Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017-02-22 BDHRA Minutes BANYAN DRIVE HAWAII REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY COUNTY OF HAWAII MINUTES February 22, 2017 The Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency met in the County of Hawaii, Hilo Council Chambers, Hawaii County Building, 25 Aupuni Street, Room 1401, Hilo, Hawaii,with Chairman Brian DeLima presiding. AGENCY MEMBERS PRESENT: Mary Begier, Brian DeLima, and Barry Taniguchi AGENCY MEMBERS ABSENT AND EXCUSED: Elmer Gorospe, Sigmund Zane ALSO PRESENT: Michael Yee(Planning Director), Amy Self(Corporation Counsel), Daryn Arai (Deputy Planning Director), Lucas Mead(Staff Planner), and Kim Tanaka(Secretary). A quorum was present with three members in attendance. The meeting was called to order by Chairman DeLima at 2:01 p.m. At this time Chairman DeLima opened the floor to receive public testimony. STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC There were approximately 24 members from the public in attendance. DELIMA: Thank you Director Case for being here today, Chair Case, I guess they call you. CASE: Both, either. Thank you, Suzanne Case, Chair of Department of Land and Natural Resources. And thank you all for your service on this redevelopment authority. We, I'm here with Russell Tsuji, Land Division Honolulu, and Gordon Heit, Land Division Hilo. Also, I want to recognize our board member, Stan Roehrig. We really just came to make sure that we stay in good communication with you all, and contact us on the process as we go along with Banyan Drive Redevelopment. There's a lot of things going on right now from the DLNR side. As you know,just to recap the situation of Banyan Drive, most of the land is state land. Two of the hotels, Hilo Hawaiian and Naniloa, have been undergoing renovations and have long-term leases. Uncle Billy's, Country Club, and Reed's Bay really are at the end of their useful life, and we commissioned some studies on how much useful life remaining and so those are available online at the DLNR website under the Land Division. So they're under revocable permits, so they're really on 30, 30-day notice and will need to probably come down or at least significant renovation within the next few years, starting probably with Uncle Billy's and then Country Club. I think Reed's Bay has a longer useful life. So if they're, all three still being rented but really now's the time to start making sure that we start the planning for whatever the future of those spaces is. The golf course is under lease with the Naniloa to WHR. So whatever redevelopment planning that takes into account the golf course area needs to take that under consideration. It's under long-term lease. So that's gotta be,the lessee there has to be sort of part of this discussion unless you guys take a different kind of approach there. So that's really what I wanted to say,that we're,we signed this Page 1 of 18 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency February 22,2017,Minutes agreement to work with the County on redevelopment a year ago and as far as Uncle Billy's goes,we just had a Land Board meeting in January, a couple of weeks ago,to get an update on both Uncle Billy's and Naniloa, and the Land Board decision was to move ahead with an auction for a three-year lease at Uncle Billy's. So it's a short-term, again, trying to keep the horizon open for redevelopment of whatever kind, give enough of a long-term period that there can be some investments that can be recouped within three years. That's the idea there. Also,the Land Board has asked the Land Division to go through a request for proposal or request for info; some sort of process to solicit interest in a long-term lease at Uncle Billy's that would include teardown or renovation and rebuild. It's gonna cost, it's gonna take several years to go through the permitting cause it's in the shoreline area,permitting for tear down; and also significant expense just to tear down. We want to see if there is a developer interested in a long-term lease that would include every builder or restore on that site, including the cost of—the cost and time of doing the permitting and tear down. So we'll just see. That'll, it'll basically be your first market test on that. So, that's where we are, and again we just came to stay in contact with you all and keep tabs on this process so that we can work collaboratively with you. DELIMA: Thank you, Chair Case, for coming today. Any questions? TANIGUCHI: Thank you. I have a question. In prior years the Department was very adamant about splitting that Naniloa lease. In other words taking out the golf course and selling it separately. I understand that it's because there's an auction, it was an auction lease. Are you still taking that same position? CASE: So it's, it is under long-term lease, along with the Naniloa. So it's not like we can just sever it without negotiation with the lessee. TANIGUCHI: But I think in the past they said you couldn't do that because it was an auction piece. CASE: Oh, that's right. Yeah. TANIGUCHI: But I'm wondering if there's a possibility of negotiating with the lessee to split that off. CASE: Yeah that; let me bring in my expert here. TSUJI: Hi, Russell Tsuji from the Land Division. I think what we were contemplating was possibly the lessee giving it up or giving up the area whether to the State or to the County, but I think in this case it'llhe would only do that if there was some form of, I think,the concept was have a development agreement where we understand what the plan would be or encompass for this area. Because I think,to be fair to the lessee, he's looking for at least some benefit for the hotel as well, as well as the benefit for the general area, and the rest of the Banyan community. I think that'sso we're, that's the idea we're talking about. Again, it's basically myself, and Chair Case, and my staff. We really haven't brought in the legal lawyers yet. TANIGUCHI: Okay,thank you. Page 2 of 18 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency February 22,2017,Minutes DELIMA: Any other questions? I just had one for the, Chair Case. Before we were able to, when we got appointed to undertake the roll of the redevelopment agency,the Planning Department came up with this conceptual plan,we put it out to public hearing,we've made significant revisions from the first concept to what we've finally adopted, mainly due to public input, some of which came from people who have apartments that were initially designated to be open areas. There's