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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017-10-25 BDHRA Minutes BANYAN DRIVE HAWAII REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY COUNTY OF HAWAII MINUTES October 25, 2017 The Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency met at 2:03 p.m. in the County of Hawaii, Aupuni Center Conference Room, 101 Pauahi Street, Hilo, Hawaii, with Chairman Brian DeLima presiding. MEMBERS PRESENT: Brian DeLima(Chairman), Nathan Gaddis, and Sigmund Zane MEMBERS ABSENT & EXCUSED: Elmer Gorospe and Barry Taniguchi ALSO PRESENT: Michael Yee (Planning Director), Daryn Arai(Deputy Planning Director), Amy Self(Deputy Corporation Counsel for the Agency), Lucas Mead (Planner), and Kim Tanaka(Secretary) A quorum was present with three members in attendance. Chairman DeLima introduced the members of the Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency, Planning Department staff, and invited interested stakeholders seated at the table. Stakeholders in attendance were Representative Chris Todd, Representative Richard Onishi, Mayor Harry Kim, and DLNR Land Administrator Russell Tsuji. At this time Chairman DeLima opened the floor to take statements from the public. STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC There were 10 members of the public in attendance. DELIMA: At this time we can take statements from the public. As you can see, we have an open discussion that's on our agenda. Does any members of the public that wish to make any statements at this time? I would be remiss if I didn't also recognize Councilman Aaron Chun who is in the audience, and all of the rest of the people who are here. So we have Kimo Makaio who'd wish to speak. MAKAIO: [phone rings] Sorry about that. Aloha. ALL: Aloha MAKAIO: Good afternoon. Again my name is James Lewai Makaio. You think I need the mic? Really? Okay. Again, my name is James Lewai Makaio. My background is that I've 20 years in tour transportation from 1972 to 1992. I then ended up getting a retirement plan since the union company is closed down so I worked for the State as a jail guard at HCC. Back when I was a tour guiin the tour business, I was already planning to see how we can improve the situation on the Big Island, so now that I'm retired, and since I'm no longer drinking alcohol, which is my preferred recreational drug, since I'm now sober, I'm getting a little angry of how Hilo and the Big Island has turned around. First of all, I'd like to thank DLNR trying to fix up Page 1 of21 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency October 25,2017 Minutes Banyan Drive and my first request from DLNR is please give to Mr. Don Inouye who owns Reed's Bay Hotel; his lease. He's fixed everything up, continue to fix that hotel, he's also now bringing in so much clients that they have a hard time of filling up his hotel. I see that every day going on. So he deserves to get that lease from DLNR. As for the other two buildings, well, they should close down Country Club and shut it down. It is one of the problems we having with the drug problem on Banyan Drive and this is why I'm also here. I'm carrying around a screwdriver on me because I've been threatened by the street gangs. When I talk street gangs, I'm talking about the young kids and the old farts who are riding on bicycles. Those are the street gangs. Those are the guys who are dealing in Ice. That's what the big problem we're having on Banyan Drive and now you are setting up this agency. I've asked help from Gordon Heit as well as I'm asking help from the Mayor and the park, Park and Recreations, as well as Hawaiian Homes. Last week Monday I approached and dropped the bomb on the Hawaiian Homes commissioners. I started remembering things back when I started tourism. Back then when the Merrie Monarch started. Koa Puna donated the time, the security, free. Now you gotta remember, when Merrie Monarch started back in the `60s, it fell apart because (inaudible) didn't know how to run it. So they brought in Dottie Thompson. When Dottie Thompson came in, the fiscal wasn't that big. The big money maker and the fundraiser for Merrie Monarch was the beer garden, if you all remember that if you go back that far with me. So we bring our families down, we enjoy the show in the Civic, and we would suck `um up in the beer garden. Well back then, I was in tourism, and in tourism back then I got to know people in high places and low places. To take care my people, (inaudible) towards the agents and everybody. And also went into the hotels and everything that dealt with tourism to make sure that everything was running right. And this is how I got into this kind of information and history. So what I'm saying is this, Koa Puna hooked up with the yakuza, gotta remember that. They're now international and I'll tell you why later on because I only got one minute. When Koa Puna brought in shabu, which is the ice that came out of the orient, that's when it started, back in the late `70s and `80s. When Hell's Angels showed up it's because the Chicano's were coming in from America to work the farms here, and they not only brought in their own type of ice, batu, but they also brought in black tar, their version of heroin. Then just (inaudible) I saw the apostles at the Reed's Bay Beach. Now, I tried to bring this to the Mayor through Lance Niimi, but he wanted me to talk to the Vice Squad, which I did, and he expected me to turn in my friends and family. That is not what I brought this to all of you. I want you folks to know the problem. It is very hard to control ice. I'm not going to stop here because I'm not done. So I'm asking the different areas, Park and Recreations, DLNR, Hawaiian Homes, to control this ice problem, especially that area. You have to cut down the brushes. Airport, the old airport. Get rid of the brushes. Keep the trees for coolness, but this is how we're going to move all these street divas back into King's Landing, and later on I'll explain why I'm doing this. It's because I don't want the communities, again, I'll tell you right now, I don't want you folks sending them to Pepe`ekeo again, coming back into Wainaku, coming back into Pu`u`eo, coming back into Hilo, coming back into Waiakea, back into Keaukaha again. It always happens when the police does that. It is only lately these guys started coming out of King's Landing started selling their junk again. So later on when I explained to Lance again and to the Mayor, and to everybody else why we have to do this to protect our grandchildren. DELIMA: Thank you, Mr. Makaio. MAKAIO: Okay. Thank you very much. Page 2 of 21 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency October 25,2017 Minutes DELIMA: Mahalo. At this time Chairman DeLima recognized that Councilmember Sue Lee Loy joined the meeting. (Arrived at 2:09 p.m.) BUSINESS OF AGENCY 1. Open discussion between the Banyan Drive Hawai`i Redevelopment Agency (BDHRA) and representatives of the Department of Land and Natural Resources, Hawai`i Island Senate and House of Representatives, Hawai`i County Mayor's Office, and the Hawai`i County Planning Department regarding roles, recent government actions, near and long-range plans, and legislative initiatives relating to the BDHRA's fulfillment of its obligations within that portion of the Banyan Drive Redevelopment Area as defined by Hawai`i County Council Resolution 481-16. DELIMA: We're now to the point of the agenda where it's an open discussion between the Banyan Drive Redevelopment Agency, representatives of DLNR, Hawaii Island Senate, House of Representatives, the Mayor's Office and the County Planning Department regarding roles, recent government actions, near and long-range plans, and legislative initiatives relating to the Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency's fulfillment of its obligations within the portion of the Banyan Drive Redevelopment Agency Area as defined by Hawaii County Council Resolution 481-16. I'll turn it over to Lucas. MEAD: Okay. Aloha. I have just a very, very brief overview of BDHRA actions, how we got to where we're at today. This is only going to take up about five minutes. The value's not in me being up here, but the conversation that we're going to have. At this time Mr. Mead began his PowerPoint presentation. MEAD: So just a quick recap, the Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency, the way that it was formed, initially it came from a statement of understanding between the Planning Department via the Director and DLNR via the Chair, and this was to stimulate the revitalization of Banyan Drive and the mechanism to do that identified was through Hawaii Revised Statutes Chapter 53 dealing with urban renewal. And so what happened was, following this statement of understanding, the Windward Planning Commission, pursuant to Chapter 53, designated that area in green and blue there along the Waiakea Peninsula as blighted. That's a requirement of Chapter 53, and following that designation, the County Council entertained a resolution 481-16, which identified or supported the blighted designation and formed the Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency, so it's a five-member board. Between June and October of last year, the Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency, the Planning Department, and the community entertained various scenarios for the development of a conceptual master plan. This included community outreach, or two, two community meetings, as well as numerous meetings of the BDHRA. In almost exactly a year to the date, the BDHRA adopted a conceptual master plan for, essentially to start the conversation on Banyan Drive. This is the conceptual master plan as adopted by the BDHRA, again this was last year, essentially a year to the day. And I'm not going to go into the details of