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HomeMy WebLinkAbout 11/29/2017-12/01/2017 Special Planning Committee minutes re Bill#2666 (General Plan Update), NOTE: 12/01/2017 meeting was canceled SPECIAL PLANNING COMMITTEE MINUTES ON BILL#2666 (GENERAL PLAN UPDATE) 11/29/2017-12/01 /2017 (NOTE: 12/01/2017 Special Planning Committee Meeting was canceled) 11/29/2017 SPECIAL PLANNING COMMITTEE MINUTES ON BILL#2666 (GENERAL PLAN UPDATE) 1 MINUTES SPECIAL PLANNING COMMITTEE November 29-30, 2017 A meeting of the Special Planning Committee of the County of Kaua`i, State of Hawaii, was called to order by Mason K. Chock, Chair, at the Council Chambers, 4396 Rice Street, Suite 201, Lihu`e, Kaua`i, on Wednesday, November 29, 2017, at 2:07 p.m., after which the following Members answered the call of the roll: Honorable Mason K. Chock Honorable Ross Kagawa (left at 2:31 p.m.) Honorable Derek S.K. Kawakami Honorable JoAnn A. Yukimura Honorable Arryl Kaneshiro Honorable Mel Rapozo Excused: Honorable Arthur Brun The Committee proceeded on its agenda item as follows: Bill No. 2666 A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND CHAPTER 7, ARTICLE 1, KAUAI COUNTY CODE 1987, AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE UPDATE OF THE GENERAL PLAN FOR THE COUNTY OF KAUAI (ZA-2017-3) (This item was Deferred to the December 13, 2017 Special Planning Committee Meeting.) Committee Chair Chock: I would like to reconvene the Special Planning Committee Meeting, scheduled for today. There is a quorum. Councilmember Brun is excused. Today, we will be covering Topics 6 and 7. We will be covering all of 6 first, then moving to Topic 7 in terms of presentation, and then have questions and answers for both. Those topics include Topic 6, The Watershed, Energy Sustainability, Public Safety, and Hazard Resiliency Opportunity and Health For All; and then Topic 7, which is Implementation, Reporting, and Monitoring. Members, as stated before, we will be taking all questions and answers on each of these. My hope is that we can keep questions to each of the actual sectors. We have had trouble doing that, which I understand because there is a lot of overlap, but let us try our best to do so. That way, we can move through each of the sectors efficiently. Tomorrow as mentioned, we will have our public testimony, followed by discussion by Councilmembers on any amendments. We have some resource people also available today, like George Costa, Office of Economic Development and/or Ben Sullivan from SPECIAL PLANNING COMMITTEE METING 2 NOVEMBER 29, 2017 the Office of Economic Development, and Chelsie Sakai from Kaua`i Emergency Management Agency. If you have questions for these people, they will not be available until tomorrow, so if you could hold your questions for Janet Berreman, Kaua`i District Health Officer at the State Department of Health, and Brandon Shimokawa, Vice Chancellor at Kaua`i Community College (KCC). Also for Implementing and Reporting, we have Melissa White from SSFM. There have been testimonies submitted for today's subject matter, as well as testimony and amendments from the Kaua`i Community Coalition. If you have questions of them at any time, feel free to ask. There is one last piece that I would like to just put on the table for Committee Members, and that is as we finish out this week's topics, what we will move towards on December 13, 14, and 15 are amendments. We are currently structuring amendments. Jenelle is doing a good job of receiving all of those. If you have amendments, Members, please be sure to get them in, in a timely manner so that we can actually process them and have them ready for the 13th. With that being said, depending on how many amendments we have—we do not know exactly how much right now—I think there is an excess of forty (40) or so amendments already on the table. I would like to ask and inquire of all Members if we should be looking towards a deadline for submission of amendments and when that is feasible for all of you. Councilmember Kagawa: I have a question. Committee Chair Chock: Yes. Councilmember Kagawa: We have forty (40) individual amendments or did we group it into the ones that are likely to pass together, comprised, or are there forty (40) ala carte, individual amendments? Committee Chair Chock: This is only actually not even with my discussion with Jenelle; it actually was my discussion of amendments that were discussed at the table that the Planning Department said that they would be willing to work on. That is the figure I got from Mike Dahilig. Councilmember Kagawa: Okay. So we are not sure how much are condensed? Committee Chair Chock: That is right. We may have individual Members. I do not know what that number is in terms of who is submitting amendments. Just so you know, there are about forty (40) to start off with that I know that the Planning Department... Councilmember Kagawa: Sorry to interrupt, but I asked if we can group up the ones that are likely to have an easy consensus on passing that I wanted it bunched up together. SPECIAL PLANNING COMMITTEE METING 3 NOVEMBER 29, 2017 Committee Chair Chock: I think what we are looking at is three (3) pots, Vice Chair: one is sort of those nonbinding ones, so more like words changes into one pile; that would be one (1) amendment. The others are more the big topics that we talked about, like `Ele`ele and Princeville. Then we have to kind of work our way through whatever is left over. I will have a better idea before the next time we get together. Councilmember Kagawa: It is not going to matter. I just wanted us to do the condensed one if we could, and then see what the other number was. The other ones would probably be ala carte. Committee Chair Chock: Yes, we have to go that route. Any questions before we get to presentations on this topics in terms of deadlines on amendments? We could continue to go on. Councilmember Kaneshiro: On the amendments, if there are some that may be questionable and needs to go to the County Attorney, I would love for it to go through and be vetted by the time it gets to us so then it does not come here and we question if this is legal or not, then I do not want to put Mauna Kea on the spot and I do not want us to spend a lot of time discussing it when we cannot actually do it. I think that would help save time if a Member has an amendment that they think is questionable as far as if we can do it or not. Committee Chair Chock: Let me just put that in a context, because I know there have been a lot of actual amendments coming from the community from a lot of different people and organizations. First of all, you need a Member to introduce it, so that needs to be established if there is a particular amendment that you have submitted and want it introduced. At that point, Jenelle will take it and actually help to start to process that and that way if some legal questions come up or concurrence with the Planning Department. At this stage, we need those amendments in from everyone. Any other questions? I will look for...just to see the idea that we would get to an end date on this on the amendments, we will have the next three (3) dates in December to go over those. At this time, if there are no objections, I would like to suspend the rules and ask the Planning Department to come up and present on Topic 6. There being no objections, the rules were suspended. MARIE WILLIAMS, Long Range Planner: Good afternoon, Committee Chair Chock and Members of the County Council. Thank you for having us up again today for this Special Planning Committee Meeting on the draft General Plan. Today, we are going to cover Topic 6, and to do that, we will start with a short overview presentation of the subjects related to the topic, followed by a kind of more focused SPECIAL PLANNING COMMITTEE METING 4 NOVEMBER 29, 2017 presentation by Ruby Pap, our University of Hawaii Sea Grant Agent, who has been a critical part of our General Plan Update team and she will focus more on climate change and what we have to consider when we are thinking of sea-level rise and higher temperatures as well as related to our long-range plan. With that, I will begin the overview presentation. As we typically do, when we do this intro slideshow, I want to go back to what the General Plan framework is. As always, and this is something pretty consistent with all general plans wherever you go, it really does start with goals and a high-level vision as well and this is something that has to be established through an in-depth and robust public process. We have that there in the center of the circle and as we go out to our more specific policy, we have nineteen (19) policies and those are meant to kind of be our high-level guidance for how the County should develop and grow over the next twenty (20) years, and then we get more specific; we explain how, in fact, we move forward with them as they relate to the various subjects that the General Plan covers. (Councilmember Kagawa was noted as not present.) Today, we will actually be covering four (4) sectors within Chapter 3. We have covered six (6) of the ten (10) sectors thus far. Sector 1 is the Watershed sector and there is actually a reason that we put it first upfront in Chapter 3 and that it is Sector 1. Here, we are acknowledging that it is very important that our environment is a critical piece of how we protect and plan for our future. The subsections related to the Watershed sector include the Upper Watershed, the Middle Watershed, and that includes drainage and freshwater resources; Coastal Areas and Shorelines; and then Threatened and Endangered and Invasive Species as well. The objectives related to this include "to conserve the upper watershed and restore a native habitat and forested areas to protect, restore, and enhance freshwater resources to support aquatic, environmental, and cultural resources; to recognize and mitigate impacts from the built environment to the mid-watershed area; to protect and enhance coastal resources and public access to the shoreline; to protect the flora and fauna unique to Kauai and Hawaii; and to mitigate the impact of invasive species. When we were out in the public talking about this, we definitely heard a strong consensus that our beaches are unique and that we need to protect them. People wanted to see effective management of our environment. Also, there was a definite concern that we need to think about the health of our reefs as well, even though this is a County land use plan. Here are some selected implementing actions in the sector. If you are interested in reading them, they are on pages 99 through 111, and of course are grouped into our four (4) implementation tools in that number one is how we permit development and what has to change in our development code; what we move forward with, with plans and studies; how we guide and select projects and programs; and what our partnership needs are as well. SPECIAL PLANNING COMMITTEE METING 5 NOVEMBER 29, 2017 Sector 8 is our Energy sector and this was a very important section as well in our process with our Community Advisory Committee (CAC). There was a lot of concern that to truly be a more sustainable and resilient place, we do have to think about this and how we have a clean energy future as well. People also saw that because of all of the progress being made thus far, that Kaua`i really has a chance to lead, and it is, in fact, in that role right now and we need to continue that. On the right in the table, you see the objectives for the various subsections and what the policy relation is as well. Again, the implementation actions can be found on pages 179 through 186 and some examples are that we would find a way to streamline and expedite the permitting process involving renewable energy and also promote more dense development near job centers, and that would have the impact of reducing the emissions related to car travel. Then plans and studies, an important action would be to develop a climate action plan and conduct a related greenhouse gas emissions inventory, and with projects and programs, definitely continue our trend of having more solar facilities on County property. Finally, an important partnership need would be to monitor the amount of energy production that is actually produced on-island as well. Sector 9 is Public Safety and Hazards and the three (3) subsections and objectives related to that are Fire, Police, and Ocean Safety Emergency Services. The objective is to ensure adequate coverage of public safety and emergency services as Kaua`i grows; hazards resiliency, the objective is to ensure that Kauai is resilient to natural disasters and other emergencies; global warming and climate change adaptation, the objective is to prepare for and adapt to the impacts of climate change on the natural and built environments. Some key permitting actions related to this would be to minimize coastal development in areas of high-risk of coastal erosion, flooding, tsunami, and sea-level rise, and definitely when we update our development code to consider the best availability climate and hazard science that is out there at that time. An important planning action would be to conduct hazard risk and vulnerability assessments for critical infrastructure and low lying coastal areas as part of future community planning processes. We have identified projects and partnership needs related to this sector as well. Moving on to our final sector that we will be discussing today, we call it"Health and Opportunity for All." This is something really new and it is something that even though it is very important, it was not really addressed in our existing General Plan. Based on what we heard, we do need to consider how we can be a more equitable place, we need to think about how we can improve access to quality education and training, we need to factor in community health in our planning, and also really support access to recreation and subsistence activities as well. The related objectives are shown in the table to the right. Some examples of our implementation actions related to this sector would be for a permitting action that we look in our development code and see if there are ways that we can better SPECIAL PLANNING COMMITTEE METING 6 NOVEMBER 29, 2017 support the increase of family childcare homes, preschools, and charter schools to see if there are any impediments in our codes related to these. Two (2) important plans that we need to implement and update are the Kaua`i Plan on Aging and the Kaua`i Community Health Improvement Initiative as well. With projects, if we can find ways to leverage infrastructure investments to bring jobs and housing opportunities to underserved communities as well. Finally with partnership needs, we realize that there is a social equity impact that if we do not now anticipate and plan for the health impacts of climate change. So that is something that we have to start thinking about as well. With that, that summarizes our Topic 6 sectors that we are going to cover today. We are going to go straight into our more focused presentation on climate change by Ruby Pap. RUBY PAP, Coastal Land Use Extension Agent, University of Hawaii Sea Grant College Program: Aloha Committee Chair Chock and Committee Members, my name is Ruby Pap. In case some of you do not know me, I am a Coastal Land Use Extension Agent with the University of Hawai`i Sea Grant college program. I am seconded into the Planning Department, as Marie said, and I mainly serve as an advisory capacity on a range of coastal science issues. Sea Grant Extension Agents play a unique role in that we are focused on providing the scientific information to guide decision-making, rather than taking a position or advocating for any particular outcome, so we are non-regulatory. Along this vein, I have been assisting the County on a range of coastal hazard issues, including impacts from climate change. I have been involved with the General Plan since the technical studies phase, since the beginning of its drafting as well. So my goal today is to give you just a short presentation focused on sea-level rise and orient you on how it is being covered in the draft at this time. As I mentioned, Sea Grant's involvement with the General Plan Update began with this technical study, the Kaua`i Climate Change and Coastal Hazards Assessment, which was published in 2014. I guess I was the lead project manager on this study and I led a team from the University of Hawai`i of coastal hazards specialists and geologists mainly. Our job was to focus on the coastal hazards associated with climate change. We know there is a variety of issues and impacts associated with climate change and this was simply...not simply...but it was a focus on the coastal hazards. Our job was to synthesize the existing scientific and planning resources and explain their relevancy to Kaua`i, so we did not generate any new data; we mind the wealth of data and information that is out there and put it in a form that can be used by planners to plan with. We also did a gap analysis where we identified gaps in planning information, gaps in data, and then generated recommendations to move forward in the face of those gaps, so that was mainly our methodology. First, just a little background on coastal hazards, which I know all of you are very familiar with, but Kaua`i's recent development history can be really traced back to Hurricane `Iniki, which devastated the island back in 1992, brought with it heavy SPECIAL PLANNING COMMITTEE METING 7 NOVEMBER 29, 2017 storm surge, high winds, and caused billions of dollars in damage. Now, due to the world's unabated greenhouse gas emissions, we are faced with climate changes that probably are going to exacerbate many of our existing hazards. This includes increases in frequency and duration of those storms, but also worsening our more chronic hazards, such as coastal erosion and flooding. Sea-level rise in particular is expected to increase the severity and extent of coastal erosion, wave over wash, groundwater flooding, and drainage failure. As sea-levels rise, it also rises the freshwater lens of creating more wetlands and causing more groundwater issues and drainage issues. Obviously, the impacts from hurricane storm surge and tsunami inundation would be increased as well. So this is the plot of increasing global mean sea-level over the past century. The blue here is the yearly average that was calculated from tide gauges over time since 1900. This is the sea-level change rate on this axis here and time down here. The blue is the yearly from tide gauges and the red is for more recent technology since 1993 when they started measuring sea-levels using satellite altimetry. We have presented the rates here in inches per century so that you can get a sense of the change over time. So as you can see, the rate of sea-level rise doubled from early mid-century and then doubled again up to the present. So we are now at about one and a half(1.5) foot per century. What contributes to sea-level rise? Basically, it is a combination of ice melt from the polar ice caps and glaciers, as well as thermal expansion of the oceans. So this is a plot showing that same satellite altimetry observed sea-level change here and the contributions from thermal expansion of the ocean. So when you heat up the ocean, it expands. Then contributions from what they call "added water" that is from ice melt. The combined has resulted in what we have observed thus far. So that is what has been observed and now I just want to move on to some projections for the future. In 2013, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) or the "IPPC" as you will probably hear it called, put out its fifth assessment report. This included a range of projections projected out to the year 2100. So we have the year down here on this axis and in meters of sea-level rise here on the "y" axis. This graph provides two (2) sea-level rise scenarios. The lower scenario of sea-level rise is in blue within certainty ranges in the shaded areas and the high-end scenario is in red. The blue scenario is just basically assuming that greenhouse gas emissions would peak this decade and then basically decline substantially, which is highly unlikely. The red assumes more what they call "the business as usual" scenario where the greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise throughout the century. The upper end of the upper scenario, so the top of that red band, corresponds to about one (1) foot of sea-level rise by 2050 and three point two (3.2) feet by 2100. This scenario was used in our technical study as a basic planning recommendation or a rule of thumb that we said that based on the science thus far, one (1) foot of sea-level rise by 2050 and three (3) feet by 2100 SPECIAL PLANNING COMMITTEE METING 8 NOVEMBER 29, 2017 was a good planning target. We also provided other ranges to consider, because there are lots of science out there. These two (2) maps are of Hanalei. Like I said before, we did not generate any new data. We used data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Sea-Level Rise Viewer project, which anyone can go online, but we downloaded the Geographic Information System (GIS) data and made sample maps throughout the island of specific communities to show, basically, as a screening level tool to show areas that needed further study. This is the one (1) foot scenario and the three (3) foot scenario here. However, since