Aloha,

The Department of Planning and Permitting, City and County of Honolulu, is pleased to announce availability of the June 1999 final draft of the KOOLAUPOKO SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES PLAN on the web. The Plan, including all text and graphics, may be accessed by linking from the City's homepage.

The Plan, which has been prepared pursuant to the requirements of the 1992 amendments to the City Charter, is the culmination of an intense community-based planning process that commenced in July 1997. This final draft incorporates the many relevant comments and suggestions the Department received as a result of the communities' review of the February 1999 Public Review Draft plan.

The Sustainable Communities Plan elucidates a vision for the long-term future of the Koolaupoko region of Oahu, and this vision forms the basic structure around which the remainder of the Plan has been constructed. This vision comprises seven key elements:

1. Adapt the concept of ahupua'a (the traditional Hawaiiaan mountain-to-sea land division) in land use and natural resource management.
2. Preserve and promote agricultural uses and open space in rural areas.
3. Preserve and enhance scenic, recreational and cultural features that define Koolaupoko's sense of place.
4. Emphasize alternatives to the private passenger vehicle as modes for travel.
5. Adapt housing and public works standards to community character and changing needs.
6. Define and enhance existing commercial and civic districts and institutional campuses.
7. Establish boundaries for Urban Community, Rural Community, Agriculture, and Preservation areas.

The Plan will be the subject of a public hearing before Honolulu's Planning Commission on September 1, 1999. Following the receipt of public testimony, the Commission will forward its recommendation and the Plan to the City Council. The City Council will then consider the Plan through its ordinance adoption process. A draft of the proposed ordinance may also be accessed online.

Hardcopies of the Plan are available for pick-up during normal business hours at the Department's offices on the 8th Floor of the Honolulu Municipal Building at 650 South King Street in Honolulu. (Contact Gordon Wood, at Ph. 527-6073 to arrange pick-up.) Copies are also available for reference at the Kaneohe, Kailua and Waimanalo libraries, as well as at the Hawaii State Library.

Gordon S. Wood
City & County of Honolulu
July 30, 1999

REVIEW OF KOOLAUPOKO SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES PLAN
Chuck Prentiss, Kailua Neighborhood Board

On behalf of the Kailua Neighborhood Board, I have reviewed the Department's Final Draft and find that only three of our eleven concerns with the plan were addressed in an acceptable manner. Major disagreements still exist as follows:

1. Although we agree with the proposal to allow some expansion of existing homes, the amount of this increase should be constrained by the population policy guidelines of the General Plan (i.e. follow the 12% for Koolaupoko), and existing infrastructure should be adequate (as determined by the appropriate agency).
2. The 25-foot height limit in residential areas, as well as the 30 and 40-foot height limits for other uses should be made explicit, and indeterminate words used to explain them such as "generally" should be deleted. Height limits are an integral part of a conceptual scheme for the future a neighborhoods.
3. Proposals to increase mixed-use designations in Kailua are particularly inappropriate and should be deleted. The existing LUO explains that the only areas appropriate for mixed-use are those that are already a mix of housing and business. All of the areas of this type in downtown Kailua are already designated for commercial emphasis mixed-use, the remainder of the commercial district does not meet the LUO criterion. ( The LUO encourages the continuance and strengthening of that pattern, but it does not encourage an expansion of this designation beyond areas meeting the "already existing" criterion.)
4. The proposal for an "inn" in Kailua is particularly undesirable, and any plan that sets the stage for a community discussion of the feasibility and desirability of re-establishing the sort of facility that Kailua once had in the form of the Pali Palms is particularly inappropriate.
5. No new development should be connected to the Aikahi RWWTP until the wet-weather surge and odor problems at the plant have been corrected. Every connection will, of course, exacerbate the existing problem regardless of the plant's capacity.
6. In terms of implementation, zoning and other development approvals should be based upon conformance and consistency with the vision and the policies, principles and guidelines of the plan, not just upon "how well they support the vision." Your proposal not only leaves out the policies, principles and guidelines, but would allow approval of a project which supports the plan "very well" or "not very well." This comment also applies to the draft ordinance.
7. The maps in the back of the report are too small to clearly depict the location of permitted land uses and the Urban Community and other boundaries. Larger maps should be prepared and adopted with the plan.
8. Only the general location, size and shape of downtown Kailua is shown on the Land Use Map. A simple boundary line is not "detailed in the manner of zoning maps", therefore, the existing Development Plan Land Use Map boundaries should be retained for apartment, commercial, industrial and mixed-use areas.

Chuck Prentiss
Chair, Planning and Zoning Committee
Kailua Neighborhood Board
August 2, 1999