WHT did an article about Palamanui’s request to change a number of zoning conditions imposed on them when they secured their county re-zoning in 2006. The most controversial change is deferring the construction of the mauka-makai connector road.
The latter is going to be tough decision for the planning commission.I think comes down two questions :
1. Should Hawaii County be bailing out a developer who failed to foresee that Hawaii real estate market would decline so quickly ?
or
2. Should Hawaii County keep the existing zoning conditions in place which may jeopardize the future of West Hawaii UH campus and the long term financial viability of this project ?
In my view, the outcome should be somewhere in between. We shouldn’t be bailing out developers who failed to long term plan their projects.But in this case the positive long term impacts of easing the zoning conditions imposed on Palamanui outweigh the negative impacts.
This is my previous post which I detailed my tour of the Palamanui project with project manager Roger Harris.
Lastly, once again there is a letter to the editor advocating splitting Hawaii County into two counties. Below is some additional thoughts about this proposal :
“The possibility of breaking Hawaii County into two counties has reared its ugly head once again. I’m starting to see letters to editor advocating this. However I feel this is not in the best interest of the residents of this island.
For starters, the legislature has the sole power in creating any new counties in this state.The majority of both the Senate and House come from Oahu. Thus they don’t want to create a precedent that would cause Kailua or Kapolei to break away from the City & County of Honolulu.
On top of that, the current population of Hawaii County cannot support two counties at this time. The cost of duplicating services would probably be astronomical. Thus do we really want another layer of bureaucracy added on this island ? I personally don’t !
The latest political games orchestrated by the East Hawaii county council members shows that we need to work together as an island to get better candidates elected to the council and not attempt to break Hawaii County into two counties.”
——
“I’ve advocated splitting Hawaii County into two counties in the past.Nonetheless after thoroughly thinking about it splitting the Big Island into two counties is not good idea for reasons previously mentioned. On top of that, we are living on island in the middle of the Pacific. Thus we should be working with each other, not against each other.
I know my change of heart will probably get me branded a hypocrite. After all, I’ve written endlessly about how East Hawaii has shafted West Hawaii on my blog.These tirades help vent short term frustrations. However they don’t help in solving this island’s pressing issues.
Thus I feel that all the residents of this island need to work together to clean up county government once and for all. This means finding and electing competent people who will work for all the residents of the island, not just for special interests.”
June 21st, 2009 at 9:41 PM
Dead right Aaron – One County.
Aaron-I thought my comments on BIC were worth repeating on my blog. Hence why I re-posted them.
About the zoning:
I do not necessarily complete the link between the developers’ not being allowed to wimp out on the established conditions on the one hand and, on the other, enforcing the condition amounting to putting the University campus at risk. Is the developer saying that the campus is a no-go if the connector road condition is maintained? …?
Aaron-I went on a tour of the project a few weeks ago. The impression I got is the project is in a holding pattern. The developer has not done any site work for over a year. Essentially KKCC’s construction equipment is just sitting there. They waiting to see if the economy will improve before moving forward with construction.
I figure if these conditions are not eased the project it will further jeopardize the project and the future UH West Hawaii campus. I was told that the developers are looking at making some significant financial decisions involving this project later this year. If they are obligated to follow the existing zoning conditions it may impact those decisions.