legislation right now that contemplates a larger redevelopment agency encompassing other state lands and it appears to make sense. From our point of view,we want to facilitate action. And our focus is the Banyan Drive area. Has the Department taken a position on the State Legislation? CASE: We submitted comments to all of the,we didn't take a position; we submitted comments on the various legislative pieces. There is one of this being heard this afternoon in the Finance Committee. And we put in a paragraph in the front highlighting the fact that we formally committed with the County to work with you folks on a redevelopment process a year ago, and so if this bill were to go through,they'd want to either carve out Banyan Drive and this process continues, or expressly preempt the County process, or whatever because I don't think you can do both. I think you gotta go one way or the other. We didn't take a position,but we did note that we committed to work with you guys, and so we'll just see what happens with the legislation. DELIMA: The thought is that we had planned to have on our agenda today a discussion of the idea of doing an environmental assessment. We don't have those funds within the County's budget right now because the redevelopment agency was not a line item for this fiscal year. And the thought was, at first,before the State Legislation was proposed that we would get into,try to facilitate the environmental assessment process in order to make it more attractive to potential investors. Does the Department have funds to facilitate that type of CASE: No. DELIMA: Well, I thought I had to ask though. CASE: Yeah. ROEHRIG: If we get funds we'll be happy to delegate them though. CASE: Yeah. DELIMA: Well, Mr. Roehrig I'm going to call you in a second and you can have the floor, so CASE: Yeah,but I mean,that is the rub,right? It's,this is going to cost some money and where's that money going to come from? And so,you know, does it come from government or does it come from private industry? Does it come from County or State?You don't get a redeveloped area without somebody making significant investment in it. DELIMA: The good thing is that there's a plan, and the plan was supported and voted upon by an agency that both the State and the County invested in. The County is undergoing a General Plan amendment and some of the changes that we designated would require some General Plan changes, and hopefully we can at least encourage our Planning Director and the Page 3 of 18 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency February 22,2017,Minutes Department to move ahead so at least when, if the Legislation passes and the State takes it over, at least we can start moving in the direction of facilitating a plan that at least was initially adopted at the home rule level. So, I appreciate the your efforts in coming up with an agreement that essentially gave the County an opportunity to control its own community and destiny. CASE: That's our hope,yeah. DELIMA: And I understand the Legislation's desire to carve out and utilize all of the assets available for economic development. So I guess there's a trade-off there. But I appreciate your attendance today. Thank you very much for coming. CASE: You bet. Thanks. DELIMA: Thank you. Okay,we'll call on Mr. Roehrig to make further comments. ROEHRIG: Thank you, Chair. The Land Board,under the leadership of Chair Case, formed a subcommittee about a year,year and a half ago, on the board made up of the Chair, Chris Yuen, and myself. And after that subcommittee was created by the board,we proceeded to attend the meetings of the advisory board for this agency getting set up. Those meetings generally took place at the mayor's office. There were, I can't remember how many, a fair number of meetings, and the purpose of those meetings was to set up the board, select members, five members, and to assist with the County Planning Department and the Planning Director to facilitate the Land Board, the Land Department, Land Division, moving forward and parallel with the County to support you folks because that's all State leases. And those lessees come before the board frequently. We have ongoing matters between all of these lessees. I think the Chair already just pointed that out. Some of it is right in the middle of the road, so to speak,that have not—some things have not been resolved. I think the golf course is the biggest issue. I,just from the testimony of Mr. Bushor, I think he's cooperative on the golf course. Which way it goes,whether or not the golf course is taken by force of law under your development board, or whether or not you folks make a deal with Mr. Bushor and it's all done voluntarily, I don't know the answer to that. All I know is that Mr. Bushor seemed like a pretty professional individual. He's familiar with the hotel development process. He has a large group of people that he works with around the State of Hawaii and in the mainland, so he knows his business pretty well. So I think that he'll be able to work with you folks and you'll be able to work with him. As far as where the Land Board is gonna come down on all of these issues, I think the only safe answer is it remains to be seen,but we're here to try to help. We have a wild card; legislature's in session. Lot of bills affecting this agency, affecting the board, affecting the Department of Land and Natural Resources; they're all in play right now. I guess there was some kind of a council meeting this morning discussing some of this. I'm not sure of all the content,but apparently there was testimony; rather lively testimony if I can understand what I heard on the telephone. So, I'll just leave it at that,but we are available to meet with you folks when you folks need. You got questions, you want us to come,we'll come. We're not here to get in your way. We're here to help facilitate. We help set up this board. So far you folks are doing a great job. We don't have any objections. I'd like to get to know the new Planning Director; I haven't had a chance to sit down with him yet. I'm sure that he has ideas. I think he had a meeting with Chris Yuen, but I haven't been fortunate enough to have a meeting yet,but sooner or later we will meet. I think that sums it up. Page 4 of 18 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency February 22,2017,Minutes DELIMA: Thank you, Mr. Roehrig. Any questions? Thank you. ROEHRIG: Thank you. DELIMA: We'll call James McCully. Good afternoon James. McCULLY: Thank you Chair, good afternoon, members of the