HomeMy WebLinkAbout02-16-2010-Doc15942 ~
MINUTE S
PLANNING CONIIVIITTEE WORKSHOP
BILL NO. 2342
February 16, 2010
A meeting of the Planning Committee of the Council of the County of Kaua`i,
State of Hawai`i, was called to order by Councilmember Jay Furfaro, Chair at the
Historic Building, Room 201, Lihu`e, Kaua`i, on Tuesday February 16, 2010
at 9:06 a.m., after which following members answered the call of the roll:
Honorable Tim Bynum
Honorable Jay Furfaro
Honorable Daryl Kaneshiro
Honorable Lani Kawahara
Honorable Dickie Chang (ex-officio member)
Honorable Bill "Kaipo" Asing (ex-officio member)
RECUSED: Honorable Derek Kawakami
The Committed proceeded on its workshop as follows:
Mr. Furfaro: Aloha, good morning everyone, thank you for being
here for the Planning Committee's workshop on the Lihu`e core plan. I do want to
make a few comments going forward. First and foremost, I am delighted that we
have Kimi Yuen here from the consultant to work with our Planning Department.
The original budget for the Lihu`e core plan is in fact exhausted, so we chose to ask
Kimi over at the choice of the Council and also for the upcoming Committee Meeting
so therefore feeling that we are having this workshop pre-committee meeting I
chose for contributions to travel rather than for video because we will naturally
have video either March 2nd or March 3rd when the Committee actually gets posted,
So on that note, my intentions is and again this is a workshop, no decisions will be
made today, we are not voting on anything, there will be a period of time from 9-12
noon earmarked. I also want to recognize Myles the long term planner that's over
from the Planning Department, Lea, as well along with Marie Williams and Kimi
that I introduced earlier. From 9-9:30 I hope to have along with the consultant from
the Planning Department to make a presentation to the Council and at 9:45 I have
asked Mr. Doug Haigh to come over from Building, he's not in the audience, to touch
on the Lihu`e Civic Center Master Plan for that period time, and then to continue
with a presentation by the Planning Department and then discussions on the needs
of any ordinances that need to be amended for the purpose of planning and zoning
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codes. Obviously we don't want to have any conflict in our CZO for the Lihu`e Core
Town Plan, and then we will go on with Q& A until the end of the meeting. This
item will come back again like I said in a regular planning committee scheduled
Committee Meeting, either March 2nd or March 3rd lt's very tentative now because
in fact we are working out when this Council is going to temporarily relocate so that
they can begin restoration on this office. On that note may I welcome Kimi and may
I welcome Marie and I will turn the floor over to you. I also want to make note to
those in the audience that we do have an outline of the Lihu`e Core design plan, the
area that covers, as well as an aerial. If you want to follow on your own, we do have
them available and Ladies I am going to relocate to the other side here. The floor is
yours.
Marie Williams, Planner, County Planning Department. Good morning,
Good morning Council Chair Asing and planning Committee Chair Eurfaro and
Council members. We are very pleased to bring this plan before you today and not
only the plan but the implementing frame work for the neighborhood
recommendations contained in chapter 4 of the plan and that is ordinance 2341.
First I would like to also acknowledge, as Jay just did, our LEED consultant on the
plan Kimi Yuen here today from PBR Hawai`i and we are very grateful that she can
be here to help answer questions and she will be helping in this presentation as
well. So let's start with the background, just so we know what we are talking about.
Here is a map of Lihu`e and the blue shaded area is the project site, it's the
boundaries of the town core. I want to first answer, why are we even doing a town
core, why does the why does Lihu`e deserve special attention. Well as we all know
it's our Government headquarters with County and our State building, as well it's
our transportation hub of the Island with the airport close by and the Harbor. It's at
the cross roads of both our Highways as well, and it's our employment center.
Lihu`e has more jobs than any other area on Kaua`i and more over there's the
Historic importance of this town and I'm glad we have our expert Pat Griffin here,
I'm sure she will speak more to that. Additionally even 30 years ago our original
Lihu`e development plan acknowledged that poor planning had led to a disorganized
appearance of the town and inconsistent land uses as well and it recommended that
we re-develop Lihu`e to counter unplanned growth and more recently our general
plan update also recommended that Lihu`e be revitalized to what it called a careful
plan. So in some ways, you can say that this plan before you really has been a long
time coming, it's been anticipated for a while. However, we all know that Lihu`e
needs improvement so in 2004 we contracted with PBR Hawai`i to help us develop
this plan and once again the LEED consultants were Kimi Yuen and also Grant
Murakami. One of the first things they helped us to do was to design a public
participation process which consisted of approximately about 2 public meetings,
approximately 9 CAC meetings. Last year in September, we held an open house, a
community presentation of the plan co-hosted by the Lihu`e Business Association.
We also got a lot of public input through our planning commission public hearing
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and at the onset of the plan there was a survey that was distributed on line and at
meetings.
Kimi Yuen, LEED Consultant, PBR Hawai`i. I'm gonna jump in, I just
wanted to jump in and acknowledge that Neil Clendennin and Pat Griffin and the
rest of the oh and Palmer's here too and the rest of the Lihu`e business association
has been having Lihu`e tomorrow meetings on the plan going over it quite a bit of
detail week by week. I'm not really sure how many meetings you have had over
several Months reviewing the plan and so they are also here in support and will be
testifying maybe to give you some of their feedback as well.
Marie Williams: Thank you Kimi, absolutely have a very committed
CAC. As always the CAC was convened for this plan and this CAC in particular
brought much expertise to the table, I won't say all of their names, you will meet
some of them when they, when they testify, but I also want to point out that there is
a dedication in this plan to Mike Furukawa, a CAC member who I believe worked
for Grove Farm and passed away in 2006 and I just want to acknowledge that.
Okay, as with any plan we usually start with a vision for how we anticipate how the
town or area could look like and I'm actually, it's summarized up there but I'm
going to read the vision and it's in Chapter 2 of the Plan. In the year 2020 Lihu`e
the vital heart of Kaua`i, celebrates its unique past and embraces its future
combining the best of both in its development over the next fifteen or ten years. Our
town is the welcoming destination at the gateway to Kaua`i, it is the center of local
Government and the embodiment of civic pride. Lihu`e embraces business and
community development while honoring and protecting its historic architectural
resources, commercial districts, and residential neighborhoods. It recognizes its
part in the larger environment as demonstrated by the responsible stewardship of
its watershed and other natural resources. It is green and beautifully landscaped.
It exemplifies a pedestrian friendly environment within a multimodal
transportation system. Lihu`e is pleasant and vibrant, inspiring and beautiful. The
town epitomizes the spirit of aloha, its urban fabric of patchwork quilt of history,
architectural and civic life, an example for all the Garden Isle. And some specific
goals also tied to the vision are to foster civic pride to beautify the streets and
walkways, enhance the historic resources, and develop Lihu`e as Kaua`i's main
urban center. Support multimodal transportation by creating a safe pedestrian
friendly environment and a convenient bicycle network and really reach out and
partner with others to revitalize Lihu`e and improve public facilities.
So please keep the visions and goals in mind as we go through the
recommendations of this plan, because they form the foundation for every single
recommendation. Okay we will start with the general recommendations in chapter
4 of the plan. Here is the proposed transportation network, I apologize for the slide
I think it there was some problems when it was converted to the different version of
power point, but um, please note that some of these recommendations are not
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unique to this plan they are consistent with existing plans. I will start with the
Lihu`e by pass road and the realigned Ahukini road. This has been on the books at
the DOT for a long time now and is not anticipated anytime soon, nonetheless the
plan does factor it and consider it. There is a widening of Ahukini Road and Kapule
Highway. Kapule Highway widening has just been completed. There is the Kaana
street connection through the future Wailani development, and one area where the
plan has its own new recommendation is to maintain Haleko road as a two lane
road and that is different from the DOT current plan to widen it to four lanes, and
the reason being is that this road is a historic resource and we would like to
maintain the character of that road.
There are also some traffic improvements associated with the Civic Center
master plan that Doug will probably speak more too. That includes the roundabout
at Umi and Hardy street intersection, and cross walks at Rice Street and Kuhi`o
Highway as well. Here is a picture of the proposed pedestrian network and there is
also a bicycle network as well. The features of this network include connectivity
this will be a true network. The town core after all is a very small area. It has, it's
very, you can walk from one side to the other in a short amount of time, yet few of
us actually do that. However you can see that the red dotted lines, it's more clear in
the hard copy of the plan, but those are the proposed sidewalks and you can see that
they connect every single part of the town core, so walking is a viable and safe form
of transportation. The sidewalks more over are going to be ADA accessible which is
quite different from the narrow sidewalks we see along some parts of Rice street
and Kuhi`o Highway. There are additional cross walks as I said on Kuhi`o highway
and Rice street and the provision for street trees as well so we have the shade and
protection from the sun. The plan also includes detail street design for all the main
streets. Here I am showing Rice Street, you can see the cross section of upper Rice
Street which includes a landscaped median, the street trees, and the sidewalks as
well. Lower Rice Street has a smaller right of way which therefore it doesn't have
the landscaped median but you can see how the streetscape fits in with the road
and also there is a rendering of the proposed crosswalk across from the post off'ice at
the Rice Street and Kele Street intersection and as you can see it is much more
pleasant and much safer than what currently exist. There is also a small section for
public parking, the plan, well first please note that the plan acknowledges that a
detailed parking site will have to be completed before we choose to implement any
of these, but these are nine recommended sites for a public parking structure.
Kimi Yuen: I'm going to jump in here and clarify the concept
behind the public parking sites that we identified. The idea is really to get people
out of their cars and to provide public parking, you know in key locations
throughout the civic center but it's really to get them out of their cars and not force
the individual land owners who may have a very small lot to fit all the parking that
they may need for their businesses or restaurants on their site. So by providing
alternate sites where the public could park and then get out of their car, walk, you
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are increasing foot traffic in front of stores, your streets become more livened that
way. All the sites are not necessarily for parking structures either, they are just
sites that were identified where there was ample space to provide a parking lot, so
it may be surface lots. There were also talks like at number 3 with the owner of the
Lihu`e plantation building to partner with the County in developing parking there
and that might actually support some of the banks, you know there is a lot of
parking issues in that back corner area with the banks as well. There are sites that
are identified as potential sites to partner with land owners or like at the War
Memorial there is ample space for parking for Government workers, and if you
provided a shuttle, a really nice pedestrian paths that connected directly to the civic
center it made it that much easier for those types of offsite parking lots to be used
more efficiently. Right now it is empty a lot of the time of the day. You know you
have it available for the big events at the War Memorial, but during the day when
the Government workers are in their offices that might be a potential site. So that
was kind of the idea, it was not meant to say that you know the County is going to
develop all these parking, public parking lots but it's just identified as potential
sites where public parking could be provided.
Jay Furfaro: Kimi I don't want to open the session up for any
questions yet but since we have this map out, so do these numbers represent any
prioritized area.
Kimi Yuen: Not at all.
Jay Furfaro: The numbers don't
Kimi Yuen: Not at all, not at all.
Jay Furfaro: But do you have them prioritized, since we might
select a few sites rather than all sites.
Kimi Yuen: Yes, I have a couple of thoughts on that but it
would probably like you know require a little bit more detail and feasibility and cost
and that sort of thing but for sure we could definitely.
Jay Furfaro: But no numbers represent any priorities.
Kimi Yuen: No priorities, no.
Jay Furfaro: Thank you very much.
Marie Williams: Thank you Kimi. There are also other sections
about public transit, public heart, landscape guidelines and sustainable design. I
encourage you to read it however l do want you to move on to ordinance 3241 in the
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special planning areas. This essentially is chapter 5 of the plan. So what the plan
did was to divide the town core into five different neighborhoods, and they are, the
Rice Street neighborhood, Kuhi`o Highway neighborhood, the Akahi/Elua/Umi
Streets neighborhood, the Civic Center which is...
Jay Furfaro: Excuse me Maria, I have to, if that was intended to
be the ordinance you passed out, the numbers are out of sequence, the ordinance
that was passed out is 2342.
Marie Williams: Oh, is it 2342, okay that's my mistake I apologize
that was a typo, okay thank you for that. So 2342, okay here are the four
neighborhoods, and there is also the mill site and what the ordinance does is
establish special planning areas in four of these neighborhoods, excluding the mill
site, Although there are some recommendations for that area as well. So what is a
special planning area? Well the authority to create them is in our CZO and here is
the section, section 8-9.6, I'm going to summarize. The planning commission may
formulate plans for any area of particular County, State or Federal value because of
unique characteristics or are determined to be critical areas of concern to the
general development to the County, and the areas shall be designated a special
planning areas. We actually have three special planning areas on Kaua`i, they have
been around for 30 years, they were established under the Kapa`a-Wailua
development plan, there is special planning areas A,B and C which is why we are
continuing with D through G in this plan. And now what is an overlay well
generally an overlay supplements the existing zoning to protect certain features.
There are many types of overlays, historic overlays, environmental overlays,
Honolulu is experimenting with transient oriented development overlays and we
have overlays on Kaua`i as well. 1~vo of our special planning areas currently
function as overlays. This is special planning areas C and downtown Kapa`a along
the highway. Here is the zoning and you can see how the special planning area
works with the underlying zoning to establish certain design guidelines, such as to
require non-reflective roofing for example. However, in the case of our Lihu`e special
planning areas, essentially they will be doing two things: to implement muxed use
zoning in certain areas, and also to implement design guidelines and some changed
development standards.
