes.
DELIMA: Okay, go ahead Mary.
BEGIER: I guess that’sobably not a very patient person, so Barry is talking
about the next step and it would make it easier for me to make a decision if I understood
where, after we make the decision then what’s going to happen. I don’t think it’s
appropriate for us to get involved in the discussion of what happened at the golf course
and is there anything we can do to incentivize that back on the table or whatever, so in
my mind then, I’m just cutting a big hole in the middle of that map. It’s not there to
decide. It’s not going to be a part of our game. And if that’s the case, then I’m really
concerned about what Barry brought up and that’s, where are we going to put our
Comfort, Ramada, Howard Johnson, whatever we’re calling it. Because that’s‒‒we’re
not going to solve the blight issue if we don’t step up the game on the oceanfront hotels
but we still need that product. And I don’t see where we’re going to go with that,
especially I, in a social setting I mentioned that the sports park could get taken over and
become affordable hotel. I wasn’t getting out of that party alive cause I was taking away
their sports park. It was interesting to me how quickly we all possess different facilities
that we use, and I’m very appreciative to all the different people that came today to share
with us your current use, your current enjoyment, and the value, and every one of those
uses has value and needs to be continued somehow, somewhere. I’m just acknowledging
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that we do feel that responsibility. Going back to the fact that we don’t get to talk about
the whole big middle of that map, that leaves us very little to talk about. And so I’m
frustrated and I need your help to know where we’re going to go next. What good does it
do us to make a decision today? What would happen then?
KANUHA: Well, if you don’t give us some direction, then we have no direction to
where to go next. That’s the easiest way to answer it.
DELIMA: Okay so, I suggest that we adopt version two. I am not happy about the golf
course being next to the Lili‘uokalani Park. I would suggest that we say, because to me,
you got Uncle Billy’s place that’s kind of‒‒the useful life of that is not great, it’s kind of
deteriorated. Then you have some of the other units that are, we are already identifying
as maintaining the structures, not maintaining the structures, but having structures in the
area which is along the coastline which could be demolished and new hotels could be
structured there. So in terms of the capacity in terms of area, I think the replacing those
structures as an option would give us as much capacity as it‒‒would give us more
capacity than exists now, because what exists now are more apartments/condo units
rather than short-term lodging. But I think I would be okay with suggesting that should
there be interest that the Agency is willing to consider, in other words why are we gonna
engage in speculative proposals, in other words if somebody has‒‒somebody comes up
and says, ‘Look we want to make a big investment on the Big Island, we’re going to
build this structure, we’re going to market and so on,’ hey, where you want to put it? But
to kind of put a proposal, to put something right next to Lili‘uokalani Park without it
being real, I kind of hesitate to support that. I understand Barry’s concern about the
commercial aspects. I think that’s going to have a parking problem too in terms of that
commercial activity. I feel like the same thing. Maybe that’s too small of an area.
Maybe it’s too big. But I think the real key of this whole thing is right now the private
land owner controls the golf course, controls what our options are in terms of that for the
next 50 years. So to be frank George, I think you’ll be golfing for a while. Even if we
adopted this plan as is, the practical reality is that nothing will happen overnight. But at
the same time, I think the idea conceptually, I support. Because you gotta have
something that is going to draw people to an area that is complementary to the visitor
experience that our community can support, people can participate, create activity for
non-profits, so on, so forth. My vision is a little more developed than just a community
center. I view it as more of an entertainment complex, amphitheater aspect of it all. But
again, unless somebody’s willing to fund it, it ain’t gonna be built.
Now I think in terms of action plans, I think we need to support a conceptual plan today,
but I think in the future meetings I think there are short-term objectives. I think the short-
term is like what Mr. Inouye talked about, cleaning up the banyan area signage, that type
of aspects, the trails project, and then negotiating with the land owners to see what are the
aspects, changing the land use for the commercial and the other aspects of it, exploring
with HELCO what the redesign of that area is or land exchange and different
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possibilities. But I would suggest that we move version two and make some adjustments
accordingly.
TANIGUCHI: I would also suggest that we, even if it’s not within the project area, we
look at places like Kamehameha School property and start talking with them about
maybe possible swaps, how can we incorporate that. I could envision the Kamehameha
School properties to be where this cultural center can be, close to the park, you have
across the Civic Center, it’s closer to the arena. It’s not close to the resorts, but I don’t
know that you need to be close to the resorts for that. That would be, I think, a nice area
for that and maybe we can work something like that. Then that opens up the whole area
in the middle too as to other things that could be done, if anything.
DELIMA: Okay so what we can do is we can move a version, we would need a motion
and a second, and then if we want to make tweaks, we can make separate amendments to
make adjustments accordingly. And one of the amendments can be to have the Agency
staff explore discussions with Kamehameha Schools and other land owners. That’s what
I would suggest as a way to proceed procedurally.
TANIGUCHI: You said it perfectly. I’ll move what you said.
DELIMA: So it’s been moved to adopt version two. Is there a second?
GOROSPE: Second.
DELIMA: Discussion? Mary.
BEGIER: My question is first‒‒we move, second, and approve this today, will we get a
map back then that shows that the golf course is out of the story?
KANUHA: That shows that the what?
BEGIER: That the golf course is not‒‒we’ll get another map that shows that the purple
and gold and red on the golf course are all gone.
DELIMA: Well that’s not what’s being proposed.
BEGIER: Okay.