committee. When I saw the notice I thought I would come and observe and offer comments or answer questions if I could contribute. But earlier today I was testifying in support of a resolution at the Council, and there's been an unfortunate consequence to some of the bills,which is that there has started to evolve a position in opposition to certain economic development bills oriented towards Waiakea Peninsula, Banyan Drive, and East Hawaii. And they liken the bills, in particular 1469, HB 1469,to the PLDC,which is anathematic in our political culture. And it's a very unfortunate comparison, and it's unwarranted,undeserved,but it's an easy one to make if you have a general concern about statutory reform or the use of public lands. So I can tell you that the people that are supporting these bills, and I'm one of them, I'm here representing only myself, James McCully,but KIAA of which I'm a member, is actively supporting these bills in the interest of our economic development and I'm going to suggest certain amendments to 1469 to take out perhaps the most egregious. What's happened is the email that went out is called the"dirty dozen,"it's from a thousand, Hawai`i's thousand friends. Unfortunately HB 1469 is one of this sessions "dirty dozen," and it has to do with a passage that seem to exempt the district from rules and regulations and it's 171F, section F, it's on page 13 of HB 1469 or SB 1185. This is an unnecessary passage. This bill is almost an omnibus bill. It covers the regulatory—the statutory reform necessary to affect modernizing the leases and the public land use. And that's really the crux of the issue and that's why Banyan Drive looks the way it does. That's why KIAA looks the way it does. That's the crux of the issue; is the statutory framework. It was developed when Hawaii had 900,000 acres of agricultural and pastoral leases, and less than 600 acres in urban designation, according to the last LRB study in '67, '65. So we've changed a lot as a state since then,but our statutory framework is stuck. And we have this artificial arbitrary limit of 65 years. That's unnecessary in the future. Leases should be oriented towards economic use. Economic leases should be oriented towards economic use, and Banyan Drive's a perfect example. The Act 55 in the year 2000,which is what catalyzed the conversion of the Naniloa from what it was to what it is now,which I think all of us acknowledge is vast improvement in the past few years,was a problem because that Act was deemed unconstitutional; it was a special law. It was through Land Division's use of other statutory framework, 17161 [sic],that did affect the auction. However,the Legislature knew this was an ongoing problem so they made a better law, Act 219. Unfortunately,we know that sunsetted [sic]. But that's the basis for bills that are in front of the Legislature now. They've proven effective. Chair Case,to her credit, has suggested in her testimony that she considers that a proper avenue forward or one that the Department considers viable. And she offers it in all of her testimony on the bills and I appreciate that. So I look forward to making progress this session and I look forward to trying to prevent more shade from being thrown upon our efforts to make Hilo a better place. DELIMA: Any questions? Thank you. Patty Heidenfeldt. HEIDENFELDT: Good afternoon. I wanted to talk just briefly about in your process of your development in your plans on preserving the banyan trees. I know there's been some articles Page 5 of 18 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency February 22,2017,Minutes in the paper about that. My connection to the tourist industry through my uncle, Don Inouye, and our hotel,we have had several tourists, one who is directly connected to ISA. I don't know if you're familiar with that, the International Society of Arbor culture, and she came and specifically enjoyed and walked down Banyan Drive and looked at those beautiful, majestic trees and sent me an email. And in her email, she speaks of Africa, and she speaks of the boab trees in Africa,the majestic eucalyptus trees of Australia and the general tree in the Sequoia National Park. And she said the trees and the banyan trees in Hawaii are magnificent and need to be listed historically that way, and she's working on that project. She also specifically spoke of Honomu and the majestic banyan tree out there as well. She's very versed in their, in their life and how they have a micro-organism of animals and how it affects the ecosystem and its life that they have within their system. So she urgently sent me an email and wanted me to let you all know that they need to be preserved. And also for their historic value; she said that the famous people who are named under those trees also have significance. So in your planning, I hope that we can preserve those trees. She is willing to come back and she's willing to let you all know a little bit more about her involvement in the society of the arbor culture,the International Society of Arbor and Culture. So please keep in mind that, and I hope that we can preserve these trees, and I know that you know my uncle's working on a non-profit organization to try to keep the cost down to the County in preserving those trees and restoring them the best that we can. So thank you for hearing me today, and that's all I wanted to talk about in your development plan. DELIMA: Well,thank you very much but I'm sure you, it's obvious that we wouldn't be called the Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency without the banyan trees. HEIDENFELDT: Yes. Yay! DELIMA: I appreciate you coming today. HEIDENFELDT: Thank you for hearing me. DELIMA: Thank you. Larry Black. BLACK: I don't care to testify, thank you though. DELIMA: Thank you, Larry. David Tamura. TAMURA: I wasn't planning on testifying,but I'm here in case there's questions about Lili`uokalani Gardens. I'm a member of the Lili`uokalani Gardens board. DELIMA: Okay,we're not touching Lili`uokalani Park either. So thank you very much. We'll then move to our agenda of review of the Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency's conceptual land use master plan adopted at the meeting held on October 26, 2016. We'll turn it over to Mr. Mead. A brief interruption was made to allow public testimony from Donald Inouye. DELIMA: Mr. Inouye,you want to say something? INOUYE: Yes. Page 6 of 18 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency February 22,2017,Minutes DELIMA: Okay, come on up. INOUYE: I'll be very short and brief