Now, what is mixed use? I think we are all familiar with it but very quickly
it's connected to smart growth which is a reaction to some of the inadvertent
problems caused by our current zoning system where we clearly separate
commercial to residential from industrial and it creates some problems such as
sprawl, loss of urban character, dependence on single occupancy vehicles, and I
could go on, and so what mixed use in this plan tries to do is provide a designation
to encourage both horizontal and vertical mixed use. Horizontal refers to mixed use
that occurs right next to each other on the same block. Vertical refers to mixed use
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that occurs in a building and I provided this example it's not in the plan but I
thought it was a good example. A sort of mixed use building that we might be
looking for with small scale commercial at the bottom and then residential on the
higher floors. I know that sometimes when we hear mixed use, we think of the very
large projects that some urban centers are doing and that's not the case in this plan.
It refines allowable land usage and provides development standards and design
guidelines, and just as a testament to the amount of work that can be put into this
plan.
There are not just one but two types of mixed use that this plan will
implement. There is mixed use with the commercial emphasis for Rice Street and
Kuhi`o Highway neighborhoods and the mixed use with the residential emphasis for
essentially only two streets, Akahi and Elua Streets. Okay, additionally what our
special planning area seeks to do, is to implement design guidelines and I very
quickly want to show you how this has been done in the past on Kaua`i with special
planning area A which emphasis a bird's eye view of the area. You can see that the
special planning area does allow mixed use by allowing both multi-family and
commercial uses requiring wood exteriors, a setback for additional sidewalk width.
It requires off street parking to be in the rear of buildings and that all public
buildings wili have a pull in bus stall, as well as implement an additional setback
from the canal of 40 feet. So we currently do implement this on Kaua`i. Of course
our special planning areas in this plan are much more detailed as you can see from
the length of the ordinance but essentially all the design guidelines and changed
development standards work together really to create a pedestrian oriented
streetscape and if you remember how the visions and the goals focused on changing
Lihu`e so it's a walk-able place. That's what the guidelines seek to do. Some
examples are, it encourages awnings, a certain type of facade that creates
pedestrian interest. It also will allow outdoor seating and eating areas such as
outdoor cafes. There are also more flexible development standards such as a
flexible setback in case you want to re-develop a lot and provide that outdoor
seating area. Let me get into specifics of each special planning area. I will start
with special planning area D, which is the Rice Street neighborhood. Here is
another bird's eye view. You can see that it is mostly commercial right now with
many parking lots. Here is a map of the special planning area, it's not clear in this
graph and I apologize but okay the purple shaded area is the mixed use design
district, while you can't see it here but you will be able to see it in the map and the
hard copy. And not included in the overlay are the multi-family in the top in the
bottom right corner. And Rice street really is envisioned to be Lihu`e's main street,
the changes will encourage uses that stimulate pedestrian activity, such as retail on
the ground floor and residential on the top. This will activate the area at all hours
of the day.
Our next special planning area is special planning area E, it's a Kuhi`o
highway neighborhood, here is another birds-eye view and like Rice street it is
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mostly commercial, smaller commercial with the exception of Walmart which is in
the neighborhood but not included in the special planning area. The goal of this
special planning area is that the neighborhood will eventually really represent and
feel like the gateway to Lihu`e. Again the objective is to enhance the pedestrian
experience at the same time recognizing that is a major arterial roadway. This plan
will not change the fact that this highway is very busy but the new standards will
allow people to safely walk from destination to destination through changes in the
streetscape. Including wider sidewalks and there are also proposed additional
crosswalks in the area too which we are lacking currently.
So, what will some of the specific changes and use be and now let me
summarize for the two special planning areas we just talked about. Well, permitted
outright will be residential up to our highest density which is R20, 20 units an acre,
also permitted outright will be parking structures should someone choose to develop
that central parking area that we are looking for. Not allowed will be auto sales,
department stores, large shopping centers and bars and night clubs, and that is
mainly because they might not be consistent with the anticipated nature of the
area. There will be more flexible parking centers including a parking bonus.
Provisions for shared parking and a bonus for bicycle parking as well, and there will
be clear exemptions for historic properties, we want those properties to remain and
stay in place and for future development to be consistent and compatible with our
historic properties too. Moving on to special planning area F, Akahi, Elua and Umi
street neighborhoods. Here is an overhead view of the three streets. Akahi Sreet as
we know has already mostly transitioned from residential to commercial. Elua is
undergoing some transition as well, while Umi Street is all residential and it will
stay that way because the mixed use designation will not cover Umi Street, it will
only cover Akahi and Elua Streets.
So special planning area F is our only mixed use with a residential emphasis
district and disrespects the fact, as I said, it's a transition area. So overall the
design standards seek to maintain the small scale residential field of the
neighborhood and also protect the historic residences. All the yellow buildings that
you see here are those that are over fifty years old, and this area was one of the
early neighborhoods that developed when the commercial areas on Rice Street and
Kuhi`o Highway flourished in the 1930's and 40's. There are unique features in this
neighborhood that make it special, such as the front porches, the steep double
pitched roofs, the lava rock features at the entry and base of the homes, the large
front yards with hedges defining the street edge and carports and the hope is to
preserve as many of these historic homes as possible.
To summarize, some of the changes in use, and again this really does only
apply to Akahi and Elua Street residential up to the R-10 density will be permitted.
Not allowed of course will be auto sales and department stores. There will be a
thirty foot height limit and also more flexible parking standards and exemptions for
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historic properties. Okay, moving on to our last special planning area is the civic
center or special planning area G. Here is the special planning area and once again
allow me to bring up the civic center master plan because the standards were
developed to be compatible with the vision for the civic center as a campus like
setting. To be well landscaped, pedestrian friendly and to preserve the historic
buildings and this was also the vision back when County purchased the old Lihu`e
shopping center to expand the Government center and really create a true civic
center. However, unfortunately today it still looks and feels like the remnants of a
shopping center.
The idea of the special planning area is to eliminate the unrelated uses, like
residential, allow only certain types of commercial, so that the civic uses will prevail
in this small neighborhood, and the commercial uses in the surrounding special
planning areas will support this hub. And of course, the civic center master plan is
also a plan, so this area here will become the hub of the town core and Lihu`e. And
the design standaxds are designed to be consistent with the civic center master
plan. We had the benefit of having the same consultant for both plans. Just to be
fair, this is not a mixed use district. There is no residential allowed here. However,
the plan does recommend that we extend this special treatment public designation
over the entire neighborhood.
Okay and some of the changes in use. Of course residential not allowed,
grocery stores aren't allowed; however, please note that we've resolved this issue to
some degree during planning commission where existing uses can remain on the
parcel of record, provided that if there is a major redevelopment, they apply for a
use permit. So in some sense we're grandfathering existing uses in. And so
when...if you pass this ordinance, by no means will grocery stores be forced to leave,
for example; that won't happen. Allowed would be retail sales under a thousand
square feet, restaurants and food services under a thousand square feet as well, and
the same flexible parking standards and exemption for historic properties will
apply.
Okay, and finally there is the mill site. There is no special planning area
proposed here. Instead, it does...the plan does encourage us to designate the entire
area as special treatment cultural historic. It recommends bicycle and pedestrian
facilities along Haleko Road, and also stipulates that historic research be a huge
component of any redevelopment plan.
Okay, moving on to the final part of this presentation which is
implementation of the plan. Well, first of all a big part of implementation will occur
when the ordinance is passed; however, this is a complex plan and the...chapter 6
contains the implementation recommendations, which includes some regulatory
actions, and also there is the funding of some of these projects which...it includes
the timeline for our capital improvement projects as well. And there are some other
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special projects, such as, perhaps we can now apply for certain grants as well, and
of course, public outreach is a huge component of this plan. It's already been
started with the creation of the Lihu`e tomorrow committee, and essentially, you
know, this isn't just a government plan. This also is a community plan, as we want
to reach out to the public to make sure that the vision for Lihu`e is met. And also,
some implementation will occur with our upcoming Lihu`e development plan
update. So the larger, the great Lihu`e region, can work together to support the
goals of the town core.
All right! I've covered a lot from the fine details of the special planning areas
to the general vision, but I hope now you have a sense of what the purpose of this
plan was and what we're trying to achieve with the special planning areas. So
thank you so much for your time.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you very much. We are going to have a
presentation from Mr. Haigh next, but I do want to point out to the rest of the
members here, as we reference the ordinance, all of what might be perceived as
in 2342, what might be perceived as the grandfathering section of the bill, am I
correct, is pretty much in 10-5a-4?
Ms. Williams: I think so. It refers to existing uses?
Mr. Furfaro: Right, existing uses for stores, auto sales, and so
forth. So I just want to point that out to the members that what is grandfathered is
pretty much covered in that section.
Ms. Williams: Thank you.
Mr. Furfaro: We appreciate your presentation. I know you'll be
in the audience while Mr. Haigh gives us an update. We see everything at one time.
Thank you ladies. Mr. Haigh, are you in the building? There he is. Do we have
your presentation?
DOUGLAS HAIGH, Chief of Buildings: Yes, I believe so. Good
morning, Douglas Haigh, Department of Public Works. I'm going to keep my
presentation very short.
Mr. Furfaro: You have 15 minutes. That's pretty short, please
use it all.
Douglas Haigh: Basically we have our existing civic center, and I
am presenting the Lihu`e civic center site improvements master plan final
environmental assessment. This is a project that we completed I believe about two
years ago as far as the final environmental assessment and the final master plan. It
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started probably about eight years ago when the Kaua`i architects did a special
project to talk about Lihu`e and from there we piggy backed on those discussions
and moved forward with the master plan for Lihu`e civic center. This property was
acquired by the County in the 1980s I believe or early 90s as far as the shopping
center area. In acquiring the shopping center area now all of a sudden we had a
civic center and now the goal is to develop the civic center to meet County
Governmental needs, and so going from a shopping center with government
buildings to a civic center is a transition that this plan worked on. But, we are still
with the existing site which was designed for a shopping center and it was a classic
1960s -70s shopping center with your shopping in the middle surrounded, so you
have this Island of buildings surrounded by a sea of parking lots, Which was kind of
the design model at that time. "THE MASTER PLAN" okay I will jump right in to
this, and what I'm going to do is, I'm going to start from the outside and work my
way in part of the master plan, but I'm going to change my mind right now I'm
going to start from the inside and work my way out. (Laughing) So we have our
key government buildings here, the civic center, Lihu`e civic center, Kapule
building, Pi'ikoi building, Moikeha building. We do have a retail area here which is
currently a grocery store. The lease comes up this year, it's going to be renewed for
one more year and then it will be time to re-procure a lease for that space. Piikoi
building is our area for future development for governmental buildings. We do have
vacant space currently used for storage and we also have potential second floor
mezzanine development for that building, those are the interiors but they planned
work on the exterior. So, what we are doing here is trying to deal with the parking,
the sea of parking at to soften it with landscaping and also provide adequate
parking for the facility. Basically on the Rice street side we are adding landscape
elements to the parking and we are providing promenade walkway going from
Lihu`e civic center to the historic County building providing the link between the
two facilities. Currently the pedestrian walkway is marginal and probably not fully
ADA compliant as is. Next we are looking at on the Hardy street side actually a
parking structure here to provide the adequate parking and then accurate parking
on this side. Over here we are providing the low grade parking with a park area
built on top similar to what you see in Honolulu at the Honolulu County Facility
where you have the parking underneath and a park like area on top. And I will just
say as in a side, these issues of building these expensive parking structures was one
way of maintaining adequate parking for the facility and that was one of our main
goals. There are alternatives which may be developed, one clearly would be all the
parking we have at Kaua`i War Memorial Convention Hall. There is parking there
for events and there is also parking there when we had County facilities there. Now,
the town core plan if it had a transportation component it could include a
pedestrian walkway from the civic center to the Kaua`i War Memorial Convention
Hall, and that would be a key component to allow us to get away from the extensive
parking structures if we were going to accept the alternative of having County
workers walking five to ten minutes from their parking places to their offices or
possibly a shuttle which would operate during pre-work hours and post-work hours
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to provide the transportation link for the employees who didn't feel like walking. So
that is a component that will help eliminate the expensive parking structures, but
since we are working on this site only the plan was to provide these parking
structures. But, clearly a plan is a plan and things change over time. So we went
around the parking here and then we are providing, so now as we move out we have
combined, a key component of this plan is closing `Eiwa street and that's probably
the most controversial part of this plan is closing `Eiwa street. People are use to
having `Eiwa street and feel it is necessary for their ability to get around in Lihu`e.
But in order to create a campus like facility you need to not have a street going
right through the middle of it, so that was the goal here. Now you are at cross
purposes because current good planning said you need a lot of cross streets as a
component of good planning so you have weighing items. There is like I mentioned
this was controversial so what our goal or our plan was to hold off was to hold off
closing `Eiwa Street until later in the project until we had certain traffic
improvements in which would show whether or not `Eiwa Street was really
necessary. So going to the traffic improvements, if you closing `Eiwa Street basically
you have employees coming out of here Pau Hana time needing to get to the west
side, getting to the east side, employees here getting from the west side or the east
side. In order to, and then by closing `Eiwa street we have kind of cut off the cross
flow from this side of the complex, the easy cross flow from this side of the complex
to this side. So each side needs to have its own easy exit out. To travel to the west
side, people parking on this side would enter Hardy Street and then there would be
a signalized intersection at the intersection of Hardy and Kuhi`o highway to allow
them to have an easy left turn without significant delays due to heavy traffic. So
that is a component that would need to be implemented before closing `Eiwa Street ,
because that provides an easy turn.
