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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018-07-16 NKCDP Minutes FinalHarry 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 Monday, July 16, 2018 Meeting Minutes CALL TO ORDER Chair, Steve Hoffmann, called the North Kohala Community Development Plan (NKCDP) Action Committee (AC) to order at 5:01 P.M. in the Hisaoka Gym Conference Room. ROLL CALL Action Committee Members Present: Steve Hoffmann (Chair), Lehua Ah Sam, Richard Elliott, Jeff Coakley, Jack Olson Action Committee Members Absent -Excused: Keone Emeliano (Vice), Benjamin Ney, Jack Hoyt, Beverly Blake Staff: CoH Planners: LeAna Gloor, Eric Cook, and Kamuela Plunkett Members of the public: 10 Members of the public were in attendance. ADDITIONS TO THE AGENDA: None. ANNOUNCEMENTS: 1. Kamuela Plunkett, the newest member of the Long Range Planning team, introduced himself to the Action Committee. 2. Chair Hoffmann announced the resignation of Action Committee Member Beverly Blake. Mr. Hoffmann encouraged the Action Committee Members to submit any suggestions they have for potential candidates to fill Ms. Blake's seat on the Action Committee. 3. Ms. Gloor made a reminder announcement that no political campaigning is allowed at County sanctioned meetings. To view the Corporation Counsel memorandum regarding political campaign restrictions please use the following link: http://records.hawaiicounty.gov/Weblink/1/doc/95557/Pagel.aspx PUBLIC COMMENT ON AGENDA ITEMS: There was no testimony given from members of the public. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Committee Member Richard Elliott moved to approve the minutes of the May 21, 2018 meeting, as submitted. Second by Committee Member Jack Olson. The motion to approve the minutes as submitted passed with 5 votes aye, 0 votes nay. Hawai `i County is an Equal Opportunity Provider and Employer Page I REPORTS AND OTHER PRESENTATIONS: Community Partner Group Reports: Comm. No. 2018-20 NK Community Access Group Notes 5/2 & 6/6: Group Member, Toni Withington, provided a summary of the recent progress of the Community Access group from their May and June meetings. Ms. Withington stated that the state legislature did not grant the funds for health and safety engineering study at the Pololu lookout. The first steps have been taken to purchase the Hapu'u — Kapanaia property with open space funds. Honoipu and Kaupalaoa were added to the public access open space priority list. Comm. No. 2018-20 NK Community Access Group Notes 5/2 and 5/6: http://records.hawaiicounty.gov/Weblink/1/doc/94074/Pagel.aspx Power, View planes, and Erosion Control Group: Group member, Susan Fischer, announced that the group is currently in the process of organizing, and that they would be discussing priorities and steps to move the group forward at the next meeting on August 301h. The tentative group meeting schedule is the last Thursday of each month. Parks, Water, and Roads Group: Group member, Toni Withington, stated that the group is still focusing on the development of the Pratt Road emergency bypass. Mr. Coakley announced there was a successful community effort to clean up Pratt Road on July 71n Growth Management Group: Group member, Richard Elliott, stated that there have not been any recent applications to review. Mr. Elliott stated that the group had recently discussed a DLNR quick claim for Kynnersley Road as well as a possible transfer of 6,500 acres of leased land to the Department of Agriculture for preservation and access to historic sites. Agriculture Group: Group member, Jack Olson, stated that the group met with the Board of Hawai'i Farmers Union United and discussed agricultural implications within the North Kohala CDP and related cultural issues. BUSINESS: 1. Discussion of the Welcome to North Kohala brochure': Mr. Hoffmann stated that Beverly Blake, who was leading the project had resigned from the committee. He asked for a volunteer on the Action Committee to take the lead on the project. Committee Member Ah Sam volunteered to take the lead on the project moving forward. Committee Member Coakley asked who the target audience is for this brochure. Chair Hoffmann stated the target audience is people who are thinking of moving to North Kohala as well as builders and contractors. Ms. Ah Sam added that the brochure also serves as good platform to inform visitors and newcomers about the character of the North Kohala community. 2. CDP priority matrix exercise: Ms. Gloor introduced the priority setting matrix exercise to the Action Committee. The Action Committee was asked to submit three -to -five preliminary priorities from the CDP before the meeting. Based on the selections submitted, there were 12 top priorities selected. Ms., Gloor announced that the goal of the exercise was to narrow the www.hiplanningdept.com northkohala(dhawaiicounty.