DELIMA: Okay, thank you very much. INOUYE: Chairperson DeLima and board members, I appreciate being able to talk to you. When Senate Bill 1530 was passed, about four or five years ago, I've been waiting for some type of lease, and as everyone should know, Reed's Bay is on a month-to-month revocable lease. I have built the tourist business to over a million dollars last year in such a short time. I have a question, or request, from your planning board. Is it necessary for me to get approval from you before I am able to apply for, and send in a proposal to, Department of Land and Natural Resources to apply for a regular lease since scenario two has been approved by you? DELIMA: Well, I don't believe so, but I'm not the legal counsel for the County, so I think it would be best if you draft a letter to the Planning Director so it can be answered in the proper channels. INOUYE: Yeah, I did. I have one already prepared but I wasn't, didn't know whether I had to get permission from the planning board,your board DELIMA: I don't think you do,but you should send it to the Planning Director and they can give you a formal response. INOUYE: Oh, Planning Director. Oh okay. DELIMA: Yeah, and then we can discuss it,but I don't believe that's the case. But it would be better if you put it in writing and you got something in writing. INOUYE: Okay, it's necessary? DELIMA: Nothing is necessary,but probably in your best interest. INOUYE: I mean would DLNR accept my proposal to go ahead? DELIMA: Oh,that's a different story. INOUYE: Oh, okay. Thank you. DELIMA: We're not with DLNR. DLNR,their board,they have different roles and INOUYE: Well you know,they have put four different studies and that has prevented my hotel from applying for a lease extension, and they just started a fifth one. I realize that they have their plans and what they're gonna do,but I always thought that they were reliant on you all to make the decision in whatever we're going to do on Banyan Drive. DELIMA: Well,we came up with the conceptual plan,but there are other issues involved in terms of land leases, etcetera, so you may be interested in the legislation that's before the Page 7 of 18 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency February 22,2017,Minutes Legislature. It may affect you. I really don't know of your situation, and I'm not certain if you have counsel or you have a planning person helping you out INOUYE: No. DELIMA: But there are so many different questions and layers of answers to your question that there is no real easy yes or no. INOUYE: No, I'm still in limbo. Thank you very much. DELIMA: Thank you. At this time Chairman DeLima directed the Agency to the first item of the agenda under Business of Agency. BUSINESS OF AGENCY 1. Review of the BDHRA's conceptual land use master plan adopted at the meeting held on October 26, 2016. Mr. Mead briefly reviewed the conceptual master plan, Version 2 Scenario 2, last reviewed at the October 26, 2016, and stated that it was adopted with changes. The changes include the removal of the resort expansion node on the mauka side of Banyan Drive, as well as the inclusion of a resort component in the commercial node near the bottom right of the conceptual map. The final revised conceptual map, as voted on by the Agency,was presented for review. This conceptual master plan would be used to further evaluate the development of a final master plan as identified in HRS 53, and to execute the environmental documents and studies. DELIMA: Any questions? TANIGUCHI: I might have missed this earlier,but how are we going to accommodate, and it doesn't belong to Banyan Drive area peninsula,but how do we accommodate the cruise ships?Will there be sufficient MEAD: Yeah, so the cruise ships, again this conceptual land use master plan, again started off as a compilation of multiple plans, one of which is the Harbors 2035 Master Plan,which includes this Pier 5 over here. The Harbors 2035 Master Plan, I don't want to speak for DOT, but in reviewing of the plan,they do identify a Pier 5,which is intended to separate cargo from visitor. That Pier 5, this area here,which we talked about it,we had some comment on this area in green, again not being part of the"blighted" designation,right,that was identified by Windward Planning Commission. But we just show this as connectivity. So eventually there are state leases in this area right here,but you know,what we're showing there is just that there would be connectivity between what's happening on Banyan Drive and eventually that carry-through for the tourists that may come off of the cruise ships. But it's actually outside of Banyan Drive's redevelopment area. TANIGUCHI: Right. That's what I understand,but with that new pier thereI guess with that new pier there,will the large ships be able to come in? The cruise ships? Page 8 of 18 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency February 22,2017,Minutes MEAD: I believe that was the intent. Yeah, so a new Pier 5, generally somewhere in this location here,would accommodate the cruise ships. That's my understanding. DELIMA: Any other questions? The only, one of the points I made earlier was that the, our present General Plan does not include the commercial designations that we have voted upon. Is it—and I understand the County is right now in the process of Planning Director initiated General Plan amendments. Is it the intent of the Director, given the adoption of the conceptual land use plan, to incorporate as part of the General Plan amendments the actions that we undertook? MEAD: I'm going to defer to the Deputy Director on this one. He'll probably be in a better place to answer that. ARAI: I appreciate the question. The ongoing comprehensive General Plan update program is always a moving target. It's evolutionary. As we go through the processes we understand that other planning initiatives will not come to a screeching halt while it waits for the General Plan. So while this concept land use plan has been adopted by the Agency,we are also well aware that our initial vision was that this plan would frame the necessary studies that would then further frame the development of an environmental assessmentenvironmental impact statement. During that development process,based on community input, agency input, specific engineering studies,that could further evolve this concept. And what that will ultimately result in,we still do not know. The reason being is this is just step one. We really wanted this process to be as organic as possible, meaning that as information is