Now on the Rice Street side we already have, we are opening up the
intersection between the bank, the post office and the County. So what we have
done we have moved our driveway a little bit Mauka in order now to create an
intersection that will be signalized and with crosswalks which we currently don't
have. So the mad dash across Rice Street can be eliminated for people who are not
willing to walk up Haleko Road or down to where E'iwa Street currently is, so that
is and probably one of the most expensive part of this component of this master plan
(excuse me) so that's and I think that's a good improvement there and you're
creating an intersection, it should make for a better traffic flow and also traffic flow
that will be safer because you now have a clearly marked intersection rather than
multiple entry and exits into Rice Street. With that, now going over to Hardy
Street. Okay so we are closing `Eiwa Street and one thing we are doing we are
creating a signalized intersection with well signalized would be when warranted. I
don't think it would necessarily be warranted right away, but between Akahi Street
and the entrance of the civic center, so rather than having these offset intersection
T intersections you're creating a single cross intersection which will be better for
traff'ic flow. And then for the east bound traffic they still have the option of getting
12
• ~
on Kuhi`o highway and going up to however they want to go through Hanama`ulu or
Ahukini and they are also looking at the potential to come over down Hardy $treet
and Ka`ana Street connected with the roundabout eventually get to Ka`ana Street.
The Grove Farm development off Ka`ana, off the area around Ka`ana Street,
eventually Ka`ana Street is designated to be a collector road which will connect to
the Highway and provide direct access for people to head to the east side. So they go
through this traffic circle continue on Hardy and then get to Ka`ana and then out to
the highway.
The roundabout was controversial. I think it's less controversial now that we
have had the experience with the roundabout in Kapa`a town, I think people are
more comfortable with the roundabouts. It's an opportunity to provide efficient
traffic flow at the intersection and also an opportunity to provide a feature, entry
feature for Kapa`a town where you can do a sculpture or landscaping in the
roundabout to provide an entry point coming to the civic center and that would be
nice. Now, phasing our original phase we are looking at the Hardy Street
improvements as a federally funded, partially funded improvement. It was on the
STIP (statewide transportation improvement program), currently it's been deferred,
and I believe it's been moved to the 2016 STIP (statewide transportation
improvement program) to work on the Hardy Street improvements and the
thoughts were that we have more urgent transportation needs to try to program the
federal money to rather than improvements on Hardy Street.
On Improvements on Hardy Street as I mentioned you are going to signalize
this intersection then you are going to add landscaping and along it provide bike
lanes along it and then taking out `Eiwa Street, cleaning up this intersection and
then providing a roundabout at the Umi Street, and Hardy Street intersection. Now
the other thing we have going for this, actually the first phase and we currently are
under design and money is being programmed into the new bond float, is doing ADA
improvements within the civic center itself, and with those ADA improvements we
are going to try to make the initial move to create a safe ADA compliant connection
to the Historic Council(sic)Building, also provide ADA connections along Umi Street
which we don't have, and provide connections to where `Eiwa Street is to Rice Street
and provide connections from the bus stop to the civic center, basically providing
safe ADA connections within the site and also trying to be consistent with the
master plan with those improvements so we are moving forward on that. So that is
in a nut shell where we are going with the Lihu`e civic center master plan and I will
be glad to answer any questions if there are.
Jay Furfaro: Doug I hope you will be staying here with us as we
have an agenda that I read before you got in I want an overview of everything first
then we will go in to some dialog. So if you could please stay I would certainly
appreciate it.
13
~ s Doug Haigh: Yes, sir.
Jay Furfaro: Thank you, thank you very much. Well we said by
9:45 we would get to a point that we could see any presentations by the Planning
Department that might expand on the ordinance itself. Myles, do you have any
plans to talk about the ordinance? If you could come up, yes. Lea, do you want to
come up as well? No, okay.
MYLES HIRANAKA, Planner: Good morning members of the
Council, what I want to do is let Marie Williams who has worked extensively on this
ordinance and she is most familiar with this but I am also here to answer any
questions that you folks may have. I will go ahead and turn this over to Marie.
Jay Furfaro: That's fine with us, I understand Marie has worked
on this ordinance and you are the head of the long range planning department so,
thank you for coniing out. Maria! go right ahead.
Marie Williams: Okay, well the ordinance essentially we modeled
the format of the ordinance after the implementing ordinance for the Kapa`a-Wailua
development plan which as I mentioned in my presentation established our first
three special planning areas on Kaua`i. What we did though we also elaborated
slightly on existing uses versus existing buildings because of course we want all
existing buildings unless you are a historic building of course to come into
conformance with the plan. However, with existing uses such as car sales, grocery
stores for example (Big Save) in the town core, we wanted to provide more flexible
standards for them so they can remain. The intent is not to kick anyone out, that's
that's not the case. Essentially the bulk of the ordinance really is chapter 5 of the
plan, almost word for word we include every design guideline, design guidelines you
can note what they are because they are preceded by a should, it's a
recommendation some would be a little hard to force an applicant to do. The change
development standards of course are a shall, and then many of the development
standards are flexible and there are exemptions that our planning director can
provide too. Are they any specific questions?
Jay Furfaro: Marie!
Myles Hironaka: I think the way this ordinance works, is to work
hand in hand with the existing Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance so it works as an
overlay similar to the Kapa`a / Wailua development plan as Marie mentioned
specifically with respect to special planning area C I think Marie showed you a map,
a zoning map of the Kapa`a / Wailua town area, excuse me, the Kapa`a town area
which showed the special planning area C overlaying several properties within that
district. There is also if you look at the zoning map there were specific zoning for
each respective property as well. This particular plan and ordinance carries it a
14
little bit further because there are more specific design requirements of each of the
special planning area as well as certain development standards, but it's to work
hand and hand with the zoning code and the zoning ordinance.
Jay Furfaro: First of all Marie I want to apologize Marie
Williams, I didn't mean to call you Maria
Marie Williams: Okay, that's Okay.
Jay Furfaro: So just following up we have 10-5A.4 which deals
with existing conditions that are grandfathered in the ordinance, and then we have
10-5A.5 which deals with going forward with conditions that really are more like an
esthetic piece dealing with, like a protective covenants in a association right! This
touches on designs, facades and so forth, am I correct?
Marie Williams: Yes.
Jay Furfaro: Okay, very good. I'm going to take a minute to get
back to my seat here and what I plan to do is open up a Q and A for the individual
Councilmembers. I will hold our members to eight minutes for this first round
which are outlined in our rules, then I would like to have a presentation by someone
from the CAC for comment before I go to the entire public.
Jay Furfaro: So members we have seen an overview of the Lihu`e
town core plan. We have touched on the civic center. We know the specific sections
of the ordinances. Are there any questions for the team that's here in front of us?
Mr. Bynum!
Tim Bynum: You want me to go first?
Jay Furfaro: Yes!
Tim Bynum: Okay!
Jay Furfaro: Go ahead, we are going to do it in 8 minute
increments and then recognize someone else.
Tim Bynum: Good morning and thank you for being here.
Kaipo Asing: Mr. Chairman, I think it probably would be better
if councilman Bynum starts instead of having councilmember Bynum do his 8
minute segment if he touches upon an area and councilmembers have questions on
that area we should discuss that area first, otherwise I will be asking some
15
~ ~ • .
questions pertaining to something that was covered a little earlier but need to be
expanded and I don't think we want to do that. Thank you.
Jay Furfaro: So Mr. Bynum I'm going to recognize you first
trying to squeeze in your time accordingly but if you have questions to say about the
roundabout or you have questions about deliveries into the shopping complex then
we will open to other questions if they have similar. The floor is yours.
Tim Bynum: Thank you. My first question is about Rice, I have
found that I am a frequent pedestrian in Lihu`e and it is not easy it feels
uncomfortable in many areas. In Rice Street which I know the County redeveloped
is one of the areas that I am very surprised by because the sidewalks to me seem to
be way to narrow, two people in most areas cannot walk side by side. I don't even
know if they are compliant with ADA in their current formation. It's one of the
questions I haven't got around to answering yet, but I have been to a lot of planning
conferences over the last 4 or 5 years and visited a number of Communities who
have changed their downtown streets from 4 lanes to 2 lanes. I have seen research
that says 2 lanes with the proper amenities carry the same, almost entirely the
same volume of traffic as a 4 lane, so was there consideration of about reducing,
making changes to Rice Street and making it a 2 lane street which is pedestrian
definitely safer and more friendly. I don't understand why we are sticking with 4
lanes.
Kimi Yuen: Hi Councilmember, thank you for having me I am
Kimi Yuen!
Tim Bynum: Yeah, Hi Kimi
Ms. Yuen: I'm going to step in and answer for them. Since it
dealt with traffic studies that were done for both the civic center as well as the town
core plan, we had two traffic studies done looking at this area, and unfortunately
based on the projections (and they're standard projections that the engineers must
follow), they could not get it down to a two-lane roadway and still have traffic flow
throughout the area efficiently. One of the main reasons is that you don't have a lot
of east-west roadways that connect all the way through between the highways. And
so what happens is, you know, the traffic gets caught in certain places because
there's no other way to go, so they're going to hit Rice Street someplace down the
road, or they're going to be forced to Ahukini, which is why that one also was
recommended to be expanded to four lanes. And so those are your two main east-
west connectors through your town core, and that's why we could not get those
down. We looked at it going to two lanes as much as we could. We actually even
looked at one-way streets, but in public surveys, we found that a vast majority of
people did not like one-way streets, and so... We looked at all kinds of scenarios to
get the traffic circulation to work and to meet the engineering standards. And so
16
. . • •
what ended up happening is that Rice had to stay a four lane, because we...we
would have loved to put bike lanes in there too, but because of the historic buildings
and the way the right-of-way was, it would have required extensive condemnation
of properties if we wanted to throw that in as well. It's a bit of a compromise where
we kept the four lanes in Rice Street. We had to designate those roadways as bike
routes as well, and I think in the civic center, the latest version of the plan, you
know if we really wanted to emphasize bikeways, you could even designate that as a
shared bike roadway lane where a bicycle actually have the same priority as a car
in those lanes, and you could do that on the outside lanes, but there's other ways to
kind of accommodate that. We've recommended that these sidewalks be widened to
at least 10 to 12 feet on Rice Street, and that includes...
Mr. Bynum: If I could interject, where do you find the room for
that?
Ms. Yuen: So that one... Again, it would have to be when the
properties redevelop, and it would be an easement on the properties, short of
condemnation. I don't think the State or the County would want to condemn any
properties on either Kuhi`o or Rice, and you end up with the same kind of issues.
But the idea was to have the landowners, when they redevelop their building
facades, to give that extra space and to dedicate it to a sidewalk.
Mr. Bynum: I don't know if anybody knows this answer, but
aren't the sidewalks currently in many areas not ADA compliant, and how did we
redesign Rice Street and not meet that law?
Ms. Yuen: You ask a question that I can't answer how the
design got done, unfortunately. But I think there are stretches where the sidewalk
is...and what the ADA requires is the 36 clear path, which is three feet, which
really isn't very much. You need every so often to have 60 feet for passing, but your
clear width is only 36 inches, technically.
Mr. Bynum: And that every so often is how often?
Ms. Yuen: I think it's...
Ms. Williams: Forty feet or so.
Ms. Yuen: Yeah.
Mr. Bynum: What?
Ms. Williams: It's a forty foot intervals.
17
• •
Mr. Bynum: Right, which isn't that far, and so...
Ms. Yuen: It's not.
Mr. Bynum: I don't believe these sidewalks are compliance,
because... Has any analysis been done of that?
Ms. Yuen: It's in the beginning parts of the book. I think we
had maps where we identified where the sidewalks get narrow in red...in the earlier
chapters of the town core plan, so you can see each roadway was analyzed that way
as well. I don't have it off the top of my head, but it's in the plan.
Mr. Bynum: And who conducted the traffic analysis?
Ms. Yuen: So we had M&E did the traffic study for the civic
center master plan, and then (inaudible) did the town core plan.
Mr. Bynum: Because I believe those standards are changing all
around the country.
Ms. Yuen: They are.
Mr. Bynum: So if we're making judgments based on outdated
standards that would be a concern. So thank you for answer those questions.
Ms. Yuen: Sure. And the goal in the plan is identified to make
sure everything is ADA compliant. You guys do not want any more lawsuits, so
whatever the standards are at that time when the design moneys come in to make
improvements, those standards should be met. And also, if you guys you know
really want to create a streetscape that is not... I mean the streetscapes that we've
recommended in the plan are not county standards. If you're really interested in
really creating landmark cases in the State of walkable streets, you might want to
look at those standards as well. It's just a thought.
Mr. Furfaro: Mr. Bynum, before you go on, let's see if anybody
else has a question on Rice Street and pedestrian compliance on ADA, and Miles,
for.our actual...next time, I think we need some clarity from the county attorney,
once we begin a restoration or renovation, I think there are certain federal laws
that we have to comply to, so it's worth investigating. Anyone else on Mr. Bynum's
question? Mr. Asing.
