HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018-07-16 NKCDP Minutes DraftHarry Kim
Mayor
County of Hawaii
PLANNING DEPARTMENT
Michael Yee
Director
Daryn Arai
Deputy Director
NORTH KOHALA COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PLAN ACTION COMMITTEE
Aupuni Center • 101 Pauahi Street, Suite 3 • Hilo, Hawaii 96720
Phone (808) 961-8288 • Fax (808) 961-8742
1 Monday, July 16, 2018
2 Draft Meeting Minutes
3
4 CALL TO ORDER
5 Chair, Steve Hoffmann, called the North Kohala Community Development Plan (NKCDP) Action
6 Committee (AC) to order at 5:01 P.M. in the Hisaoka Gym Conference Room.
7 ROLL CALL
8 Action Committee Members Present: Steve Hoffmann (Chair), Lehua Ah Sam, Richard Elliott, Jeff
9 Coakley, Jack Olson
10 Action Committee Members Absent -Excused: Keone Emeliano (Vice), Benjamin Ney, Jack Hoyt, Beverly
11 Blake
12 Staff: CoH Planners: LeAna Gloor, Eric Cook, and Kamuela Plunkett
13 Members of the public: 10 Members of the public were in attendance.
14 ADDITIONS TO THE AGENDA: None.
15 ANNOUNCEMENTS: V�
16 1. Kamuela Plunkett, the newest member of the Long Range Planning team, introduced himself
17 to the Action Committee.
18 2. Chair Hoffmann announced the resignation of Action Committee Member Beverly Blake. Mr.
19 Hoffmann encouraged the Action Committee Members to submit any suggestions they have
20 for potential candidates to fill Ms. Blake's seat on the Action Committee.
21 3. Ms. Gloor made a reminder announcement that no political campaigning is allowed at County
22 sanctioned meetings. To view the Corporation Counsel memorandum regarding political
23 campaign restrictions please use the following link:
24 http://records.hawaiicountV.gov/Weblink/1/doc/95557/Pagel.aspx
25 PUBLIC COMMENT ON AGENDA ITEMS:
26 There was no testimony given from members of the public.
27 APPROVAL OF MINUTES:
28 Committee Member Richard Elliott moved to approve the minutes of the May 21, 2018 meeting, as
29 submitted. Second by Committee Member Jack Olson. The motion to approve the minutes as submitted
30 passed with 5 votes aye, 0 votes nay.
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31 REPORTS AND OTHER PRESENTATIONS:
32
33 Community Partner Group Reports:
34
35 Comm. No. 2018-20 NK Community Access Group Notes 5/2 & 6/6:
36 Group Member, Toni Withington, provided a summary of the recent progress of the
37 Community Access group from their May and June meetings. Ms. Withington stated that the
38 state legislature did not grant the funds for health and safety engineering study at the Pololu
39 lookout. The first steps have been taken to purchase the Hapu'u — Kapanaia property with open
40 space funds. Honoipu and Kaupalaoa were added to the public access open space priority list.
41
42 Comm. No. 2018-20 NK Community Access Group Notes 5/2 and 5/6:
43 http://records.hawaiicountV.gov/Weblink/1/doc/94074/Pagel.aspx
44
45 Power, View planes, and Erosion Control Group: Group member, Susan Fischer, announced that
46 the group is currently in the process of organizing, and that they would be discussing priorities
47 and steps to move the group forward at the next meeting on August 30th. The tentative group
48 meeting schedule is the last Thursday of each month.
49
50 Parks, Water, and Roads Group: Group member, Toni Withington, stated that the group is still
51 focusing on the development of the Pratt Road emergency bypass. Mr. Coakley announced
52 there was a successful community effort to clean up Pratt Road on July 7th
53
54 Growth Management Group: Group member, Richard Elliott, stated that there have not been
55 any recent applications to review. Mr. Elliott stated that the group had recently discussed a
56 DLNR quick claim for Kynnersley Road as well as a possible transfer of 6,500 acres of leased
57 land to the Department of Agriculture for preservation and access to historic sites.
58
59 Agriculture Group: Group member, Jack Olson, stated that the group met with the Board of
60 Hawai'i Farmers Union United and discussed agricultural implications within the North Kohala
61 CDP and related cultural issues.
62
63 BUSINESS:
64 1. Discussion of the 'Welcome to North Kohala brochure': Mr. Hoffmann stated that Beverly Blake,
65 who was leading the project had resigned from the committee. He asked for a volunteer on the
66 Action Committee to take the lead on the project. Committee Member Ah Sam volunteered to
67 take the lead on the project moving forward. Committee Member Coakley asked who the
68 target audience is for this brochure. Chair Hoffmann stated the target audience is people who
69 are thinking of moving to North Kohala as well as builders and contractors. Ms. Ah Sam added
70 that the brochure also serves as good platform to inform visitors and newcomers about the
71 character of the North Kohala community.
72 2. CDP priority matrix exercise: Ms. Gloor introduced the priority setting matrix exercise to the
73 Action Committee. The Action Committee was asked to submit three -to -five preliminary
74 priorities from the CDP before the meeting. Based on the selections submitted, there were 12
75 top priorities selected. Ms., Gloor announced that the goal of the exercise was to narrow the
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76 list down from 12 to the top 4 priorities for the Action Committee to focus on moving forward.