the plan; that's all on the website, the minutes to all the meetings are on the website, but this is what the BDHRA has as the initial conversation piece on moving forward. And to move forward, the Planning Department identified, really, the next step in how we would move this concept and vet it further and move it into an actual master plan as Page 3 of21 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency October 25,2017 Minutes identified under Chapter 53. And that would actually be vetting this through the Environmental Impact Statement process, Chapter 343 of Hawaii Revised Statutes. The Environmental Impact Statement is a very comprehensive process, it vets the plans with stakeholders, it gets input from various parties and it explores alternative scenarios to the proposal. So we identified this really as this conceptual land use master plan; again this is just a conversation starter on developing a master plan and vetting it thoroughly and comprehensively with interested stakeholders. Another next step that the BDHRA identified with the Planning Department is really how do we fund this; this does not come cheaply so we really need to identify where funding is going to come from to start to move this plan forward. So at the end of last year, or essentially the end of last year, that was really the last actions that BDHRA had with respect with the conceptual master plan, identifying the need for the EIS as being the next step. During this past year, there was multiple legislation that was brought forth regarding, or that would have dealt with, properties in the BDHRA's redevelopment area. There's eight bills that were brought forth, and a lot of them dealt with Chapter 171 which is State Land Use law, and one of them dealt with the Hawaii Community Development Authority under HRS 206A. These bills, they're all multiple bills, some of them dealt with varying degrees of redevelopment of specifically of Banyan Drive or other State-owned properties. One was successful, HB-575 moved forward without the Governor's signature, became law but what really impacted us was amendment of Chapter 717, again State Land Use law, but it dealt with commercial and industrial leases. So in terms of Banyan Drive, it really did not have an impact since Banyan Drive is resort, the State Land Use is resort over there. So again, it is worth noting though that these were brought forth in the biennium, so these bills do not have to be reintroduced, they can be entertained in this upcoming 2018 legislative session. During this time, again, the Planning Department really acted on behalf of the Banyan Drive Redevelopment Agency, namely in the commenting on draft legislation. So for all of these eight bills that came through, the Planning Department, on behalf of the BDHRA, was advocating for involvement of BDHRA in any of these redevelopment actions, keeping the process also tied to the local level here. Planning Department also commented on DLNR's lease proposals and permits for State- owned Banyan Drive properties, namely the lease proposal that came forth for Uncle Billy's and two month-to-month revocable permits for both Country Club Condominiums and the Reed's Bay Hotel. Again these were actions that the Planning Department took on behalf of the BDHRA. And this is really where we're at right now, identifying, you know, kind of funding to move the master plan forward and identifying the upcoming legislative session and the numerous bills that still have the chance to be considered. We brought forth, or we called this meeting today and we provided everyone with a advanced copy of some of these topics for discussion. And with that, I think, leaving these questions up here, these general questions up here, I think we can kind of open up the floor to that discussion. DELIMA: Well, I appreciate the overview. And I want to welcome Representative Nakashima here this afternoon. (Arrived at 2:19 p.m.) Appreciate you joining us. At the last Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency meeting, we had a discussion about what if we're just totally dependent on funding, then that might be a, might be a problem. And as much as there was, there is no monies to do the type of EIS or that would be conducted in order to facilitate capital investment. So one of the thoughts that we discussed at the last Redevelopment Agency meeting was the concept of having a request for proposal where the Redevelopment Agency could be used as a mechanism to facilitate memorandums of agreements that have been utilized by other redevelopment agencies, namely in the Kaka`ako formats for the purpose of dealing with the Page 4 of21 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency October 25,2017 Minutes Uncle Billy parcel as well as the Country Club parcel. As, you know, taking a small bite, smaller bite of an area that is definitely blighted in terms of Uncle Billy's and the Country Club in the context of the how that structure and, is occurring. So that was one discussion that occurred and we had kind of suggested what we needed to do is get some help from the Corporation Counsel's office to take a look at how that really works and whether that's something that we can really, whether that's something that we can explore. And by doing the concept of request for proposal, perhaps we will have the investors provide the monies to do that type of memorandum of agreement. So that was one thought. The second thing that we had discussed as an agency is that since we did develop that conceptual plan, that we was hoping that the General Plan amendments that the Director, the Planning Director, would be initiating, would incorporate in that General Plan, the amendments for the commercial and other aspects that have been outlined. Because if we change the General Plan, that may facilitate investment in that, those areas that have been identified as commercial. So in other words, we need to do the zoning in order to facilitate the potential for people to invest. We don't actually, if the government doesn't zone the land, then we can't expect investors to come and invest in the areas that have been identified as commercial. So I wanted to at least put that out and as a summary of some of the discussions we've had at the agency level. So we welcome this open discussion because quite frankly, we do not have the authority to raise money and we really are at the, we're really dependent on whether or not we can initiate these request for proposals, but obviously we don't want as an agency, to do something that's not in concert with the executive's view of this area. Because if we're working together, it'll be far better to facilitate something getting done than if we are paddling in the opposite directions. So I just wanted to venture that. And I'm opening it up for anybody else's comments or discussion. Or you guys can all agree with me and we can go home. (Laughter) TODD: Well, I'm the new guy and I obviously don't have the same level of institutional knowledge or even the background in Hilo. I mean, I was born in '88 right, but you know, I've listened a lot to my parents talk about what Banyan Drive used to be and it's very far removed from my experience. And this is probably one of the few parts of Hilo where I do feel like I have a very in-depth knowledge of I managed Suisan Fish Market for couple years, but I also used to live at Bay View Banyan. So I don't have a lot of experience with, you know, the Reed's Bay property or that, but I could give you a couple, you know, share some stories. I saw a guy get hit with a guitar in the parking lot, which is kind of surreal. There was a moped fire on the fourth floor of our building, which I don't know how that happens, right? But these things were pretty common, actually, these kind of crazy, surreal things that you don't expect in Hilo. So, from, I obviously got appointed couple weeks before the start of the session and I defer a lot to my colleagues, especially on these areas where there's been a lot of work put into it from the County and the State side, but I'm on board with anything we can do, really, to revitalize that area. Whether it's through the County or whether it's through the State. I'm just interested in seeing some sort of progress. I mean, when I was at the Fish Market, we had a homeless individual who would constantly get rearrested for harassing people and probably 30, 40 times in a year. And, but that, that's not uncommon in that area, so—and this is where, this is the premier tourism area of East Hawaii. So anything we can do on that front is definitely appreciated. DELIMA: Everybody's got a mic in front of them so feel free to speak anytime you want. GADDIS: Thank you. Yeah, I qualify definitely as a new guy as well, so I'll keep it brief, but I think everybody seems to kind of see things heading in the same direction long-term and they Page 5 of21 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency October 25,2017 Minutes can all agree that they want the area revitalized. But as far as the role of the agency and having, whether it has teeth or not, as far as decision-making power, I'd be curious to hear a little bit from the executives, you know, Mr. Tsuji, Mr. Mayor, you know, whether you've found it helpful to have an agency on the ground that sort of passes through different administrations and hopefully has a little bit of a longer life that can sort of advocate for the community, listen, develop plans. Have you found that a helpful process since the inception of this agency? KIM: I wish you would have taken longer. Banyan Drive is a problem for us; us, I'll refer to as County government because of our responsibilities, meaning the roadway and the trees. I think the Highway Division do a good job as far as nightly clean up and Parks, the park crews, try to trim it as best as