Council Chair Asing: Yes, I have. I guess you say there's no bikeways on
the street...Rice Street as planned.
18
• Q • •
Ms. Yuen: As planned. ,
Council Chair Asing: Now?
Ms. Yuen: Yeah...as designated separate bike lane, we do not
have it, because there is not sufficient right-of-way to provide that.
Council Chair Asing: You know for me it's kind of a wow. Wow in the
sense that all we've been talking about for the last...I don't know how many years,
is bikeways in Lihu`e town. You know, extending it to Lihu`e town. And to find it
not included in the plan is kind of...
Ms. Yuen: We have designated bike lanes in Hardy Street,
because you do have the sufficient right-of-way width. It's just we don't have the
space to stripe an actual bike lane in Rice Street, as well as account for the four
lanes of traffic without condemning property. So those are the trade-offs. So the
idea was that Hardy and Umi streets would have designated striped bike lanes
painted in the ground where they could access the civic center. On Hardy Street,
you're also accessing Kaana, you know, and getting to those other surrounding bike
facilities. Ahukini, we have talked with DOT at the time, and there's a 10 foot
shoulder that would be painted, and they have agreed that that could also be a
designated bike lane. So you'll have Ahukini, Hardy, and...but the only thing is
that because Rice Street, the right-of-way is just so narrow and you know, short of...
If you look at like the... One example of where it narrows is just right in front of
the Kaua`i Museum. That building...I'm forgetting the name of it. It's the William
Rice...that one is not technically desigmated on your national register or State
register of historic places, but it is a part of the museum complex, and that is right
up against your sidewalk and where it gets very narrow. So there are those kinds of
instances where, you know, you could do a broad brush stroke of stick a bike lane in
there, but for sure you are going to start looking, you know, at the details. You're
going to start finding places where it will be very tight to do that, short of closing
other lanes.
Council Chair Asing: Okay. The next question I have on that is your
plan calls for four lanes, yeah, on Rice Street, and you're talking about future
development. I mean everything is built on that street. There's no future
development. I'm not sure where the future development is coming from, but you
know, the buildings are there. Everything is in existence. There is... I don't
believe there's too many empty lots, and so the first question that I have is, is there
enough right-of-way in existence today for four lanes to be built?
Ms. Yuen: On Rice Street?
Council Chair Asing: Right-of-way, yes.
19
• • Ms. Yuen: On Rice Street, right now you have the four lanes.
So it gets maintained.
Council Chair Asing: And you're going to leave it like that.
Ms. Yuen: Right, right, right.
Council Chair Asing: Okay, then I'm going to assume that there will be
no parking allowed?
Ms. Yuen: Yeah, that's the idea, is to give...
Council Chair Asing: The idea?
Ms. Yuen: Yeah.
Council Chair Asing: Because today there is the four...
Ms. Yuen: Right, exactly.
Council Chair Asing: There is parking, so there's a difference between,
you know, one and the other.
Ms. Yuen: Right. Council Chair Asing: So the plan is no parking.
Ms. Yuen: No parking on Rice Street. The only exception
would be in front of the post office where I think there are maybe four parallel stalls
that actually pull out of the roadway, the four lanes. So those would remain, but
otherwise the rest of the parking... Because right now I think it's dependent on
time as well, right, when those are open or when those are closed. So those would
just be a11 open to street traffic and no parallel parking.
Council Chair Asing: Okay, that's all I have on that. Thank you.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you Mr. Chair. Mr. Kaneshiro.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Thank you, Mr. Furfaro. I have something to add
on that discussion on the bicycle circulation path. When you look at the figure 4-6,
you know, it speaks about bicycle lanes and it also talks about bicycle routes on Rice
Street. So what is the difference between bicycle lanes and bicycle routes?
20
. . • •
Ms. Yuen: So bicycle lanes are those that are actually striped
in the road on the pavement. They are designated space, you know, usually
between four to six feet wide, that are striped on the roadway. Bicycle routes are
those that are shared with vehicles, so there's not a striped lane, but that is where
bicycles are allowed and encouraged to use.
Mr. Kaneshiro: So this plan also identifies bicycle routes on Rice
Street.
Ms. Yuen: Right.
Mr. Kaneshiro: So it means that it's a shared route, a car and a
bike, can pass side-by-side together.
Ms. Yuen: Right.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Okay. .
Ms. Yuen: There's just not the space to stripe it according to
the street standards, correct.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Right, as compared more of a bicycle lane where
you have it (inaudible).
Ms. Yuen: Right.
Mr. Kaneshiro: So in reality, bicycle routes...bicycles are still
allowed (inaudible) between Rice Street and so forth.
Ms. Yuen: Of course, right.
Mr. Kaneshiro: Except you got to be more cautious because you'll
be sharing the Rice Street. Okay. Thank you.
Mr. Furfaro: Councilmembers, any questions particularly on
multi-modal use on Rice Street and pedestrian access? Mr. Chang.
Mr. Chang: Thank you. Kimi, I think you answered most of my
questions, but I do have a...I don't know if it's a question or a concern, because
when you go along Rice Street, you talk about the trees, and everybody loves the
trees, but you have these boxes in the trees, once they've grown, now the ground
starts to uproot. So that happens quite a bit along Rice Street, because you know,
you got these narrow sidewalks, because I ride by that area. So the further you get
down toward the ocean, like...maybe by Danny's restaurant or Kalapaki Beach
21
• • .
Villas and across the street. So I'm just concerned that when you get the parking
lot, because even in Honolulu, you use Beretania for example when you talk about
the underground, many of those big banyan trees, you know when they come up, or
even these smaller trees, I don't know what the name of them, but they got these
beautiful orange trees, so they're not big trees, but they're still uprooting the
ground, so I just...I'm sure you guys have a concern or you understand maybe
perhaps what kind of trees you're going to grow, but I did want to mention that
because the sidewalks are narrow enough making it difficult to walk, and since
we're talking about bikes, it's an uneven surface right there, so...ADA purposes, etc.
That's the only concern I had. Ms. Yuen: Absolutely.
Mr. Chang: Thank you.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you. Anymore questions on the subjects
we're on? Mr. Bynum. _
Mr. Bynum: Excuse me if I'm being redundant, but I'm really
concerned about the assumptions we're making based on what data...and I don't...you know, these are questions that I'm going to ask Planning and Public
Works to address in terms of what assumptions were made about the traffic flow on
Rice Street, what standards were we using. I know our county roadway standards
are from 84, which are really outdated. And so, you know, like I said I've seen
communities where...with very high volumes of traffic. They converted to two lane,
even on thoroughfares and highways, so I really want to know more eventually
about how those assumptions were made, based on what standards, because again I
see in this research, it says properly designed, the traffic volume between two lanes
and four lanes is minimal, the different is very minimal. So I'll send follow-up
questions for planning, if that's okay. That's it.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay, anymore questions on Rice Street? Mr.
Asing.
Council Chair Asing: Yeah, I want to follow-up on Councilmember
Chang's comment regarding the trees. First of all, you know, I am not sure about
trees being planted and the roots, you know, I guess uplifting roadways. You know,
I had the same concern that Councilmember Chang has, but you know, I viewed it
as I'm not educated enough in that axea to know whether there is some system that
you use to prevent uprooting. And the reason I say that is that I know at the Kaua`i
Surf area, when they built the roadways in there, and that wasn't too long ago, you
know I'd say maybe 5 years ago. When they redid the roadway, they planted huge
trees and the trees that they replanted was something like three foot in diameter
type trees, and close to the roadway. So I'm saying to myself, maybe there's some
22
' ' • •
kind of magic that they do and how they contain the root system so it goes down
rather than it goes out. I don't know, but is there such a thing?
Ms. Yuen: There's a...and that was what my fellow landscape
architecture architect should be doing correctly-is designing your streetscapes,
and I'm not a landscape architect but I work with them, and it is all in the tree
selection, because there are some trees that will tend to get big, there is some that
will stay a certain size, there's others that have very shallow roots, which is the
problem of the uplifting pavements, and there's others that will go, you know, more
down, and so it's all in the design of your streetscape. And so it is incumbent that
you select landscape architects that are knowledgeable about appropriate street
trees when these get planted. We have in our...I think it's chapter 4, a list of
recommended street trees for each of the different roadways in the plan, because
some have wider right-of-ways which might be able to take a bigger tree, and then
in other ones like along Rice Street and Kuhi`o where you are going to have your
shops...(inaudible) shops be closer to the street, and so you will want trees that are
more vertical in their spread; you don't want the big, you know, spreading banyans
and monkeypods unless you have the appropriate space. So unless there is... I
think...I mean the guidelines in chapter 4 are just recommendations as well, but
you really want to make sure that when the actual planting design gets done by
your landscape architects that they select appropriate trees for the appropriate
space.
Council Chair Asing: Okay, then just another follow-up on the trees
portion, because I like the trees too. I enjoy the trees, but...and the reason I'm
going to ask this question is because in Honolulu on Kuhi`o Avenue, Mayor Harris
made the proposal of the trees to be planted on Kuhi`o, and then I'm not going to
mention names, but another mayor decides that the trees come out. So I saw the
trees being planted, I saw the trees growing, and then a few years after I saw
machines taking out the trees. So I'm saying, wow, I mean what is this. So what is
the plan today looking forward on the trees that are there now, which I like, will
they still be there? Is that the plan?
Ms. Yuen: That's the hope. That's the hope that the street
trees would be there.
Council Chair Asing: There's no plan to remove the trees?
Ms. Yuen: No, no, and I think the few trees that got removed,
if I'm understanding this correctly, was due to sight lines. I think some of the ones
that got removed were because they were blocking the traffic signals and the tree
selection I do not think was the choice of the landscape architect. And so you did
have trees that were blocking views, blocking safe...
23
• •
Mr. Furfaro: You're referencing Honolulu?
Ms. Yuen: Honolulu, correct. And so that's why it's very key
that the landscape architect that selects the trees and does the design makes sure
that you got the clearest sight lines worked out. The tree selected is appropriate for
that spot, and that the design and construction, you know, the actual planting of the
trees get done correctly. So it's a little bit of those things that, you know, hopefully
you won't have to experience here.
Council Chair Asing: Thank you.
Mr. Furfaro: Are we finished with the trees?
Mr. Bynum: I have one more. I was reluctant to say this, but as
it turns out, my father was roadside trees in Los Angeles county. That was his
career. And you know, that you're saying is absolutely correct that proper tree
selection is really, really important, and...you know, but I don't now in Kaua`i
whether we...who selected the trees on Rice Street. You know, they're koa trees
and they're Florida koas, not native koas, and...yeah, but that's essential. But
sometimes political people think they know better than landscape architects or
traffic engineers or whatever, and they, you know, it's your recommendation to
make the changes, so I think...I hope we're real incumbent to follow up to...follow
the professional landscape architect's recommendation about tree selection in
the future.
Mr. Furfaro: Hotel general managers are the same way. I would
like to ask my colleagues to come to a section that you can refer us to now a
subcontractor, like a landscaping engineer, that's recommended and so forth that,
you know that'll be a really a future discussion. I mean we can talk about the
points, but for us to waste, you know, the whole detail on that right now, I would
say you can point that out to us when you're referring something to another
specialist (inaudible). And trees are very important. Mr. Asing likes them, so...
Mr. Chang: Especially the ones you plant that doesn't attract
birds when you just wash your car.
Mr. Furfaro: Mr. Bynum, because I want to get to the public by
11 o'clock, so if you have anything on a new subject?
Mr. Bynum: I do. Regarding mixed use and historical buildings,
you know, are they compatible? Can you keep a historical building and do mixed
use redevelopment and keep the historic nature intact?
24
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Ms. Yuen: Absolutely. You've got an example right on Kuhi`o
highway with your old Lihu`e theater, which is now a Weinberg public housing.
Mr. Bynum: Right. I mean if you have a one-story intact
historical building, can you develop that into multiple stories and maintain the
historic character?
Ms. Yuen: I think when we're talking about historic buildings,
you want to protect the integrity of the structure itself. And so the uses within it
would be where you would have your flexibility, but the actual structure itself will
have to adhere to, you know, historic preservation standards. So there is some
flexibility, but not a whole lot, because what you're trying to do is preserve the
integrity of that structure, as opposed to the uses that are within them.
Mr. Bynum: Regarding Elua, Akahi and Umi streets, again I've
become a frequent pedestrian in Lihu`e and I walk to Tip Top and it's not very
comfortable, so they're this plan would have redevelop development of pedestrian
facilities on those streets?
Ms. Yuen: Absolutely.,
Mr. Bynum: And they have sufficient right-of-way...they do
have currently, is that correct?
Ms. Yuen: There is right-of-way, yeah, and we've actually
recommended sidewalks, and we've also provided a design... I think in the design
within our plan, we talk about schemes in where you could actually have portions
where you have on-street parallel parking as well, so we've got the space for the
lanes, some parking at least on one side of the street, sidewalks.
Mr. Bynum: Regarding the roundabout, the... Unfortunately
our first roundabout on Kaua`i functions quite well for traffic, I think, and I think
there'd be consensus, but it wasn't designed with any pedestrian in combination. It
got retrofit in and a less than desirable way, and so it's created this folklore that
roundabouts are not pedestrian friendly, and I think properly designed, they are
much safer than other type of intersections. Is that correct?