77 Ms. Gloor explained the exercise specifying that the different strategy categories are important
78 to look at when ranking the top 4 priorities. She clarified that this exercise is to approach
79 prioritization strategically based on what the type of action is, and who the implementer will
80 be. Ms. Gloor suggested that the Action Committee try and choose some priorities that the
81 committee themselves can have a direct role in implementing.
82 Chair Hoffmann asked what the implications are of choosing something as a priority. Ms. Gloor
83 responded that it means the Action Committee is saying they want to take an active role in
84 working on that goal, forming a group that can work on it, or possibly creating a subcommittee
85 to address the goal. Ms. Gloor also clarified that the priorities will be the main focus for the
86 Action Committee but that does not prevent AC members from working on other goals as well.
87 Committee Member Ah Sam proposed to group priorities into overarching themes and then
88 focus on progressing each category or theme. Ms. Ah Sam suggested possibly forming
89 subcommittees to address issues that community groups currently are not addressing.
90 The Action Committee discussed topics they believed were most important or relevant to the
91 North Kohala CDP. Steve Hoffmann and Richard Elliot commented on the urgent need for
92 affordable housing. Jack Olson stated that he believes affordable housing is crucial for
93 economic development and provides work force housing. Jeff Coakley stated that he would like
94 to see more creative collaborative efforts between the Action Committee and the community
95 to make some real progress on projects. He also stated that he believes affordable housing to
96 be the number one priority. Affordable housing was decided to be the first theme. Ms. Ah Sam
97 suggested that affordable housing be broken into subsections, i.g. agricultural housing and
98 family housing. Ms. Ah Sam proposed infrastructure and community facilities to be the second
99 theme with the top infrastructure priority being water. The priority is to increase water sources
100 either through wells or allowing water tanks and catchment systems.
101 Agriculture was discussed. Ms. Ah Sam suggested the formation of an agricultural
102 subcommittee to investigate the current state of agriculture in the community and what the
103 agricultural needs are within the community. She also suggested allowing the community to
104 define what agriculture means to the community and what is feasible for agriculture in North
105 Kohala, and then using that input from the community to inform a plan to preserve and further
106 agricultural pursuits within the community. Ms. Ah Sam stated that maintenance of parks is an
107 important issue to address that would fall under the infrastructure category.
108 Ms. Gloor suggested that the Action Committee should try to find ways to collaborate with
109 private entities. She stated that one of the gaps identified is that the County department lacks
110 grant writers. Grants are a tool that the County is not currently using effectively and this is a
111 possible tool to address the lack of funding. Mr. Coakley suggested that the Action Committee
112 invite grant writers to come and teach members of the community how to properly write
113 grants. Mr. Hoffmann stated that he would like to see the Action Committee working to get
114 more people from the community to attend the Action Committee meetings and get involved.
115 The Action Committee agreed that collaboration with the community should be a goal and
116 overarching theme for all priorities moving forward. Agriculture/economic development and
117 public access were also decided as two of the main themes to frame goals for the Action
118 Committee.
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119 Ms. Ah Sam engaged with a community member from the audience. She asked what his take
120 was on different issues facing the community including public access, job opportunities in
121 Kohala and affordable housing. He stated that it is more difficult to access certain places than
122 it was in the past, so access is a concern. He stated thatjob opportunities are a concern as well.
123 He lives in Kohala but works in Kona, and that is the case for others in the community as well.
124 He agreed that affordable housing is an issue within the community particularly because of the
125 limited employment opportunities making it more difficult to afford living in Kohala.
126 Mr. Hoffmann recapped the significant topics that were identified and discussed during the
127 meeting. The topics identified were as follows: improving collaboration with community
128 members and county agencies, work to increase the amount of affordable housing available,
129 clarify cultural issues and opportunities for agriculture in Kohala, support activities that create
130 job opportunities, reduces the cost of living, and preserve the quality of life in Kohala.
131 Ms. Gloor provided an overview of the list of themes that were identified and agreed upon by
132 the Action Committee. Those four themes were affordable housing, public access,
133 infrastructure, agriculture/economic development and one overarching theme of collaboration
134 to inform the goals that fall within the 4 priority themes for action.
135 Comm. No. 2018-23 Priority Setting Exercise Results:
136 http://records.hawaiicountV.gov/Weblink/1/doc/95635/Pagel.aspx
137 Committee Member Ah Sam made a motion to approve the priorities list. Seconded by
138 Committee Member Elliott. The motion passed with 5 votes aye and 0 votes nay.
139 Committee Member Coakley motioned to have an affordable housing community meeting in
140 September with minimal County staff. Seconded by Committee Member Ah Sam. The motion
141 passed with 5 votes aye and 0 votes nay. Committee member Coakley volunteered to take the
142 lead on the affordable housing community meeting.
143 AGENDA FOR NEXT MEETING: (September 17, 2018)
144 1. There were no agenda item suggestions from the Action Committee for the September
145 17, 2018 meeting.
146
147 ADJOURNMENT: Chair Hoffmann adjourned the meeting at 7:08 P.M.
148
149 All Action Committee information can be viewed and downloaded from our website:
150 http://www.hawaiicountvcdp.info/north-kohala-cd p
151
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