DELIMA: The motion now is to adopt version two, now if we want to make
amendments we gotta make amendments. What’s on the floor is the motion is to adopt
version two, scenario two. If you want to delete certain aspects, then we would need to
go one at a time. Go ahead Mary, what‒‒
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BEGIER: I guess I just‒‒I don’t understand. If we can’t do anything on the golf course
for 50 years‒‒
DELIMA: Well I think what Mr. Kanuha is saying, and correct me if I’m wrong, is that
this is a conceptual plan. They would have to negotiate with the land owners. So for
example, if we want to negotiate with the land owner to do the community center
concept, we would not make any amendments to this version. If we wanted to eliminate
the hotel from any specific location in the golf course area, we could make that motion.
So I’m kind of suggesting that we take things step-by-step.
BEGIER: Okay, thank you.
DELIMA: Okay, I’ll try the first step. I would suggest a motion to amend the main
motion by not delineating a specific location for a subsequent hotel. Is there a motion to
that effect, to amend?
TANIGUCHI: I move to amend.
DELIMA: Is there a second?
BEGIER: I’ll second.
DELIMA: Okay, any discussion on that any further? Seeing‒‒all those in favor of that
amendment to the conceptual plan, say aye.
ALL: Aye.
DELIMA: Any opposed? Hearing none, motion is carried. The Department understands
that‒‒
KANUHA: Yes, we got it.
DELIMA: Okay great.
TANIGUCHI: We’re making changes to this conceptual, right?
DELIMA: Yes. Now, the community center, that aspect of it, I personally like that. I
don’t know, Mary you want to delete it, you can suggest making that motion.
BEGIER: No, I think I’m‒‒you’ve satisfied me that the Department’s not going to drop
the idea and that we’ll be hearing about this at the future meeting. So I’m satisfied for
the time being. Thank you.
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DELIMA: Okay, Mr. Taniguchi you wanted to do something with the commercial area
of that area?
TANIGUCHI: Yeah, I would like to move to amend the plan by making that bottom
right corner more‒‒other uses besides commercial. It could also be a hotel area usage.
So not specify only commercial, but commercial and/or hotel.
DELIMA: Can we‒‒is that okay?
KANUHA: No problem.
DELIMA: Okay, is there a second?
BEGIER: Second.
DELIMA: Okay, moved and seconded. Any further discussion? Okay, seeing none, all
those in favor say aye.
ALL: Aye.
DELIMA: Opposed, say nay. Okay that motion to amend is adopted. Any further
amendments? Mr. Taniguchi.
TANIGUCHI: Not an amendment per se to the, right there, but conceptually that we
begin the discussions with the private land owners for the HELCO as well as the ice
house, and the Kamehameha School although it’s outside of the project area. Start
discussions with them as to what we could possibly do.
DELIMA: So would be an amendment to the conceptual plan to direct the Agency
staff‒‒
KANUHA: Well, it’s outside of the Agency’s boundaries, so I think what you need to do
is to either come up with a motion or put something on the record to have the Department
administration examine, pursue along those lines, not necessarily the Agency, but
separate‒‒
DELIMA: Okay so motion is to recommend that the conceptual plan is amended to
recommend that the Department explore that with the private land owners as to the
various uses. Is there a second to that motion?
GOROSPE: Second.
DELIMA: It’s moved and seconded. Any further discussion? All those in favor say aye.
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ALL: Aye.
DELIMA: Opposed say nay. Motion is carried. Any further amendments?
TANIGUCHI: I don’t have an amendment but I have a request. When they come back
with the next drawing, can it be expanded to show the greater area, besides only the
project area so we can see relative to where the Kamehameha School lands are, what
other project lands are. Even‒‒just so that we can kind of get an idea of what the total
area might look like.
KANUHA: Usually we have that graphic. We have a graphic for that but‒‒yeah, we
have that info.
TANIGUCHI: It’s only a request.
DELIMA: Any further discussion or motions? Before we vote on the main motion, I
want to disclose that I don’t have a financial interest in any of these areas, but I have
represented previously Hilo Bay restaurant, the ice house, Hilo Seaside. So I just want to
make‒‒Ken’s House of Pancakes. So I just want to make those disclosures for the
record. Other than that, any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say aye.
ALL: Aye.
DELIMA: Opposed say nay. Motion is carried.
KANUHA: Thank you.
At this time Chairman DeLima directed the Agency to agenda item Administrative
Matters.
ADMINISTRATIVE MATTERS
1. Approval of minutes from the September 28, 2016, Banyan Drive Hawai‘i
Redevelopment Agency meeting.
DELIMA: Is there a motion to approve?
BEGIER: So moved.
DELIMA: Second?
GOROSPE: Second.
DELIMA: Moved and seconded. Any discussion? All those in favor say aye.
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ALL: Aye.
DELIMA: Opposed say nay. Motion is carried.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
1. Rules of Practice and Procedure filed on 10/11/2016, effective on 10/21/2016.
2. Next meeting date.
MEAD: Next meeting tentatively November 30. It’s the last Wednesday in November.
BEGIER: Sorry, I’ll be in‒‒I’m attending a professional meeting, another, mainland.
DELIMA: Okay, why don’t we go to January.
MEAD: Go to January?
DELIMA: Do we need any action before December 5? No need, yeah? So why don’t
we go to the last Wednesday in January.
MEAD: Okay, we’ll go to the last Wednesday in January. Twenty-fifth. We’ll work on
the location.
DELIMA: Mr. Kanuha, I know we not going meet before December 5. I just want to say
that your leadership in this effort is really greatly appreciated and we wish you well as
well. Thank you very much. Any other comments? Otherwise, if there’s no objection
we will adjourn this meeting. Seeing none, we’ll so adjourn. Thank you.
Meeting adjourned at 2:26 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Kim L. Tanaka, Secretary
ATTEST:
Brian DeLima, Chairperson
Banyan Drive Hawai‘i Redevelopment Agency
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