we can. I do know that from the outside looking in, you know, it doesn't seem like there's much movement at all, and I do not pretend to (inaudible) these things like we're doing a lot. I do want to say of our involvement, what we're doing. I have talked to Land and Natural Resources people and even Mr. DeLima and I had a very brief meeting on this, where we're going to go. I think we all have the same goal; make it better. I think the County has done an outstanding job in Lili`uokalani Park. I think past mayor, Steve [Stephen] Yamashiro, you know, making it a very beautiful walking path and all of that was a tremendous boost. And every administration, I think, had taken care of that and also Coconut Island. Now jumping forward, in regards to area, in the first term I was here we took a look at the American Legion. This is what we used to call Reed's Bay, the park, I mean, the so-called coastal area there. Only old timers remember Reed—American Legion. That's where you took all your kids and swam back there. And walking back there because it was abandoned for so many years, ever since the fire, we ran across people on drugs. We had to tell people be careful because of the far, looking at the ocean far left side, you know, where people used to really swim and have a good time, we told them to be careful of the needles that was obviously there. So one of the first things we did was work with the State and Natural Resources to turn that over to us because we had visions in regards to and now I'll skip now to Reed's Bay. I think the County did a tremendous job in making that back again into a park. If you go there, I think on any given day, especially weekend, you'll see literally all of the people having fun there. And that was, that cost money, but fortunately we had furlough monies to pay for that. On the place I refer to American Legion, we asked the State if they would turn it over to us, they said no, they want to keep it zoned resort or hotel. But they will give it to us on a month-to-month lease, so that's why you see a, kind of a temporary improvement there. But we did, we meaning the County, not me obviously, did a good job I think, on the frontal area of cleaning it. Matter of fact, we just had a people from the Hale, not Hale, but Kulani come and clean out some of the rocks that we could take out, make it better for the kids and we're still not finished with that. Regards to other things, but that two area I'm very proud of, I think it's well used. The plan was overall, is a different concept of resort type area. We wanted to make a place that intermingle the local with the tourist industry and make `um as one kind of thing so that they would mix with each other. And that's why you see it like that. And I still have hopes that maybe we can have the State turn over the property to us so we can go more than month-to-month and pave it and do more than what it is there, but it is already nice. In regards to the other places, I think you know that the County was very involved in regards to Uncle Billy's. And we're very grateful for cooperation of the State. And even our personal calls in regards to the condemnation because of one factor and one factor only, that was safety. Fire Department was immediately asked to do a thorough examination review of that place, and so was Public Works and both of them submitted reports, which is submitted to the State, and the decision was it must be closed ASAP. Now when you see the stores still in operation that was part of Uncle Billy's but the request for special permission to keep it going Page 6 of21 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency October 25,2017 Minutes because it was not in a deterioration state of the hotel. However there was safety concerns because of electrical and Public Works volunteered to expedite certain kind of temporary repairs with the owner's son of Uncle Billy's to keep it open until the time for demolition. And I think you know that the State has worked out an agreement with the owner of Naniloa to do an assessment in regards to demolition so people could use that. Can you comment on that? TSUJI: Yes the—actually there's, the agreement was a for a temporary permit for the area, at least close down the hotel site and I think he wanted, Ed, Mr. Bushor wanted to keep the store open, I guess, because of the popularity of that store. From the audience: Thank you. We need it over there. TSUJI: But as far as any type of demolition, any kind of agreement on that, there's no agreement yet. What the Board had, the Land Board had asked us to do, and we just came out with a, we didn't come out yet but we have a draft in the works of a Request For Information to seek out whether there's any developers out there that would be interested in this concept. The concept is, and again it's baseda lot of it is lack of funding for, by ourselves to demolition that Uncle Billy's site, which is, I thought was going to be very expensive and it looks like I'm seeing some draft numbers come out from our consultant and it looks quite significant. Just to demo. So the concept of this RFI that we thought we'd just try and see if there was any takers, especially since Mr. Bushor indicated some interest, was you come in, and the idea is to demo, incur the cost of the demo, and incur the cost of rebuilding and to provide us with some figures on the cost of each, and to provide us with some information of—and an incentive would be we would have the ability to issue a long-term lease or of up to 65 years. And we current—we thought we'd ask because, you know, what kind of terms or concessions would be needed, especially like rent credits, in exchange for the expending the monies to demo and rebuild, especially the demo part. And so we haven't, it's not ready to go out yet, it's just that we just got a draft going and we're still under review, but that's the concept that we're looking at. Otherwise definitely if we had to—we wouldn't be able to afford it ourselves in our own operating budget; we'd have to ask for funding, for a CIP,just to demo Uncle Billy's. It's—that alone, out of the three, we're actually studying all three, which is Uncle Billy's, Country Club, and Reed's to the extent—Reed's is actually not in that dire condition. I mean, Uncle Billy's had to be closed down, that was clear. The others are at least operating for now, but their lives are known to be relatively short. And Uncle—Reed's Bay has probably the longest life right now, as far as we can tell. But that's my comment on that thing. I just, to just comment on some of what you were asking, I was to comment on was the Banyan Drive Redevelopment Authority, I thought, when it first came out, was a good idea because it's premised on a concept of these development authorities just like HCDA in Kaka`ako, with pretty good special powers, and one thing I saw, especially in the Banyan Drive area that probably could benefit from a County-controlled redevelopment agency was, because this is shoreline SMA area, it could maybe help with the permitting, which is quite extensive just to demo and rebuild in that area along the shoreline. As far as what I see in Banyan at least, at least what, couple years ago, it since sunset, but there was legislation that allowed the resorts to ask for an extension up to another 55 years, up to 55, in exchange for some pretty specific conditions of and really was delved on improvements to the hotel. And in Banyan, the only one to take advantage of that was Hilo Hawaiian, and they did complete it, so they made some significant improvements. Meanwhile, Naniloa on the other has side pretty much finished up their Page 7 of 21 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency October 25,2017 Minutes construction; I think they're gonna have the grand opening of the restaurant, I think in a little while. I saw an invitation coming up. And so we think there is at least couple hotels right now in pretty good shape in Banyan, very nice in my opinion. That's, I think, I don't know if anybody has questions but that's pretty much what I wanted to say. KIM: Thank you. I'm going to continue in regards to County participation. First of all he summarized briefly in regards to what Mr. Z, I'm calling him that because that's what he prefers, from Naniloa, and the whole discussion of that was to expedite, which is very important for this discussion. How the, how can the State expedite, first of all,just the estimation assessment of what for demolition so you can put it out to bid. I think it was, from what I understand, Mr. Z volunteered that proposal in regards to that they would do it and then the State would have something that they can hold it out there for bid. And they could use that also in case the prospective bidder for replacement. And I think that was very good of the Naniloa to do that because the purpose was of two-fold. I think they, as well as others, were very interested in that property, and people still are based on the inquiries we get. And I'm hoping that will be expedited, so I'm hoping that phase of it will be completed, as you said that, you know, the cost factor could be built in, in regards to the lease payment or agreement and so I'm hopeful of that. In regards to the other places and in regards to Country Club, you know we had just finished the past couple of months safety inspection again by Public Works and by the fire department. And that place is in bad shape. It is, as stated out as a lot of the tenants are rentals and a danger to them, and fire department was instructed to go ahead and make sure they just do their job in regards to their job of safety inspection. And that needs to be attended to for emergency repairs, etcetera. So that's totally in the hands of the professionals of fire and the Public Works inspectors. What I'd like to summarize