HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017-11-29 BDHRA Minutes BANYAN DRIVE HAWAII REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY
COUNTY OF HAWAII
MINUTES
November 29, 2017
The Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency met at 2:10 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 Elmer Gorospe
MEMBERS ABSENT & EXCUSED: Barry Taniguchi and Sigmund Zane
ALSO PRESENT: 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, and Planning Department staff
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 the present time we have the opportunity for people to give statements from the
public. Are there any statements from the public? Seeing none we'll move to our next agenda
item which is the Business of the Agency.
BUSINESS OF AGENCY
1. Follow up discussion to the Banyan Drive Hawai`i Redevelopment Agency's (BDHRA) meeting of
October 25, 2017, 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: Who'd like to do this presentation?
ARAI: Hi Chair DeLima, members of the Agency. From the last meeting what precipitated out
of that was,part of is, the General Plan presentation that you're going to be hearing now as
agenda item number two. Also, there was a meeting this morning at the Mayor's office where
Chair Case from Department of Land and Natural Resources was also in attendance. In that
meeting basically, it was just discussing opportunities that may exist out for the Banyan Drive
peninsula area, the status of where things lay currently with the Banyan Drive Hawaii
Redevelopment Agency. We discussed the nature of the concept map that was approved by the
Agency last year, discussed possible opportunities for continued support of the Agency going
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forward, as well as potential activities before the Board of Land and Natural Resources as far as
the disposition of specific properties along Banyan Drive. At this time, I think what we can
probably share with you is there's continuing interest on certain properties along Banyan Drive
and understanding also that a number of the properties like Country Club and Reed's bay are on
month-to-month. Did I say that correctly?
CASE: Yeah, yup.
ARAI: Our month-to-month revocable lease with the Board.
CASE: Revocable permit.
ARAI: Permit, I'm sorry. So again understanding that, understanding also what was brought up
as well was considerations of things like sea-level rise into part of the planning process, how we
as a department and as an agency felt that in order to move certain initiatives forward for the
Agency that it was largely dependent on the crafting of a master plan. And that master plan
would have to be, would have to precipitate out of the development of an Environmental Impact
Statement. The basic approach was that—develop the concept map that would be like the seed,
the starting point from which we build the necessary studies that would then support the
development of an Environmental Impact Statement. That process alone would provide for
disclosure and review and comment by the general public as well as affected agencies, and that
would help guide and craft and refine, ultimately, the master plan that would eventually need to
be presented before the Windward Planning Commission and then with ultimate the adoption by
the Hawaii County Council. And I would imagine that it would need to include some sort of
sanctioning process before the Board of Land and Natural Resources. So until all of that
happens, the Agency can't really move forward with any specific initiatives to implement
because what the master plan is what defines how and what you implement. So the absence of
that master plan—it's hard for the Agency by and of itself to take any specific action. So that
was part of the discussion that was had this morning, not necessarily saying that we have
answers for all of you as agency members, but to let you know that there is a process that is
defined. How that process is going to play into how things move forward is not yet crystal clear,
but one understanding is that Banyan Drive does have existing entitlements. It is zoned
for—portions of it is zoned for resort type of uses, the entire area, the entire peninsula, is
designated urban by the State Land Use Commission. So there are, the State and its lessees can
take advantage of those existing entitlements to the extent allowed by law. So that's kind of
where things lay at the moment and if Chair Case had anything to say
CASE: Sure. Great, thank you. Just to follow up on that; the State—we have authority from the
Board of Land and Natural Resources to move forward on a Request for Interest on the Uncle
Billy's parcel, and we're finalizing that now. Hope to get it out probably like January-ish and so
that would be, whatever the result of that would be information that would be appropriate for us
to bring back to the Agency. And we're also looking at what to do similarly on Country Club
cause sooner or later, maybe sooner, we're gonna have, we're gonna be in the same position on
that. So I think that from our standpoint, we need to do those things in order for you to be able to
move forward so we're working on those now.