assimilated, that would organically drive what will ultimately come before you once the environmental impact statement is ready for your review and eventual adoption. So as you can see, I don't have a clear answer for you DELIMA: Let me ask you this question,when is the Director submitting the General Plan revisions to the Planning ARAI: Commission. DELIMA: Commission. Yeah. Is there a calendar timetable for that? ARAI: Yeah, there was a date that was beingI thought it was toward the ending of this year or early next year. DELIMA: Yeah, cause I would think the Council that was elected recently would want to be able to weigh in and vote on it, otherwise they'd be delegating it to unknown council members of the future. I mean if I was on the Council, I would want to vote on it. So,what's the timetable for that? ARAI: For the General Plan,right? DELIMA: Yeah, so you're gonna do it by the end of this year? ARAI: Go on with your meeting; I'll get that date for you. I know we have a timetable, so I do want to check with staff to make sure we're on schedule yet. Page 9 of 18 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency February 22,2017,Minutes DELIMA: Because I would not—because we had several public hearings and so on, I would not, I would think that we would want to at least move on because the General Plan is just a general plan, it's not building permits,it's not—it's to put into our, I guess, our seminal document what we envision for this particular area. So that if people are going to undertake an investment, that they know that it's part that it's consistent with the General Plan. Otherwise,why would you undertake the studies etcetera,because the thing that takes the longest is the General Plan amendment, and general plan amendments, if it's Planning Director initiated, it has less onerous obstacles in order to be implemented versus a council initiated or commission initiated general plan amendments. There's a lot of benefits in being a director-initiated plan amendment. ARAI: No, and I do tend to agree because a lot of weight is placed on the Director's recommendation and guidance. DELIMA: And this, this plan,was your guys' plan. ARAI: Right. DELIMA: So. ARAI: Well, that being all said,which is why I think in foresight, even though the environmental review process may not be completed ahead of the General Plan adoption, and that remains to be seen,the Department will try to provide flexibility. Meaning what is ultimately designated for Banyan Drive, and again we are talking it's a general plan; it's not going to set land uses on the ground. So we're going to make sure that the framework of the General Plan will provide the necessary flexibility so whatever is ultimately decided by the Agency can be, can remain consistent with the overall policy direction for this particular area. DELIMA: From my perspective,the General Plan, we gotta move on the General Plan otherwise we're not facilitating economic development for this area. Once our conceptual plan is in line with the General Plan, and the only way it can be aligned is that the General Plan is amended then other things can come into play. And that's,unless the State's going to preempt everything, I think that's a fifty- fifty proposition at this point. Well anyway,thank you. Anybody have any questions based on the questions I asked or anything else? Okay, thank you very much. Do you have anything else to add? MEAD: No, no, I don't have anything else to add. If there's no more questions regarding the conceptual land use master plan,we can move forward onto the next agenda item. DELIMA: The only other question I had before I came in today was what was the ballpark figure for the environmental assessment? MEAD: We have budgeted, I think, 500?Yeah, I think we've budgeted $500,000. DELIMA: Okay, I guess we're not going to pass the hat for that, so okay. We'll move on to our next agenda item then. At this time Chairman DeLima directed the Agency to the second Business of Agency agenda item. Page 10 of 18 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency February 22,2017,Minutes 2. Review, discussion, and action regarding 2017 proposed legislations that involve or pertain to properties within the Banyan Drive redevelopment area. Review and discussion to include House Bill (HB) 575, Senate Bill (SB) 274, HB 1310, SB 1184,HB 1469, SB 1185,HB 1479, and SB 1292. The most current versions of the bills may be found on the Legislature's website at www.caov_ DELIMA: I'll yield to you; you can start us off. MEAD: Sounds good. As we heard earlier, and we heard from the testimony,there's quite a few bills in Legislature this session regarding properties that are within the Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency. And this is a quick, what I'll do is a quick overview. For those of you who are not,this is also for the public, for those of you who are not familiar with how the Legislature works on these bills, this is just a quick, and I apologize for how small it isI see it right now,but I'll try to guide you through it. It's essentially from the Leg's website on how a bill becomes a law. Bills are brought in at either the House or the Senate level, and they go through an assignment to various committees, and they're heard through these committees on both sides, so a bill in our case we have four separate bills that are actually eight because there's a House and a Senate version. They're carried through the respective branches with amendments being made and voted upon, and then they go over what's called crossover,where House bill or Senate bill then flips to the other side,to the other House or the other Senate, and there essentially go through the same process. At the end of that,what happens is if these bills are alive, if they've made it through all their hearings,they essentially, any amendments that are made to those bills are then heard by the other branch, and either agreed upon or changes are made,before they're presented to the Governor for either his approval; they can either not be signed, it could be signed, or it can be vetoed. It can be kind of complicated, and it's a very active process with lots of changes, and so today, forgive me, as it was mentioned earlier, there's going to be, there's quite a bit of action that's being heard right now actually, one of them, so there may be changes. We're just going to present a really overview of these bills that are active right now, and just to provide awareness for the commission, or for the Agency, on what's going on. Mr. Mead, for