Ms. Yuen: Yes, that is correct...well, it... What you have to do
is provide a...this would be great if I had a graphic to explain it a little bit better,
but what you need is your splitter islands as they approach the roundabouts, you
would have crosswalks on each side of...you know, each street that intersect the
roundabout, and they would be set back one car from entering the roundabout so
that basically what you have is a crosswalk, cars coming up to the street, right,
pedestrians crossing the crosswalk, but there's also a space for that one car that's
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entering the roundabout to cue, so that as the car goes through this, you know,
entry into the roundabout, the car stops, it only has to look for pedestrians, next it
approaches...it only has to look for cars that are coming around. So it actually
simplifies what's...the driver has to focus on as it enters the roundabout, and alto
the pedestrians only have to look...cars are coming from (inaudible) as they cross,
cars are coming from my right. As I get to the splitter island which acts as a little
shelter for the pedestrian as they look at the cars that might be exiting the
roundabout.
Mr. Bynum: And I have that concern, because roundabouts were
a new idea, and then we...you know, we have low income housing on one side of the
street and a park on the other side of the roundabout, and no pedestrian
accommodation, there's still no connectivity on either side right now, and when the
State retrofitted in, they did it wrong. They didn't do what you just recommended.
They put the sidewalk immediately adjacent to the roundabout, and so the
experience that one has is this isn't comfortable. So I'm really concerned that some
of the concerns about roundabouts I hear from the community are based on this bad
poorly designed first experience. And then our second one I think was Po`ipu. It
has pedestrian accommodations, but it's also designed very large because it's a
gateway. And so we don't have yet a god example of the ones I've seen. Have I got
this right?
Ms. Yuen: Yes, yes.
Mr. Bynum: Because I know there's concern from people who
live in Lihu`e about a roundabout, and also, the one the State designed is really
ugly; it has no esthetic features whatsoever. One other thing really quick, I'm
trying to go quickly, mixed use, we have kind of a very important height standard
and which basically is four stories. Mixed use, although, likes retail to have more
headroom on the bottom story, and so is there a provision in this for a slight
increase in the...for the height limit to accommodate the retail and the, you know,
the density above that mixed use likes to create a viable...
Ms. Yuen: I'm going to defer a little bit to the planning
department, because I think that she made that revision to do that.
Ms. Williams: Yeah. We did deal with this issue in the planning
commission public hearing. That was a concern by some members of the
community saying well, if you maintain a very strict height limit, especially on Rice
Street and Kuhi`o Highway, why would anybody choose to redevelop if it's for a
vertical mixed use project that might not, you know, they might not make it any
profit off such project if it were so small, and so the...we revised the height limit to
50 feet and there's no reference to a certain number of stories that must be met. It's
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simply a 50-foot height limit with additional height for a sloping roof that is
designed to enhance the pedestrian feel of the street as well.
Mr. Bynum: And so the answer is yes.
Ms. Williams: So yeah. They could, although there isn't a
stipulation in the bill currently that says the first floor, if retail, must be a certain
height. But they...but naturally somebody could...
Mr. Bynum: I think you outlined the dilemma. I mean the idea
of mixed use is to make a pedestrian friendly thing that draws people in, but also to
house potential customers for that retail in the area. And if you don't meet a
certain density, you don't get critical mass that makes it economically viable. Is
that right? So I'm glad the answer's yes that we've had to accommodate that, and I
think for Grove Farm's plans in the future, which are not part of this plan, there
may need to be that same accommodation, I believe. And I think it's important to
educate people, because that height limit is very important to people on Kaua`i, and
you know, and to have an understanding of why we would move that up a little bit
and the benefits for the community they'll get from that.
Ms. Williams: And if you remember the vision for this plan for the
future of Lihu`e, it's this that the town core and the greater Lihu`e really will be our
main urban center on Kaua`i.
Mr. Furfaro: Marie, I might want to reflect back. Some of us on
the council invited over Eric Crispin several years ago, the planning director from
city & county of Honolulu when Jeremy was mayor, and there is...he did address
with that council at the time, in preparation for this piece, some of the things that
Honolulu did in changing the roofline and making certain areas multi-use for
commercial space, office space, residential (inaudible), and so forth. That is
somewhere in the planning department, and it might be good for us to revisit that,
because they did an excellent job, Mr. Crispin, in that presentation. I'm sure you
recall, Miles, this.
Mr. Hironaka: Councilmembers, I just wanted to clarify that the
50 foot height requirement is applicable to Rice Street and Kuhi`o Highway.
Mr. Furfaro: I think when Mr. Crispin made those
presentations, there were considerations for us for Rice Street, and I think at the
time, the core of Kapa`a by the ballpark (inaudible). Let me ask, are there any more
particular questions dealing about the roundabout from the councilmembers? If
not, I'm going to take advantage. I know we have Doug in the audience, and
although we have not addressed it, we are still looking for the repairs on the
stairway that goes up to the school in Kapa`a from the roundabout. So just a little
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reminder here. And the traffic as you described it, for myself I spent a lot of time in
French Polynesia, but the crosswalk that you described is very similar to the
approach that we have by Kentucky Fried Chicken in Lihu`e where you come up
and you have a crosswalk with a stop, then you have a lane before you go into the
turn lane. It's the same principal, so the driver is paying attention to one activity at
a time. So that was a very good explanation, but we have something very similar to
that. Mr. Bynum, any new questions?
Mr. Bynum: I had some dismaying news last week regarding,
you know, and I'm researching the history of this now, but you know, we've had
discussion for years about the civic center, lots of community input about the
pedestrian safety concerns, and I'll just say as an aside, I try to never cross the
street at Eiwa because it's dangerous. It's just flat out dangerous, and everybody
that works in Lihu`e knows don't try to make a left turn in the middle of the day
from Eiwa to...because you'll wait forever, and I think that's just a huge accident
waiting to happen. So that's an aside, but you know my memory of the discussions
in the past was how important the Hardy Street improvements were to improve
traffic circulation around this town and give us a sense of, you know, whether
closing Eiwa Street is appropriate or not by improving the traffic circulation and the
safety. We had STIP funding for four years, and earlier this year we had discussion
on the council floor about why does it take four years when you have federal funds
to get a project going. When I came on the council three and a half years ago, I
think a number expected those Hardy Street improvements to happen during that
council term during that two-year period. And I was assured that it would be given
priority, and it was kind of a poster child for me of CIP of why we put funds out and
why does it take us so long to get the improvements out on the street. And then I
heard last week, and Doug said it today again, that we've asked the State that we
don't want those funds, we want to move them somewhere else. Was the planning
department consulted about that change?
Mr. Furfaro: Mr. Bynum, let me ask this. I see we have the
planning director in the audience, we also have Mr. Haigh here, maybe we can hold
that question for the two of them, because the process in the county of Kaua`i is the
development of the five year CIP plans do go through planning and get signed off by
the director on certain recommendations. And so if that is changed, that's not only
your new information, but that's new information to me as well. So I'd like to hold
your question when we have time for the planning director. I think in all fairness, if
something has changed in the STIP funding, then I would think at least my
committee would be advised as well. So let's hold that question.
Mr. Bynum: I'm done.
Mr. Furfaro: You still have the floor...you're done.
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Mr. Bynum: For now.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay. Lani Kawahara, I give you the time next.
We're going to go with council questions for now. Do you have any particular...
Ms. Kawahara: I'll save my minutes for another time if I may?
Mr. Furfaro: Very good. Okay, Mr. Chang.
Mr. Chang: I'll wait for Ian, thank you.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay. Mr. Asing?
Council Chair Asing: I just have a kind of a general question, and the
question really relates to the...I guess the proposed changes and as you were going
down, you started the plan and you talked about transportation, so it's all the road
systems that was going to be changed, and then you took on the public parking, the
9 spaces or areas that was designed for that, and then you went through the other
sections on mixed use. My question is more addressed to timeframes. Timeframes
in the sense of, you know, a developer coming in and wants to do a development,
and because you know you have these parking problems, you know, what's he going
to be doing as it relates to parking, what can he do, what can't he do, because
the...when he... He's the first one to start, there is no parking areas yet, so what's
he going to do, what's he going to be allowed to do? Is he under the old plan, the
new plan, you know, I think timing is going to be a very important part of this
project in terms of the roadways. I like the roadway coming off of Ahukini. I think
that's an excellent idea that the State had for it to come out to an area, I guess,
where Wal-Mart is. I like that. I think it's ideal and should be done right away, but
what's the timing like? Does anybody know about these timing issues?
Mr. Hironaka: I think... I guess my answer will be sort of twofold,
because it really depends on, as you say, it's timing and it's also in some instances
funding. But you know, with respect to say having these...like Ahukini Road, it's
incumbent on when the developer decides to do the project, which then we can try to
implement the construction of that roadway. The parking areas I think... Well, for
one thing, if someone were to come in to develop, I think that the plan itself and the
ordinance itself has the minimum standards or requirements for that person to
proceed with his development or redevelopment within the town core. So I think he
has to provide so many parking stalls, as well as design standards in order for him
to either develop or to redevelop. Some of these parking areas I think provides the
means for us to implement in the plan where we can do parking credits, I believe.
So we can establish parking credits. But those would be a matter of us being able to
somehow find the funding to do the additional studies, for example, as we're saying
the parking areas and also the street improvements.
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Ms. Yuen: An easy first one is your War Memorial parking.
It's an existing parking lot. It's underutilized right now, and whether the county
chose to say this is potential public parking lot, -you know, maybe some of it is set
aside for county employees, but another big chunk of it during the daytime hours,
business hours, that could be your transitional parking area for public parking. Say
somebody wants to come in, meet the standards, get a lower parking requirement
on their specific lot, that's an easy first one to offer the community for public
parking.
Council Chair Asing: You know, just off the top of my head, I would say
that that would, I think, be kind of a bad policy. Personally, my viewpoint, and only
because there are times that the convention center is used during the day for
different large events, and to not have parking on when there's a period of time that
you have a larger event there and no parking because it was used for public
parking, that's wrong. I don't know how you're going to have an event go on in a
public facility designed for that purpose with no parking facilities. It would be
absolutely unthinkable, in my opinion. I'll just leave it at that.
Ms. Yuen: And it's a valid point. I think some of the
discussion that we've had throughout this planning process is that, recognizing that
actually having too much parking too may not encourage people to walk or look at
transit or carpooling. So we find oftentimes say, you know, within the civic center
somebody goes to the county building, we found out people jump in their car, drive
around because they wanted to go to the grocery store on the other side. So when
you have a lot of parking, it's real easy for people to say...make the decision that
they're going to jump in their car and drive. When parking actually becomes a little
bit more difficult, and I'm not...you know, it's a double-edged sword, but it does
force people to think of other ways to get around town, and what you really want
people to do is walk, take transit, and change the experience within the civic center
from a car dominated...single occupancy car dominated one to one that is more
walkable, bike friendly, transit friendly, you know. So you do need to have all those
other supporting facilities in place, the bike racks, the transit shuttles. You know, I
do believe Janine Rapozo did start a Lihu`e shuttle during the lunchtime hours
since this plan started, and that's great. I hear that it's actually working, and so
that, you know, to support other instances, maybe when the War Memorial comes
on you have another shuttle from, you know, someplace else to support those
events. But you don't want to overbuild parking either, because then that
encourages people to continue using their cars, and this is your civic center where
you want people to walk, take a bike, you know, take transit when they can, if they
can, and make it a pleasurable experience too. Don't forget that, that is huge. You
can't just stripe an ADA path on a huge thing of asphalt and expect people to want
to walk through that. You really need to create the entire environment, the
streetscape, the pedestrian paths through your civic center, and make it something
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enjoyable where people want to hang out and be. So it is...it's going to be a long
transition. This isn't something that even the design guidelines are forcing down
landowners or the county's throat to hey, you got to transform this whole place
within, you know, five, ten years. It's designed to be a little bit flexible so that as
the town grows out, as people say hey, you know, maybe there's an opportunity to
redevelop Lihu`e because it is dying a little bit. You've got, you know, the Grove
Farm coming out, you got Kukui shopping center which was the first pull away from
the civic center, now you've got, you know Grove Farm has another potential for
outside of the town core, how do you bring that interest back to the town core
without sacrificing, and then making those connections to those neighboring areas
so that your whole Lihu`e town area works, and that's something your development
plan should be looking at how those other major centers of activity within town
connect and work. But the idea is to start within your core area where the activity
happens, where your civic center is, your government worksite, you know you've got
at least that mass of people here, you know, and then you know, how do you build
that up, how do you support it, to keep it thriving as well as, you know, the bigger
economy around it.
Mr. Furfaro: I think Mr. Chang had a question.
Mr. Chang: Yeah, I forgot to ask you. Speaking of parking, is it
free? Is it going to be free?
Ms. Yuen: And that was another touchy subject. I know
Kaua`i loves their free parking, and so that is truly actually up to the council, but if
you do charge a minimal fee say within the town core, I think we looked at the civic
center, like if employees did want to purchase on-site parking $30 a month, you
know, you multiply that out times 200. It was generating actually funds to then
maintain your civic center. So I mean you can look at things like that. There was
options alternatives brought up that way too. But like at the War Memorial, you
know, it's easy to start out, you know, hey it's free, you know. And then as things
get more congested, like you know, you could be like Honolulu and charge $300 a
month for parking if you want. But it's really...it's up to you folks as the council to
decide whether you charge or not to support the improvements.
Mr. Chang: One of your graphics you had the 9 locations. Is
that listed? The potential locations, the names of the locations.