DELIMA: Is it possible for the Request for Interest to include the Country Club parcel as well?
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CASE: Yeah, we'll, we'll look at that. We
DELIMA: The thought being if you made it broad
CASE: Yeah, yeah.
DELIMA: —and then if people were only interested—you know, I haven't written a Request for
Interest before, but I would tend to think that you could include that as part of a person's interest,
entity's interest, and then suggest that they can even indicate whether they are interested in all,
some, or
CASE: Yeah, we can look at that. We, right now we have authority from, for the Uncle Billy's
so we might want to go back to the Land Board if we're gonna do that, and so if we could do that
without significant delay, we probably could try to combine them. If it's going to take a lot
longer, then we wouldn't want to hold up the Uncle Billy's one, but probably people could say,
"I'm interested in Uncle Billy's and this," and you know, we'd at least get information that way.
So, we'll look to see if we could add that to it and if not we'll go ahead with Uncle Billy's and
while we're reviewing Country Club as well.
DELIMA: And then in terms of the Agency, I really don't have a quarrel with what you've kind
of outlined, Mr. Arai, regarding the process. But from my view, be consistent with what you've
presented. If our conceptual plan for a number of the parcels is consistent with the entitlements
that exist at the present time, then why can't we as an agency adopt a master plan for those
parcels that are consistent with our conceptual plan? In other words, if you're not gonna—we
don't need a EIS if you're gonna continue to have the same footprint, the same structures. That
would at least empower the Agency to facilitate and take action for maybe some short-term
solutions to facilitate investment in improving parcels that are blighted. Because if we have to
wait for further EIS's to do what is already entitled, the—it may handcuff the Agency. And then
for the more comprehensive review, there would be that aspect of the master in other words we
would have master plan A, existing entitlements consistent with our, with the conceptual plan,
and then we would commission whatever studies, whatever monies would be available for
master plan component B, which is areas that have not been entitled. All I'm trying to do is
think a little bit out of the blocks [sic] so we can facilitate investment rather than us
become—right now we don't have any, we're not—we're not of any help. But if we can adopt a
master plan in a way for us to have the areas that are already entitled that's consistent with its
present use, then I think we can all utilize whatever mechanisms there exists to facilitate
investment. So that would be my suggestion. If you guys can maybe think about that and maybe
we can revisit that at our next meeting where we know what the request for interest is. Of course
if nobody's interested, then we got all the time in the world. But if there is an interest to invest,
then we should try to facilitate with the powers of the Agency and find a way to make it work.
That's one person's view of what we could possibly do. And then we can have our able lawyer
find a way to do it. Does anybody have any other comments about that matter? Okay.
So we'll move to the update from the Long Range Planning Division regarding the
comprehensive review of the County of Hawaii General Plan.
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2. Update from the Long Range Planning Division regarding the comprehensive review of the
County of Hawai`i General Plan.
SANTIAGO: Hi, good afternoon everyone. Mahalo. My name's Hans Santiago, I work with
the Planning Department, Long Range Division. I also want to introduce April Surprenant who's
the Long Range Division Manager, and Bethany Morrison who's the Senior Planner. Thank you
for letting us come here and talk about the General Plan update.
The Planning Department has been working on this update to the General Plan since February of
2015. So we'll go through the process that we've been using to do the update and if you have
any questions at any time, please, let me know.
So the current General Plan, it sets forth the long range policy for the physical, economic,
environmental, and social cultural well-being for the entire island. It's kind of our overarching
planning document. It's mandated by HRS and by the County Charter. And it establishes the
County policy and prioritizes implementation actions that are needed to achieve long-term goals.
In order to ensure that the purpose of the General Plan is carried out, the County Charter requires
that we update this plan and that all public improvements, projects and land use be consistent
with the General Plan. The General Plan provides opportunity to map out our island's future and
to help us address our challenges and establish our needs and priorities.