the benefit of the public,provided the website in which to search House and Senate bills, current and previous versions, view the status of bills, and review submitted testimony. MEAD: There's eight bills that we have, four House, four Senate bills,that involve either lands or properties within Banyan Drive, or deal with the leases that involve those lands or properties within the Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agencies. Some of them extend, actually, more than just those direct lands, encompass more lands within Hilo. So this first one here, House Bill 575 and its companion Senate Bill 274,this description is pulled right from the website over here,but really,the problem that it's trying to address is the fact that the State leased lands are, have a 65-year lease maximum on them. And what happens is that new leases are brought about at a public auction, and so what happens there is that there's little or no incentive for people to invest or for lessees to invest in the structural improvements on their properties after a certain amount of time when there's a limited time left on a lease. This leads to the situations that we have right now,which kind of lead to the blighted designation that we had through the Windward Planning Commission as well. So 575 and its companion, 274,proposed to change the State statute that is HRS Chapter 171, Page 11 of 18 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency February 22,2017,Minutes and it authorizes the Board of Land and Natural Resources to give an extension for up to 15 years on these leases. It does require the lessees to make substantial commitments to the improvement of the properties at a value of over 50 percent of the market value. And these are for properties that are in Banyan Drive and the Kanoelehua Industrial. That's what this one does. This bill strictly deals with the leases on these properties within Banyan Drive and Kanoelehua. The reason that that 65, and we have that listed as a concern but it was more brought about on a State level, the reason initially they were held to 65 is to allow others an opportunity to get in on a State lease. Currently, House Bill 575 is the one that seems to be moving forward. It has been through, I believe, had two referrals,two different committees. It's been heard by one, it's moved to finance as this House Draft one, so it's already been amended. The Senate Bill has not moved outside of its it hasn't been heard by any committees yet. The next bill that we're going to look at here really fast is 1469, House Bill 1469, and its companion Senate Bill 1185. I'll mention right up front that,just like the other senate bill companion, Senate Bill 1185 hasn't moved outside yet of any of its committees. But this bill it's relating to public lands is the title, and it also deals with Hawaii Revised Statutes Chapter 171 relating to the management disposition of public lands. The identified problem, or the issues that it's trying to address, are largely the same; it's dealing with the management of the lands, of the State lands, and the current disposition based on their ability to secure a lease. What we have here is,this bill actually does a couple things, it's more broad in the sense that it does not directly deal with Banyan Drive or Kanoelehua, it deals with the formation of—it identifies a structure for a redevelopment agency to have a planning committee and a redevelopment plan. It also modifies, similar to the first bill, it modifies the ability to secure a longer State lease. It has members from the community, a couple members from the community, it also requires, similar to BDHRA,the development of a plan which requires public meetings. They do have a proposed two-year time limit to submit a master plan to the Leg for the 2020 session, and this,whatever development plan comes out of this would supersede any other development plans for the area. And again, like I mentioned before, it also addresses the lease issue. So this is a more involved bill than just the lease, it also identifies the plan for redevelopment and the financing for it. The next one here is 1469, House Bill 1469 and 1185. Now this, 1469 is actually dependent upon the legislation proposed in this previous bill. So it needs this other legislation which allows for a redevelopment district to go through. This bill is directed towards the Waiakea Peninsula. So the title, it's the Waiakea Peninsula Redevelopment District,Planning Committee, and Revolving Fund. So it uses the previous legislation that we just mentioned to form this redevelopment area, or this redevelopment district, and again the problem is the same, it was essentially identifying that there's a lack of incentive to make a lot of improvements based on their ability to secure a longer lease. So this again,uses the proposed legislation in the previous bill to build or create this Waiakea Peninsula Redevelopment District. It does have a funding source identified. It does form a revolving fund for revenues, 50 percent of revenues, incomes,receipts from the public lands within the district. It does leave the development and the management under the DLNR. Similar to the other two that we just saw,this Senate Bill has not gained traction, or has not been heard by committee, however the House Bill has; it had three referrals to committees, it has went through two of them, and its currently at Finance—will be heard at Finance. The other Senate Bill has not had movement on its side out of any of the committees. And this Waiakea Peninsula is the identified district where it's limited to so Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency,the Page 12 of 18 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency February 22,2017,Minutes blighted designation actually encompasses a couple of these properties on the mauka side of Kamehameha Avenue, this one is limited to the peninsula proper. And finally,this is the one that's a little different. All of the other bills deal with Hawaii Revised Statutes Chapter 171, and House Bill 1479 and companion Senate Bill 1292, also unlike the others,both of these are moving forward. This title is relating to the Hilo Community Economic District, and this actually proposes changes to another Hawaii Revised Statute, 206E,which is the Hawaii Community Development Authority. And what it does is it would place public lands, or the lands that are being managed by DLNR, into this Hawaii Community Development Authority. Again, the identified problem is the same, it is that the fact