Ms. Yuen: Yep, and they're described in little brief write-ups
in that chapter 4.
Mr. Furfaro: Actually, Mr. Chang, I think they... You
understood we were looking for a prioritized list going forward on those 9 sites.
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Ms. Yuen: Okay.
Mr. Furfaro: Not...but at least recommend for us the top 3,
because it also has to overlay with our bike and bus transportation system. So we
would certainly like to see something along that line in prioritizing at least the
top 3 spots.
Mr. Chang: And I think the reason I asked that question, if we
are going to charge, there's a very few places like maybe the State building that we
have coined meter charges. Because whenever we go to O`ahu or being from O`ahu,
you know you pay an arm and a leg. You mentioned $300 premium per month, but
people are paying hundreds of dollars, and I think it's important for Kaua`i to get
some sort of a comparison, because if you walking from the War Memorial
Convention Hall to the historic county building or to the Moikeha building, in many
cases that's a lot shorter than you'd be walking anywhere throughout downtown
Honolulu anyway. And by the time you park, whether you're underground or going
up, up, up, up, up, that's time, elevator, walking, so that would be a little bit of
comparison. I think I just got one last question. Eiwa Street has been mentioned a
lot, and of course if you take a right turn you got museum parking, if you take a left
turn you got the Kaua`i mission church...the Lihu`e mission church, Prosser...I
think it's still Prosser, you know, Hair Razors, the tuxedo place, and City Liquor, I
think that strip, you cannot park from 3 to 5, if I'm not mistaken. So now you're
saying we got four lanes, you cannot park. So initially years ago the parking was to
help out maybe the museum and the vendors, but you still say that...you mention
the four stalls in front of the post office. Is that going to still exist?
Ms. Yuen: That was... Yeah, that was the request, because
they actually have a curb cut for those 4 stalls. It's not in the travel lane; so...
Mr. Chang: But in lieu of the crosswalk at Haleko and the Eiwa
heading toward the museum to the Chevron service station, we wanted to get a
crosswalk and a stoplight outside of the Piikoi/Moikeha building. Is that correct? Is
that where we're talking about a traffic light?
Ms. Yuen: It will be Kele Street. Basically, your driveway
would line up with Kele Street, which is right next to the Bank of Hawai`i.
Mr. Chang: Okay, so what I see then is if you're coming from
Haleko or past Haleko going this way, then it might be a...not only a deterrent, but
it could be a safety issue, because as soon as you go past that light, you either duck
in or you cause a...not a violation, but a hazard trying to pull out. So it just seems
as though if you're going to be using the Lihu`e plantation building in the back, or
maybe borrowing some stalls from Bank of Hawai`i, or whatever you're going to do,
it just seems that if that's going to be the traffic excuse me, the crosswalk or the
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traffic light, then you might want to consider whether you want to have that four
stalls or not, just because even as it is right now, it's a pretty hairy place pulling in
and out, and especially-because we identified the sidewalks are so narrow that, you
know, when you walking to... If you're lucky enough to get a parking space in front
of the post off'ice, you're always watching when you open the door. You know, you
don't just open the door and open the door. You got to open the door when there's
no cars, so that might-be a consideration that we may look at, and that's only for
safety reasons. Just thinking where the lights are going to be and the crosswalk.
Thank you.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay, Mr. Bynum.
Mr. Bynum: I'll follow-up on Chairman Asing's question,
because I think he gave a really excellent question about timing, and what I've seen
in many communities is redevelopment is drive by government. Government says
we're going to address this parking issue, we're going to create a redevelopment
area, and we're going to address some of these design concerns, and that makes it
attractive for business to want to do their redevelopment. Have we ever done that
kind of redevelopment on Kaua`i where...you know, I can think of hundreds of
examples where the county or city government said hey we have to preserve our
town. You, Kimi, talked eloquently about the draws that pull out and make
downtown less vibrant, but you know, usually it's like we come up with a plan, we
say here's the public space, here's the parking, that happens, and it draws in those
redevelopment dollars. Have I got that right, or...and have we ever done that on
Kaua`i or are we envisioning doing that?
Ms. Williams: Well, I would say that the civic center master plan
really is sort of the county's portion of the redevelopment of the town core. You
know, once that's implemented, at least I foresee the improvements sort of
radiating, you know, from it...the improved civic center, especially if it ever does
develop as it's envisioned in the civic center master plan. And you know, many of
these new development standards, they create more...you know, they might attract
redevelopment. I know we don't see too much infill development currently on
Kaua`i. It's still easier to purchase land and build rather than knock down
buildings and redevelop, but that's one of the hopes of this plan that there are
opportunities for that, especially in the town core, and with these new standards,
for the first time somebody can build, you know, hopefully a profitable vertical
mixed use building, for example. So we're hoping to attract that type of
development as well.
Mr. Bynum: So by creating those public spaces and addressing
parking, because our civic center plan, you know, does have parking structures as
potential. That would make it more...those are incentives for private development
to infill, is that correct?
33
• i Mr. Furfaro: Mr. Bynum, excuse me. Could you hold that
question, because Mr. Haigh has to leave us at 11 o'clock, and I wanted him to come
back up with the planning director. And ladies, if you don't mind, when I do open
this to the public, I'd like the two of you to join us here in case there's questions
from the public we can't answer, if that's possible. Do you mind, Mr.... Mr. Costa
and Doug, if you could come up and join us. Gentlemen, there was a question posed
by Councilman Bynum that dealt with the redirection of STIP funds, I believe, that
are being considered or being altered out of the CIP or... Could you give us some
background?
IAN COSTA, Planning Director: I think the question was with respect to
Hardy Street.
Mr. Furfaro: Yes.
Mr. Costa: My understanding was that the Hardy Street
design was prepared a number of years ago...I'm guessing about 8 to 10 years ago.
Mr. Furfaro: It seems from Mr. Bynum's comment and maybe a
comment made by Mr. Haigh earlier, there was some redirection of funds that have
been eaxmarked for Hardy Street. That's just what I'm looking for, because we do
have a process here in the county that deals with the fact that the CIP plans
are...the overview is from the planning commission. They acknowledge the plan as
you submit it to them, and then it becomes the CIP plan with the planning
commission's approval as well for briefing. So could you help us here?
DOUGLAS HAIGH, Superintendent of Buildings: My understanding of how
this process has worked is it occurred during the bond...proposed bond issue review
that the administration reevaluated where we were on many of our projects and
trying to prioritize how we want to go forward particularly with the bond issue, and
it was at that time that they were looking at highway projects that were on the
STIP and making the decision to defer on the Hardy Street project and move
forward with some other projects. I was not present at the meetings, so I don't
know the details and I don't...and Ian may not have been there either. And so this
is new information. I was just informed just too...because I was actually starting to
pick up Hardy Street again coming back to the building division since the
engineering division could not handle it. But then I was told go ahead and hold off
on that, because we do have other higher priorities we want to focus on and use the
funds for.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay, well then it is hard to ask the two of you if
we're going to see a new CIP plan that deviates from the plan that we have now,
right? It's only a discussion item?
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Mr. Haigh: Yeah, at this point I don't think...well I know I
haven't been involved in developing a new CIP plan, so I can't answer that
personally.
IAN COSTA, Planning Director: I just wanted to say that I know that the
Hardy design that was done a number of years ago had to reanalyzed, I believe,
with respect to the development of the civic center, because it was not conducive to
some of the improvements proposed I believe in the civic center, namely the
roundabout and the treatment of Hardy Street adjacent to the civic center.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay, if you gentlemen aren't real familiar with the
outcome, I'll send some correspondence over. I'll copy both of you and you know, I
just...it came up I guess in your dialogue, because there was more dialogue with
Mr. Bynum. Let me ask if he has another question before I excuse you.
Mr. Bynum?
Mr. Bynum: Do you think there's a big history to this issue and
I'm preparing questions right now as we speak, and I intend to address it in the
public works committee. You know, again this has a long history. There were
commitments made and...from my point of view, and discuss this year about, you
know, moving ahead with the Hardy Street improvements and why it had taken so
long to do it when it's tied to a lot of funds that we spent on the civic center plan, on
the Lihu`e town core plan. They were all, you know, Hardy Street improvements to
me were a very high priority, they had momentum and had already been stalled,
and so I want to understand that, I want to understand the history, I want to
understand how that decision gets made without the council's without consulting
with planning apparently, or...and without consulting with the council.
Mr. Furfaro: Okay, well let's leave it at that, because we have
some uncertainties in here, but I just heard from Mr. Bynum that as chairman of
the planning committee, I would like to manage all the questions, but in this
particular case, it sounds like Mr. Bynum is going to pursue this through public
works. Is that what I'm hearing?
Mr. Bynum: It's part of what we started earlier...
Mr. Furfaro: I understand. I just don't want to duplicate
questions over to the administration. So if you want to send it over with public
works, that's fine with me, and we'll get some clarity. I have one other question,
gentlemen. In all of these overlapping, planning as well as with building, before I
let you go, you know there's a series of tunnels under Lihu`e town that go back to
the plantation to the mill, and they are probably in some pretty key areas back
when they were used to drain water from the mill out to the ocean. I know in the
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• • • .
late 70s they put a retention pond out by the airport because EPA no longer allowed
them to spill water out into the ocean. And subsequently, the mill closed and now
there's no water in that retention basin, but the tunnels do exist in Lihu`e, and I
would just suggest that you might want to pursue that with those people that have
that kind of expertise on where those tunnels are before we think about
putting. and they're tunnels that run out to the ocean, not into the mill, they go
out. So it would be something I would like you to overlay if you get an opportunity.
Are there any more questions for Mr. Haigh in particular before he leaves? Doug,
thank you very much for your presence today, and those questions will come from
Mr. Bynum in public works.
Mr. Haigh: You're welcome.
Mr. Furfaro: Ian, do you have anything more?
Mr. Costa: No, but thank you for raising that point about the
tunnels, because I think that's something that we all don't know enough about, but
pops up in our head (inaudible)...
Mr. Furfaro: We still have a couple old timers that are resource
for us. So okay. Lani did you have a question?
Ms. Kawahara: About the tunnels. (inaudible)
Mr. Furfaro: I just brought it up because I think they need to go
and research it and lay it under the...
Ms. Kawahara: Those tunnels, I guess they weren't done by the
county, so we wouldn't be responsible for infrastructure for taking them out,
would we?
Mr. Furfaro: I guess I raised it more from the standpoint if not
from a legal standpoint, if just to lay it over there, you know...
Ms. Kawahara: When it comes to cost for doing the town center...
Mr. Furfaro: No, no, no. It's not a county question, but it is a
knowledge of history that would be to our benefit, our mutual benefit if we knew
where they were.
Mr. Costa: I would just say if we were working on a county
road or a county facility and somehow dug one up, I think it would be part of our
cost to deal with.
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Ms. Kawahara: Yeah, the cost of it.
Mr. Furfaro: Again, my request is just to get close to it; find out
where they might be. Thank you.
Council Chair Asing: I don't have anything for... What I wanted to do
was just have one more question, and it's a follow-up of the question and
recommendation you asked of planning department and that is the question on the
priority of the three parking areas. I'd like to be sure that you include in the three
parking areas not just the area itself, but the number of stalls that are going to be
placed in the three areas. Three areas is fine, but number of stalls in each of
the areas.
Mr. Furfaro: So I'll just repeat that again. We're looking for
something that indicates the three locations prioritized by planning and the
consultant, and then what the potential inventory of those locations are to actually
address parking stalls.
Mr. Chang: Just really quickly, maybe we should get all the
areas identified anyway.
Mr. Furfaro: They have that in the book. It's not prioritized.
This is what we want, a priority. Councilmembers, I'm going to ask if we can have
° the two ladies come up and join us here, and we will now want to hear if somebody's
going to speak for the advisory council, and then open it up to the public for
testimony here. So is there someone coming up from the advisory council? Are
there two of you coming up?
NEIL CLENDENNIN: So Council, I'm Neil Clendennin, and I'm with the
Lihu`e business association and with Lihu`e tomorrow committee, which actually
has been studying this plan for many, many, many...well anyway, for a long time.
And also I did my thesis on Lihu`e when I went to architecture school and studied
some of the issues that are surrounding Lihu`e, and I was on the CAC, the new
advisory committee, which is why I'm here.
PAT GRIFFIN: I'm here to give Neil support. I'm Pat Griffin and
was also on the CAC, and I guess I'm also up here so that you all don't think that
Marie Williams was taking my name in vain.
Mr. Clendennin: But I guess I would like to say that I'm very happy
that this plan is sort of seeing the light of day. I guess unfortunately we've had lots
and lots of plans that get done and then get shelved, and that's so unfortunate,
because some of them have been pretty good. There have been design plans before,
but they never saw the light of day. (Inaudible) was one done for all the major
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urban areas of the island, and it was put on the shelf back in 1977. It would be nice
to see some of these kind of make the light. They're important, just like
development plans are important. Design plans really do give the community an
opportunity to talk about their vision-what they really would like the area to look
like, not just, you know, we want more houses, we want this, you know, how is that
going to work, how do you really want things. I think the process that we went
through was a very good process. There was a community advisory committee that
came from all walks of the community. They had public meetings. Thousands of
people attend...no this is Kaua`i, not thousands, but there was turnout for the
public hearing, which was good. There were a lot of ideas that were brought up.