As you can see from this diagram, our process has been quite involved; it's an involved process
and many tiered. So as I said, that the County Charter requires that we update the General Plan
every ten years and this is kind of the multi-faceted approach that we took to begin the update. I
know this diagram might be a little confusing, but we, as part of the process we looked at trends
and forecasts. We also looked at all current community development plans, any type of
functional plans, any private plans, transportation plans. We also looked at current policy review
and we had a bunch of staff looking at different types of topics that are required by charter to be
a part of the General Plan process and we also did something called scenario planning where we
inputted a bunch of data into a GIS platform, and we did some scenario planning, what if we,
what if we protected all the ag land in the county, what would that mean for future projected
trend growth in certain areas and so forth. So we were able to do several different types of
scenarios and see how that would affect what was projected trend and we're in the process of
developing what we call a preferred scenario, which would then inform us going forward in our
proposed goals, objectives, policies, and actions in the plan itself, so many tiered. We're getting
towards the end point where we're starting to put together recommendations and we're finalizing
the public output input, excuse me.
So we pretty much broke down the process into five different phases and we're ending
the—we're in the fall/winter of 2017. We're starting to work on, on recommendations and we're
closing out our stakeholder engagement, public input process, although we are accepting public
input. We're getting towards the state where we're putting our recommendations together based
on our scenario planning, the public input we've already received, and the topic research that
staff has been doing.
So our current General Plan—this is a diagram from the plan itselfas I mentioned, the General
Plan is the overarching highest order or umbrella plan that the County uses that all land use
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policies and decisions should tie into, be consistent with. And so that's the highest order in the
first tier of planning itself. So in this flow chart or diagram, the second level would consist of
short and middle-range plans and that would be like community development plans, functional
plans, and this is kind of where a BDHRA or Banyan Drive master planning effort would be.
And those plans then inform what we do with our operating budget, our capital improvement
budgets, and any kind of changes we may do to county codes and rules and so forth.
So as many of you may know that the current General Plan is divided into thirteen topics. Those
topics, as I said, were the topic research that staff has been doing for the update. Each section
currently is divided into goals, policies, and standards. And in the current General Plan, there are
some regional recommendations and just to remind everyone, this plan was adopted before
CDP's came into existence, so it may have quite a bit of regional specificities where now some
of the CDP's may reiterate that or provide additional information. And it currently has a land
use pattern allocation guide map, or what we call the LUPAG map, which defines preferred
future land use in the County. So with the new or updated General Plan, we hope to clarify some
of the goals, objectives, and what we're calling policies and actions. So goals are really the big
picture or vision statement of what we're aspiring to. You know it might be something like the
County shall provide alternate modal opportunities for people of all ages and abilities. It's a real
broad kind of vision statement, so . Objectives, they're the yardsticks to evaluate the progress
towards implementing our goals. It usually is a specific end product and the intended impact we
want to see, so in that same regards an example might be we wanna increase the amount of
sidewalks by 30 percent within 10 years, or something of that effect to improve walkability. And
then we have policy statements. Policy statements contain measureable, finite actions that are
strategically linked to the broader objectives, so an example might be a minimum of five foot
sidewalks in urban areas or when new roadways are built, so, creating policy that would then
implement goals and objectives. And then we have what we call actions. It's the doing of
something, usually over a period of time or in stages or with the possibility of repetition. An
example of that might be, let's see, well wea simple action might be just requiring the
Department of Public Works to change the code so that the sidewalks are required. So that's an
action that the Department of Public Works at the County would have to take. So you could
define those steps within the General Plan itself.
So here we are; how can the General Plan help in regards to the BDHRA or in general? It is the
regulatory framework for the regional village and functional plans. It can outline the broad goals
and objectives. It could define future land use, it could define regulatory changes necessary to
support preferred land uses, it could define capital improvements that support goals and
objectives, and it could advocate for actions outside the jurisdiction of the County. So an
example would be an improvement on a state highway where we're requesting that the State
make some improvements. That would be advocacy.