our technical report and since the IPCC projections, the science has continued to evolve to where sea-level rise of three (3) feet is actually considered more of a mid-range scenario. So the question is not if we reach three (3) feet, but when, and it is looking like it is going to be closer and closer to more mid-century. For example, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in December of 2015 made this compelling statement that given what we know now about how the ocean expands as it warms and how ice sheets and glaciers are adding water, it is pretty certain that we are locked into at least three (3) feet of sea-level rise and probably more. So that means that even if we do abate our greenhouse gas emissions, we are locked into that amount. It is important to remember that sea-levels will continue to rise also and future centuries as well. Also, recent results regarding Antarctic and Greenland ice sheet instability indicate that this is probably much more likely than previously thought, so the IPCC study that I previously showed did not include all of the models for rapid melting of these areas because even though there was good science out there, it was not part of the consensus body; IPCC is a huge body of scientists that must come to consensus on the science. At the time, the models were not refined enough. Now, we know more and more about how this ice sheet is behaving, or researchers know more and more, and it is looking more likely that that will add water to the system. There are still questions and uncertainties, which remain about how the world will reduce its greenhouse gas emissions given the news in the last year or so, and also how the ice sheets will respond. All of this just points towards more of the higher-end scenario. Recently in 2017, NOAA came out with its new projections based on recent research of the up-to-date literature on sea-level rise, including models for potential rapid ice melt in Greenland and Antarctica. The black line here is simply the continuation of the historical rate, which would be a very low scenario and the red line assumes the worst-case scenario of maximum ice loss and it is called the "extreme scenario." Basically, it is saying that the extreme scenario is physically plausible that we could have up to eight point six (8.6) feet globally by the end of this century, which is a very high rate. It is considered unlikely, it is the "extreme," but it is out there and it just points to the need to be more conservative in our planning. As you can see, if you look at the three (3) foot scenario we were talking about earlier, it is more of a mid-range scenario, closer to mid-century. As a result from that, our recommendation is to shift the three (3) foot by 2100 planning horizon to sooner, so SPECIAL PLANNING COMMITTEE METING 9 NOVEMBER 29, 2017 we are now looking at more of a three (3) foot plus by mid-century and consider that we are more in a one (1) foot scenario right now in the near term. So the Planning Commission draft does reflect this three (3) foot planning target and it makes sense, because our infrastructure and our buildings and such, the last seventy (70) plus years when you build it, so it is prudent to plan for at least three (3) feet in most cases. I wanted to mention that the sea-level rise maps, the data from those maps that I described earlier, was used to analyze the land use map in the General Plan. What we did is we took the three (3) foot inundation scenario and overlaid it with the land use map and any newly designated future growth areas within that inundation area was put back. If we found any areas that were in a sea-level rise, inundation zone of zero to three (3) feet, was put back into a non-development-oriented land use designation, like natural or agriculture. This is just one (1) example of a map. We did not make these for the plan, but I made these for illustration purposes of these areas that we found. This is one (1) example in Hanalei that was put back in natural. So that was the analysis that we did for the land use map. The General Plan checks to also recognize that studies do—this is the text of the General Plan—"project upwards of six (6) feet of sea-level rise by 2100." Because there is this range of projections, the plan emphasizes always using the best available science to guide decisions and to use a scenario-based planning approach. I will talk more about that in a minute. I just want to mention the one (1) foot, three (3) foot, and the six (6) foot sea-level rise flood maps are included in the Appendix of the plan. They are basically just illustrations, they are not the entire island, but one can go online and look at those as well. Given that there are a few key principles that we recommended to be included in the plan and you will see language as such and they are using the best available science at the time for planning, because we know this is a moving target when we are talking about predicting into the future. Also, using adaptive management techniques and scenario-planning approaches. But also moving forward in the face of uncertainty and we have put in several actions to help move us forward towards adapting and being more resilient on the island. Below here are three (3) of the example maps for Kapa'a Town, the one (1) foot inundation scenario, three (3) foot inundation scenario, and the six (6) foot. This was considered extreme at the time. These maps are in the plan and meant to serve as a screening tool to identify vulnerable areas that may require further study or where new dense development should be avoided. They are screening level only because, and this is a big point to make, the data is limited from these maps. They actually underestimate the hazard because they only show still water flooding. So that is basically filling up a bathtub and the water is still in there or a glass of water, but it does not include when you shake it around and you cause waves, erosion, and things like that. So you look at the shoreline here of Kapa'a Town and you do not see a lot of blue inundation and that is why it does not include the erosion impacts or the wave inundation impacts. That research is currently underway by researchers from the State and will be available for planners in the future. That is why I say that these SPECIAL PLANNING COMMITTEE METING 10 NOVEMBER 29, 2017 are screening-level type of maps for planning. The gap in the data was pointed out in our technical study and just pointed to the importance of having adequate planning information before you make real detailed decisions about all of the existing development that may be in harm's way, but to just set the stage for the next analysis that will need to occur when that data does become available. The idea of adaptive management speaks to that and it is dependent on having continual monitoring of the climate change data and building and revising different scenarios and developing flexible response mechanisms and actions. One example of that, like with the Shoreline Setback Ordinance, has been revisited over time, the last time, twenty (20) feet was added to account for sea-level rise and that may need to be revisited again. Lastly, just scenario-based planning means that given these range of projections, really we want to look at a range when you are considering projects or plans, and then making informed decisions based on the range, on the scenario that fits your tolerance for risk. For example, if you have a really intense development, like a power plant on the coast, you might want to say you have a very low tolerance for risk, because that is very expensive and it would be horrible if it was damaged and we depend on that infrastructure. So you want to plan for a higher number and make sure that is really outside of any hazard zone, versus maybe a seaside path or something that is more flexible and can be moved in more near-term, shorter-term infrastructure. You might be able to get away with planning for a lower number. We recommend that there are these tools for planning for different scenarios and that they should be used as much as possible. The last thing is moving forward in the face of uncertainty and that is what we attempted to do, is the General Plan lays the groundwork to do that through the community plans. So the big elephant in the room is what do we do about all of our existing communities that are in low-lying areas? It is easy to plan for future growth and keep them safe, but what about our existing communities? A key step that we put into the plan and it probably looks a little redundant, but we felt we needed to put it in different places in the plan where it belonged, where these hazard risk and vulnerability assessments that need to be done, community by community, to make the decisions about infrastructure, about homes and about what the adaptation options are for the community. These assessments are based on having adequate planning information. So right now, we only have bathtub flooding maps, but we need to get the maps that show the erosion and the wave inundation so that we can understand the full hazard so the community can have a robust and clear conversation about it. That is where that action comes from, setting that stage for that type of analysis. You will see those actions in the draft, and just to let you know that planning information will probably be released next year by the Hawai`i Climate Change, Mitigation, and Adaptation Commission. I just wanted to give you a few of the key takeaways with respect to climate change adaptations, sea-level rise in particular, but I am happy to go into any more details with your questions. Thank you. Committee Chair Chock: Thank you. Does that conclude all of Topic 6? Okay. Members, what I would like to do is take on any of Ruby's presentation as it SPECIAL PLANNING COMMITTEE METING 11 NOVEMBER 29, 2017 relates to climate change and the General Plan first. I know she is not feeling as good as she would like to feel, so maybe we can get her out of here if possible. Councilmember Kawakami. Councilmember Kawakami: Thank you for that very eye-opening presentation on climate change and sea-level rise. I leaned over and I asked Councilmember Yukimura...there is a lot of people that will correlate a three (3) foot increase in sea-level rise as just meaning three (3) feet more of the shoreline, which is completely false. Is there a measurement that you folks have, say if it is a foot in sea-level rise, how much real estate are we losing upon the shoreline? If it is along estuaries, rivers, or waterways, how much does that increase? Is there a calculation that we can use, so like when I am with my kids at the beach, I can kind of tell them...they are asking, "How much is a one (1) foot sea-level rise? If it is just one (1) foot then that it is not too bad." Ms. Pap: There are various calculations out there and I am not the best mathematician, but I would say that it requires modeling and that modeling is underway right now. Actually, it is almost finished at the State level and there is going to be maps that show different scenarios that include what you are saying is the erosion impact...the additional impact...not just water flooding onto the shore, but what does that mean when it erodes? It is exponential, it is not a 1:1 relationship and there is something called the "Bruun Rule" and I could not explain it...it is something that you could look up, but it is based on the slope of the beach and some other calculations. They are actually doing that work for us, so we are waiting for that information. Councilmember Kawakami: So it is much more complicated than a formula? Ms. Pap: Well, there is a formula. I find formulas very complicated, but if you are comfortable with them, I could get you that. Councilmember Kawakami: No. Ms. Pap: There is some geometry involved. Councilmember Kawakami: Tell me an app. Ms. Pap: Yes, exactly. Councilmember Kawakami: The other question that I had, and we had the Department of Water up earlier, and I tied it into today's presentation and I asked about our aquafers, "We have this lens of fresh water that floats upon the salt water and with global climate change and the increase in sea-level rise with potential bigger SPECIAL PLANNING COMMITTEE METING 12 NOVEMBER 29, 2017 storms; does the impact our aquafers at all? Does that increase the likelihood of saltwater intruding into our freshwater resources?" There really was not too much of an answer to give me. Have you folks looked at that on Kaua`i or statewide? Ms. Pap: What I know is that there is a risk of saltwater intrusion into wells if there are wells located close to the shoreline and I think that is something that we should look into further, perhaps of the Department of Water. I do not know the answer specifically for aquafers...that was an interesting question, but I do know that as sea-levels rise, it pushes that freshwater lens up near the shoreline, so we will see a creation of new wetlands at the surface. I am not a hydrogeologist, so I do not know how that would affect the actual water supply and the aquafer itself. I think you want to also be looking at how climate change impacts rainfall and things like that, which is a whole other developing science. Councilmember Kawakami: Trade winds and things that are important to us. Ms. Pap: Yes, trade winds and things like that. Exactly. Councilmember Kawakami: Okay. Thank you, Chair. Committee Chair Chock: Any further questions for Ruby? Councilmember Yukimura. Councilmember Yukimura: Ruby, thank you for being here. Would you say that climate change and global warming is maybe one of the most important issues facing the planet today? Ms. Pap: Yes, I would. Councilmember Yukimura: What would be the three (3) most important things you think that the County should do? Ms. Pap: Well, I think it is basically what I presented, which was always keeping an eye on the best available science and using that. We need to really...when the data becomes available that shows the full impact from the sea-level rise scenarios, the next most important step is to do community-by-community risk and vulnerability assessments so that the communities can really understand their vulnerabilities and make some decisions about the future. That is two (2) of the major ones right now. Just making sure future development is placed out of harm's way, but I think it is really looking at our existing communities and what our options are there. There is the whole other side, which is mitigation, which I do not work on as much, but at the same time, everyone SPECIAL PLANNING COMMITTEE METING 13 NOVEMBER 29, 2017 needs to be working on reducing our own emission so that we can slow the pace as much as possible. Councilmember Yukimura: I am glad you mentioned the third one because otherwise the three (3) actions are just adaptation, saying, "Come on, climate change. We will adjust because we have to." I share your thinking that we need to also try to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, what we generate here from this island, as small as it may be. If every community did that, we would get quite a big change. Number 3, Sector 9 and Section 3—this is mainly about adaptation. It was at the intention to address adaptation. Ms. Pap: Yes, so the mitigation chapter is before it and the energy sustainability. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. So the intention is to address mitigation under the section of energy sustainability? Ms. Pap: Yes. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. Would Planning have an objection to adding the words to Energy Sustainability "and Climate Change Mitigation"? Committee Chair Chock: To the title you mean? Councilmember Yukimura: Yes. MICHAEL A. DAHILIG, Planning Director: No. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. So this adequate information, your number one of the adaptation actions that you talked about... Ms. Pap: The best available science? Yes. Councilmember Yukimura: Yes, keeping an eye on the best available science; would that mean that we would change "A" under permitting actions and code changes, A.1? Ms. Pap: Can you tell me what page? Councilmember Yukimura: Page 194 in the General Plan. Number 1, A.1, at the last sentence—Yvette, can we get it on the overhead? "At the time of the General Plan Update publication, the science suggests a planning target of three (3) feet": we would change that now, right? SPECIAL PLANNING COMMITTEE METING 14 NOVEMBER 29, 2017 Ms. Pap: Not based on what I just presented. That is a flat target, expect three (3) feet...plan for three (3) feet of sea-level rise, which is going to occur in the latter half of the century. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay, I thought you said now that we are looking more at six (6) feet, but that is not true? Ms. Pap: There is a six (6) foot scenario that could be considered also, but the three (3) feet was recommended as a more near-term scenario, but that is also provided in the plan for consideration. Mr. Dahilig: Councilmember, just keep in mind that the planning horizon is 2035, so if there is...at least within the bounds of the temporal... Councilmember Yukimura: The next twenty (20) years? Mr. Dahilig: The next twenty (20) years...2035 it would bring us to...so what the science is starting to shift towards is three (3) by 2050, which is outside of our planning horizon. Councilmember Yukimura: So we are okay with three (3) feet? Mr. Dahilig: We think that three (3) is a comfortable target. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. Thank you. In terms of doing that, would this best science and best data be incorporated into our land management information system? Mr. Dahilig: What is compiled as part of the maps in the General Plan are also hazard maps, as Ruby mentioned. If that does become adopted as part of the overall land use policy, then we would definitely move forward towards geo-referencing that information as part of the County's official set of policy maps. At this point, until something is adopted, we were not going to move forward with anything other than keep it as a reference information. Councilmember Yukimura: Until something is adopted? Mr. Dahilig: Until this plan is adopted with the maps that is in there, then we would take those maps as generated, because it is in the Appendix, as Ruby mentioned. Councilmember Yukimura: Right. SPECIAL PLANNING COMMITTEE METING 15 NOVEMBER 29, 2017 Mr. Dahilig: So we would geo-reference that information and include it in our land management information system, which would be GIS-based. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay, so what you are saying is once this plan is adopted, then the information would be included in the land information management information system? Mr. Dahilig: Yes, that is what would be included, but it does also not preclude the fact that as recommended, the science is continuing to shift and the models are getting more and more accurate with respect to how this is going on. It is also, from a textual standpoint in the plan, consistent for us to continue to seek guidance from agencies like Sea Grant, NOAA, and the University of Hawai`i as to what is the best available science. That is why, we are, to some respect, not trying to "lock in" a specific spatial policy per se, but rather provide a basis for spatial evaluation at any given time. Councilmember Yukimura: Absolutely. Your land information management system would not be locked in time. In fact, that would be the value of having this database that could be shifted as the best information shifts. Mr. Dahilig: On top of that, keep in mind that as Ruby did allude to, we do have the Interagency Climate and Adaptation Commission. That is a State commission that is now also going through mapping exercises to adopt and generate data to the source. We expect information from that process at the State level to also give us data that can be geo-referenced as part of our land information management system. There are policy systems in place for us to continue to integrate the best available science. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. So basically, the answer to my question is yes, you will be incorporating this new data as it comes in this land information system? Mr. Dahilig: Yes. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. You know all of these actions, and maybe I should have asked it before, but who is supposed to do these actions? For example, "use the best available climate and hazard science to inform and guide decisions." Is that the Planning Commission? Mr. Dahilig: That is one end user. Again, there are many end users of this document at the end of the day. When we are looking at specifically, let us say the Planning Commission or our department evaluating a permit application, one of the guiding actions for us would be if there is something along or SPECIAL PLANNING COMMITTEE METING 16 NOVEMBER 29, 2017 in an area that is prone to coastal inundation or flooding or some type of coastal hazard, we would try to cross-reference it and ensure that the best available science is integrated in that analysis. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. That is why you would have a policy statement that everybody refers to. Mr. Dahilig: Which is "prepare for climate change," which is one of the nineteen (19) policy statements. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. On page 195, under "partnership needs," you say, "Consider incentive programs such as a tax incentive program or a transfer of development rights program to relocate potential or existing development out of hazardous or sensitive areas," etcetera. How does "transfer of development rights" work in this context? Mr. Dahilig: Well, again, there are many factors, as we described and discussed in our housing discussion a few weeks ago, that many elements have to come into play with respect to how to incentivize and also handle the movement of people away from hazardous areas or from areas that we do not see as palatable for development. One clear example of where this has been done in the past was after the 1960 tsunami in Hilo, where you had two (2) tsunamis within sixteen (16) years come in and actually inundate downtown Hilo and the State had to figure out how to facilitate movement of pretty much the whole commercial business district away from that area. So those are the types of situations where that kind of rapid approach towards handling the movement of a community after a disaster has been utilized. So the type of development rights that were incentivized was essentially the State made land available across the current Hilo airport and with a forty (40) to forty-five (45)year lease pretty much moved everybody back there. One of the more indicative moves was that Hilo Solar Works actually got moved back from the front area of Hilo Bay, all the way towards the airport. That is where this discussion of tax incentives, rights, providing land that is available is something that is in the partnership needs portion of this particular discussion, because what we are aware of is situations where the State, in its wisdom, has used and employed a rapid retreat response in situations like after the Hilo tsunami. Councilmember Yukimura: What is the partnership that you see here? Mr. Dahilig: Again, a lot of that would have to be incumbent on whether or not the State zoning was aligned, whether the infrastructure was available, whether the water was available, whether the roads are available. It is not just an action by the County from a regulatory standpoint to say, "Okay, we are going to move you away." There are many things that have to fall into SPECIAL PLANNING COMMITTEE METING 17 NOVEMBER 29, 2017 place in order to facilitate that retreat. So that is why it is identified as a partnership need because it requires all hands to be on deck. Councilmember Yukimura: Who do you see initiating this? Mr. Dahilig: It comes in two (2) forms, whether there is an actual policy to move forward with retreat. I think that is a situation where you have a disaster. A disaster provides those scenarios where the answer is pretty much given to you that, "Okay, retreat should be done in this circumstance." But when you are getting into scenarios where you have existing communities, as Ruby has mentioned, where if you were to tell them, "You know what, you need to leave your home," when there is no impendent disaster, that emotional attachment to the real property becomes partly in question because we are dealing with a slow creep of a disaster versus something that is very temporarily short, where you have something like sea-level rise, even though it maybe over a five (5), ten (10), fifteen(15), to twenty (20) year timespan, having somebody prematurely in their mind give up their home along the shoreline because of sea-level rise, for a better standpoint, could be "sticky." Who is going to initiate that force retreat becomes really a sticky question for issues related to regulatory takings and so forth. That is why we do not necessarily say that retreat is the preferred alternative to adaptation in a circumstance, rather because the horizon of the scenario that we are looking at, which is outside of the planning horizon of this particular document, is what we are entertaining right now. We are saying, "Let us get prepared and slowly get towards that adjustment of adaptation. Let us start planning ahead by not adding more and inviting more intense development along the shoreline, etcetera." We are not, within the planning horizon, saying that we need to be focused on retreat as a preferred land use alternative. Ms. Pap: If I may, the other option or scenario that could occur, and that is why I mentioned that I think it is important for each community to do this exercise of a community-based vulnerability assessment is that when the communities go through that exercise and they identify their vulnerabilities and their infrastructure and perhaps a row of homes that is particularly vulnerable, it may be that they decide amongst themselves, amongst a whole slew of options, that they may want to consider establishing a program for themselves or tax themselves for relocation or do a Transferable Development Right (TDR) or something, but it is provided as an option for each community to consider or it could be considered by the County as a whole. But the idea was is that first get a handle on the magnitude of the impact and understand the vulnerability that those options would grow out of that process. Councilmember Yukimura: Well, after Hurricane Iniki, we experienced all of the parcels along the road to Spouting Horn, Lawa`i Road—totally wiped out...I mean totally wiped out, including the other coasts, too. That would have been the clearest of times to say, "No, you cannot rebuild." We tried to do that in one case with SPECIAL PLANNING COMMITTEE METING 18 NOVEMBER 29, 2017 one of the hotels and if it does not work in that kind of scenario, I do not think it will ever work. Ms. Pap: Well, I think the key piece that might have been missing there, and I do not want to step out of line because I was not here, but what I understand is there was not any pre-disaster planning in that sense and there is a way where the community can come together and look at their vulnerabilities and look at their risks in advance so that when that does happen, they have a slew of options to choose from. They may have already discussed, "Well, if this happens, we may do that." Councilmember Yukimura: Well, I think most of the thinking is, "Well, we will rebuild and have another twenty (20) years of a lot of really good income as vacation rentals or even as a vacation house, and if it comes, it comes." I do not know what the flood insurance is, but I have not seen...I think it is the same all over the country that people basically go back to rebuild, unless there is another program available immediately where they get another house somewhere else that is as good and not so subject to flood. The reason why I am asking so many questions about this "consider incentive programs," unless somebody actually develops a program, and it is not going to be the owners of the property...it is not going to happen. I concur that it has to be available and in place before the disaster happens and ready to be invoked when the disaster happens. I am just thinking though as this "under a partnership need" with no accountability as to who is to do it, it is unlikely to happen. That is why I have been asking who would initiate this and who would create this? Mr. Dahilig: That again is the broader statewide policy in question that is being tackled by the Interagency of Climate Change and Adaptation Commission. When you look at retreat scenarios that have happened, you also need willing landowners. When you are looking at who owns the most land in the State of Hawai`i, it is the State of Hawai`i. So whether or not you come to the table with that discussion and initiate it with the person holding the largest amount of public trust lands, they obviously have to be invested in initiating that discussion from the get-go. It was something that they were willing to do in 1960, but whether or not that is a scenario or discussion that is most appropriate for them to take the lead on and be held accountable on, they nevertheless still have to be an integral partner in this, because they are the ones that are most likely supplying the send zone in a scenario like this. Councilmember Yukimura: Would you say that we should say, "Work with the Interagency of Climate Change and Adaptation Commission to develop incentive programs"? Mr. Dahilig: Well, I think if you look at just right above that paragraph 6, how that works is what... SPECIAL PLANNING COMMITTEE METING 19 NOVEMBER 29, 2017 Councilmember Yukimura: Paragraph 6? Mr. Dahilig: Above paragraph 6 in E.6, sorry, the same page. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. Mr. Dahilig: We do recognize that this work is going on. I am actually flying to Honolulu in two (2) weeks to actually vote on the adoption of that first draft of the plan. That has been studied, so that is going over to the legislature shortly, but it is definitely an all hands type of scenario that needs to include the State of Hawai`i as a discussion partner. So did you want to beef up the language in Section 3? Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. Thank you. Committee Chair Chock: Ruby, I had a few testimonies focused on climate change as a need to be highlighted. I know you said it is kind of redundant because it is spread out through different areas of the plan, but in particular, the testimonies referring to the watersheds section. So I guess the question is really climate change as it relates to watershed, and if so, where you see that need? Ms. Pap: Well, in the watershed chapter, there is a whole host of sea-level rise adaptation measures in the coastal section, so it became a challenge because the climate change is such a cross-cutting measure and affects every aspect of our lives. Do we do a separate chapter on climate change or try to integrate it more into the things that we normally plan for? So that was the decision that was made, and because our coastal areas are so important, that is where a lot of that was put in terms of the hazards part that I worked on. So in terms of the coastal hazards. Committee Chair Chock: Where is that again? Ms. Pap: It is Sector 1...page 105. Committee Chair Chock: Okay. Anymore questions for Ruby, specifically? If not, I am going to keep moving down to the topics. Ms. Pap: I am always available offline if anyone wants to contact me. Councilmember Yukimura: Do we get to ask questions about watershed? SPECIAL PLANNING COMMITTEE METING 20 NOVEMBER 29, 2017 Committee Chair Chock: Yes, I was going to move right down the line with watershed next, if that is okay, but I just wanted to see if we could get through whatever questions for climate change with Ruby. Councilmember Yukimura: Well, I have climate change questions for the energy sector, which is supposedly the mitigation piece of climate change. Committee Chair Chock: Why do you not ask that now? Like I said, I think Ruby is a little under the weather, so we was hoping we could get her out of here. Ms. Pap: We have a resource person here, too, on that. Councilmember Yukimura: Yes, I think you do have someone else. I think it is Ben, right? Ms. Pap: Yes, Ben. Committee Chair Chock: If that is the case, then why do we not let her go and then we can move to watershed. Ms. Pap: I am still here, so I can come back up if I need to, but I will get off the hot seat for now. Committee Chair Chock: Take a rest. Ms. Pap: Okay. Thank you. Committee Chair Chock: Watershed questions? Councilmember Yukimura: We are going to watershed? Committee Chair Chock: Yes, if that is okay. I did get some testimony and I was wondering, Mike or Marie, if the Nature Conservancy was included in the discussion for some of the development of this section. I did get some from them that I thought was actually pretty objective and thorough. I am not sure if you received a copy of it, but I can send it to you. Did you? Ms. Williams: Yes. Committee Chair Chock: I do see Mr. (Reeto-inaudible?) here as well. I will just outline some of them...some of them is actually stating it correctly with the strategic plan, which is management plan, "inclusion of (Aloha Plus-inaudible?) challenge in thirty-eight percent (38%) as far as preservation." Some of those SPECIAL PLANNING COMMITTEE METING 21 NOVEMBER 29, 2017 statements seem pretty standard and contributing, so if you have this then I will not move into it, just acknowledge that you have it. Mr. Dahilig: Yes, we have reviewed it and gone through it and if that is amended language the County would like to see integrated, it seems pretty acceptable. Committee Chair Chock: Yes, it seems pretty straightforward. The Wao Akua area...the verbiage should be in the right area. Thank you. I do not know if you had a copy... Councilmember Yukimura: I saw it, I think, but since we have Mr. (inaudible-Reto?) here, I believe he is qualified as a resource person. Committee Chair Chock: If you have a question for Mr. (Reto- inaudible?) because of it, I will entertain a question for him. I am pretty satisfied with the acknowledgment that I have gotten from Planning that they are willing to move on these amendments that have been presented by TNC. Councilmember Yukimura: Maybe just for the public's edification, you can summarize them? Committee Chair Chock: I do not think I can. There are too many to do so, but they will come up in amendments for sure. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. Committee Chair Chock: There are tons of amendments. Do you see all of these amendments here? Again, if you have questions of him, I will entertain it. If not, then general questions and they may have specific people that you want to reference. None on watershed anyone? We can start from page 98. I will just move to one of these others that came up. You started to allude to this in sort of intrusion on the streams and I know Lei and I have talked about it in the past with the State's interest in moving cesspools and transitioning them. I am worrying if there was...as I see some of the testimony asking for a direction in that, a more stronger approach to helping to transition, moving or transitioning these cesspools that are near or along streams. Ms. Williams: A lot of our policy-related to our wastewater systems, cesspools, and septic systems is actually in the critical infrastructure section. Committee Chair Chock: I see. SPECIAL PLANNING COMMITTEE METING 22 NOVEMBER 29, 2017 Ms. Williams: But of course, we do support ultimately trying to convert our fourteen thousand (14,000) cesspools...well, probably not all of them, but we did want to acknowledge the Department of Health and how it is hoping ultimately to convert at least those cesspools located adjacent to a drainage area or in a drainage area to a more ecofriendly septic system or perhaps be part of a wastewater system. Committee Chair Chock: Is there a standard of approach in talking about in location to a stream for a septic system? Mr. Dahilig: The only standard from a spatial standpoint that I am aware of is whether or not you are above or below the Underground Injection Control (UIC) line. So that UIC line becomes really the standard as set forth under the Clean Water Act and the Safe Water Drinking Act that is both enforced by the State, but is a Federal law. With respect to the actual stream channels and flows, I think that was something that could be built upon within our current special treatment regimes, whether or not there are distances from our current stream channels that need to be avoided from injection control types of activities. Committee Chair Chock: Okay. Councilmember Yukimura: I have a follow-up on that. Committee Chair Chock: Councilmember Yukimura. Councilmember Yukimura: So you are saying that we have just an overall synopsis of the cesspool problem, if you could give that? Mr. Dahilig: The science behind wastewater treatment has essentially come to the conclusion, especially at the regulatory level and the Federal level that the amount of treatment for our wastewater needs to be more than just bearing it underground and letting it digest. So that is why septic is now the standard with respect to how to treat a wastewater. What has happened over the years is that because cesspools have been used predominantly in older construction, those older homes along many of our coasts are not leaching organic material that is up to the microbial standards that the Department of Health would like it to be. In order to make our nearshore environments that are used predominantly for recreation safer, they would like to see these conversions. Under Federal law, high capacity cesspools are already considered illegal, but even to change a cesspool, whether it would be high capacity or a residential cesspool is quite expensive. That is why the State has come forward with new grant programs to try to subsidize the conversion of these cesspools to more adequate septic systems. SPECIAL PLANNING COMMITTEE METING 23 NOVEMBER 29, 2017 Councilmember Yukimura: So our goal then, as an island, is to convert the fourteen thousand (14,000) existing cesspools to upgrade them to the standard of septic tanks? Is that correct? Is that our goal? Ms. Williams: I know the State does have an incentive program. It does not like seem like they have had a great success with getting people to take advantage of that program, but I do not know what their specific or if they have a specific target related towards a number they are trying to hit, but of course they would try to seek as many conversions of cesspools as possible. There is not a stated target in the General Plan. Councilmember Yukimura: And we do not have a goal, even though it is not our specific kuleana for regulatory enforcement, but in terms of our goals as a sustainable island that is beautiful and a livable place that is healthy and equitable, then what is our goal? We might have a partner that has to achieve that, but have we thought about it or do we know that at least within areas that are along streams and along the coastline, those would be our targets? Can we conceive of a goal that says, "In the next twenty (20) years, our goal is to convert these systems to meet the standards of best practice?" I do not know exactly how to articulate it so that they would either be hooked up to a sewer system or they would be at a level of septic system treatment. Ms. Williams: Allow me to just point out action D.1 in the wastewater subsection. It is on page 141. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. Ms. Williams: It is a partnership need and it does say, "Reduce the number of cesspools to septic conversion or through connection to a new of existing regional wastewater system." But you are right, it does not have a specific number attached to that. Councilmember Yukimura: What page? 141? Ms. Williams: Page 141, D.1. Councilmember Yukimura: If we convert five (5) in the next twenty (20) years, we will have achieved our goal, right? We will have reduced the number of cesspools. I heard from Councilmember Chock a concern about...and I think from the community...it is along the streams, like Nawiliwili Stream that leads out to Kalapaki Bay, which is both a resort and a recreation area for both tourists and residents that affects health and safety. Would it be advisable to have a clearer goal in terms of our overarching four (4) goals? SPECIAL PLANNING COMMITTEE METING 24 NOVEMBER 29, 2017 Mr. Dahilig: As stated earlier, we are not aware of the State department that is actually in charge of regulating these conversions, whether they actually have a target number or not. They are pretty much the agency on the dime for this. Councilmember Yukimura: I am just asking if we should have a goal. Mr. Dahilig: I think it would be appropriate for us to have a goal if we had, let us say, a hand in how we are able to reduce these existing cesspools. Councilmember Yukimura: Well, we can say no building permit will be issued for new construction or I guess new construction is already covered. Mr. Dahilig: New construction is... Councilmember Yukimura: There are many ways we could enforce it. It goes the same for all of these things that are being suggested. If we were going to talk about your first watershed action, "Review State Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) forest reserve plans when development is adjacent to forest reserves." The way to do that is to say, "Incorporate into our zoning and permitting system a requirement for review prior to permit issuance," or something like that, right? Mr. Dahilig: I think that is why it is under Section A as a header for Permitting and Code Change. As part of our normal process when we are reviewing discretionary permits, these evaluative measures are meant to be clearly outlined for a regulatory planner to be able to cross-reference these documents. So that is exactly what you are stating would happen in the process. That is why it is under the Permitting and Code Change section. Councilmember Yukimura: So you do not mind if we just make it more specific, incorporate into the permit system a requirement of review, or is that already implied? Mr. Dahilig: It is implied because anytime when we have to review a discretionary permit, we have to provide a report to the Planning Commission, whether or not the proposal is or is not consistent with the General Plan. That is where we would have to earmark to the Planning Commission whether or not a proposal is not consistent with the reserve plan. So we would have to highlight that as a measure. SPECIAL PLANNING COMMITTEE METING 25 NOVEMBER 29, 2017 Councilmember Yukimura: How are your young planners going to do that when you are gone? Unless you incorporate it...they are not going to read this whole General Plan and check, unless you are going to do a checklist. Is that your intention? Mr. Dahilig: Or I could be Planning Director forever. Councilmember Yukimura: I do not even know if you can track it, even if you are the Planning Director forever. Mr. Dahilig: The benefit and also the drawback of the discretionary permitting process is that these evaluative types of standards that we have to look at whenever something is proposed has to be done, essentially not by a simple spatial analysis, but has to be done by hand. Why the plan again is structured in the method that it is structured is to provide the end user a very clear way to search the overall planning document to go through that evaluative process. The best we can do is tag it in a manner and that is why we have structured the action items as such to be able to have these regulatory planners find the qualitative, evaluative types of statements to compare an action that is proposed by a permit, whether or not is consistent with the General Plan. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay, so your application is going to say, "A), is it consistent with the General Plan? It is adjacent to a State DLNR Forest Reserve. If so, have we reviewed the State DLNR plan?" Is that how you are going to do it? Mr. Dahilig: That is probably how we already do it, not specifically with a DLNR plan per se, but that is how we would do it when we are looking at how to ensure consistency with the General Plan. One other layered element here is when we go through permitting, we also send the permitting applications over to our sister agencies in what we call a "360 review." If we notice that on the map that it is right next to a forest reserve, we would naturally send it over to DLNR Forestry and ask, "Hey, what do you think of this application?" We would try to hit it from both angles. Committee Chair Chock: We have other questions from other Members. Councilmember Yukimura: Go ahead. Committee Chair Chock: Councilmember Kawakami. Councilmember Kawakami: So the State enacted a tax credit for the conversion of cesspool to septic system and some of the requirements and it is a ten thousand dollar ($10,000) tax credit; how much does a septic system generally cost for a home? SPECIAL PLANNING COMMITTEE METING 26 NOVEMBER 29, 2017 Mr. Dahilig: I have heard an upwards of thirty thousand dollars ($30,000) to forty thousand dollars ($40,000). Councilmember Kawakami: I know that part of the controversy is the requirement that the structure needs to be located two hundred (200) feet within an ocean, a stream, or a drinking water source. One of the controversies is, "Hey, these people that are living two hundred (200) feet from the ocean generally can afford to upgrade a septic system, so why are we as taxpayers subsidizing these conversions when most of these people are rich?" That was the discussion, but since then, there was only like, at the time an article came out, there was something like nine (9)people that actually applied. Have we figured out what it takes? Do we need to kick in a property tax exemption? I know the heavy-handed way is just to say if you need a remodeling or any type of building permit, then that is a heavy-handed way, but have we given thought as to what kind of incentive-base we could kick in? Mr. Dahilig: Even getting to a discussion of incentives first is whether or not there is even an awareness of the need to do this. What we find is that a lot of landowners are not even aware of this conversion situation unless they actually, let us say, pull a permit, or let us say, they have to hit the Department of Health. I know that becomes part of the problem, just in general the awareness of being proactive and actually doing the conversion. With that being said, there are a range of people that need the assistance. Like you mentioned, some people can afford this and some people cannot, but you cannot necessarily steer the tax credits to be discriminatory one way or the other. It could incentivize those people that, let us say, are in a lower income bracket that have problems even maintaining their current home to go ahead and make these changes, but what we found in terms of who has changed, at least in my mind, the biggest ones have been full-out Federal grants that have gone and done the change of what is free, then they have gone and put the new septic systems in. There still is not anything at this point from the Federal level unlike the high capacity cesspools, where they actually made it illegal from a Federal level standpoint that they had to convert these more minor residential single or dual use cesspools do not fall into that category of receiving a punitive measure. It may take a heavy hand, like you are mentioning, to make these conversions. Councilmember Kawakami: There is no teeth. As long as your cesspool is working, you generally can keep going, but when there is a heavy rain, it impacts the environment. I am trying to figure it out, because if it is an awareness standpoint, you start questioning how many people actually know this tax incentive actually exists. A lot of times, we depend on the architect or the builder for new construction as they are going bullet point by bullet point on what a new homeowner wants, then they start bringing up, "Well, how important is it for you to want to stay in your home if there is a hurricane?" Then if somebody responds, "Well, it is very important," then they say, "Well, we have a tax incentive at the County level if you build a hurricane SPECIAL PLANNING COMMITTEE METING 27 NOVEMBER 29, 2017 safe room." How much work would it take you if you were to go door-to-door? How many cesspools are within two hundred (200) feet of the ocean? Mr. Dahilig: Fourteen thousand (14,000). Ms. Williams: Fourteen thousand (14,000) residential. Mr. Dahilig: We have fourteen thousand (14,000) residential across the island. In terms of those that are near the shoreline, I am not sure. Councilmember Kawakami: Those with cesspools, we do not even know either, right? Mr. Dahilig: Yes. Councilmember Kawakami: Another follow-up question dealing with runoff and I guess the mid-water shed—one of the things that was really compelling for myself, and I believe a few others that got to witness, was when we were in Oregon, that is a relatively wet environment and they have a salmon fishery that is very important to their economy and a fishing industry that is very important to the economy. So we started seeing little things, much like what we have out here where we have landscaping, green areas, and beautification projects. What we notice in Oregon is that they put a lot of thought as to how the roads even sloped, where there were cuts in the curb, how they landscape to capture a majority of their storm water runoff so that it did not impact their economy and their environment. Would we need some sort of mandate here for us to "march to the beat of our own drum" and start following these best practices or is this something we can kind of instill as we are appropriating Capital Improvement Project (CIP) funds? Say for example, the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant, we are going to be investing money; Is there a way for us to force the hand and say, "Hey, we are going to invest this thirteen million dollars ($13,000,000), but we want to ensure that we start moving in a direction where we start capturing a majority of our storm water runoff, as far as the angles of our streets, curb cuts, and where the landscaping is, and how it is even built into the environment so that we can start capturing more of the runoff"? Do we need a mandate or is that something that we can go off on our own and just say use the best standards? Ms. Williams: I think that there are two (2) chances for us to look at doing that to County projects and to code change, changing our development standards to encourage those kinds of best practices more and they are identified on page 104 in the mid-watershed section for permitting and code change under Action A.1, we do acknowledge that we can avoid impacts to our recharge areas and to floodplains to standards and have a list and 1.D, says, "Incorporate trees, rain garden SPECIAL PLANNING COMMITTEE METING 28 NOVEMBER 29, 2017 swales, green roofs, and other features that mimic natural systems." Also, under C.1.2, to use green infrastructure concepts and best management practice and practices in County projects as well. Councilmember Kawakami: Very good. Thank you. Committee Chair Chock: If I could follow-up, I know you said (inaudible), so you know what we are talking about with the natural filtration system as what they invested in. My understanding was that it was an investment and because of the surrounding area and (inaudible) and so forth. Is that feasible in our climate, to what degree, and how much will it impact development? I kind of want to move towards...this is great and I think even more so, I think what the question I hear is what kind of actions can we also start to move towards that are going to move us in that direction? Mr. Dahilig: As you have experienced, "the Devil is in the details" and how you actually prescribe the standards for that type of development really are incumbent on how you tell people to design it. The reality, moving forward, is that much of the plan that from a growth management standpoint has been focused on infill and existing infrastructure. So the idea of creating a sprawled road network is not...you are not going to see that as much as you would have in previous iterations of the General Plan, simply because we are aware that we are trying to reduce that footprint. With that being said, a lot of these types of measures or these types of techniques to capture more of the rainwater is really going to be incumbent on the County to look at retrofits. Case in point, if you do look along Hardy Street, you will see some attempt as trying to use rain guards as a way to try to control some of the runoff as sort. So there was some green design implemented there. What is being integrated with what the Department of Public Works is doing right now is trying to create a more robust design standard for how to deal with the streets, not only how you move along the streets, but how you take care of these types of drainage situations. It really will be incumbent on retrofitting of existing streets, or if there is more intense development, whether they are in lieu fees that are paid into the County coffers to actually incentivize these types of changes. In terms of green fill development, the design standards that are coming from out from the Department of Public Works will also apply to it. Again, we are not forecasting a large amount of green fill development to be undertaken, should this plan get adopted. Committee Chair Chock: Another aspect that has been brought up is sort of that regional approach to planning these drainage systems, because I know you have a lot...Rupert keeps talking about it. Really, you have Sheraton and everybody down there (inaudible), so everything flows in that direction. Is that a need? I see some of the testimony moving in that direction of looking at sort of database or even systems of how it is we are looking at this regionally. Is that here? Is there more that needs to be done? Is that there already? SPECIAL PLANNING COMMITTEE METING 29 NOVEMBER 29, 2017 Mr. Dahilig: If you look at B.2... Committee Chair Chock: D.2? Mr. Dahilig: "Bravo" 2. Committee Chair Chock: Oh, B.2, okay... Mr. Dahilig: This idea of understanding that these are systems is actually quite novel. It is not novel in the sense that it has been around in many other areas of the world, but as it relates to how we, as a County, approach our own Wastewater Management working together and actually looking at more natural ways of trying to retain the water versus singular developable detention basins are the types of discussion points that we need to migrate toward this more integrated management. One of the things that we are looking at with respect to, like even the Koa`e Development for housing in between Po`ipu and Koloa is whether or not it makes sense to create passive parks as a means of creating dual usage versus having something just sit at this bowl that does not get used. That is also being integrated in a lot of other of the smaller developments where passive parks can be used as a means of detention versus something that is just as whole in a development. That is why if you look at A.5 on page 104, it is something that we are also trying to compel on designers if they come through the County Planning Department for a permit that they explore beyond what has been the traditional engineering solution, which has been just to create a detention basin. It is a waste of land, it is a safety hazard, and it is a waste of resources, and frankly, creating space that can be used three hundred sixty (360) days out of the year and the other five (5) is filled with water, then you get the best of both worlds. Committee Chair Chock: Thank you. Anymore questions on watershed? Councilmember Yukimura. Councilmember Yukimura: So staying on page 104, all of these things under permitting and code changes, we are going to...I guess we will address that in implementation, but I am presuming that within one (1) year, these will be incorporated? Mr. Dahilig: Ultimately, these set the tenor, as required by State law, for us to be able to then present ordinances that can be adopted and implemented. That is why the phrase "code change" is also included as part of the permitting element, because where we have discretionary ability over a permit, we can create these types of measures as conditions of approval. So that is where the two (2) kind of go hand-in-hand. But whereas it becoming a part of the overall County Code system from a regulatory standpoint, it would require an ordinance, so those SPECIAL PLANNING COMMITTEE METING 30 NOVEMBER 29, 2017 are the types of things that...Marie, if this does pass, her work is not going to be done...she is going to be working with different stakeholders on different code change items to try to start presenting packages to the Council to actually have the code aligned with the General Plan. Councilmember Yukimura: So number 2 says, "Reduce erosion and retain sediment on site during and after construction"—Is that not required by law already? Mr. Dahilig: It is already a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) requirement, but it is worth restating. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. So I guess we are not just on 2; we can talk about anything in watershed? Committee Chair Chock: Yes. Councilmember Yukimura: Under the objective of the coastal areas and shorelines objective, "To protect and enhance coastal resources and to protect and enhance public access to the shoreline"—that is your goal, right? Mr. Dahilig: Yes. Councilmember Yukimura: What do you mean by "enhance public access"? Mr. Dahilig: I think when you look at the interplay between sea-level rise and the retreat of our shorelines, the Ashford Case before the Hawai`i Supreme Court that delineates where the boundary between the State's landownership and private landownership migrates as the shoreline retreat. So what becomes critical for us is that we want to ensure that the coastal resources are able to operate in a natural fashion so that consequential lateral access along the shoreline given the Ashford Case is preserved to the greatest extent possible. Councilmember Yukimura: Do you address lateral access? Mr. Dahilig: You can probably go to... Ms. Williams: It would be in the axis section in... Councilmember Yukimura: I am sorry, I cannot hear you... Mr. Dahilig: We are still flipping over to the axis section so that we can point out something to you. So if you look at page 207... SPECIAL PLANNING COMMITTEE METING 31 NOVEMBER 29, 2017 Councilmember Yukimura: Page 207? Mr. Dahilig: Yes. Councilmember Yukimura: What are we looking at? Mr. Dahilig: Paragraph 4.1, which would be at the bottom right-hand corner of the page. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. "Improving access to the shoreline." Mr. Dahilig: What we get into is a broad discussion of what State law already protects, which is that lateral access. As we know and there has been recent discussion at the Council concerning those that are trying to gain the natural environment to retain and protect their own personal and private property interest. So that is why the two (2) kind of go hand-in-hand with respect to recreation and the ability to have that lateral access, but also at the same time, ensuring that our near coastal environments are able to operate as a system in a natural way. Councilmember Yukimura: How are you embodying that thought in any implementation or action? Mr. Dahilig: Again, it is law, and within the jurisdiction and the structural setup of who ensures that line migrates is partly a jurisdictional issue with the State DLNR. So the Office of Coastal and Conservation Lands has the hand in that enforcement. Ultimately, the situation that is inhibiting this natural migration or retreat of the shoreline is anthropological. It is not environmental. It really is an enforcement issue that is already well-memorialized both in State statute, County statute, as well as State case law. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. Mr. Dahilig: For instance, if you look at D.9, that is why it is under partnership needs, "Manage lateral shoreline access concerns, including vegetation that encroaches along the beach transit corridor." Councilmember Yukimura: Okay, so that is mentioned of lateral access in your action items? Mr. Dahilig: Yes. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. You have under, since we are here on this page 209, "Require minimum access width of ten (10) feet." Is that a standard practice? SPECIAL PLANNING COMMITTEE METING 32 NOVEMBER 29, 2017 Committee Chair Chock: What is that? Oh, I see it. Councilmember Yukimura: Yes, A.1. You will not reject an access if the only thing you can get is... Mr. Dahilig: There is already a subdivision ordinance concerning the interval and character of these types of accesses as part of a subdivision application, but it does not carry through to the discussions when you get into discretionary permitting. Again, it is numerated only in Chapter 9, not in Chapter 8. So providing that degree of consistency on the character and type of County access should probably be carried through regardless of whether it is a subdivision action or discretionary permit. Councilmember Yukimura: So is that something you will address? Mr. Dahilig: Yes. Councilmember Yukimura: Coming back to page 105, the issue of public access and protecting coastal resources are sometimes contradictory and we learned that when we acquired Crater Hill in Kilauea, which is an area that because the main mission is to protect the seabirds, we had to restrict access, we all gave up our rights...it was not a right...it was a privilege of going to that grassy null and drinking wine and cheese and watching the sunset, because it got barred off. It was hard for people to make that tradeoff, but we did make it as a community. I believe the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) raised that issue with respect to axis to cultural sites. I wondered if there was any discussion about that balancing act that is very critical, because it not just had public access everywhere and anywhere, because it could have impacts on coastal resources, historic sites, and other...there could be these negative interactions. Is there any place that this is addressed, because it really is a management issue and I just wondered if there could be management guidelines? Mr. Dahilig: Yes. Ruby is pointing out to me that if you look at page 107, paragraph A.2.D, that language could be massaged to provide the type of balancing that you are characterizing as needed in the discretionary permitting process. Ultimately, we know that anthropological effects on our environment can also be a consequence of overutilization. In terms of whether or not something like a paragraph 2.D could be massaged to include that concern, I certainly can understand why that would be a possibility. Councilmember Yukimura: Is that something you can come up with? Mr. Dahilig: Sure. SPECIAL PLANNING COMMITTEE METING 33 NOVEMBER 29, 2017 Councilmember Yukimura: Thank you. Committee Chair Chock: I am sorry, I have to take a ten-minute caption break and then we are going to 4:30 p.m., and then we are breaking so we will try to get as much as we can get done today. Thank you. There being no objections, the meeting recessed at 3:48 p.m. The meeting reconvened at 4:03 p.m., and proceeded as follows: Committee Chair Chock: We are back from our caption break. We will be moving to Energy and Sustainability at this time, so I will open it up for questions on this sector. Councilmembers, we have a couple of representatives here, like Ben, who will not be here tomorrow. The Coalition also has a representative on their amendments if you have questions. Again, I am going to entertain questions and answers here at this time on Energy and Sustainability. Councilmember Yukimura: What page is that? Councilmember Kaneshiro: Page 179. Councilmember Yukimura: Thank you. I have a question. Committee Chair Chock: Go ahead. Councilmember Yukimura: Ben, do you want to introduce yourself for the record? BEN SULLIVAN, Energy and Sustainability Coordinator for the Department of Economic Development: Ben Sullivan, Energy and Sustainability Coordinator. Mr. Dahilig: Mike Dahilig, for the record. Ms. Williams: Marie Williams, for the record. Councilmember Yukimura: Thank you for a very good section, Ben. So my question was, on page 183, and maybe we can show that, Yvette, if possible, but you are showing the...this is Hawai`i's greenhouse gas emissions, so this is a State graph based on State data. Mr. Sullivan: That is correct. That is actually a 2007 emissions across the State of Hawaii. SPECIAL PLANNING COMMITTEE METING 34 NOVEMBER 29, 2017 Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. We are doing an excellent job, far better than O`ahu, in terms of having our electric power move toward renewables and increase self-sufficiency, right? Mr. Sullivan: Yes, the Kaua`i Island Utility Cooperative (KIUC) is really leading the way in terms of addressing it, for sure. Councilmember Yukimura: Yes, leading the way, not only in the State, but I think in the country. Kudos to KIUC and all of the people who have worked. I know you worked hard on the conversion of streetlights to solar, right? Mr. Sullivan: It was not solar, it was actually switching over the Light-Emitting Diode (LED) lights. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. Mr. Sullivan: We worked in partnership with KIUC and I think it was very successful and we are saving a lot of money and reducing our energy use quite a bit and our emissions as well. Councilmember Yukimura: So it shows that actually addressing greenhouse gases can actually save money, not just cost money. Mr. Sullivan: Absolutely. I think especially when you consider future volatility in fossil fuels and obviously we have seen over the last decade and we are going to continue to see. We ever know where the price is going to go, whether up or down and how much. So to the extent that we can rely on fixed (inaudible) contracts through renewable energy and to the extent that we can reduce or energy use, we are better off. Councilmember Yukimura: That is one of the stunning accomplishments of KIUC that even as they had to invest a lot of money in renewables, they have also been able to not only stabilize the electric rate, but reduce it. Mr. Sullivan: Absolutely. We cannot say enough good things about KIUC. The Mayor has made it a priority to partner with them and to look for opportunities to support them and he tasks me with that every day, so we are very happy with our progress. Councilmember Yukimura: So the real difficult nut to crack, so to speak, is transportation. As you can see, I do not think we deviate from that chart as an island in terms of greenhouse gas production, right? Do we not produce more greenhouse gases from our transportation sector? SPECIAL PLANNING COMMITTEE METING 35 NOVEMBER 29, 2017 Mr. Sullivan: Inclusive of air transportation, yes. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay, so this twelve point five eight percent (12.58%) is surface water and land transportation? Mr. Sullivan: Correct. Councilmember Yukimura: Do we have a breakdown? Mr. Sullivan: We can certainly send you the data and the breakdown. I do not have it with me, but we are happy to forward that to you. Councilmember Yukimura: I guess the good news is that we do have a land transportation plan that will also, if implemented, reduce greenhouse gases? Mr. Sullivan: That is correct. In other cases, you were describing added benefits, so reduce greenhouse gases, but we also save costs, provide better transportation systems, and safer, all of that. Councilmember Yukimura: If we implement our plan? Mr. Sullivan: Correct. Councilmember Yukimura: The plan was adopted in 2013 and we are now four (4) years into our plan. How have we been doing in terms of greenhouse gas emissions from our land transportation system? Does anybody know? Marie, you have been heading the GetFit/Built Environment Committee and you have been tracking vehicle miles traveled, which is a correlative of greenhouse gas. Ms. Williams: That is true. It is actually the State that tracks our average annual Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT), both by car and islandwide as well. I probably should not say that I do not recall, but perhaps we could tie that to the amount of emissions produced per vehicle mile traveled. Greenhouse gas emissions generated from travel on island is not something that I think we outright...it is? Okay, go ahead. Mr. Sullivan: So the State does track, through the Department of Taxation, I think it is called the liquid fuels tax base, so we can track highway gasoline and diesel. It is a little harder when you start getting into the things like off-road vehicles and what not to figure out exactly where that fuel is being used. When you look at those metrics over the last few years, and again, we can share this data with you, because we do visualize it and keep an eye on it as part of the job, it has been fairly flat. It dropped after 2007 and it has been fairly flat since then with just a really slight uptick, maybe this year and last year. SPECIAL PLANNING COMMITTEE METING 36 NOVEMBER 29, 2017 Councilmember Yukimura: Vehicle miles traveled? Mr. Sullivan: No, this is highway fuel use on the island. Councilmember Yukimura: Greenhouse gases correlate with fossil fuel use, right? Mr. Sullivan: That is correct, yes. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. So what you said is it shows that we have been actually keeping our vehicle miles traveled flat, but it started to rise again. Mr. Sullivan: I was not commenting on the VMT data. I think Marie is actually a little more familiar with that. Councilmember Yukimura: What about our fossil fuel usage then? Mr. Sullivan: Our fossil fuel usage has been fairly flat since 2007, and in ground transportation, again, there is a slight uptick last year and this year and I do not know the numbers off the top of my head, but I am happy to send them forward. Councilmember Yukimura: I think that is even happening nationally. Okay. Can you just provide that information over the last four (4) years, annual fossil fuel? If there is a greenhouse gas conversion or a translation, that would be great to know. Committee Chair Chock: There is a question as a follow-up. Councilmember Yukimura: Sure. Committee Chair Chock: Councilmember Kawakami. Councilmember Kawakami: Just real quick in tying into that, is there any way to differentiate between vehicle miles traveled and also the fuel usage between residential versus visitor? Do we have that impact on how much emissions are being produced by the visitor industry when they get into a rental car and so forth? Do we have that kind of data? Mr. Sullivan: Great question. Actually, one of the reasons why we want to spend a little more time on our greenhouse gas inventory specific to the island is to dig into those kinds of issues. We have been able to tease out that information for commercial air travel. The data is not perfect, but it gives us some SPECIAL PLANNING COMMITTEE METING 37 NOVEMBER 29, 2017 idea, and certainly, most of it as you would imagine, is tourists. Again, we can send that as well. We do not have good data in terms of ground transportation and rental vehicles. We do not have a source for that at this point. Councilmember Kawakami: Then to promote the use of electric vehicles, I know there is a State mandate for charging stations to be put in facilities with a certain amount of parking structures; how many charging stations do we have across the island and where are the biggest gaps? Are there any incentives we can create to get some of these big shopping centers and plazas to move in that direction? Mr. Sullivan: There are a couple of questions there. Certainly, incentives would be within the purview of the Council to consider to incentives to putting in chargers. I know that the Administration has testified in support of putting enforcement within the current State law, because one of the problems with the current State law, as you may know, is that it requires one (1) Electric Vehicle (EV) charging station per one hundred (100) spaces. That place is a public accommodation, but there is no enforcement for not complying. Obviously, that makes it a little challenging. There was another question in there that I missed. Councilmember Kawakami: How many stations do we have island wide that you know of? If you do not have the data... Mr. Sullivan: I know where the gaps are. Certainly, on the west side, there is a big gap. We know that for sure. Most of the stations that we have are in Lihu`e. There is maybe one (1) or two (2) in Kapa`a, and then there is a couple in Princeville. There are some on the south shore. The biggest gap for sure is the west side, especially when you talk about tourists using rental cars, because you think that most tourists want to go up to the Canyon. You really cannot rent a car...we have talked to Enterprise and others about how would we incentivize the tourists to use these, and they said, "The first thing is that they have to be able to go to everywhere they want to go." That is obvious, right? We have made efforts, so far unsuccessfully, to try to locate a charger on the west side. Councilmember Kawakami: Then I guess the question is how much greenhouse gases are we actually offsetting with electric vehicles considering that we burn naphtha and fossil fuels to electrify these vehicles? Mr. Sullivan: Great question. I wish I had the numbers in front of me. I can tell you that even when you are one hundred percent (100%) fossil fuel-based at a utility, you are significantly more efficient, so your carbon dioxide emissions are significantly lower for an electric vehicle. Obviously, currently with forty percent (40%) of clean energy at KIUC and trending very rapidly to higher percentages, where those numbers get even better and better as we move forward. SPECIAL PLANNING COMMITTEE METING 38 NOVEMBER 29, 2017 Councilmember Kawakami: Okay. Thank you. Committee Chair Chock: You have one follow-up from Council Chair. Council Chair Rapozo: I am just curious since you are here, how much does it costs to put up a charging station on Kaua`i? Mr. Sullivan: So it really varies and it depends because there are three (3) levels of charging stations: level one, level two, and level three, and those respond to the speed of charging. A level three is like a high voltage charger and the numbers I have heard over time have been as much thirty thousand dollars ($30,000) to fifty thousand dollars ($50,000). That is a rapid charger, like a 20-minute charge. Council Chair Rapozo: Okay. Mr. Sullivan: A level two charger, maybe five thousand dollars ($5,000) to ten thousand dollars ($10,000), one of the really big variables is when you are doing it, so as a retrofit, it can be very expensive if you have to tear up your parking lot. Obviously, there are always site-specific issues, like if you have room in your electrical panel and all those kinds of things. Certainly, if we can get people aware in the community about the State law and if we can get them to put in those stations at new construction, then there are significant benefits and it really helps everything along, because there are not too expensive as part of a big development. Council Chair Rapozo: There is a couple that lives in Waimea that has an electric car and they are pretty much confined to where they go because there is no station, as far as what they told me. There is nothing in Waimea, right? Councilmember Yukimura, you would know because you have an electric car. Councilmember Yukimura: There is none, that is why you picked me up once. Council Chair Rapozo: Yes, hitchhiking. Just kidding. Councilmember Yukimura: I have been known to do that occasionally. I have a follow-up. Committee Chair Chock: Okay. Councilmember Yukimura: Ben, in answer to Councilmember Kawakami's question about the fact that KIUC is still getting its electricity from fossil fuels, during the daytime, sometimes KIUC, because of the solar farms that SPECIAL PLANNING COMMITTEE METING 39 NOVEMBER 29, 2017 they have, they are getting really up there, right? Eighty percent (80%) to ninety percent (90%) sometimes? Mr. Sullivan: Yes. Councilmember Yukimura: So if people are using chargers during the day, they may be close to or in very good proportion that electricity is coming from renewable s? Mr. Sullivan: Right. We have spoken to KIUC and they are certainly interested in watching. I think the issue is the pace of the market. Right now, I think we have just recently crossed two hundred (200) vehicles, so it has taken a while. Councilmember Yukimura: Kaua`i has? Mr. Sullivan: Kaua`i has, yes. The State overall I think is over five thousand (5,000), but Kaua`i is just over two hundred (200). We do the small measures that we can from our office, and we support a group that likes to put on a biannual ride and drive, so we have helped coordinate with KIUC to make those happen and there are some other things that we have done to just share awareness. It is a slog. Councilmember Yukimura: I think you told me that we are putting in a charger in at the West Kaua`i Technology and Visitor Center? Mr. Sullivan: We have been working hard to make that happen and it has not happened yet. I think when I spoke to you a while back, we were this close and I thought we were right there, but it did not come together. Councilmember Yukimura: Yes, it happens like that when you are trying to move into a different vision, but what is the obstacle now? If it is money, the Council might provide ten thousand dollars ($10,000) to put in a charger, because the west side is really the void. There is none. Mr. Sullivan: Money always helps, as you folks know. Councilmember Yukimura: Is that the missing factor? Mr. Sullivan: The obstacle previously was not, but things have changed, so we had a provider that was willing to provide the hardware and we had arranged a small grant that was going to cover the cost of electricity, but there was a lot of uncertainty and the site owner was not certain that they did not understand the liabilities they might be taking on, so there was some... SPECIAL PLANNING COMMITTEE METING 40 NOVEMBER 29, 2017 Councilmember Yukimura: The site owner is us, we own that. Mr. Sullivan: Okay, I guess I probably said that wrong, the site manager. Councilmember Yukimura: Well, we are the owners though. It is a County facility. We should be able to overcome that hurdle. Mr. Sullivan: It is certainly not something we have stopped talking about. We are just trying to figure out how to get it done. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. Wherever we can help, I think we would like to do that. Committee Chair Chock: We have more follow-up on this. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. At some point, I will be asking for a report on all of our County chargers because we need to see what is happening there. Committee Chair Chock: Councilmember Kawakami. Councilmember Kawakami: Do we have charging stations at our neighborhood centers and in some of our parks? Mr. Sullivan: No. Councilmember Kawakami: We do not? Mr. Sullivan: How much should it be? Ten thousand dollars ($10,000)? Okay. I think philosophically, the question is how much do the purchasers of these electric vehicles pay into the infrastructure that is required to go into it? Also, like some of the car dealerships that are making money, how much skin are they putting into the game? It is one of those philosophical questions where who pays for the infrastructure? A public sector...I think we should set the tone if we really want to prioritize electrifying our vehicles and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. By all means, we should be leading by example and I think some of the discussion is, "Hey, why we do not start off with our parks and neighborhood centers." These are places that oftentimes have empty parking stalls during the weekday. The weekends would be a little busier, but from Monday through Friday, we already have under our own domain and control, properties that we could utilize. In the next upcoming budget, hopefully we can see some kind of proposal from the Administration as to where we can fill in the gaps with our existing infrastructure and our existing facilities. Thank you. SPECIAL PLANNING COMMITTEE METING 41 NOVEMBER 29, 2017 Committee Chair Chock: Councilmember Yukimura. Councilmember Yukimura: As Ben said, there are chargers, but if they do not work, it is like not having a charger and I have been at the Sheraton and at Safeway and I have not been able to make them work. I am naming them because I hope the owners will take responsibility to keep them in good maintenance. I have to say that Sheraton was a long time ago, so maybe they fixed it by now. I carry a very long extension cord. Councilmember Kawakami: You should pack your bike. Councilmember Yukimura: But if you plug it in, the reality is on a regular plug, it takes eleven (11) hours to fill up. It is not very functional. Even these second level chargers take five (5) hours, but usually can get at least twenty (20) minutes enough to get you to your next place. Council Chair Rapozo: Wow. Councilmember Yukimura: That is the reality of electric cars. If we want them to be a part of the future vision for land transportation, we have to address those infrastructure issues. Committee Chair Chock: Any further questions on Energy and Sustainability? Councilmember Yukimura: So I did not see anything about electric cars in your action plan. Am I missing it? Could we perhaps develop something about developing an electric car infrastructure? Mr. Sullivan: Certainly. I think the trick is—and we were just talking about charging stations—there is a lot of rapid evolution in the industry and that is one of the barriers to movement. I think you folks probably know that a lot of the new electric car models have quite a bit more range. So a lot of experts will say that people are going to just charge at home and it has always been a challenge for a site owner. Let us say that Chair Rapozo owns a business and he is mandated to put in a charger and then nobody uses it, he cannot recover any revenue. That is difficult. There is some of that is going on. I hate to say that more planning is required, but certainly, it is a two-part process. We have to do some planning and we have to do some actions and see what works best. Councilmember Yukimura: I want to say that mind you, I am leasing an electric car, so now the one that I got in 2016, I can go all the way to Koke`e. SPECIAL PLANNING COMMITTEE METING 42 NOVEMBER 29, 2017 Council Chair Rapozo: Can you come back? Councilmember Yukimura: Yes. Mr. Dahilig: It is all downhill. Councilmember Yukimura: Yes, because when you are coming downhill, you are actually gaining electricity. You do not gain back everything that you use going up, but you get enough so that you can get home to Lihu`e, maybe even to the north shore. Council Chair Rapozo: Really? Councilmember Yukimura: Yes. It is far better. Before, if I went to Waimea or Princeville, I had to charge before I could come back. Now I can do either way without having to charge. So the technology is improving. One of the reasons I leased this car is so that I could learn how it works or does not work so that I can know the reality of it. Thank you. Committee Chair Chock: Any other questions? Councilmember Kane shiro. Councilmember Kaneshiro: I was just going to say that I think Councilmember was asking if it could be included into the plan, but on page 185, A.3, it says, "Accelerate the transition to alternative carbon-free fuels in the ground transportation sector with regulations and policies that support electric vehicle adoption and other alternative fuel infrastructure." For me, I am fine with that language there. Councilmember Yukimura: We have been much more specific in some of other areas and it probably does not hurt to add a couple more very specific actions, but I will leave that to the Administration if you think that we can articulate some real actions that would be good to articulate as a separate thing that we know we have to do, then let us try it. Related to that where you have, "Partnership needs, meet emissions reduction goals"—what are our emission reduction goals? Have we articulated that? Mr. Sullivan: So the CAC—Marie, you might know the history of this better, but I believe in the text of the document, there is a stated goal of an eighty percent (80%) reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and my understanding of where that came from is that it is really based on the science and based on the IPCC. So the International Panel on Climate Change has put out information that to be consistent with the Paris Agreement, this would be the level of reduction that cities would need to take in the United States. That goal has been SPECIAL PLANNING COMMITTEE METING 43 NOVEMBER 29, 2017 adopted broadly across the country, so it makes sense from the standpoint of there being precedent for it. Councilmember Yukimura: So that is what this action item is referring to, that is the goal? The