that many public lands kind of face uncertain futures due to their abilities to secure these leases. And so in this case, it would put management of these lands,these public lands,under the Hawaii Community Development Authority; it would write in a new section of legislation. There are, HCDA actually has three development authorities. All of them are on Oahu; there's Kaka`ako, there's Kalaeloa, and there is He`eia. This would make the first one outside of Oahu, and it would be here in the Hilo Community Economic Development District. This one is actually quite a bit more substantial than the Banyan Drive area. Mr. Mead briefly pointed out the affected locations; the peninsula, Banyan Drive,the airport, Maka`ala Street, Railroad Avenue, the industrial area, Waiakea Pond, Bayfront, and the lighthouse. MEAD: So it's a much more substantial area; don't take this as 100 percent accurate, I tried to get as best I could based off of the written description of the boundaries of the district. I didn't have, I wasn't able to secure it on time right now,but this is where we're at. It's pretty hard to follow on the written side of it. Talking about where we're at on this, 1479, so remember there's two bills; there's a House Bill 1479,there's a Senate Bill 1292. Both of them have taken a little bit different tracks. The biggest change is,that we can see, is dealing with the Senate Bill 1292,the County has put in some testimony regarding, on all of these bills,regarding the maintenance of some home rule. That essentially addresses that the Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency has put a lot of planning effort into certain areas within these proposed regions as well, so one of them, Senate Bill 1292 does identify more community members and it does sunset, does give a 20-year sunset on the HCDA for the Hilo side of it, and includes members, I think, six members of the community onto that board. So that's kind of where we're at here. So there's a lot of action going on, and we've been actually, it's come up pretty rapidly since the last meeting. We've been trying to follow this as best as we can and what we're looking for now,the options that we have,understanding that these bills are may or may not go through and that you may or may not choose to support them via testimony. We kind of have some options here; one of them is letting the legislative process see itself through without testimony submitted by the Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency, another is to request the Office of the Mayor to provide testimony representing the community and BDHRA's position, or option three where you could speak specifically to these individual bills, again individually or collectively, and direct planning staff to draft testimony on your behalf for any of these bills or all of these bills, and transmit possibly through the Office of the Mayor. And so really what we're looking for now is direction based on your review of the bills and your understanding of the community and the testimony you've heard on where you'd like to see us, or how we can support you in moving forward. Page 13 of 18 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency February 22,2017,Minutes DELIMA: Any questions? BEGIER: I think that there's,because we've had a change in administration, there's people that are concerned about what our directive is and that some of these bills are a reaction to that. I don't have an opinion on that, I can't speak for the administration, I'm just here to continue doing the work we all volunteered to do. My understanding is that the senator that chairs the senate committee that needs to hear these bills believes that everybody already has the ability to renegotiate the lease under current DLNR rules, and that's why he's not hearing the bills, not that he has any particular philosophical opposition to the extensions of leases,he feels it can already be done. That's all I have to say at this time. DELIMA: Okay. Let me kind of recap again. The bills that are moving is 1479 and 1292? MEAD: For the ones that we're seeing, 1479 I know is heard by Finance today at two. It's really hard to tell,there's no,we haven't met any kind of drop-dead deadline yet, I don't believe. And it's just my understanding, essentially off of theI pulled the same information off of the website and tried to track these that way. It does look like those senate bills that we covered,the first three haven't been heard by any committees yet and I'm not sure how much chance they have to get through two or three committees before there is a time of close. DELIMA: I think that if there's more than one committee, if they haven't gotten to the final committee,they're dead already. So the only senate bill that's alive would be 1292, and the companion is 1479; 1479 and 1292 deal with the lease issue as well. MEAD: It puts those lands under HCDA control. So in terms of how it conflicts with lease management that may be outside of something that I can answer. It does, again,transfer the management of those properties to the HCDA, so unlike those other ones which are just amendments of 171,this actually transfers the authority. DELIMA: Okay well, I would be supportive of voting to support HB 1479 and Senate Bill 1292 because I think the reality is that we want to continue economic activity for the Hilo community, and if it includes the Waiakea,the Banyan Drive peninsula, at least these bills provide a funding source which we do not have presently from the County. It's not adverse to our conceptual plan adoption and this economic activity may facilitate it. I wouldn't have a problem with us as an agency voting to support it, and I think that would, may be viewed in a positive light by the Legislature as it deliberates on these bills. Because I think we would want to continue the economic support, and we could use the resources to implement the plan that we adopted. BEGIER: Are you looking for a motion? DELIMA: I'm looking for a motion. BEGIER: I'd like to make a motion,what Brian said. I realize I can't get away with that. DELIMA: No,that's good. The motion is to support the legislation HB 1479 and Senate Bill 1292. Is there a second? TANIGUCHI: Second. Page 14 of 18 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency February 22,2017,Minutes DELIMA: It's been moved and second. Any further discussion? TANIGUCHI: Just clarity of DELIMA: Go ahead. TANIGUCHI: Right now are they, they are identical? DELIMA: They are not identical because the Senate did amend their bill, and 1479 is