So here's the conceptual plan that was adopted by the commission here. And we're here to ask
you for any kind of additional feedback that can help inform our General Plan recommendations
going forward. So what we're looking for is broad goals and objectives that can help guide our
potential policies and actions. We're looking for any kind of critical infrastructure
recommendations that you would have that could help us support our goals and objectives, and
we're also looking for opportunities that you could outline for us on how we could have better
agency cooperation or coordination, and really we're interested in any kind of potential barriers
that you feel that there may be to fulfill our goals and objectives. So, that's kind of the end of
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the presentation and we were hoping that this would, you know, invite conversation on some of
the things that we had bulleted here.
DELIMA: Okay, any comments or questions? You want to say something?
ARAI: Sure. So we do have an opportunity here, I mean again as Hans mentioned, we're sort of
looking at that forward thinking, broad approach type of ideas that could kind of guide us. Like
what, tell us, what should we be thinking about in order to support the mandates that's been
placed upon the agency. You know, having Chair Case in the room as well, by all means, you
can give us your State perspective if you have any. You know, we already hit the third bullet,
opportunities for agency cooperation and coordination; I think we've already demonstrated that
in the past year. So again, if there's anything, any thoughts, it doesn't have to occur at this
meeting; if you need more time to kind of consider it, think about it, feel free to reach out to
myself or to Luke and send us an email with your thoughts. Right now it's just .
DELIMA: Okay, Nathan you wanted to
GADDIS: Yeah, I guess (inaudible). Since we have we have someone from DLNR here, and a
good person here, you know we had talked the last time about you know, funding challenges
when it comes to getting an EIS done, for instance. And I've talked to various people about this
but since you're here, it's good to ask you as well, what's the—is there a hang up if you were to
have some sort of a private funding source or something like that? You know, having one
commission from an outside group; would that be something that would be useable within in the
County, or would you need to have a whole other one done that originates from within the
County government.
ARAI: Because the EIS that we were contemplating is something we're building on behalf of
the Agency, therefore in so many respects the County is going to be the accepting authority.
Which means, and you know, keep an eye on me Luke because I'm flying by the seat of my
pants right now, but you know, I think whether it's funded, I know anything that's done or gifted
on behalf of the County has to be accepted by the County Council, right, I would think. I'm not
sure if what you're saying is that a private entity can go, or entities, can go ahead and fund and
develop an EIS on behalf of the Agency slash County
GADDIS: Correct, yeah.
ARAI: —and then somehow we interact with that process to make sure that what's being crafted
and developed is in alignment with what the agency wants, which means we'd have to bring it
forth before the body in a hearing. Can that be done, or before all of that can even happen, it's
almost as if it's like a gift to the County so that has to go through the whole council resolution
and acceptance process.
SELF: Yeah, it would have to be approved by the County Council as a donation because it's
actual income to the County.
GADDIS: To the County, right, right.
SELF: But that, I don't see that as a hurdle. I mean, they'd be crazy not to accept it.
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MEAD: So, so I think here one of the things, you know, the trigger for that EIS is largely gonna
be the use of State or County lands or use of State or County funds, right? So, the use of the
State lands in this case would trigger an Environmental Assessment, be it an EA, be it an EIS,
right? And anyone can come in and propose use on State lands and do an EA. The County in
this case actually, probably, I'm assuming could be the Land Board even would be depending on
the because it would be, it's kind of a lot of State lands, could be the accepting authority on a
EA or EIS, right, I think the Governor's the accepting authority on EIS on State lands. The
County for Planning would probably be the accepting authority on EA or EIS for our lands. But
I think anyone can do—can propose a use, we would say that the trigger—you've hit a trigger for
an EA and EIS, satisfy that requirement and then that document goes through the, through that
process. That's kind of my understanding because I know we've had situations in where a
private developer was also using —trying—proposing a use that encumbers a portion of a State
property like a highway right of way. And they do the EA and the body will accept it but the
trigger there was a use of State lands and they satisfied the Environmental Assessment
requirement.