here besides that, the plan of Banyan Drive by the County involvement goes way back. If you look at Banyan Drive now you will see Kuhio Park across the bay. At the time that Rotary Club came over to the office and asked for permission to do that in cooperation with the County, the vision of what Banyan Drive, I was pointed out to that. It falls within what we would like to do. And we made a commitment, we will do our share. We told them about Reed's Bay, and we did that. You guys should see the bathroom and all the things that was fixed, and the wall, and removal of rocks and those things, and the yard space. If you look at the parking area, we did that. What I'd like to address here now is where we would like to go. I think we're just interested like all of you, and from what Mr. DeLima presented, which is quite obvious, that we just want to see it go forward and make it better. Our vision, I think, was a little different. We looked at the Banyan Drive as to be a real close part, because it is part of Hilo. Not isolation of Banyan Drive for the resorts, tourists. I'm very proud of, and happy for, and anxiously await January 1st because we will have a cooperative effort between Land and Natural Resources—Department of Parks rather, for State on Wailoa Pond. As you may know they were going to close Wailoa Pond for a year. And we'll work with them in the clean up, but not only that but with Kamehameha, which owns a property adjacent to the Wailoa Pond which is a home for a lot of homeless. My instructions, not instructions but you know, to them was simple. I'm glad you're gonna start next year because we're not ready now, we're still trying to establish a template for Kona, which is a, you know, costly and time consuming—and finding property for a long-term care place we're going to have to do the same for Hilo and Puna, and we're just beginning that phase. Before we start to clean it out, we have to have a place for them to go,just like Kona, so we don't just shuffle them from here to there. So we envision, if you look at the, expand little bit Banyan Drive not in isolation, but the trails connected all of Hilo, Wailoa to be part of it. And if you look at what the State, and I'm proud of the State in regards to what they did at the Wailoa Center, the whole concept of it changed to Page 8 of21 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency October 25,2017 Minutes show the public what it was of the Hawaiian's as a very huge part of their fish gathering history, and which we as mankind going with the (inaudible) everything else, but that's all going to be restored. They're doing a bang-up job of it, and literally if you saw the plans it's gonna be not just clean, it's gonna be, you know, clean, repaired, restore, the whole Wailoa park area. Again, look at it in whole, take a look at what the State and County are doing on cleaning the canal area. I think itI told them recently, I have never seen it up kept as beautiful as it is today. Now, back to specifically Banyan Drive, we need help, obviously, in just trimming those trees. I don't want to come here and cry about money, but that's what it's all about. We would like to expedite the development of Banyan Drive. We are doing what we can to ensure, in regards to our share, responsibility of inspections. I have talked to the owner oh my goodness I forgot his name that owns that one acre parcel between the Country Club and Naniloa. It's a weird development because the swimming pool is half theirs and half theirs kind of thing of the old style days just do what—etcetera. But that whole area is like that, as you can see the frontage of the old steak and grill place. It's all dilapidated and has to be torn down too. And in talking to the owner they're very anxious, you know, to develop it, and they will develop it as soon as certain things are done. They're very, very excited, to tell you the truth, in regards to information of people. I shouldn't mention in type of development to make—you have a nice Naniloa, you have a very nice Hilo Hawaiian Hotel, then you have developers for a motel-type. I don't like the word"motel-type,"but I think you know what I mean. For business, middle-class type of people. It fits just right. Our task now is to make sure that we help in any way we can to the demolition and replacement of Uncle Billy's. The plan is to let them continue to use the store with the emergency repairs so it does not violate the fire department's concern of fire, and that is being done. Our goal is to work with the State in the timing in regards to Country Club. The Country Club is in a very serious state of disrepair. I don't have any expertise in it, but from what I read, it's not worth so called restoration and it should be demolished but there's a problem of all the tenants, especially a lot of them are Section 8-type individuals. But we would like to work with the State,you know, in regards to how we do it and when we do it. And to make those lots available for people to come in and bid on it. Our role, our responsibility to you sir, and members of the Redevelopment Board, is to expedite it. And if you ask me, you know, what is my preference, and this not going be very popular, but if you understand the goal is to expedite it, I really believe that if placed under control of the County government, you know we can move faster in certain kind of things that needs to be done. I don't think any of it contradicts what you people want of the area. Again, our goal is to expedite and do what we can to work with the State and a private agency to get that done. DELIMA: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Councilwoman? LEE LOY: Thank you, Mr. DeLima. I want to spring board a little bit about the RFP process that you folks talked about, and I really see that as a huge opportunity. I've been involved with Planning for a very long time and what I think is extremely valuable is something you expressed earlier with the General Plan, and using the General Plan to provide zoning in specific areas. I think that opportunity, if the County were to do the zoning, you know for the commercial, you know we'll start with something low-hanging like the commercial, where if the County took on that role and provided the zoning where a developer didn't run the risk of trying to run a zoning application through the process and being strapped with a number of conditions of approval, would incentivize people to come in and possibly take on developing the commercial areas. From that I see opportunities where we would be able to generate real property tax revenues and other revenues which then could build into the bigger piece of the larger redevelopment of the Page 9 of21 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency October 25,2017 Minutes Banyan Drive area. So for me it is a more of a phased approach rather than a comprehensive overall master plan, it would be more like a piecemeal approach to kind of get the ball rolling and incentivize commercial with the revenues that would be generated, which would also help with the infrastructure improvements by way of sewer or water or road improvements. We also have the mass transit master plan. We can start identifying areas for busses or pick up and drop offs along that area and build that into the redevelopment piece. Not only from people utilizing the area, but for our cruise ships or other resort connectivity between the airport or just in general, an overall transportation plan. I do believe that the redevelopment agency should continue and become an essential part of that and be given some teeth. Mr. Tsuji touched upon it a little bit with like the Kaka`ako providing the opportunities to address like SMAs or giving the agency some latitude on addressing those other regulatory permits that go with it. I think, again, there's huge opportunities by allowing the agency to have that. That all in turn provides a lot more home rule for us here in Hawaii County and creates a in—but I hope to be a better partnership, not only between the County and the State, but public private partnerships so that it's not all being funded by the State, by the County, but more of a collaborative public-private partnership being incentivized with special regulatory powers. So I hope that answers pretty much those last three questions on how I'd like to see that area move forward. For me, I always ask myself, "How do you eat an elephant?" and it's one bite at a time, but we gotta take a bite that's going to generate revenues, be incentivized, and work, so that we can have more momentum going forward to take on bigger pieces. That's my input. Suzanne Case joined the meeting at 2:45 p.m. DELIMA: Thank you. I want to recognize that DLNR Chair, Suzanne Case, has joined us. Appreciate you coming today, as much as the land is the State's land and we appreciate the opportunity that the State had in recognizing that the Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency was a mechanism that we have been able to facilitate the revitalization of that area. And I know Mr. Tsuji commented earlier on some of the interim steps that have been taken by the Board in allowing the safety concerns for Uncle Billy's to be closed down, the initiatives that have been started to determine interest in developing that parcel as perhaps, perhaps including the Country Club parcel, and perhaps you might wanna comment on how the Agency can facilitate that becoming a reality, if you don't mind taking the mic. CASE: Sure. Aloha everyone. Yeah we, we want to work closely with the County. We've said that repeatedly all along. We have a MOU with you folks to recognize this group as the, as the mechanism; however you want to take it, in terms of master planning the area. I very much believe, being a Hilo girl that folks from Hilo have the best idea about