Some of them you talked about, Rice Street being...should be two lanes, four lanes,
one way, all that...those discussions did come up, and the committee as well as the
public sort of came to some conclusions of what can be done, so also there was input
from public works, and roads, and other things that had to be factored into this. Is
it a be all, end all, is it the only way possible to do it? No, there are other ways to do
things here, but it's giving us a plan, something to start with, something to discuss.
Okay? Probably the most important thing at least about the ordinance as opposed
to the plan, it's really some saying, you know, what do these buildings kind of need
to be. You know, how do we want the buildings to kind of sit on the streets, do we
want to maintain them? I think it's very important for a street like Akahi Street
which is mostly small houses. Do we want to see big tall buildings? Tall four story
buildings, blocks, coming into that particular street? You know, most of the people
in this CAC and most of the public said no, it should maintain its look; it's kind of
nice, it's historic. That's a street we should try to maintain. So that's what this
kind of plan does. It says, Akahi Street should kind of remain Akahi Street. Rice
Street is our main street, you know. It needs to have the feel of a main street. It
needs to invite people. It needs to invite people to walk. The stores would really
appreciate that if more people walked down Rice Street than drove and parked in
front and then drove a few more feet and parked in front of the next one, you know.
So that's also important, how to make people so they'll walk down the street. That's
a very, you know, very critical thing for Rice Street.
The whole area behind Rice Street, it's a jewel. It's in the rough, but it's a
jewel. It's something that will really boost the island's economy, boost the town,
if...you know, you go there at night, I don't know if how many of you probably have
been there at night, maybe not, Rice...Lihu`e is always hard to get people to come
to. But if you go to that area where Hamura's is and the barbecue, there's activity
there. It could be more. It could be...you could get a lot more stores, a lot more
excitement about that area if you planned it, and it does require the government to
kind of initiate that, to kind of help the developers decide hmm, it's worth it, it's
worth it. It's worth putting my money into the buildings here and getting, you
know, more things and more tenants and other things. Because the government
kind of is, you know, sort of helping start this. It's got to ignite the flame.
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One of the issues that you talked about was prioritizing parking. Well, that's
good. It's good to prioritize it, but you also in the prioritization need to think how
do you want the city...how do you want the town to develop, what do you want to
stimulate. I mean you could put, you know, a four story parking at the civic center.
That may do something, it may, you know, you'll have daytime parking for events
going on there, you have public parking also, at night it might stimulate more
people to enter the Kress Street area because it's pretty close to that. That might be
something worth doing. You know, you could put the parking...a multi-story
parking garage in the...what is it, the Rice Street shopping center. That might also
stimulate that particular shopping center to grow. So there's a...when you're
prioritizing, you also have to think about what are the goals, what are the long term
goals that the government wants to help spar. Right? I sort of view the parking as
well there are 9 spots, I think it's okay to prioritize them, but you know, you kind of
have to remember every time you design something and put something in that spot,
you've now eliminated one of the potential parking areas for the town. Right?
That's something to look at, that you've eliminated one when you kind of build say a
number 8 or a number 7 or something else without just parking at that building,
you've eliminated a larger parking area for the town. So that's another thing to
consider.
This is really just a blueprint. It's a way to think about things, but it also
gives developers, owners of properties, ideas perhaps that they can do with their
property. It's not just sitting there holding a small store. It has the potential of
holding a store plus maybe residences, you know, which generates money for them,
generates money for the county, you know. I think...
Also one of the really important things about this area is we're about to have
something that's going to be really good, which is Wailani coming up by the airport,
but that's going to be a big draw out of central Lihu`e. How do we maintain central
Lihu`e when something is planned that could have excitement, that could attract
people away, and here's your core, here's your government. How do we maintain
this so that we have these two areas that are viable. They're not far apart, but you
know, you watch a lot of towns, and I think in my letter I talk about Hilo where you
know you sort of got that where it stretched itself a little bit too far. So we've got to
start thinking, and I think this plan will help us and help the community keep the
central core. Will it happen tomorrow? No. Will it happen tomorrow if somebody,
federal government, State government, county government helped stimulate it? It
could. Doesn't mean it will, but it could. So that's...
Mr. Furfaro: Those are good points, Neil. I mean obviously Hilo
is stretched out to Kaumana, then you have Wailuku along with Kahului, you know,
that kind of attention is long term. Pat, do you have something to add?
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Ms. Griffin: Well, I guess I want to underscore what Marie and
Kimi said, and Neil has expanded upon as well, and that is the overriding purpose
of this plan and all of this work and attention that has gone into this town core plan
is to create and assure that this place where all of you work and that that for more
than a hundred years has been called a crossroads of the island will remain as a
place of pride and a place that people want to go to, and those of us who grew up
here and have a certain age really quite well remember when Friday nights was a
time to pack everybody in the car and come down here and party and shop and go to
Daniel Lee's and later to Kress. And what does that mean? A hundred years ago
when the county system was established, it was people here who seized on Lihu`e as
the place that should be the center of the island, the center of government, and
obviously the port and the airport slightly outside. And so this plan is a way to look
at this town and the town core and re-establish this as a place of pride. And so in
the bill, those four areas in looking at the historic aspects is not meant to be
obstructionist on property owners working with that land, but to be constructive on
ways that when there are these historic properties and awnings and trees that
make walkability and improved sidewalks and so forth that encourage walkability
that that there is a certain romance to the area where people want to come to it,
and that's the basis of this plan. And I'm any one of us who worked on the CAC
who have been involved with any aspect, any one of you who's reading it won't agree
with every single clause in it, but overall, it's a plan whose overriding purpose is to
reassert Lihu`e town core as pride of place.
Mr. Furfaro: Do we have any questions for these two
individuals?
Council Chair Asing: I don't have any questions, but I...you know, I have
to tell you that a number of years ago I believe there was a move to extend the
Lihu`e Town area commercial activity going out, and that was the formation of the
Kukui Grove shopping area. So it was a move made by officials at that time as to
what the intent was. So when the Kukui Grove Shopping Center was initiated, that
plan, that was the intent-expand out, and that's where we're going, we're going to
move in that direction. So I just want to kind of let you know that I know that that
took place. So it's not, you know, the town core here, but to move out and expand,
and also, to expand not just going that way, because the original plan was town core
here, including going towards the hospital, and that was the Weinberg-owned area,
and so the expansion was going to go, you know, that way also, towards the
hospital. So that was part of the vision at that particular time, going both ways.
Ms. Griffin: That's right, and the 77 development plan really
looked at what's now Wal-mart as being multi-family housing, and identified Umi
Street as that strong passage. That didn't happen, and as thinking evolves and lifes
and times change, there is...so do considerations of efficiencies, now we're looking at
more how to contain sprawl and have efficiency delivering water, delivering cars,
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delivering people from home to work, and so looking at a denser more concentrated
space is possible. But you know, Chairman, it is not very far from where we're
sitting now to Kukui Grove Shopping Center. Most of us, as Councilmember
Chang's, you know, if in Honolulu we parked here and had to walk to Kukui Grove,
we'd practically kiss the ground to find that parking space. So I think the distances
are a little squirrelly depending on where we are and how we're thinking about
them at any given time.
Mr. Clendennin: Yeah, I would agree with that. I mean I think...one
of the things that this plan is fine to look at as opposed to what went on back in
the 70s is that the car shouldn't be the way to plan, and you know, by spreading
things out, you're definitely relying on the automobile, and I think nowadays people
are thinking, can we move things in so you can rely on your feet, you can rely on
bicycles, you can rely on other means of transportation, especially as fuel prices are
going up, and other things, can we get around without the car. Not to say that the
car is gone, but are there other ways we can get around, you know. And I think
from the county point of view, certainly providing a lot of the services, you don't
continue to want to expand because it means all your services now are going further
and further out. So you know, that's just trying to figure out how we can do this
and how we can keep town cores vital. You know, I think when the Lihu`e
development plan comes in, that's going to be a whole other issue is where does
Lihu`e really grow, how should it grow, what do we really want it to become?
Ms. Griffin: And thanks to all of you who voted to begin the
Lihu`e district development plan update, because we see this as concentrating the
town core plan as concentrating on this central kernel of the district, and in fact of
the island itself. But Lihu`e district is from the north bank of the north fork of the
Wailua river to the western boundary of I,Upu ahupua`a, which is almost to the tree
tunnel at the road. And I do hope that the planning department, when that
development plan update, will take that entire district, because we need to look at
transportation, water, and the rest.
Mr. Furfaro: For the money we put in there, they should
consider the entire district.
Ms. Griffin: And I am grateful to you all for doing that. I have
one more tiny thing to say.
Mr. Furfaro: Go ahead.
Ms. Griffin: With Councilmember Bynum when he talked about
that crosswalk from Eiwa Street across to the Chevron station area, I'm not the only
person who has had really close calls innocently walking across as a pedestrian, and
for probably 75 years, there was a crosswalk from essentially the county civic center
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parking lot directly across by Kele Street to the post office. And we heard a lot
about how that wasn't safe because it's mid-block, but that's as much of a T from
Kele as it was from Eiwa across, and it's so much safer, and I just really encourage
you all to do everything it takes to put that crosswalk back. Thank you.
Mr. Clendennin: Just one last thing too. I mean I would also just
like to caution in viewing the plan that is an ordinance. The ordinance is a little
different than the plan. The ordinance...the plan is a reference, but the ordinance
is the thing that really has to be passed, and those are the, you know, things that
have to mainly do with the setbacks, the mixed use, the overlay, you know, and a lot
of the things that we're even discussing now are really in the plan and not in the
ordinance. So just to be careful, you know, as you're considering this.
Mr. Furfaro: I think we understood that, and that's why we put
a segment to talk about those things that get grandfathered, those things that quite
frankly kind of create an internal protective covenants on, you know, what the
fagade should look like and so forth. Mr. Chang, you had a question?
Mr. Chang: Yes, thank you. I think we talked about the
historic significant of Haleko Road, and years ago I think...Pat in fact, I'm almost
certain, you're the one that saved that big African tulip tree.
Ms. Griffin: Well, it's gone now.
Mr. Chang: It is gone?
Ms. Griffin: Oh Dickie, you didn't notice?
Mr. Chang: No, no, I didn't. I thought I see it still there...right
at the dip, going up. One big...
Ms. Griffin: There is a California eucalyptus that is there.
Mr. Chang: That's not the African tulip?
Ms. Griffin: The African tulip, I regret to say, is gone. Every
other African tulip could be destroyed on the island, but it's a pity that one's gone.
Mr. Chang: But there's a big tree still there standing by itself.
That's not an African tulip? Okay, but there is a big tree.
Ms. Griffin: There is.
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Mr. Chang: So the big tree... No, I thought it was an African
tulip. I saw the flowers on the... But anyway, there's a big tree there. So you guys
have any plans or any thoughts about, you know, when you mentioned from where
we're at to Kukui Grove, would there be a plan or was there any consideration for a
bike path or a walking path? Because I ride up that road. Going up to Kukui Grove
you got maybe that much, but it does seem like from the church or from that...what,
Pikake, or going toward Pikake, before King, there's enough space coming down, up
until you get to the railroad track, and by that time you jump into the old...across
the Weinberg building, you jump into the sidewalk before you get on. I mean would
that not be a nice connectivity?
Ms. Griffin: There was, and actually, Kimi can talk more about
that, but I'm so glad you mentioned Haleko, because it is one of the most historic
little byways we have, and we take it for granted. But you talk to people who come
even from Honolulu, and tourists, and going from the town center to Kukui Grove,
there's all of a sudden this just magical quiet tree like way and there are many,
many historic sites along it, from the top with the Isenberg monument, and that
" German housing is some of the oldest reinforced concrete housing anywhere. And
there is still part of the old rock wall along the way. It's often not shown, but you're
not the only person who maybe feels like it's not entirely safe to walk along there.
So I think that that's a road that we could all celebrate and appreciate more with a
little bit more attention to safety and how to make those passages.
Mr. Clendennin: And just to also say, I mean one of the things that
the plan did talk about and actually still is on the table is to make sure that the mill
site has access to...it's that point, it's Kaumuali`i highway, but to make sure that
access is still there, because no matter what's built in the mill site, whatever the
mill site is used for, it shouldn't rely on Haleko (or Haleko) to have its main access,
because that won't...it will require that street to be widened. And so you know,
that's something that the State highway department is still looking into.
Mr. Furfaro: Thank you both. So I will ask if there is public
testimony
Kimi Yuen: Well actually let yeah let Marie follow up on that
bit of information.
Marie Williams: Just regarding the access from the highway to the
mill site apparently it is on the table again. I know that the DOT is redesigning the
bridge right now and the last time I spoke with them they are more than willing to
consider providing access to the highway and of course I'm sure they would want to
consult with the developer of the site. That is an option now even though in the
plan it says that the plan does recommend an access to so it's possible.
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Jay Furfaro: Kimi would you like to answer that?
Kimi Yuen: No
Jay Furfaro: No, okay. I'm going to ask if there is anyone in the
public that would like to come up and testify please come right up.
Palmer Hafdahl: Please the chair, I am Palmer, Palmer Hafdahl,
Palmers Architecture. I am before you today in part with testimony that was
offered at the first public hearing on the third I think from the Kaua`i Association of
Architects. When chairman Asing asked me at one time whether I could represent
the architects in general I wanted to make sure that this time I was prepared to say
yes I have taken poll of the Kaua`i association of architects and a series of the
principal on long term architects, the licensed ones here unanimously support the
ordinance as its written for several reasons. There were certain items brought up.