GADDIS: So any (inaudible) via non-profit or something like that could do the same as long as
it triggered
CHASE: I think it's also—probably depends on whether you're doing an EA for environmental
review for the whole, a whole plan or whether it's a project proponent doing it for something
that's already part of a redevelopment plan already entitled
GADDIS: Yeah, that was my question; was more generally speaking, not project specific. It
would be more—something in alignment with this but more for the whole peninsula.
ARAI: So Chair Case, for individual lessees on Banyan Drive, if they were to propose a specific
use on a specific parcel of land, the obligation to self-finance and develop the EIS is on the
lessee andright, and the Board will simply accept the EIS as in compliance.
CASE: Yep.
ARAI: They'll be the accepting authority? Okay. So yeah, so there's two different ways, which
occurs now, which is parcel specific but if it's something that's under the initiative of something
broader like what the Agency is mandated to then there may be opportunities, it's just that we
have to be careful and have it accepted as a donation.
DELIMA: Okay so going back to the General Plan review process, you have any further
comments?
GADDIS: No.
DELIMA: Okay so, I want to highlight a couple of things. First of all I think it's important for
the General Plan review to understand the metamorphosis of our agency conceptual plan, and
I'm sure it's all within your records, but initially the proposal was to have those condominiums
that are, as you face the map on the right-hand side it would be the Country Club, the I forgot,
Reeds Bay, and there's the one—Bay View. Okay so that was going to be proposed as open
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space initially. And the Agency determined that the best use for those spaces should be to
maintain the present uses because it was the belief, contrary to the recommendation of the initial
conceptual plan, that there would be interest in having such structures next to the ocean in view
of the harbor, and that we wanted to maintain that capacity as continuing use of it. The
conceptual plan maintains the existing condominium uses for that area. Now on the other hand,
I'm not certain what we did with the Orchid Isle, the old Orchid Isle Hotel parcel, but there
appears to be some public interest in having that continued to be an expanded park area. Now, in
terms of the General Plan, the agency proposed commercial areas that were near the Suisan as
well as along the Kalaniana`ole Highway area and along the, that area going towards the park
area in the golf course section. Recognizing full well that that area is under present lease with
the Naniloa, but I think that if someway somewhere—how we could find a way to make it a win-
win for everyone in order to maybe develop more parking or have other uses. But in concept, I
think the idea is that if we could get the existing structures, the Billy, Uncle Billy parcel, the
Country Club parcels, to be more productive and positive, then that may spur further interest and
development in the commercial sites. Now I think the real concern, and I think that deals with
Mr. Bockrath's property is the Ice House because that structure—no offense Mr. Bockrath, is
that that structure, because of its present, I believe, open zoning, I think it's open—it's zoned; the
General Plan at present I believe it's open, huh?
ARAI: Yeah, my recollection is it's open. I think even the zoning is open.
DELIMA: Okay. Yeah, so under the General Plan what we've suggested is become
commercial. Under our conceptual plan.
ARAI: Oh, on the conceptual plan you've indicated as commercial, that's correct.
DELIMA: Now I think the reason the Agency did that was to give the, was to allow the private
land owner to have useful—the ability to invest and make that property more viable to, so it
doesn't become an eyesore for that area. Because if you don't, if you don't, General Plan amend
it and zone it to be economically viable, then it'll continue to deteriorate and become an eyesore
in the area unless the County's gonna condemn it, which doesn't appear that there's the
resources. It's not on the list of public acquisition properties. So we should give the land owner
the ability to make it economically viable. And I think the same concept was also earmarked for
the HELCO property. So right now it's a, they have a dormant electronic, energy generation
plant that's not operating. So that's another eyesore. So we, I think we conceptually planned it
for commercial properties. So I think those are the General Plan amendments that the Agency
has supported, and I think for good reason, it's supported those measures. That's the reason
we've kind of indicated in the past that we need General Plan amendments to effectuate that
aspect of the conceptual plan.