what to do about this, this gem. Meanwhile, we have been taking bites out of the elephant. So that Naniloa's in pretty, pretty good shape right now. The Uncle Billy's is shut down; we're working on a Request For Interest. Country Club is gonna to have to be dealt with along the same lines. I mean, personally I think we should just go ahead, try to get, see if there's private interest in doing that tear-down and rebuild, and if there isn't then it's gonna be a big public responsibility to do that. It's gonna be expensive, but you might as well, you know, start biting away at that elephant too. Because that's—Uncle Billy's gotta come down, Country Club will be in the same shape pretty soon, and those will open up opportunities, but ideally, you would have, you would have a developer that wants to redevelop that site. And then meanwhile, you folks can continue with your envisioning and whether you go through some kind of master planning process or what, and we're here to support, you know, your vision. Page 10 of 21 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency October 25,2017 Minutes DELIMA: You know when we did the conceptual plan, it was envisioned that the Ban—that Uncle Billy's site and the Country Club site would be a motel or timeshare type of, with commercial mixed in it. Is the Request For Interest open or does it just limit it to just a hotel aspect? I'm just, I'm hoping it to be as general as possible so that people who have the interest TSUJI: Yeah, it, we just had the draft come out, literally handed to me before I got on the plane. So I think the concept we were told before we wanted to see another resort, but it can easily be drafted to allow mixed use or any kind of commercial. And then at one point, there was I think before the land map was adopted, there was a prior draft that had like open space along that area as well. DELIMA: Yeah, we changed that, but you know, the thought was that when we had the public comment and discussion, at first there was the thought that, you know, why would anyone want to look at the harbor and the public comment and the discussion at the Agency was that you're looking at the ocean and it's a nice view, and other areas where people have apartments, they would welcome being able to look at the harbor. It's not a bad view; it's actually a nice view when you're next to the ocean. But the thought was that, especially for maybe people who wanna retire, that coming to Hilo to live in a condominium or you know type of development, senior living situation might be of interest because you have—you can walls that area, you know, it's a nice area. And then if you had mixed commercial use, you'll have much better opportunities for people to invest. So it wouldn't just be necessarily to develop a hotel, but to develop something that would lead to be attractive to people who might wanna move here and live here. TSUJI: And we can do that because it'll be a Request For Interest and we can ask. In fact, that was what the draft says right now, to provide us information of your intended use of the property. DELIMA: Because we want, I think we wanted to—we don't want to limit the interest and I know, I know, I'm sorry, I know Mr. Bushor was,you know, he has a working arrangement with Hilton and then Hilton, they have a lot of different classes of hotels, stars of hotel. They have theI forget what they call—the Garden Inn Courtyard is Marriott, I guess, different levels, and then Hilton has a big timeshare component to their portfolio. So I think the more broad we make the request for interest they like the ideaso, I just, that would be my suggestion. And I view the Redevelopment Agency as just a mechanism to facilitate investment in our community. And I think the Mayor's comments, from the first time I've talked to him about the conceptual plan, is that we're not wed to that conceptual plan. We're, we are, I think everyone is interested in what makes sense for the community. And I think the Mayor hits the nail on the head. We want the community to be utilizing and welcoming in terms of that area and at one of the first meetings we talked about like, there really is no playground in Banyan Drive. There really is no activities for teenagers to do in the Banyan Drive area. There is no, someone said, there's no real sports type, other than the golf course, there really is no type of place you can take your family other than to the Reed's Bay Beach, there's no—well Coconut Island; you can run around there, but Anyway, that was some of the comments and I think we're all open to any suggestions. Page 11 of 21 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency October 25,2017 Minutes CASE: Yeah, the way I look at the Request For Interest is it's really a market test. You know, is there somebody out here, out there who's got an idea for something that would make Banyan Drive great and be profitable? Well, let's see. Could be any kind of ideas and, you know, we'll get a better sense after that. YEE: Going off the analogy of the "elephant," I can't help but wear my Planning hat, my comprehensive Planning hat, which is do we really know what that elephant is though, right? I think we're sometimes so close to it we only, we kind of know we have an elephant in front of us, but what is it really, and we've just started to pick on some of it. Some of it is what about kids, what about local folks using the project. When we piecemeal, which I understand the reality, you know, that may have to be the case to get something started, when we piecemeal, we can end up in the situation where we end up developing something and that doesn't end up fitting the entire thing ten years from now, fifteen years from now. And so it goes back to the question of how much time do we want to spend investment into comprehensive planning versus piece- mealing and stuff, and what's that balance? So that's one question. Trying to understand what that elephant is takes resources, and the Planning Department's been, you know, feeding this infant of BDHRA, right for, for a couple of years now, and we were supposed to sunset our support, you know, earlier this year. And it's been really important to us, we know the jam of Banyan Drive so we don't want to just give it up, but at a certain point, we need to understand what resources are gonna help feed the child into the next phase and that's where we're looking at, you know, what is County's role, what is the State's role, you know, in providing the resources to be able to do something. And there were different bills put forth to try to get there. And so I kind of go back to the questions were up on the board, you know, in reality what's gonna get us there? It's still kind of out there that I'm still trying to figure out. KIM: Let me belabor a point ONISHL Go ahead. KIM: I'm sorry, Richard I'm sorry. No, go ahead, please. ONISHL Well, I wanted to address what Mr. Yee just talked about, is, you know, the County went through a process to come up with a picture of a design, but to me the question is, the land belongs to the State. And the State has other priorities and interests in that particular land, unless you're saying "no we don't" then maybe we should be giving it to the County. But right now in our experience in the Legislature, when looking at the bills that move forward, one of the biggest issues that the State brought up, DLNR brought up was, "hey, we get income from this land; you can't take that income away from us," so you know, right Mr. Yee? I mean, what is the picture? What is the State's interest in the property? What is their final goal? You know, what is the County's? You know, and I mean, what is the public's? What is the economic issue with Hilo? I mean, we have very—other than government and the school, there's very little economic opportunity for people. Lot of people see Banyan Drive as an expansion of that economic opportunity, if nothing else, in the tourism industry. You know? Great, you can make the whole area a playground, but that generates no economic opportunity. So, I mean, I would agree with Mr. Yee; there has not been enough discussion of all of the stakeholders as to what we want to see at Banyan Drive. You can't do a development plan without knowing what do you want and how is it gonna affect this community. You know, for years I think many people have looked at how do we generate more new economic opportunity for the people in Hilo on the, for the east Page 12 of 21 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency October 25,2017 Minutes side basically. We see a lot of economic development with the tourism industry with other types of activities related to tourism on the west side, and it's not just because they have beaches; they have places for people to stay. We don't have any place for people to stay whether it's during Merrie Monarch, or any other type of major East Hawaii event, or just for people to come. You know? What we're beginning to see is a lot more prolification [sic] of illegal units throughout the east side because there is no place to stay. So, I mean, we gotta really sit down and say what are we trying to address? That's my thought and, you know, the bill that we introduced was really to come up with a plan as quickly as possible. Granted, you know it's not an EIS process, but it is a process of getting to a plan more specifically for the department because in the end the department is still going to possess the land and try to meet some of the department's goals, which is how they fund their services, not just on this island but throughout the state. That's the direction the bill I introduced was headed. KIM: If I could follow up on it. In discussion with Planning Department, I'm not a planner so if I'm simplifying things because limitation in understanding rules, but I first of all I was just