before the finance committee,but in TANIGUCHI: Concept? DELIMA: Yes,they are,yes. BEGIER: The House has amended their bill twice,because they're at a HD2, and Senate Bill is at HD I, so TANIGUCHI: Do you know what the differences are in the amendments? BEGIER: I have the committee reports here. DELIMA: They're all to help Hilo though? BEGIER: Yes. DELIMA: And the lessees? BEGIER: The main issue was to say where the money was going to come from. They were trying to identify because that's the big issue,right? At the end of the day it's always money. And then in the Senate Bill there was something aboutI imagine that DLNR probably knows this better. Chair Case probably knows it better than I do. There was something to do with boundaries of the land, or discrepancy between the Senate and the House. Is that accurate? DELIMA: Maybe James is a better person; he's been following these bills. Go ahead James, if you can shed some light on the differences. McCULLY: There was a discrepancy in the boundaries and the most significant amendment was the composition of the Board. That was the significant ones that needed to be made. BEGIER: To address home rule was the—okay. McCULLY: Yes. And as long as I've been given the mic, I'd like to clarify something which is to say that the omnibus bill, 1469,which addresses statute and economic development, is not replicated by 1479 on a stand-alone basis using 206E. In order to effect change,we have to follow perhaps the advice of the Chair in a recent testimony when she said, "The Department respectfully suggests that extensions of existing leases in exchange for lessees Page 15 of 18 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency February 22,2017,Minutes making substantial improvements may be the better way to deal with end of lease issues in Hilo." If that is absent in 1479, 1479 has to go back, somebody has to go back to the Legislature next year and ask for that bill if this one languishes, if it doesn't pass. So I'd appreciate it if this committee,this authority,would address HB 575 which is the House vehicle for extension of leases,which its analog was SB 274 which was held by its chair. DELIMA: Is HB 575 moving though? McCULLY: Yes it is. It's at finance today at 2:00, and I just went online to look for testimony but the House has been slow to post testimony this year. And I would also like to say that—well, okay, enough. DELIMA: Okay, so you would want us to support HB 575 as well. McCULLY: Yes, I think that's very important and I think the Legislature would listen to you. What I was going to say is that the Senate Chair who's holding the bills does have a conceptual, or a theory, about why the bill should be held and it has to do with public use, public purpose for public lands. And that there's only a single proper way to deal with end of lease issues and that's auctions. And I think it's some sort of a,you know,the idea of the windfall that the Naniloa presented in terms of annual rent and without calculating the fact that the leasehold improvements were undervalued by appraisal, and the bidders were exchanging their lease rent for acquisition of the leasehold improvements. So that's not an analog to what our warehouse district looks like or perhaps any of the other hotels on Banyan Drive which are in that condition. It had good bones, even if it was somewhat bedraggled. DELIMA: So Ms. Begier,would you agree to incorporate House Bill 575 into your motion? BEGIER: Maybe the best thing to do is to incorporate that we support all of the bills that maintain economic life in this current State Legislature for our Banyan Drive and other leasehold lands in East Hawaii. DELIMA: And would that include all these bills? BEGIER: Yes it would. McCULLY: I think you'd absent the SB numbers that have been held in,just for clarification. So that'd be DELIMA: Okay well BEGIER: Well I don't—excuse me. I think it doesn't really serve any purpose to leave out any bills because you never know what leadership may end up doing at what point in time. McCULLY: Yeah, and 2018 will roll around. BEGIER: So we may as well leave these, all bills, in our watch list. DELIMA: I think Ms. Begier's point is well taken. So the motion is to approve all bills listed on our agenda and submit the supportive testimony. Mr. Taniguchi,you second that? Page 16 of 18 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency February 22,2017,Minutes TANIGUCHI: I second. DELIMA: Okay, any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say aye. ALL: Aye. DELIMA: Opposed say nay. Motion carried unanimously. ADMINISTRATIVE MATTERS 1. Approval of minutes from the October 26, 2016, Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency meeting. DELIMA: Is there a motion to approve the minutes of October 26, 2016? TANIGUCHI: So moved. BEGIER: Second. DELIMA: It's been moved and seconded. Any discussion?All those in favor say aye. ALL: Aye. DELIMA: Opposed say nay. Motion is carried. When do we need to meet next? ANNOUNCEMENTS 1. Next meeting date. DELIMA: When do we need to meet next?We'll meet in a month so we can see what the legislation,what happens at the Legislature. MEAD: Yes,that's March 29th, 2 p.m. DELIMA: Okay, March 29th at 2 p.m. Where?Here maybe? MEAD: Yeah, here. BEGIER: If there's nothing significant then you can cancel it, correct? MEAD: Yeah, if there's nothing significant we'll give you a heads up and cancel. DELIMA: Okay so the meeting is tentatively scheduled for the March—okay,we're almost done everyone—March 29th, 2 PM, and if there's not going to be any significant matters to place on the agenda we'll probably postpone it to another month. So it's the last Wednesday Page 17 of 18 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency February 22,2017,Minutes of the month. Okay,thank you all for coming. Hold on—oh and then Daryn has the timeline for the General Plan amendment. You were able toI'm sorry to put you on the spot. ARAI: It does look like we're trying to get it to the Planning Commission sometime toward the end of this year and then hopefully to the Council by roughly around February of 2018. DELIMA: Okay, thank you so much. Okay everyone,thank you all for coming. Have a beautiful day for the rest of the day. We'll stand adjourned. Meeting adjourned at 3:10 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Kim L. Tanaka, Secretary ATTEST : Brian DeLima, Chairperson Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency Page 18 of 18 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency February 22,2017,Minutes