Parking of course is that constant consideration even among architects as Mr. Costa
and others can be affirmed. Parking ends up being sort of a killing issue especially
on existing facilities built on Rice Street who were built prior to high demands on
parking and there was a lot more space around, very difficult to make them work
with new parking requirements.
This ordinance allows opportunity for a mixed use to develop those spaces,
somewhat ignoring the parking and putting it again into the public side a little bit.
At least it gives the developer that opportunity to develop space that otherwise
cannot move once you start considering the parking requirements that there are
now. I know from experience working on a property on Rice Street where it was
requested. We came in and asked for mixed use at that time and they said sorry it
doesn't exist, we can't, it's not in our ordinances, we can't do it. This was as little as
four years ago, so I asked the developer to hold on, that this town core plan was
coming, but nobody holds their breath quite that long, so.
At any rate I would like to say that our Kaua`i Association of Architects
strongly supports the ordinance. One architect, long time architect here said well
why bother, all this stuff goes to outside firms anyway. I think this! I mentioned to
him that I think this is a opportunity actually to bring more work here to local firms
that's not my intent of supporting this thing, but the smaller properties do give the
opportunity to local firms and if we are taking a existing property going to mixed
use, there is none better than a local architect like Ian Costa for example who
worked for a time and Avery Youn also are prime examples of really place sensitive
design in Kapa`a and in Waimea that I'm real familiar with. That, these ordinances
these guidelines support that they give an opportunity for architects to work with
developers and the community as a minimum basis guidelines for developing. I am
really happy to say it should help the planning department staff administer
applications and it should help the planning commission get over the hump of how
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•
do we approach these things. We have guidelines now and we can say an applicant
is heading toward that purpose. I want to emphasize the fact that I think they
establish minimum guidelines and with the purpose set in the guidelines and the
plan overall the neighborhood, each neighborhood has objectives and those
objectives can be accomplished perhaps even at a higher level with creative
application by the developer and the architect meeting that purpose and excelling at
that and perhaps exceeding those minimum requirements. So suffice it to say that's
my guideline. I really appreciate the personal experience you all bring to this. The
tunnels thing we were just speaking about that this morning nice to hear that you
brought that up. I have been looking for something in the town core that's a
resource that we can perhaps develop to attract locals. I'm thinking, I took the
option to trespass this weekend to the tunnel, the cane haul tunnel again and
coming back up Koloa on my Bicycle through the cane haul tunnel was blowing this
wonderful cool breeze and I thought hmmm, those tunnels that I know about in
Lihu`e where is the opportunity for taking that cool air perhaps and making an air
conditioning that's available to the town core. Just wanted to toss that out for you
as a possible resource, somewhat similar to taking ocean water and cooling
downtown Honolulu. Anyway, thank you very much for your consideration. Any
questions!
Jay Furfaro: I have a question for you as an architect. I guess as
this concept develops for the historic and preservation of the core plan here, In
Lihu`e, what type of architecture do you think is the most prominent. Like you look
at the museum and you got one phase that's kind of Greco roman, and you got
another phase that's built, the Rice building extension that's built with all the river
rocks in it, and just out of curiosity, what kind of architecture does justice to Lihu`e.
Palmer Hafdahl: We addressed that some time ago when Doug
Haigh came to us and said, here's the plan for Eiwa Street, we can, I'm an engineer
we can make this parking work perfect and get beautiful parking lots and get more
cars in Eiwa Street, and at that time we invited the Honolulu Rural Development
Team, I can't remember, but anyway they came and we did a charrette on this
process and at that time we tried to identify the different architectural styles and
what were appropriate styles. What we agreed to agree upon was that we have a
mixture, that's patch work quilt and that's what makes it unique and we I think
that's the intent of the guidelines as well there's not to say this shall be the style of
Lihu`e hence forth, is hopefully do something that reflects our climate and our
culture at the time and it counts for record of the way we live and what makes us
happy and life's pleasant at that time. And so I think we would want to fit in that
patch work quilt and I think the guidelines do a good job at that line, plenty of
flexibility to not tie someone to a particular style.
Jay Furfaro: I wasn't looking to tie you to that. We have kind of
a patchwork, like an old Dutch quilt from Pennsylvania that has all those feelings
45
• i y in it, but you know our shopping center always kind of reminds me a little bit about
with the roofline of Kamehameha Schools up on Kapalama campus, you know with
the tile and so forth. I just wanted to ask that question.
Palmer Hafdahl: That's a good comparison and if the camp is
similar and it can be developed, how wonderful.
Jay Furfaro: Thank you very much. Let me see if they have any
more questions.
Palmer Hafdahl: Thank you for your time and your support.
Jay Furfaro: Is there anyone else that would like to come up, Mr.
Taylor!
Kimi Yuen: Chair Furfaro, if I may just to respond also to your
comment and it's something that Pat Griffin had brought to our attention as you
know this historian of all the architecture in Lihu`e is that! This is where the
newest and greatest architectural...
Jay Furfaro: Radisson.
Kimi Yuen: Yeah exactly, well where the newest architectural
tools, if you would, came into play. You had your masonry buildings, you had your
concrete buildings, it was you know that evolution of architecture throughout
Hawai`i . You can actually see it in Lihu`e, right in Lihu`e because right! right Pat,
the County Building you know was the first concrete, you know was the thing in
1912 right and as you go through architectural history in Hawai`i you have got a
little bit of piece of it right in Lihu`e and we did not want for that specific reason to
tie any one style down.
Palmer Hafdahl: Lihu`e Public Library.
Kimi Yuen: Exactly, yeah exactly, anyway I'm sorry.
Jay Furfaro: Well it was a question that had to be asked just so
that we all understood. Mr. Taylor the floor is yours.
Ken Taylor: Thank you chair.
Jay Furfaro: Mr. Taylor, you can go on for six minutes.
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Ken Taylor: Thank you chair, members of the council. My name
is Ken Taylor. I want to take the time to thank staff and community members that
worked on this plan.
I think that generally they came up with a very good plan, although I do
have some concerns and some comments. Let's start because of the smaller of the ,
master plan for the civic center here is that I am appalled to hear and that the supermarket would be disappearing. I heard earlier that the lease would maybe be
negotiated for one more year. That would be the biggest mistake to have happen in
this core plan process, it has to stay. As far as the parking garages are concerned, I
think that's a total waste of money. We have a very large parking lot down where
the fair is held every year and that could be used most of the year and I think that
all County and State Employees should be required to park down there, let them
ride their bikes up or let them walk up, maybe even a shuttle running back and
forth but leave the immediate parking for people coming to do business at the
County and State office. There is absolutely no reason in the world that all of the
Employees have to be parked there all day long. As far as the rest of the plan is
concerned , I think the things that you have to stop and think about is that the
population of Lihu`e in general is five thousand seven hundred with fifty percent of
all Kaua`i jobs located in Lihu`e, that's nothing but sprawl. It's time that we get a
handle on that.
I think that when you look at doing these kinds of activities in most
communities they designate them as redevelopment districts, where you take
today's tax rates and say as the improvements take place and the value of the lands
go up those increments are used to pay off bonds that help get the process started.
It was raised earlier about, how do we get the parking lots in place and what
happens when the first person comes in to start the process. If the County takes the
initiative to send a strong message to the landowners in this area that they are
serious about this process and they go in and build the basic infrastructure the
parking lots, etc., the new sidewalks, landscaping, and so on, that sends a strong
message to the landowners to want to want to make better of their buildings and so
on. So, I think that is something that needs to be considered. It was also
mentioned that the buildings that are already down there, most of them are already
considered under use value, so by remodeling and building units above they become
a bigger asset for the community. One of the things that when you are looking at
doing this it requires people to make it all work. I personally don't see that the plan
as is currently laid out is going to generate enough people. I think that the
densities have to be greater. I mean, when you are looking at all of this, they have
to look what is the discretionary funds that people have to spend, and I don't think
that the discretionary funds of a lot of the people on the Island are great and so by
increasing the numbers of people in this area, that's what is going to make it work.
I think realistically minimum you have to increase the density by at least five to
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eight thousand people. I don't know if Lihu`e or the Island is prepared for that kind
of thing but I think it's the kind of thing that you need to look at to make this work.
There was talk about the trees and there are root barrier products that help
restrain the roots of trees but they also come along with maintenance. You have
landscape and you have to maintain it and there is different ways of doing that. I
saw in England where they put all the sidewalks down with concrete, large 24x24
concrete blocks and the sidewalk could be lifted and repairs made under it and put
back anytime there was problems. Anyway, the plan is short on community
gardens and play areas for children. The highway bypass is a good idea but the
State already talking about building another bridge down here and I think if some
coordination needs to take place. I don't think that second bridge is necessary if we
bypass that area and I think that is something that needs to be addressed
immediately with the State to stop moving, moving on that. The roundabout issue,
a few meetings back Donald said here and indicated that roundabouts were very
safe, and I went to the internet and looked it up and found some articles that talked
about how safe roundabouts were. I'm still not convinced completely because the
whole idea of the roundabout is to keep the traffic flowing as much as you can.
Jay Furfaro: Excuse me, I'm going to go ahead and give you 2
more minutes and that will bring you to a total of 8.
Ken Taylor: Thank you. Anyway when you are in the process of
txying to move traffic, moving traffic and pedestrian activity does not work well at
least not in my mind. There are a lot of articles that say how wonderful it is. The
other thing that has to be remembered as you move forward with this thing is that
there are a lot of little businesses down along Rice Street and scattered around on
other streets that have survived in these locations. One, because the rents are
fairly low and they have beaten out there situation to whatever but as you move
forward and increase the quality of the area, landowners tend to start raising rents
and that chases out the people that have sat there and struggled to make a living
for all these yeaxs. When the rents go up, those folks will have to go and hopefully
there is somebody to try to replace them but it's just something that needs to be
considered in moving forward with the process. Anyway those were my thoughts
and I hope, especially the supermarket situation needs to really be addressed and
left in place. Thank you.
Jay Furfaro: Thank you Ken.
Lani Kawahara: I have a question? I forgot, what did you say you
liked about the plan?
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Ken Taylor: I'm sorry.
Lani Kawahara: What did you say you liked about the plan? What
did you say you liked about the plan? I missed the beginning part.
Ken Taylor: What I liked about it!
Lani Kawahara: Yes! '
Ken Taylor: Well, I like the mobility of what's being built in to it
and I guess I would like to see something stronger put in there about complete
streets so that we know as everything moves forward that, that the bicycle,
pedestrian, public transportation and all will be addressed in taking care of.
Lani Kawahara: Okay, thank you.
Jay Furfaro: I do want to point out, there is nothing said about
eliminating the lease space and the shopping center. What was said by I think by
Doug Haigh was the terms of the current lease expires in 2010 and there has been a
one year extension. I want to make sure we are clear there was no presentation that
eliminated that commercial space. And for me myself I think the ladies know I'm
still not pleased with the egress and exit area provided for that commercial space
but it's not eliminated.
Ken Taylor: Well here it says, retail office, nonprofit, Big Save.
Jay Furfaro: Those are all potential things that could go in to
that space.
Ken Taylor: I understand, But.
Jay Furfaro: But the space wasn't being eliminated.
Ken Taylor: But I think again when you talk about a one year
extension I think it should be a fifty year extension.
Jay Furfaro: Well let me tell you how that usually works in
commercial space. You get an extension so that you can negotiate terms. That's
what you usually do.
Ken Taylor: Thank you.
Jay Furfaro: Is there anyone else in the public that would love to
speak. If not, I'm going to thank the planning department. Mr. Costa, Myles, the
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ladies that are here, the ladies that have left, and everyone that has come to
participate. This will come up in my committee on March 2nd or 3rd depending on
our calendar Mr. Chair.
Kaipo Asing: Yes I have one question and because it was asked
or brought up by Mr. Taylor and that was the issue on density, now I don't believe
that density is covered in here! Am I correct?
Marie Williams: It is covered. Density!
Kaipo Asing: Density in what sense? As the density that was
brought up by Mr. Taylor appears to be density in terms of people, so I do not
believe it is covered in here so am I right? Wrong?
Marie Williams: Well first of all that is a big component of mixed
use to increase that number of people living in a certain area and that's why we are
outright permitting a residential density up to the R-20 which is the highest we
have in Kaua`i in the Rice Street neighborhoods and Kuhi`o Highway
neighborhoods. So and also I would argue that this area is very dense already as
Ken said you know I think it's something like we do have, I'm not sure if it's fifty
percent but in the town core we have a lot of jobs. At least in the work week it's a
very dense area with many people so.
Kaipo Asing: So, it is covered in here that the density is being
increased. Am I correct?
Marie Williams: Part of the special planning areas, yes.
Jay Furfaro: By zone changes.
Marie Williams: Yes. The overlay is residential.
Kaipo Asing: The overlay includes the density increase?
Marie Williams: Yes.
Kaipo Asing: Okay, thank you.
Jay Furfaro: You are quite welcome. I am going to conclude this
workshop and we will post it in Committee in the meeting. T hank you everyone for
participating, thank you ladies.
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 11:46 a.m.
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Respectfully submitted,
aurie Chow
Council Services Assistant
APPROVED at the Committee Meeting held on
JAY
Chair, Pla ittee
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