looking at the makai side of Banyan Drivequestion, zone resort? And so what my priority, get Uncle Billy's facility removed, have the State put it out for, you know,request for proposals, the same as Country Club, the same in regards to that private piece of property, which is an acre there. So you have three major parcels on that makai side that is ready for development based on zoning, the State plans. We just want it to complement that in regards to parking area, Reed's Bay. Reed's Bay was always a County park, we just fixed it up. We were lucky and got donation from the County landscape artist to do it for us free of charge. If the State, you know, if there is strong interest in some business coming in on the parking lot area, obviously we'd listen to it. But we have been talking to the, Mr. Z, for the willingness of giving us property across the street which they own all of the golf course for the next 55 years. It's their property and they have plans on what they would like to do [with] it, which is important to me to merge with our total plan of the area. The total plan is to continue the development of needed hotels on that side. And what Mr. Z would like to do is see what happens there and he even talked about if you need park—develop that whole parking area as a park and they will give you the property across the street for your parking. All that kind of discussions taking place. This is just to see what the potentials are. But truthfully, right now what I would like to see is those three major parcels be made available for immediate building, as soon as possible. I'll say something that's not going to be popular with you, but that's okay; you're used to that. Give us all the revenues you get from Banyan Drive and we'll fix it up good. (Laughter) Did you say okay? (Laughter) TSUJI: Take over the lease management and all that too. (Laughter) CASE: Yeah, I mean that's the challenge for us, is because we have to put a whole lot of effort into, you know, Naniloa and others there, and that's what, that's what our job is. The other parcels, I mean, Uncle Billy's is ready. It's ready, it's there. Anybody that wants to take it on; it's there. So is Country Club; really, it's in the same shape. I don't know about the private parcel. Reed's Bay is going to be a while more; I mean it's got, it's got a, it's got some more life in it, but you know, by the time we figure out the rest of it it'll be pretty old too. And we don't have control over the lease right now, so any master plan that, I mean in over the golf course, any master plan that incorporates the golf course has got to, has got to, you know, incorporate the lessee into that. So really, what we have to play with right now is two parcels and a broader concept. So, you know, we might as well find out what anybody's ideas are for those two Page 13 of 21 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency October 25,2017 Minutes parcels starting with Uncle Billy's and, and hope that somebody with an integrated vision is the one that wants to step in with taking that on. KIM: I really believe that if we collectively, we, Ms. Case, expedite the demolition and get our RFPs out, you know for those three parcels, I think we'll be very pleasantly surprised of people willing and waiting to come in. So that's our priority, get those three parcels ready. DELIMA: And I think that the Agency can be a conduit to facilitate the implementation of the developer's interest in that area because that's how it's been done elsewhere. The bottom line is the Memorandum of Understanding has really recognized that this is State land, State leases, the Board has to be involved in it and I don't think there's any disagreement along the lines of the priority of those parcels. Even the development plan, the master conceptual plan that was developed was consistent with those parcels being developed at proposed, and it was done by, the conceptual plan was done by the Planning Department's professional planner so, I think it's well thought-out. It's just that I think there's a recognition that in the long run, those lands are gonna become available in the future and if we're going to need to make amendments to it, that it's possible to make amendments. But for those three parcels that we just talked about, they're all consistent with what the conceptual plan has outlined and proposed. That's a good thing, so anyway. KIM: I wanna make one more small comment on the whole plan for the County and the State, including the State parks. I think you might have read where the County has put this priority, the walkway improvement from pier to the whole area. All I'm trying to do in piecemeal ways is show that I think our planning is for the whole area, including Wailoa State Park, which is State. You know our trail walkways, which is County, and the soccer field, the whole works and not for here but what we're doing in regards to the Farmer's Market, you know, Downtown and elsewhere. And like I said, of the walkway and the roadway improvement for the pier people to have a very nice walk all through Hilo, and I believe of what I said in regards to the makai side. I asked the planners because they're my experts on it. Right now it is zoned for those things, as you say in your recommendation to expand it to make it open to all bidders, and I don't see, as they say, any problem in that. So, Pll say it again, our job and responsibility here, I'm looking at my friend there, carpenters union knows what the County's responsibility is to insure that we do our part in the infrastructure and get it ready for business to come in. And as Ms. Lee Loy said, that's the partnership with the County, I mean, government and private sector our job is to prepare the infrastructure for them so they can come in. DELIMA: I think it's a, I think it's important to recognize that, to be frank, our leaders in our, in the legislature represent. There's Todd, Nakashima, and Onishi have been strong advocates for our community, and of course anything, any resources that we can get in a very difficult legislative—money is scarce and demands are great by myriad of interest groups so, obviously I think the comments that were presented to Onishi that this is State land and that we're looking for investments and support for the department is important and any, we know that they're working hard to try to revitalize our economy, so we appreciate those efforts. And I saw Ms. Lee Loy reaching for the mic so. LEE LOY: Yeah,just because so many of our legislative packages we submitted this year, really only one got through, and the challenge was really getting the support from the Department to really support these initiatives and that's, you know, what was challenging for us. We were Page 14 of 21 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency October 25,2017 Minutes tracking so many of these and what I'm hearing now is there's certain parcels that the Department and the State is willing to move forward on and do the RFIs, but that seems to be very incremental. And so it actually would be a little bit more helpful, you know, if we proposed or got a little bit more guidance that whatever legislative packages we were submitting for our revitalization of that area had bigger buy-in and wasn't subject to just a parcel and then two blank parcels we'll address that later. I think that becomes the challenge for us at the County level because it goes back to the infrastructure. We start planning for, you know, one parcel, we don't know the carrying capacity of that parcel so we can't plan for the water, the sewer, or whatever goes with that, so it gets little challenging and then the cost of that keeps going up, and up, and up. So, I guess I just wanted to hear from the Department is how do we propose a legislative package that is all-encompassing where we still can get the incremental development but know that, you know, as other parcels get ready it fits into, you know, some legislative wiggle. How do we do that? CASE: I guess, I guess it depends on what kind of legislative package you want to put together. I mean, I think we were; I think we were generally okay with—there were a variety of alternatives. I mean, our fundamental obligation is to take the revenue generating parcels and support the work of our department. And that's our statutory charge. And so, those ones that we already have in that, in that, we've already gone through those processes and they're in good shape on Banyan Drive, I would take those out of the equation. Sorry, Mr. Mayor, but from our standpoint that's, that's what we need to do and then look at, look at the whole rest of the peninsula, which is one parcel that's ready for redevelopment, another one that could be, could be right now, also. And a golf course that needs cooperation of the lessee to do it. So whatever the, whatever the master plan is,just needs to take into account the status of all the pieces. There's not, there's not that many pieces; there's you know, half a dozen pieces that make up whatever the master plan is and so we're, we're entirely open to, open to the, you know, the vision that you guys have. ONISHL I just wanted a couple of points of clarification. So in the past, my discussion with the Department was that this master plan developed by the County's agency would still require Board approval. Is that still the case? Or is that your position? CASE: Yeah, I think that for land dispositions that's correct. Yeah. And so what we're saying is we're working closely with you, we would support that to the Land Board. It's a land disposition, but yeah. ONISHL As long as you agree with the plan? CASE: Yeah, but we're very, very broad, open-minded about the plan. ONISHL Okay. I just wanted to clarify that because I've heard other people say, no, this process does not require the Land