ARAI: And being that it's still conceptual, being that it could still, it will evolve as we go
through the review processes, the Environmental Impact Statement process, I gather, and I don't
want to put too many words in your mouth, but I gather that the Agency is looking at making
sure that the General Plan builds in enough adequate flexibility.
DELIMA: That'd be great. I don't think this would be inconsistent because I think as the
Agency and as the Mayor has indicated, that we need to be flexible in meeting interests of the
community, whether it be interest in recreation opportunities or interest in investment
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opportunities, we need to be maximize flexibility. The good thing about those private parcels,
the HELCO and the Ice House, is that any endeavors to develop those properties would be the
responsibility of those private land owners, and we wouldn't be contributing to an EIS to
effectuate that because they are limited to their own footprint as well. I think the real, the EIS
goes more in terms of I'm just talking out loud here, but to me, it really is, if you're going to
develop any major structures on the golf course, I think that would require a significant EIS. But
all the rest of the hotel sites, etcetera, I don't see the need for a because it's not a change of use.
But to change the open area and maybe build a structure, that might trigger a need for an EIS.
ARAI: Yeah, it's a matter of scale.
DELIMA: Right.
ARAI: And scope, right, I mean, there's certain things if it's relegated to repair and
maintenance, whatever, that yeah, there are exemption provisions. But depending on what
you're doing, if you wanted to go higher, bigger, longer, wider, you know then there—it could
be subject to. We just have to determine whether or not
DELIMA: That's why I kind of am—in my initial comments today I'm, I want us to be realistic
in how we try to address the concept of a master plan. Because if the request for interest is
limited to the area that the Department is going to focus upon, then perhaps we can call that
master plan area"A" and then incrementally increase, depending upon the availability of funds
and interest. Anyway, I talked enough today. Does anyone have any other questions or
comments? Okay, go ahead Daryn.
ARAI: So, and again, as anybody in attendance as well, if you have any suggestions, comments,
you know, by all means feel free to send them to me or Lucas and we'll pass it on to the team
that's working on the General Plan. There you go, that's our contact information. Mahalo.
DELIMA: I appreciate everybody's comments today, and then again, our next matter was to
approve of the minutes.
ADMINISTRATIVE MATTERS
1. Approval of minutes from the October 25, 2017, Banyan Drive Hawai`i Redevelopment
Agency meeting.
DELIMA: Can I have a motion to approve the minutes as circulated? I guess Elmer, you have
to make a motion.
GOROSPE: Yeah, move to accept.
DELIMA: Nathan can you second it.
GADDIS: Yeah, I'll second.
DELIMA: Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say aye.
ALL: Aye.
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DELIMA: Opposed say nay. Motion is carried.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
1. Next meeting date.
DELIMA: In terms of our next meeting, I think we can—we may not have quorum for the end
of the, December meeting, so the next meeting will be the end of January and perhaps by then
we'll be able to see the Request for Interest and then try to figure out where we can go from
there, and then maybe we can have maybe some reflection on what our options are to, to give us
some mechanism and I'll yield to Chair Case.
CASE: Yeah, I think we're hoping to issue it in January, so I don't know if you wanna wait until
we're, we have the results back.
DELIMA: Well, we can, we can read it, talk story. I was hoping that, you know, we didn't
agendize this so we can't really discuss it, but I was going to mention that the Legislative session
starts in January and I was going to mention to Mr. Onishi that we perhaps could get some
money. I mean if they could get an appropriation to give us some money to do a master plan that
would be great, but I wouldn't hold our breath. Okay, anything more? Otherwise we can
adjourn. Seeing no further interest or comment, we stand adjourned. Thank you very much
everyone for coming.
Meeting adjourned at 2:50 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Kim L. Tanaka, Secretary
ATTEST :
Brian DeLima, Chairperson
Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency
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