-ov Page 2 list down from 12 to the top 4 priorities for the Action Committee to focus on moving forward. Ms. Gloor explained the exercise specifying that the different strategy categories are important to look at when ranking the top 4 priorities. She clarified that this exercise is to approach prioritization strategically based on what the type of action is, and who the implementer will be. Ms. Gloor suggested that the Action Committee try and choose some priorities that the committee themselves can have a direct role in implementing. Chair Hoffmann asked what the implications are of choosing something as a priority. Ms. Gloor responded that it means the Action Committee is saying they want to take an active role in working on that goal, forming a group that can work on it, or possibly creating a subcommittee to address the goal. Ms. Gloor also clarified that the priorities will be the main focus for the Action Committee but that does not prevent AC members from working on other goals as well. Committee Member Ah Sam proposed to group priorities into overarching themes and then focus on progressing each category or theme. Ms. Ah Sam suggested possibly forming subcommittees to address issues that community groups currently are not addressing. The Action Committee discussed topics they believed were most important or relevant to the North Kohala CDP. Steve Hoffmann and Richard Elliot commented on the urgent need for affordable housing. Jack Olson stated that he believes affordable housing is crucial for economic development and provides work force housing. Jeff Coakley stated that he would like to see more creative collaborative efforts between the Action Committee and the community to make some real progress on projects. He also stated that he believes affordable housing to be the number one priority. Affordable housing was decided to be the first theme. Ms. Ah Sam suggested that affordable housing be broken into subsections, i.g. agricultural housing and family housing. Ms. Ah Sam proposed infrastructure and community facilities to be the second theme with the top infrastructure priority being water. The priority is to increase water sources either through wells or allowing water tanks and catchment systems. Agriculture was discussed. Ms. Ah Sam suggested the formation of an agricultural subcommittee to investigate the current state of agriculture in the community and what the agricultural needs are within the community. She also suggested allowing the community to define what agriculture means to the community and what is feasible for agriculture in North Kohala, and then using that input from the community to inform a plan to preserve and further agricultural pursuits within the community. Ms. Ah Sam stated that maintenance of parks is an important issue to address that would fall under the infrastructure category. Ms. Gloor suggested that the Action Committee should try to find ways to collaborate with private entities. She stated that one of the gaps identified is that the County department lacks grant writers. Grants are a tool that the County is not currently using effectively and this is a possible tool to address the lack of funding. Mr. Coakley suggested that the Action Committee invite grant writers to come and teach members of the community how to properly write grants. Mr. Hoffmann stated that he would like to see the Action Committee working to get more people from the community to attend the Action Committee meetings and get involved. The Action Committee agreed that collaboration with the community should be a goal and overarching theme for all priorities moving forward. Agriculture/economic development and public access were also decided as two of the main themes to frame goals for the Action Committee. www.hiplanningdept.com northkohala(dhawaiicounty.zov Page 3 Ms. Ah Sam engaged with a community member from the audience. She asked what his take was on different issues facing the community including public access, job opportunities in Kohala and affordable housing. He stated that it is more difficult to access certain places than it was in the past, so access is a concern. He stated that job opportunities are a concern as well. He lives in Kohala but works in Kona, and that is the case for others in the community as well. He agreed that affordable housing is an issue within the community particularly because of the limited employment opportunities making it more difficult to afford living in Kohala. Mr. Hoffmann recapped the significant topics that were identified and discussed during the meeting. The topics identified were as follows: improving collaboration with community members and county agencies, work to increase the amount of affordable housing available, clarify cultural issues and opportunities for agriculture in Kohala, support activities that create job opportunities, reduces the cost of living, and preserve the quality of life in Kohala. Ms. Gloor provided an overview of the list of themes that were identified and agreed upon by the Action Committee. Those four themes were affordable housing, public access, infrastructure, agriculture/economic development and one overarching theme of collaboration to inform the goals that fall within the 4 priority themes for action. Comm. No. 2018-23 Priority Setting Exercise Results: http://records.hawaiicounty.gov/Weblink/1/doc/95635/Pagel.aspx Committee Member Ah Sam made a motion to approve the priorities list. Seconded by Committee Member Elliott. The motion passed with 5 votes aye and 0 votes nay. Committee Member Coakley motioned to have an affordable housing community meeting in September with minimal County staff. Seconded by Committee Member Ah Sam. The motion passed with 5 votes aye and 0 votes nay. Committee member Coakley volunteered to take the lead on the affordable housing community meeting. AGENDA FOR NEXT MEETING: (September 17, 2018) 1. There were no agenda item suggestions from the Action Committee for the September 17, 2018 meeting. ADJOURNMENT: Chair Hoffmann adjourned the meeting at 7:08 P.M. All Action Committee information can be viewed and downloaded from our website: http://www.hawaiicountvcdp.info/north-kohala-cdp www.hiplanningdept.com northkohala(dhawaiicounty.zov Page 4