Board's approval, so. The second thing I wanted clarification is in the RFI, you are requesting for the demolition and development. Now, my concern is that who's going to outline all of the conditions for development that are required? For example, I believe Hawaii County has a height limit on development property. Am I correct? And does Banyan Drive have a different height limit than the rest of the Hilo or the island? Page 15 of 21 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency October 25,2017 Minutes ARAI: Sorry, Daryn Arai, Deputy Director. City of Hilo has a height limit of, I think for resorts zone air is 120 feet. ONISHL Okay, so again, my question to the Department is, as you're developing this RFI, who's going to be providing in this RFI, you know, these types of limitations or issues that the developer would have to consider to do their plan? Or is it going to be left up to the developer to go do his due diligence and go through all of the Depart the County's departments and agencies, and all of the State's departments and agencies to find out what are the requirements and limitations on development of that area near the shoreline? CASE: So, okay. I guess the way this would work be somebody would submit a concept and hopefully would submit it with the current County requirements in mind, but the Redevelopment Agency may have broader powers to allow some flexibility there. So, the way I would imagine it would work is we would put this out there, if we got ideas, they would come and we would share `um with the County, with this agency and review `um. I mean, you know, we're that's the part where we don't want to be in the lead on deciding what's a great idea and what's not. Russell has something to add. ONISHL But okay. But you're eventually gonna be the decision-maker on which proposal to accept. Am I correct? TSUJI: Let me back up. This is a Request For Information, and just to seek out whether there's any interest. It is non-binding and it doesn't give any party any right to anything at all, and it can actually be canceled. It's just to seek out; here's an idea that we had, whether anyone is interested in taking on the actual demolition of the shoreline property and then rebuilding and then, and asking them in specifically what kind of, what kind of terms and conditions or concessions, I should say very frankly, would you need and I would expect them to have their financial plan, possibly at least a conceptual one, that would indicate certain concessions would need to be made, much of which may not be within the authority of the Land Board, but actually within the authority of the County. And that's where my, what we're thinking, is we'd have to work very closely with the Redevelopment Agency who has even broader powers than the County Planning Department, if this body and everyone else was agreeable. ONISHL Okay. DELIMA: Bottom line the board is—the Board has to approve. That's the bottom line. TSUJI: The disposition, yeah. CASE: It's a disposition. DELIMA: Disposition of the land. CASE: If the disposition lease or whatever disposition, that's what we have to approve. DELIMA: The Agency has not been delegated authority to do approval by the Board. The Board, the Land and Natural Resources still has the final authority on State Lands. Page 16 of 21 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency October 25,2017 Minutes CASE: Right, but nobody's going to take a lease unless they've cleared with the County what all can go into their project. That DELIMA: And the Redevelopment Agency can facilitate all the County requirements and factors to implement it as soon as possible. Daryn you can clarify. ARAI: Yeah, thank you, sorry. Lively discussion, sorry forI think I better kind of lay the ground work a little bit. The way I understand it, and if there's lawyers in the room, Amy you're one of them, maybe you can clarify for me, but you know, 53 exists in order to empower a Hawaii Redevelopment Agency. Right? And that's, that power is provided by statute. In designating the blighted status to, to the peninsula, and with the creation of the Agency, and with the statement of understanding provided by DLNR that they will support this initiative, you know I find it awkward that the Agency empowered to redevelopment under statute does not have that ultimate authority and must, in the end, gain Board approval. It's to me, it's counterproductive. I may be wrong, I'm just saying, is because the Agency has the power to enter into contracts, you know secure funding. They have these broad powers, but those powers are also defined by the scope of the master plan that has yet to be developed. We need to take a bite of the trunk of the elephant, I guess; I don't know how it would taste like, but basically it's like the agency can only utilize its powers to implement an approved master plan. We're not there yet. We need to get to the master plan, which is why we've been asking. We need the resources, the funding, in order to prepare the necessary documentation and studies that allows us to develop that master plan. So you can kind of see, and until we get there, in so many ways, and with all due respect to the Agency, you're somewhat powerless, which is why we've been canceling meetings. So that's where I think we need to focus. On what can we do in the interim to give the Agency the opportunity to develop what it needs to stand on and in the interim, the Department will continue to support the Agency as best as it can. CASE: Yeah, if I can just add to that. In a sense we're irrelevant. You know, a developer could come in and they could, they could have an option; typically they maybe would have an option to lease land or they would have an option to purchase or whatever, but the real rubber meets the road in their plan, their development, design, and whether it meets the County, all County requirements and so that's where your master plan and your, your abilities as a redevelopment agency come in. SELF: Part of the power of the Agency, under Chapter 53, is also the ability to purchase land and then they have more power because they control that land and they can sell it, and they—that's part of all of this, but the problem here is that State owns the land. So that takes away a lot of the power from the Agency. So that's the other thing that you're dealing with is it's not Agency's land, it's the DLNR's land or the BLNR's land. CASE: But again, what we're saying is we're cooperating with you. So that's not, it's not like we're a landowner that says, "Sorry go away, we don't want to talk to you,"we're saying, "Here's this piece of land, you know, what's your vision?" TSUJI: And often times when our dispositions, generally, 90 percent of the dispositions is offered by public auction, and it may have a general use—commercial, industrial, business —it doesn't get into the specifics of the actual construction or the height limitations other than being in compliance with law. And a lot of those construction requirements and height limitations and Page 17 of 21 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency October 25,2017 Minutes SMA is all within the power of the County and that's why we're saying, often our commercial leases is do anything that is allowed by law, if it's business or commercial, industrial, whatever. DELIMA: I think it was very helpful that Daryn explained what he explained. And I haven't really looked at the law as it defines master plan, because frankly I was operating on that the belief that the conceptual plan that we adopted, you know, I equated as a master plan. But, because I didn't think that we would have the necessary funds to do the EIS, and I'm not certain what else goes into the defining of a master plan. So the point is if it's going to take all of that to do, and I don't necessarily agree, Daryn, that that's true, I think we need to analyze it. Because quite frankly, if we gotta spend, and sometimes that's what the problem with government, you gotta spend so much money to get to a point to facilitate something that doesn't make really much sense to me. And whether or not we can define what we adopted as a master plan is something that I think we need to evaluate. Which goes back to the, to the, to the point of if we can find someone who's interested, and if there is a person who's interested in developing these parcels, I think we want to interpret the process as friendly and as supportive of capital investment in our community because we know it's not coming from here. So whatever that takes, we should facilitate. Now in the meantime if there is no interests,then there is a perception that our infrastructure or our is not amendable to investment, and I think that's the Mayor's point. Well if they look at our structure and they don't really know how much it's gonna cost, maybe they not gonna pencil it out, but maybe if somebody would take it down, maybe they might be more interested in developing it. And I think we cross that, we cross those bridges when we get there. So I don't want us to beI think Representative Onishi's questions really helped today because it made us have this discussion to understand where are we going. And I think the real crux of the matter is we all want investment in our community. So, I don't think we're too—we really care about who's gonna be in, responsible. I think your points are really well-taken, but at the same time, if they're doing the Request for Proposal and there's an interest and we all think it's a good idea, let's just get it done. Because I think we can all dot the I's and cross the T's as quickly as possible if there's somebody who wants to invest, you know, hundred million, thirty million, fifty million. You know, if it's only ten million maybe we balk a little bit but, but anyway those are my thoughts and I think it's a healthy discussion. To be frank if anybody really wants to say more, let's go around the table and let's try to close up by four o'clock if at all possible. So Representative Onishi, you were asking the smart questions, we'll give you the last chance to talk and then we'll go around the room. You have anything more you want to say? ONISHL Well, I appreciate the Planning Department for organizing this. I think it was helpful. We're going into session. You know the discussion needs to be expedited though. If we're looking at trying to accomplish legislatively anything, this discussion needs to be sped up a lot because we got two months, you know, before we gotta start writing bills and trying to figure out strategies on what to move forward. So, you know, I mean I understand DLNR's request is give us money to tear down Uncle Billy's, well, give us a number. You know? I guess County, you know, we wanna go through this planning process, well you know, I don't know if we would have support to give you guys money to go through this planning process, which you know, may or may not fit with all of what DLNR wants because I don't know how active DLNR was in this process of developing your draft plan. Because, you know, obviously they might not get any more money than what they have now, so that may not fit into their long-term goals and schemes. But again, if we're gonna move this thing forward, let's speed it up a little bit. We can't be having one meeting a month. You know? Thank you, Brian. Page 18 of 21 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency October 25,2017 Minutes DELIMA: Thank you. Representative Nakashima? NAKASHIMA: Thank you very much. I think that, I'm glad that this meeting has occurred and hopefully I share Representative Onishi's concern that yeah, we kind of move this along much quicker. I've been in office for almost ten years and all ten of those years have been, there's been some kind of Banyan Drive bill in the hopper and so I think that yeah, we would like to see it move along deliberately and get to some conclusion fairly in short order. I think that the conceptual plan that I've seen is promising and, I guess you know, where we're going to go from there is, is something that we need to discuss and what I kind of think also is necessary is kind of some greater intergovernmental coordination with regard to what, what, where we're going to go and how we're going to get there. And so I look forward to continued discussion at a much quicker pace. Thank you. DELIMA: Chair Case, do you want to say anything in conclusion? CASE: You know, the, the most important thing to happen next is to tear down Uncle Billy's, and so how we do that, I mean this is chipping away at the old stuff and getting the, you know, new stuff up so. We got couple of good hotels now. They're—we have a golf course that maybe is suitable for something else, but then again it's gotta be a project with the lessee. But the most important thing is to tear down that building and then there's opportunities. So the best thing would be is if there's a private investor, otherwise we're gonna have to, it's not gonna be cheap, it's gonna be expensive to do that, but just doing that would be a great improvement, the next great improvement on Banyan Drive from a structural standpoint. DELIMA: Russell you wanna say anything? Director? YEE: You know as a realist I, I'd hope that yes, that there's private investment and it goes easy for us and there's an easy answer. I think I always worry about their, the typically life never comes that easy especially during these economic times where the easy answer is gonna come. And that's where I worry a little bit about if, if we don't get folks submitting, you know, and RFI, you know, then what? And, you know, then I can go back to this is gonna have to be kind of a P-3,public/private partnership and that's going to take investments on everybody's part and we can't expect the other party to do it. I just don't see how we're going to do without it, but I guess we'll address that when we get to that bridge. KIM: First of all, Ms. Case, thank you. The cooperation, the word cooperation doesn't seem quite adequate—assistance given to us, us meaning County government by the State, to me is, I've said it to many people, I can't ask for more. I know this, I'm not trying to pacify our impatience here because I am impatient, but you know, what the State park is doing—look at the harbors, the improvement of the harbors. The complements of that, the sidewalk, look at the private sector of the Rotary Club for Kuhio Park donation in regards to the architect who fixed Reed's Bay. The State giving us that land for parking and clean it. I think there are, when they came up with the idea regards to Uncle Billy's as to what kind of partnership to expedite those buildings and have them demolished, naturally as always, asbestos is a huge problem for costs. But I'm very satisfied; I know this sounds odd coming from me especially, but I'm very satisfied with the pace we're going now in regards to trying to get . I cannot tell you that numerous meetings we'd had with Mr. Z and conversations with the State on how we can do . My only Page 19 of 21 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency October 25,2017 Minutes complaint is I really feel that it is possible for County and State, and that with this, to look at how we can help each other take care of the whole place. Everything is money and I know it's a revenue source, but you know, we'll promise every dollar you give us on that we'll put it right back to Banyan Drive; it's not to feed or coffee or anything like that. And I think we can, should have some room to discuss that anyway. But I do thank you, Ms. Case, for allI remember that Saturday call in regards to Uncle Billy's, and those are the things that the public should know. You should know all their assistance to us. DELIMA: Nathan? GADDIS: Yeah, sure, real briefly. Yeah, Planning Director mentioned, you know, the need for long-term planning and some long-term vision and I think two things really are just having to happen in concert right now, which is there is a short-term opportunity actually because of current economic conditions, interest rates, everything. Momentum is there for investors and people to come in and do something with the properties; momentum that wouldn't have been there five years, six years ago, when we were struggling with Naniloa and the bankruptcies there. We actually, I think, we're going to have more private market demand on that side than we did even a few years ago. So the timing is good there, and I certainly wouldn't do anything to hamstring that effort. What I'd like to see would be something simultaneous in concert to memorialize that, and at the same time hopefully memorialize and fund the long-term planning process and hopefully get something in writing, or something concrete, that can all happen at once to allow both of those things to happen in concert, you know? Discussions over who has authority over what, who does this, who does that, if you get bogged down in the weeds with that too early on I think it can just freeze up the process. That can always happen down the line at some point, but there's a definite opportunity afoot right now that should be exploited, and at the same time hopefully we can have something that can memorialize the long-term planning effort and funded so that everything can keep moving forward, short and long-term. DELIMA: That was good. And I think we can put all those things on our next agenda, which would essentially be a matter of what we can ask the Legislature to assist in terms of the cost of maintenance, the cost of the demolition, and the cost of the master plan. So we could put those matters on our next agenda, and our next meeting would be the last Wednesday in November. And then we can get that to the Legislature by the end of November, as well as the County Council. And I really appreciate everybody coming today and I think that the questions that were asked, the comments that were made really allow us to see what we need to do and how we can work together. So with that I just need a motion to approve the minutes. YEE: Did Sue, did you want to say DELIMA: Oh, I'm sorry. I kept pointing to Sue but I forgot toSue go ahead. LEE LOY: Real quick, I just wanna point out last budget cycle, Mayor, I submitted a budget amendment for, I believe, $280,000.00 to the Planning Department and this agency alone. It didn't pass, so maybe in our next budget cycle you would give some real serious consideration to funding this agency so we can really see the economic opportunities, the capital investment, and the return on investment for this area. It really is a gem for Hilo. DELIMA: Thank you, Sue. Okay, so that was a good last word. Page 20 of 21 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency October 25,2017 Minutes At this time Chairman DeLima directed the Agency to the agenda item Administrative Matters. ADMINISTRATIVE MATTERS 1. Approval of minutes from the May 31, 2017, Banyan Drive Hawai`i Redevelopment Agency meeting. DELIMA: So I need, chair needs a motion to approve the minutes as circulated. ZANE: (raises hand) DELIMA: Moved. GADDIS: (raises hand) DELIMA: Second by Nathan. Any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Opposed say nay. Motion is carried. We already introduced Nathan. So we can adjourn the meeting if there's no objection. Seeing none, meeting is so adjourned. Thank you. Thank you all for coming. Meeting adjourned at 3:43 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Kim L. Tanaka, Secretary ATTEST : Brian DeLima, Chairperson Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency Page 21 of 21 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency October 25,2017 Minutes