eighty percent (80%) reduction? Mr. Sullivan: Yes. Councilmember Yukimura: I see on page 44, Policy 13 says, "Complete Kaua`i's shift to clean energy," and then it does say, "Mitigate climate change and reduce system-wide carbon emissions by at least eighty percent (80%) by 2050 through deep reductions in energy use and by transforming electricity transportation and infrastructure systems toward the use of clean energy." In fact, that would be another way of saying that we are creating our energy systems as sustainable systems, so that ties into our overarching goal about creating a sustainable place or a sustainable community. Mr. Sullivan: Yes. Councilmember Yukimura: That our production and use of energy would be a sustainable system and it would then meet our climate change goals, so it all ties together. Thank you. Committee Chair Chock: We have two (2) minutes more. It is time to wrap it up. Councilmember Yukimura, do you have any last questions? Councilmember Yukimura: I have one last question if nobody else has one. On page 182, "Objective: to acknowledge the human contribution to global warming, and reduce Kaua`i's greenhouse gases." Can we say by eighty percent (80%) by 2050? Ms. Williams: It is in the policy. The target is in the policy statement of the eighty percent (80%) reduction. Councilmember Yukimura: I thought the objective would be to be even more specific with deadlines? I do not see a plan to do that very major reduction. You have a goal and you have objectives; objectives have to be more specific...well, it does not have to be. Ms. Williams: Yes, and we do acknowledge that further planning goal that we will need to do that to really articulate the steps towards achieving that goal through a Climate Action Plan. Councilmember Yukimura: Right, and that is your first action under plans and studies, "Develop a Climate Action Plan," and the plan then automatically SPECIAL PLANNING COMMITTEE METING 44 NOVEMBER 29, 2017 has as a goal, "Reduction of eighty percent (80%) by 2050." You have a baseline reduction, right? You are going to reduce it from something? Like in our Multimodal Plan, we are reducing it from 2010 vehicle miles traveled. Mr. Sullivan: I know there was discussion on the baseline, I just do not recall offhand if it was in 1990 or 2005, but those were the two that the CAC discussed. Councilmember Yukimura: I think that baseline should be in the other goal, too. You are going to reduce it from something. Okay. Committee Chair Chock: At this time, I am going to move us to a recess. Members, we have minimum quorum tomorrow, only four (4) of us, so we have to be patient and I just want to remind all Members and if we can be here on-time at 8:30 a.m. to start. Councilmember Yukimura: You have to use the bathroom before we start the meeting. Committee Chair Chock: Yes, and give me the signal if you have to stop. We will be starting with public testimony in the morning. Thank you everyone for attending. At this time, we will recess the Special Planning Committee Meeting for today. There being no objections, the meeting recessed at 4:28 p.m. 11/30/2017 SPECIAL PLANNING COMMITTEE MINUTES ON BILL#2666 (GENERAL PLAN UPDATE) MINUTES Special Planning Committee Honorable Mason K. Chock Honorable Arryl Kaneshiro Honorable Derek S.K. Kawakami Honorable JoAnn A. Yukimura Excused: Honorable Arthur Brun Honorable Ross Kagawa Honorable Mel Rapozo The Committee reconvened on November 30, 2017 at 8:30 a.m., and proceeded as follows: Committee Chair Chock: Aloha and good morning. We would like to reconvene the Special Planning Committee on the General Plan. This morning, we will be taking up public testimony first, and then we will be moving back into Topic 6 under "Energy Sustainability." I think we are at the tail-end of that and we will finish up with that. Then we will move to Topic 7 for a presentation on Implementation and have our discussion and questions and answers on that. Just one little change or shift in plan today is that we will be taking an early lunch at 10:30 a.m. and reconvening at 12 noon to continue our meeting. There is only the four (4) of us here today and we will lose quorum at 10:30 a.m., so we want to take an early lunch and come back. With that, I would like to suspend the rules at this time and call on any public testimony. Do we have anyone signed up? SCOTT K. SATO, Deputy County Clerk: Our first speaker is Judy Shabert, followed by Douglas Wilmore. Committee Chair Chock: Good morning. There being no objections, the rules were suspended to take public testimony. JUDY SHABERT: Good morning everyone. My name is Judy Shabert. I am a retired Obstetrician and Gynecologist with an advanced degree in public health. My statement relates to the community health aspects of the Kaua`i 20-year plan. Many of the issues of community health, which are problematic for the County of Kauai, relate to poor performance by the State Department of Health. Examples are bacterial contamination of beach waters and streams, which are well-documented, but the Department of Health refuses to put up signage to warn people to stay out of the water. Other examples are children who are not vaccinated for infectious diseases, such as measles, who are allowed to attend school. The County of Kaua`i itself actually does a remarkable job encouraging healthy living on the island. There is an abundance of parks and beaches where both physical and social health is encouraged. The bike path is a tremendous success and the swimming pools SPECIAL PLANNING 2 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING are open and free all year-round. There are also some glaring deficiencies. The area of greatest concern for the health of the community is affordable housing. Forty-three percent (43%) of Kaua`i households are "housing-overburdened," which means that for households making less than the median income for the island, almost half of them are paying rent, which is at or above the median rent on Kaua`i. A family that is housing-overburdened is also at higher risk for domestic abuse, substance abuse, inadequate nutrition, and for children, poor academic performance. The unaffordable housing situation and its solution needs to be addressed by the Council. Most of you were born in Hawai`i and these families are your friends and neighbors. Water contamination must be taken up by the County as the Department of Health seems unwilling to do so. The Surfrider Foundation does a remarkable job in accurately testing water quality around the island. Despite providing the Department of Health with this information, no signage is put up to warn the public. If the State will not protect citizens in this area, it is up to the County to step into that role and work with the Surfrider Foundation to do the right thing for Kaua`i citizens. Another major area of concern on Kaua`i is reproductive health education in public schools. It is basically non-existent with the exception of abstinence-only education. Hawai`i is one of the top ten states for teen pregnancy. The teen birth rate in ethnic Hawaiian girls and Pacific Island girls is seven (7) times the State average. There are government programs for which the County can apply for high-risk rural areas where teen pregnancy rates are high. The program teaches reproductive health. Just as importantly, it focusses on healthy relationships, the development of self-esteem, child-parent communication skills, and healthy life skills. The residents of this County are counting on the County Council to make the right decisions in terms of a healthy future for the island. Thank you all very much. Committee Chair Chock: I do have a clarifying question. Are you a member of the Kaua`i Community Coalition? Ms. Shabert: Yes. Committee Chair Chock: I notice that they submitted amendments in regards to public safety. Are you the author of these? Ms. Shabert: Yes. Committee Chair Chock: Okay. Thank you very much. Mr. Sato: The next speaker is Douglas Wilmore, followed by Ken Taylor. DOUGLAS WILMORE: Honorable Chairperson and Honorable Councilmembers, citizens of Kaua`i and guests, good morning. My name is Douglas Wilmore and I am a retired physician/scientist with interest in climate change, which is a subject for my discussion today. There are two (2) general areas that we know change is coming in the coming years. First, the weather will be warmer, the seawater temperature will increase, the ocean will rise, and the climate will change. Secondly, we are probably going to experience several untoward environmental events, which include hurricanes, tsunamis, floods, droughts, fires, and possibly SPECIAL PLANNING 3 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING disease epidemics. While we can assume that some, if not all of these events will occur in the future, we do not know when they will occur and that is really our problem. We do not have a specific timeline. We can take one (1) of two (2) approaches to these problems: we can essentially do nothing and react to the events; in contrast, we can start to plan for these events in a proactive manner. We are an island surrounded by water. The State Commission reports that with a three point two (3.2) foot water rise, we will displace four thousand (4,000) residents on Kaua`i. We will destroy twenty-two (22) miles of roads and we will sustain an economic loss of two billion six hundred million dollars ($2,600,000,000). That is not recovery cost; that is just lost. In recent events in Houston and Florida, they have shown that for every dollar invested in prevention saves about four dollars ($4) in terms of the recovery effort and decreasing human suffering. A small island with limited economic resources, we need to select cost-effective measures to mitigate the effects of climate change. We should educate our public and our visitors to the potential dangers and plan for adequate shelters due to these displaced populations. We should move more essential services to higher ground and minimize building along the ocean and floodplains through zoning regulation. We should prepare communities such as Hanalei, which was underwater this morning, for specific problems related to low levels of repeated flooding which result in the lack of essential services. In my view, such low cost precautionary approaches is essential for survival and long-term viability of our island as we know it today. Thank you so much for your attention. Committee Chair Chock: Thank you very much. Mr. Sato: Our last registered speaker is Ken Taylor. KEN TAYLOR: Good morning Council. Ken Taylor. I just wanted to raise a couple of issues that I have asked in the past, for you to consider doing a cost analysis of the buildout of this plan. Yesterday was a prime example of a couple of issues that are going to be haunting us over the next twenty (20) years, along with fire, police, sewers, and all of that and I think it is really important that we do a cost analysis of the buildout of the plan so that people of the community know and understand what we are buying into. The other issue was that in the plan, it calls for review in ten (10) years, but I think it should be a five-year window and it gives you a better opportunity to keep track that we are on track and that if there is need for adjustments, they can be made at that point in time, rather in ten (10) years where you can get off into left field and be way off the mark. I think we saw in the last General Plan a lot of things that were suggested, but did not come to reality because we got off the track. I think a five-year review is more important than waiting for a ten-year opportunity. Anyway, those are major issues that I think need to be addressed. Thank you. Committee Chair Chock: Thank you. Mr. Sato: The next speaker is Anne Walton. ANNE WALTON: Good morning. I am going to read you my oral testimony and you also have some written testimony as well. Aloha Planning Committee Members. As we learned from the 2000 General Plan, any planning SPECIAL PLANNING 4 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING document is only as solid as its foundation and as effective as its implementation and monitoring plan. The implementation and monitoring component of the General Plan is where the rubber meets the road. It serves as a structural test for the General Plan, revealing how clear and forward thinking our vision for the future is articulated in the plan. It tells us whether the County implemented what it said it was going to implement; it tells us whether the anticipated results from implementing the actions in the plan are being realized and we are experiencing the change we hoped for; and finally, monitoring an evaluation serves as a valuable tool for learning what works and what does not in achieving the future vision for Kaua`i. It not only informs about the successes and failures of the past, but also informs us on what will work in the future. I provided detailed comments on the implementation/monitoring component of the General Plan in the attachment to this testimony. In summary, I would like to go over three (3) main points very quickly: the General Plan opens with what I call an "obituary" or in planning we call it "dead on delivery," in which a comprehensive implementation and monitoring plan with benchmarks, those are the incremental levels of achievement from implementing the actions in the General Plan is stated as not feasible. I have reframed this introduction to speak of the absolute importance to this General Plan of a well-designed and executed and implementation and monitoring plan, and you will see that in my amendment recommendations. Secondly, our General Plan is teetering on the cusp of being an over ambitious plan with more than five hundred (500) actions spread across the ten (10) sectors. If we do not have the capacity or the political will to implement even a portion of these actions, as indicated in the implementation and monitoring plan itself, then we need to start by prioritizing these actions. This prioritization should be based on criteria established by the Kakou Committee and taking into consideration: a) practicality of implementation of each action, b) the urgency of the issue to be addressed by each action, and c) the consideration of the net effect of each action across multiple sectors. Once the actions are prioritized, the implementation of the highest priority action should be distributed across a five-year timeline, effectively creating a work plan with an assigned oversight division or individual from within the County to ensure accountability. My final point is that the General Plan lays out the forty-nine (49) objectives of corresponding performance measures in Table 4-1 on page 217. However, after reviewing the performance measures, most of these are found to be without merit in terms of being a true measure or indicator of change, as resulting from implementing the actions in the General Plan. Committee Chair Chock: Can you summarize the rest of it? Ms. Walton: Finish up? Committee Chair Chock: Can you summarize it? I want to be fair to the other testifiers as well. Ms. Walton: Okay. These are just three (3) of the main points to be covered in my proposed amendments as a representative and a member of the coalition. Committee Chair Chock: We do have you as a resource as well. SPECIAL PLANNING 5 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING Ms. Walton: Yes, you do. Committee Chair Chock: We will definitely get to that today. Ms. Walton: Okay. Thank you. Mr. Sato: Committee Chair, we have no further registered speakers. Committee Chair Chock: Is there anyone else who has not had a chance to testify and would like to testify at this time? Someone from the public is asking if people who are waiting for the Hanalei Bridge to open can come and testify when they arrive, but I do not know if we can honor coming back to it because it could open it up all day. So we will see what happens when they come in and how many we get. We can also have them submit their testimony in writing as well. Do you know how many people? Only one (1), okay. We probably we will not delay the testimony for that, but we can always meet with them or receive their testimony in other ways as well. Is there anyone else here that would like a chance to testify at this time? So what I would like to do is we have some resource people here that actually need to leave. We have Brandon Shimokawa from Kaua`i Community College (KCC). We also have Chelsie Sakai in the back there from the Kaua`i Emergency Management Agency. I think they are on alert right now, so we probably should ask her of any questions that we have. Also, from the State Department of Health (DOH), we have Janet Berreman. Thank you for being here. I know that these cover pretty much all of Topic 6. Members, if we could the questions for these three (3) resource people out of the way first, and then we will just continue back on the track that we were on yesterday. If it helps at all, we will go with Energy Sustainability. I do not know if that covers any of our speakers here. If not, we will move into Public Safety and Health Hazards. I know Janet is here. I would like to ask you to come up for a minute here. Councilmember Yukimura: What about Chelsie? Does she have to leave? Committee Chair Chock: Chelsie, too. I will ask my question. I did not see anyone who had a question for Chelsie. Councilmember Yukimura: I had one. Committee Chair Chock: Okay. We will call her up as well. Good morning. JANET BERREMAN, MD, Kaua`i District Health Officer: My name is Dr. Janet Berreman from the Kaua`i District Health Office. Good morning. Committee Chair Chock: Thank you for being here again. Ms. Berreman: Thank you. SPECIAL PLANNING 6 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING Committee Chair Chock: My question is very broad, is if you had a chance to review this section of the General Plan and how you feel about it, if there are things that are outstanding for you, particularly as it relates to action items and intergovernmental relations or working together with the County. Councilmember Yukimura: Chair, are you talking about the community health chapter or any chapter? Committee Chair Chock: Actually, I was looking at both that and the Public Safety and Hazards Resiliency, so both sections. Ms. Berreman: In my review, I mostly focused on Sector 10, "Opportunity and Health for All," and the portions in there with a little more attention to the community health piece. I am sort of coming into this General Plan process late, so I do not want to come in at the end and say that there are a lot of things that need to change in here. I think it is a strong document and I what I have been doing is looking at it in relation to the larger Department of Health Strategic Plan and then also to the Kaua`i Community Health Improvement Initiative that was finalized in 2014. I think that there are a lot of things that are well-aligned between those two (2) and that gives me confidence that this is moving in the right direction. It is a pretty high-level document. I have spent more time with the Kaua`i Community Health Improvement Plan and I think that kind of echoing what an earlier speaker said, we tend to be very ambitious and want to do a lot of things and come up with a lot of actions and a lot of deliverables, and then find ourselves a little bit challenged to make those things happen in the timeframe that we would like them to happen to. I think that, as with many such documents and plans, "the Devil is in the detail" of really how we are going to implement. I see the challenge on the health side as being really to help us all do the hard job of prioritizing within all of the things that we would like to do. Councilmember Yukimura: I have a question. Committee Chair Chock: Councilmember Yukimura. Councilmember Yukimura: Thank you so much for being here, Dr. Berreman. So you have been referring to two (2) documents that have helped guide the Department of Health in its work here, which is the Department of Health Strategic Plan. Ms. Berreman: Right. Councilmember Yukimura: And the Kaua`i Community Health Improvement Initiative? Ms. Berreman: Yes, or Kaua`i Community Health Improvement Plan. SPECIAL PLANNING 7 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. Do you feel that both plans have been fairly well-integrated here? I think the County was involved in the Kaua`i Community Health Improvement Plan quite substantially. Ms. Berreman: Yes, very much so. Councilmember Yukimura: I have to confess that I never have read through that plan, although I have been at some meetings that developed it. Ms. Berreman: I can really briefly summarize for you, because what I am not so familiar with is the rest of the General Plan draft. I have not spent a lot of time with the whole three hundred (300) pages, but some of the things that are in the Kaua`i Health Improvement Initiative Plan are probably touched on other places, so it has five (5) big areas and a few strategic actions within those. Councilmember Yukimura: The problem with the General Plan is that it is so fragmented that there is no one place you can really find a clear policy on some things and the policy statements are reduced to a one-column page. Ms. Berreman: For example, I think this will help, the Health Improvement Initiative for Kaua`i, the first strategic area is the built environment, looking at improving and specifically looking at sort of transportation-related safety, so improving roadways, improving pedestrian and bicycle, safety, and improving public transit. I think those are things that are addressed broadly in the plan and not necessarily in the part that I focused on most particularly, but that was one area. I do think that there is concordance there that there is agreement that that is a priority. The second is housing and particularly improving the availability of affordable and quality housing. Those are themes that I hear in many community conversations. The third is about optimizing education and learning and that specifically focused on increasing the high school graduation rate and implementing the Department of Education's (DOE) wellness policy. Those are not my kuleana to make those happen, but I could certainly support and we are working very closely with the Department of Education around health education initiatives as well. Councilmember Yukimura: One of the things we are looking at specifically today are indicators. So graduation rate, for example, is a common indicator, although if the standards for graduation are lowered, then you do not really get the correlation between quality education and the indicator. Ms. Berreman: Right. We have been working with KCC as well and I think some of the ways to look at that is what is happening to our high school graduates and their next steps. Are they going on to employment that can support themselves? Are they going on to higher education in order to be more ambitious? Are they qualified to do that? Our higher education partners can help us with that as well. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. SPECIAL PLANNING 8 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING Ms. Berreman: The piece of the health improvement initiative that is identified as Health and Wellness, specifically focused on decreasing tobacco use and decreasing teen pregnancies and teen births. Again, those are areas in which we are working with partners with HI-5, the Hawai`i Public Health Institute, and with DOE and KCC. I think the tobacco use piece, the focus on vaping and electronic tobacco products is really the next generation of that challenge and that is huge and that is also a concern statewide. Then the final piece of the health initiative focuses on healthcare and that is increasing access to primary care, increasing mental health services access, and improving healthy eating and active living. Councilmember Yukimura: Yes, that is all very good. So with decreasing tobacco use rates, that has been declining, but it is still considered one of the key health issues on the island because it is...I guess I heard that preventable tobacco-related deaths are one of the highest... Ms. Berreman: That still remains one of our highest health risks, even though you are right that smoking rates, tobacco use rates have been down. We are also concerned about the impact of electronic cigarettes and vaping, because they are perceived of as "safe," there is increasing use and experimentation, even with very young teens and we know that nicotine is highly addictive and your body is most susceptible to that addiction in that adolescent period. Councilmember Yukimura: I can see that you are doing some proactive planning because tobacco vaping rates are not high, but they are increasing and you are watching that. Ms. Berreman: Right. Councilmember Yukimura: Tell us a little bit about teen pregnancy, because I think Dr. Shabert raised that and I know that one of the districts of the island had the highest teen pregnancy rating in the State at different points in time— I think we go back and forth between a district on Hawai`i Island and Kaua`i. How are we addressing that? Ms. Berreman: I want to first address the data because Kaua`i is a smaller County, population-wise, and when we start parsing data about events that are rare, because teen pregnancy is still relatively rare, in small populations, and then try to look at it geographically or try to look at it by different subpopulations of race and ethnicity, then we get into very, very small numbers and when you make those into rates, you can see why variations year-to-year that really reflect one (1) or two (2) individuals and those individuals are very important, but I think that focusing too much on those rates and how they compare to others can kind of distract us from what I think is the most important issue, which is that we want our teens to have the information and the resources that they need to develop in a healthy way in which they are in control of their own sexuality and their own relationships with other people. The main places that that is happening is in the schools, and the curricular that are approved for sexual health education in the schools are not, to my understanding, abstinence-based. They provide a range of SPECIAL PLANNING 9 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING options and information for youth, but that is an area that just last month in October, a representative from DOE and I attended a two-day invitational national meeting where pairs of representatives from local health departments and local health education districts were invited to work together and learn about best practices exactly in this area of reproductive and sexual health for adolescents and how the health departments and the education districts can work together. I am very optimistic that we are on a good next step with that to strengthen that and really to see what the appropriate roles of the Department of Health and appropriate roles of the school district are, because some of us are health educators, but we are not accustomed to having rooms full with teenagers and trying to talk to them about challenging subjects, in the same way not all of the school teachers are comfortable with the information and material that some of the health department people may know better. Like I said, I think we are on a good next step with that. Councilmember Yukimura: That sounds excellent, especially because as we know, young women have a particular challenge in terms of self-esteem and being able to look forward to a future that is one they desire. This is a really important area. I think the statistics show that teen mothers tend to be more in poverty, to be less able to finish higher education, and all of those things. Ms. Berreman: I think that teen pregnancy or births are sort of the tip of the iceberg in terms of the outcomes or the health impacts of early sexual activity without adequate protection or understanding of the risks, so we are also looking at sexually transmitted infections among teens and adolescents on the island. Again, these small number issues make it a little bit difficult to really look closely at subcategories that we would like to, like which parts of the island and which populations within them. So I am working with the epidemiologist on O`ahu to get that information more finally honed for Kaua`i and I am optimistic that we will have that. Councilmember Yukimura: Thank you. Committee Chair Chock: Any further questions for the Department of Health? Councilmember Yukimura: Yes, especially because we are looking at indicators today, what are the main indicators that the Department of Health follows in terms of wellness for this community? Do you have those? Ms. Berreman: Well, we sort of have a wealth of information that makes it challenging to consistently focus on a few indicators. I have started here in January and I have spent a lot of time on the two (2) public data websites, Hawai`i Health Matters and the Hawai`i Data Warehouse, where there are a wealth of indicators and a wealth of health outcome information, some of it available clearly and reliably at the County-level for us and Kaua`i, and some of it we do not show up because our numbers are too small. We look at very high-level things, like life expectancy and causes of death. We also look at chronic disease indicators, so hospitalizations for complications of diabetes, heart disease, or stroke, which are related to cardiovascular health. We would like to look at things like obesity rates SPECIAL PLANNING 10 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING and overweight rates. Those tend to be a mix of sampled information and self-reported information. So sometimes it is hard to get to reliable information. As you all are aware, no doubt, substance abuse has been very much in the news, and in conversation, largely around opioids, but I think we need to remember that alcohol and tobacco are probably our two (2) most used and abused addictive substances and I have a personal interest in alcohol and the many ways in which it could impact community health from motor vehicle accidents to the fetal effects of women who are drinking when they are pregnant, to impact on domestic violence, child bearing, and all of that. Again, it is an issue in which the data can be challenging. Councilmember Yukimura: So for the purposes of a general plan, it is interesting that you mentioned life expectancy because I think in terms of life expectancy that Hawai`i is doing quite well. Ms. Berreman: Right. Councilmember Yukimura: It may be partly because our environment is relatively so clean. Ms. Berreman: It also is an issue of averages. So when we have a population that is very diverse and some people are living a very long time, and other people are living a short time, on average, it looks excellent. But when you start delving into the details and the subpopulations, you can see that there are disparities there that I think it is also important that we look at. I have not gone through sort of the issues that are in the plan to suggest potential outcome indicators. I looked at the data that was cited in the plan because it mostly comes from the Community Health Needs Assessment of 2013 and there is more recent data available on all of those points. The issues that are raised remain germane. We actually have improved in just about everything that was mentioned in here, but there are still issues and challenges for us. So I have talked with your staff a little bit about that. I would be happy to provide a little more detailed information about potential indicators if that would be helpful. Councilmember Yukimura: That would be very helpful. The power of indicators you just demonstrated, if we are showing improvement in those indicators... Ms. Berreman: We should know that. Councilmember Yukimura: Yes, we should know that as well as if we are not making any improvement. Indicators are neutral in that sense. They give us good information and they give us so-called "bad information," but we need to look at that information no matter what. Committee Chair Chock: So the Plans and Studies Section on page 206 cover the Kaua`i Community Drug Response Plan, Kaua`i Plan on Aging, and the Kaua`i Community Health Improvement Initiative. Is there anything else that we need to be looking at or is that where you are engaged with Life's Choices and the County? SPECIAL PLANNING 11 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING Ms. Berreman: Thank you for that question. So the Kaua`i Community Health Improvement Initiative was based on the 2013 Community Health Needs Assessment that was done with the Department of Health, Wilcox Hospital, DOE, KCC, and the Office of the Mayor. The hospital is obligated to do a community health needs assessment every three (3) years. So they did another one in 2016, but it was not as a collaborative community process, it was really Wilcox Hospital and its hospital partners doing that, which is fine. But in working with the folks at Wilcox and the other partners that I named, our plan is for the 2019 Community Health Needs Assessment to be a real updating of the 2013 one and a more inclusive and community-based plan. Sort of in parallel with that, the Community Health Improvement Initiative also we are going to be updating. In a way, it would make more sense to update that after we do the 2019 Community Health Needs Assessment because it should respond to that, but all of the work groups who are working on things in this Health Improvement Initiative are seeing so many ways in which we would like to improve it and make it more focused now that I think we are going to be doing that in parallel, and then tweaking it after the 2019 needs assessment, rather than waiting for that to be done. The updating of that is something that is in the works and will definitely be happening in the next couple of years. Committee Chair Chock: Perfect. Councilmember Yukimura: You mentioned at the very beginning about transportation-related safety. Can you explain to us how transportation is related to health? Ms. Berreman: Well, I think that the lens that people are looking at is really things like motor vehicle accidents, pedestrian accidents, and bicycle accidents, both injuries and fatalities. Also, if you are not safe walking or riding a bicycle then you are more likely to be in a car and then you are not exercising so then that gets into the whole chronic disease and active living issue. If it is not safe for people to use what we would call "active transport," then they are less likely to be physically active in their daily lives. Councilmember Yukimura: Actually, I am recalling that you have indicators in terms of most frequent cause of death and then you divide that up by ages of young people. Ms. Berreman: Yes. Councilmember Yukimura: Which is also an indicator of public health and safety, and then would show up in terms of drug use and substance abuse problems. Ms. Berreman: Yes. It gets a little complicated as you try to parse it too finely, but because we tend to lump accidental deaths and deaths related to motor vehicles, but there are multiple sources of data and information about that. So yes, that is sort of an indicator we could certainly add. SPECIAL PLANNING 12 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING Councilmember Yukimura: I think we do not want to parse that information because we are talking General Plan, so we are looking at broader indicators, but I am very interested in some broad health indicators that we could possibly use for monitoring the General Plan. Ms. Berreman: Sure, I can help with that. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. Thank you. Committee Chair Chock: Councilmember Kawakami. Councilmember Kawakami: Thank you, Dr. Berreman, for being here. Ms. Berreman: Sure. Councilmember Kawakami: We often talk about affordable housing and the ability to access housing at all levels, and the one thing that is compelling is with the aging of the "baby boomers," we are starting to see a lack of assisted-living facilities. Right now, I think there are fifty (50) people on the waiting list to get into one. There is also a lack of independent-living facilities. Overall, it is a concern. Do you have any indicators or any type of number that you have looked at to give us a target of what we need to reach? In a short window of time, ten (10), fifteen (15), twenty (20) years? Because one of the things that I have been pushing is for the State to be able to utilize their asset, which is land, to put some of these much needed facilities so that we can start planning, because you know how long it takes. One of the things that I look at is in this area right here, we are focusing on urbanizing it, creating a very walkable, bikeable community. Hopefully, we will be able to increase some density so that we can go a little higher in this area to truly address affordable housing. Right across the street, you have your Department of Health and sometimes I look at that building and say, "You know, that would be a great place to put four (4) stories of elderly housing on top." Do you have that kind of number or any kind of indicator from the State-level on what we are going to need? Ms. Berreman: As long as we can stay on the ground floor, I think that is a really exciting plan. Councilmember Kawakami: Absoutely. Ms. Berreman: I do not have those numbers. I know that when we look at the demographic patterns that Hawai`i, like most states, is seeing an aging of the population and that Kaua`i County in particular has the oldest average population in the State and I would imagine that you could get estimates about how big that population of different ages is projected to be in five (5) years and ten (10) years, but I do not have that information. What portion of those people need assisted-living versus how much you can focus on keeping people healthy and well at home? The Department of Health works in partnership with the Fire Department and others around fall prevention and really keeping seniors safe in their homes. Your focus on walkability and having people as they age be in places where they can SPECIAL PLANNING 13 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING easily access the resources that they need for daily living is clearly very important, but I do not have numbers for that. Councilmember Kawakami: Okay. Thank you. Committee Chair Chock: Councilmember Yukimura. Councilmember Yukimura: Does the Department of Health have a substance abuse strategic plan or element of a plan? Ms. Berreman: There is a...I think it is particularly related to opioid plan that they have been working on that I understand is set to be released maybe as early as tomorrow for public comment. Councilmember Yukimura: You just said that alcohol may be the most pervasive substance abuse problem. Ms. Berreman: I said the report that is coming out is focused on opioids because that was the particular...this was a governor's initiative that started in July of this year... Councilmember Yukimura: It is the President's, too. Ms. Berreman: But having read the draft, it is broader than just opioids. It acknowledges that addiction is a chronic condition that we need to address better. There are substance abuse programs in DOH, primarily in the mental health side of things and I am not as familiar with the specifics of that. I know that one of the focuses has been on an acronym that is a little hard to remember—it is called "SBIRT," which stands for "Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment"—and the department has a big push to have all primary care providers screen individuals whenever they encounter the health care system about any kind of substance abuse issue and refer them to treatment as needed. Councilmember Yukimura: So the Department of Health recognizes this very strong nexus or overlapping issues of mental health and substance abuse? Ms. Berreman: Absolutely. Councilmember Yukimura: What is it called again? Ms. Berreman: "Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment." Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. Actually, this whole issue of substance abuse, mental health is an area of the Department of Health that is not directly under you? Ms. Berreman: That is right. So child and adolescent mental health and adult mental health both have a presence here on Kaua`i and they have SPECIAL PLANNING 14 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING directors who report directly to their counterparts on O`ahu and they are not under my purview here. So I work next to them and I know them, but I am not as familiar with all of their programs and initiatives. Councilmember Yukimura: The General Plan does talk about substance abuse, but it has very little about prevention and only focuses on treatment and I think the figure that Mr. Wilmore brought up about prevention money yielding a huge multiplier effect is well-taken and applies to drugs as well. Ms. Berreman: Absolutely. Councilmember Yukimura: In terms of comprehensive mental health approaches, that is something we should talk to...is it Madeline? Ms. Berreman: Yes, Madeline and Ray Cooper. Councilmember Yukimura: Ray? Ms. Berreman: Yes, Ray on the adult side and Madeline on the child and adolescent side. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. Thank you. Ms. Berreman: Thank you very much and thank you for the opportunity. Committee Chair Chock: Thank you. I want to get Chelsie up here before she gets in trouble. Can you come up Chelsie? Are there any questions for her? We have had a lot of talk on climate change already. Do you have any specific agency questions? Councilmember Yukimura: I do. Hi Chelsie. CHELSIE SAKAI, Grant Coordinator for the Kaua`i Emergency Management Agency: Chelsie Sakai, Kaua`i Emergency Management Agency. Councilmember Yukimura: Thank you for being here. You were here yesterday, too, so thank you. I have great confidence in the Kauai Emergency Management Agency and the work that you have been doing. My main question was do you have any suggestions in terms of additional things that should be included in here? I know that you folks do the detailed planning in Emergency Management and this plan is not designed for details, but just overall approach? Ms. Sakai: No, we did review this portion of the plan prior to it being printed, so our input was included. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. That is all I needed to know. Thank you. SPECIAL PLANNING 15 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING Ms. Sakai: Okay. Committee Chair Chock: Thank you, Chelsie. Two (2) days here and only one (1) question. We have to do better than that. I am sorry. Just kidding. Keep us safe out there. Thank you. I am going to ask Brandon if he could come up now. Thank you for being here as well, we appreciate your time. BRANDON SHIMOKAWA, Kaua`i Community College Vice Chancellor: Good morning. Brandon Shimokawa from Kaua`i Community College. I am here in place of Chancellor Helen Cox who is currently away. Committee Chair Chock: I read a little bit about KCC's paragraph here and we did the University designation. Since you are here, I just wanted you to tell us a little more about the plans and future connectivity to this plan as it relates to (inaudible). Councilmember Yukimura: What page is this? Committee Chair Chock: I am looking for it... Councilmember Yukimura: Have you been able to look at it? Mr. Shimokawa: Yes, I looked at it briefly. Committee Chair Chock: Page 202. Mr. Shimokawa: I believe it speaks about our current long-range development planning process that we are in right now. We have been working on updating our long-range development plan or as others refer to it as our "Master Development Plan" since 2016. It will be finished hopefully sometime early next year. Right now, it does not have any plans to expand the campus into a four-year university. I know the General Plan touches on that. We still currently rely on our distance education programs with the other four-year universities in the University of Hawai`i (UH) system to enable access for Kaua`i residents to receive bachelor and higher degrees while staying on Kaua`i. What it does include though that is touched on the General Plan is student housing. Right now in the current draft, it has identified space to locate a small number of student housing on campus, so although we do not have any concrete plans and we have not really even done a feasibility study on whether it would be economically feasible to build and operate on-campus housing, it is something that the college feels is necessary to support the students on the island and to grow enrollment and grow the college, so that is why there is an earmark for it in our current draft. Committee Chair Chock: Thank you. Are there any additional measures that the college is taking to increase enrollment? Mr. Shimokawa: My area of responsibility over the college is all of the back office administration, facilities, security, and that type of work. But what I can say is that I know we are reaching out into the high schools a lot to try to SPECIAL PLANNING 16 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING increase enrollment of Kaua`i High School graduates. Right now, that number is around two hundred (200) a year, incoming freshmen come from the high schools, and I think that represents about one-third of the graduates every year, so we would like to increase that even more. Even for students that want to continue on and get their bachelors or advanced degrees or even go off-island for college, we are trying to expose them to college credits at KCC through programs like "Early College." We also have an early cognition program that targets trying to generate interest in stem fields from an earlier age and the grade school and junior high school levels. We are trying to really focus on bringing in the youth into the college. In addition to that, we have several programs that are designed to bring in more nontraditional students, for example, the Wai`ale`ale Program. I do not know if you all are familiar with that. We have several generous donors who maintain a sizable endowment fund to provide free tuition to pay for college for students who were not on the college track and had no intention really or even a path to get to KCC, so that program reaches out to those potential students. We are also trying to increase our support for veteran students. Committee Chair Chock: The County is looking with the Kaua`i Economic Development Board (KEDB) and others in the creative tech industry and makers place and supporting entrepreneurship and I was just wondering if that partnership has continued with KCC and if at all needs to be addressed here. Mr. Shimokawa: The only partnership I am aware of that is still in its infancy or the beginning stages of it is we were working with KEDB on potentially leasing them land to develop a food production and education center. So that would be in conjunction with our culinary and entrepreneurship programs on the college and it would provide tie-ins for the students to be able to get a jumpstart or incubate their business ideas, and also as a resource for the community to come in and take courses and learn about how to run a business, food handling, safety standards, production standards, and all of those kinds of things and actually provide a space for them to...it is not cooking like a restaurant, but it is packaging and preparing the foods for sale in stores and that kind of thing. Committee Chair Chock: Thank you. Any other questions for Brandon? Councilmember Yukimura. Councilmember Yukimura: First, I want to say that I am very grateful for KCC as an institution. When I go to your graduations and see the young people, and actually all ages, getting degrees and being able then to pursue careers and also provide for all of the needed services and functioning of this community. I am just so aware of what a valuable institution it is, so I really appreciate all that you, Helen, and others are doing there. Your student housing plans are actually in your planning track, although you do not have all of the details worked out about it, but is that the direction you are moving in? Mr. Shimokawa: I would say that it is a desire at this point. We do not have any sort of plan of how to get there. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. But that is more of a planning track than is a four-year college? SPECIAL PLANNING 17 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING Mr. Shimokawa: Right, yes. Councilmember Yukimura: So the four-year college...I remember at the Chamber of Commerce meeting when Senator Inouye then mentioned it and I saw Helen's face, because I think the vision for KCC is actually...I do not know that I could articulate it well, but it seems like it is for a very vibrant community college. Mr. Shimokawa: Yes. Councilmember Yukimura: And that is providing affordable higher education for residents here that could not otherwise get higher education. Mr. Shimokawa: Correct. Councilmember Yukimura: And then tying in so that students who want to have four (4) years or more can tie-in...you are like a connector for them. Is that the track you are on or the vision for KCC? Mr. Shimokawa: I would say yes. All of our programs are assessed...one of the measures that are assessed in the health indicators for our programs is job demand. Councilmember Yukimura: Yes. Mr. Shimokawa: So we want to tie our programs and services to match the job needs of the island. Councilmember Yukimura: That is fabulous. Mr. Shimokawa: Currently, workforce development is a huge need and providing students with education that will allow them to get better-paying jobs is really our focus. Right now, the number of high tech jobs or jobs that do require advanced degrees...I do not have any statistics or numbers off the top of my head, but that is a lesser need than the programs that support the associates degrees or other kinds of employable degrees on the island. If that changes over time and we start to build more of a tech center on the island or the jobs that the Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) drastically increase, then we would have to address our plans accordingly. Councilmember Yukimura: So it is very interesting. You folks are looking at indicators of employee needs on this island. Mr. Shimokawa: Yes, in addition to looking at the statistics on the number of jobs there are in the State and in the County. All of our career and technical education programs have advisory boards with businesses in the community that they get feedback on, what types of skills their employees need, what types of degrees and certificates are they looking for to hire in their new employees, so that is a huge basis on or it is the foundation really for what we do. SPECIAL PLANNING 18 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING Councilmember Yukimura: And in that way, is serving the community so well, because you are serving both employers; for example, like Wilcox Hospital and the whole health area that is just growing so rapidly, especially with an aging society. Then you are serving the needs of the young people who are looking for well-paying jobs. I think your nursing program is an exemplary program and it was not started recently, but it has fed, trained, and enabled so many local residents to get very good paying jobs. You are tracking that to see what the traditional job needs are on the island, such as nursing, healthcare, and looking for the more emerging needs on the island, too? Mr. Shimokawa: Right, so the traditional programs that are sort of where our bread and butter were nursing and culinary, but we are...just this past year, this fall, we have had twenty-six (26) majors in creative media whereas that number was...I think it was less than ten (10) previously. So creative media is potentially an emerging field for us. We have also grown in entrepreneurial and general business programs more and kind of...I would say those have really replaced the business technical trade programs that we had, like office assistant/clerical and secretarial type of work, more towards the entrepreneurial field to meet the current needs of the island. Councilmember Yukimura: Now, you are creating people who can create jobs besides just finding a job for themselves. Mr. Shimokawa: Right. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. Do you have any suggestion for indicators that we could use in our General Plan goal or objectives? Right now, the objective is stated, "To support educational programs that foster cultural knowledge, employability, and civic participation." Actually, if you have suggestions for objectives that we should have as a community for higher education, I would love to see any suggestions you have. Mr. Shimokawa: As far as? Councilmember Yukimura: As far as the objectives of our community at-large for higher education. You do not have to give it right now, but if you have suggestions for that, and then indicators that can measure how well we are doing in terms of education on this island. I know you cannot be saddled with the whole responsibility. You are one part...there is actually early childhood education, which I think you are also developing. Mr. Shimokawa: Yes. Councilmember Yukimura: Early childhood education, K-12, and then the higher education piece. Committee Chair Chock: There is another question. SPECIAL PLANNING 19 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING Mr. Shimokawa: I can bring that question to the Chancellor and maybe she can follow-up with the Council. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. Committee Chair Chock: Two (2) weeks? Mr. Shimokawa: Within two (2) weeks? Okay. Councilmember Yukimura: Well, they already have the answer because it is part of their strategic plan, I am sure. My last question is...it would be alright and maybe better to not make any reference in here to a four-year college, because that is not at this point... Mr. Shimokawa: Let me also confirm that with Helen. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. Thank you. Committee Chair Chock: Councilmember Kawakami. Councilmember Kawakami: Thank you, Chair. Thank you for being here. My question is going to tie into enrollment, then I guess the student housing situation. So in 2015, during my time with the legislature, I appropriated one hundred fifty thousand dollars ($150,000) to market Hawai`i as a visitor destination, but the target market that I aimed it at was for international students. What we saw was although mainland universities in college were seeing a rise in international students, and they contribute significantly to these communities and also culturally to the towns that they are in, Hawai`i was seeing a decline. When we tried to analyze why this was happening—we should be a destination for education as well, not just a visitor destination, but an educational destination—we found out that because Hawai`i was marketed so much as just "paradise," these kids and their parents did not see Hawai`i as a place to get a good education. So we put in money and I think it was money well-spent because it helped them bring in, in part, two hundred twenty-five million dollars ($225,000,000) to the economy as far as spending by these international students, of which thirty-two million dollars ($32,000,000) were generated as far as tax revenue for the State of Hawai`i. Then it helped support...I think they looked at it, like five thousand one hundred (5,100) jobs. Has KCC been able to see any kind of increase in international students? Do we actually have any international students? If we do not, it is obvious that the housing would one of the biggest blocks for international students on Kaua`i. Mr. Shimokawa: Yes, you are absolutely correct. I think it was three (3) years ago that we established a permanent positon for an International Education Coordinator on the campus and she is tasked with growing the program. We currently only have a handful of international students and they are all, I believe, from Japan. But housing is definitely a huge barrier and that is one of the reasons why on-campus housing is on the wish list for the campus. It would benefit bringing in more international students. We are exploring other avenues that could SPECIAL PLANNING 20 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING potentially meet that need without having on-campus housing or without having any kind of college-operated housing. Councilmember Kawakami: Do you post family programs and so on? Mr. Shimokawa: We are currently using some those host family/homestay programs to house short-term programs where we bring groups of students in from Okinawa and Japan for a couple of weeks. We are also looking at more long-term homestay programs, but we would need a private business to operate that. That is how it is done at the other campuses on O`ahu, so we are looking into that as well. More immediately, we are trying to identify "housing vendors"...I guess you can call it that...in the community that would be able to provide housing for these international students. You are absolutely right that in order to get the students in the first place, we have to have a place for them to stay and the international families and even institutions that we have partnerships with, they are not even interested in sending their students to us if we do not have the whole package ready for them. Councilmember Kawakami: The big benefit, and you probably know, during that same session, at the time, the higher education chair, Representative Choi from Manoa, introduced a bill to actually piggyback with President Obama's vision of creating a free college opportunity for everybody. We were wondering how this system would work. He actually piloted Kaua`i Community College as being that pilot project to kind of rollout a free college tuition, which of course never passed. If we can attract more out-of-state international students, that helps subsidize all of the local kids that want to get to college, so hopefully we can capture some of that market moving forward. Has the college ever considered having their student housing right here in downtown Lihu`e versus on campus? The only reason why I ask is because when you want to create economic stimulation, these college towns usually bring a lot of spending and we are trying to rebuild Lihu`e Town and we do have a transit system that could get students to and from. In fact, students are being subsidized with bus passes. So they would have transportation and we would not be creating this sprawl and they would have much needed services around Lihu`e. Has the college ever considered that option? Mr. Shimokawa: No, we have not talked about having a college-operated off-campus housing, but if we can create a viable plan to make it work and it benefits the students and community, then why not? The challenge with campus-operated housing is that by having that, we become responsible for the student 24/7, so that brings in a whole host of challenges, even when the housing is located on the campus. When it is located off-site, that increases that even more. Councilmember Kawakami: It can be done because Hawai`i Pacific University just took over Aloha Tower and that seems to be...I do not know how well it is working, but if I was a student, I would love to live there. Mr. Shimokawa: Like you said, if there is a viable path for it, then why not? Just even the economics of it, if we were to get the land for free, then it would be at least on parity from an economic standpoint. But if we have to not only SPECIAL PLANNING 21 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING build the facility and operate it, but also buy, purchase, or lease the land, then it adds another barrier. Councilmember Kawakami: Well, we have some State parcels located close by. The other question is moving forward, if we are going to put housing at KCC, which I am in favor of, and we have a University district bill that we could surely take a look at making amendments, but will the college be open to other housing opportunities, just workforce housing, assisted living facilities, that could tie into the college with your school of nursing? Would you be open to at least having the discussion to add more housing opportunities versus just student housing? Mr. Shimokawa: I would have to defer to the Chancellor on that. Councilmember Kawakami: Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Committee Chair Chock: Any further questions for Brandon? If not, thank you so much for being here. Mr. Shimokawa: Thank you. Committee Chair Chock: Who else do we have here that we have to get through? I think that is it. I do see Melissa White from SSFM, the consultant. At this time, I will open it back up for questions and answers on Topic 6 and any further questions that you have. Should I ask the Planning Department to come up? Yesterday, we ended with Energy Sustainability and we pretty much got through that. Anymore questions on that? If not, I will move to the next sector, which is Public Safety, Hazards, and Resiliency. We spoke briefly about that, but if you have any further questions? I might just have a clarifying question on watershed again. On page 100 in watersheds, it does talk about partnership needs, number 5, "Support establishment of community-based councils to assist with watershed management issues." I just wanted to get a better sense of what the vision was for that and how the County was engaging in that process. I support it and I think it is a great idea, but I am not exactly sure how that would look. I know we have a Hanalei Watershed Hui as it is. Councilmember Yukimura: Chair, what page? Committee Chair Chock: I am back on watersheds, sorry. Page 100. MARIE WILLIAMS, Long Range Planner: On page 100, D.5, I will say that part of the thinking behind this was inspired by the Department of Land and Natural Resources' (DLNR) Aha Moku Council, which actually serves to advise the Board of Land and Natural Resources (BLNR) in how they develop their action plans for how they help to manage resources and their decision-making as well. So this was more in-line as a partnership need, something that the State might possibly take a lead on, as they have with the Aha Moku Council. SPECIAL PLANNING 22 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING MICHAEL A. DAHILIG, Planning Director: We also want to add that we work very closely with Maka'ala Ka'aumoana in the development of many of these action items. She does have a wealth of knowledge and experience in the area of watershed management in Hanalei. So we have consulted with her quite extensively in the development of these sections. Committee Chair Chock: Okay. Any other questions? I am kind of jumping around here. Councilmember Yukimura: I have questions, but they are at home. At the end, I am going to use some time to ask the questions. Committee Chair Chock: Well, we can move through and get to implementation now and get the presentation out of the way. Would you like to do that? Councilmember Yukimura: That is fine. Committee Chair Chock: Other Members? We have this one (1) testifier who is waiting at the bridge that is coming to try and testify. I do not want to set a precedent for testimony, everyone, but I do acknowledge that there is one (1) and I am not sure if it is written. I would be happy to receive it written if it is, so if we can just get it up here...we already have it? Okay. We are fine then because we have read it. Let us continue with the presentation on implementation. Ms. Williams: Today for Topic 7, we have invited our prime consultant, SSFM, to come and present. They did a lot of research and produced a white paper on what the best practices out there are on how other counties and cities implement their general plans. There is a lot of exciting things going on out there, so Melissa White will be doing a presentation today, kind of focused on this and how that is reflected in the draft of the General Plan Update. MELISSA WHITE, Planner, SSFM International, Inc.: Good morning and thank you. I will wait for the presentation to load. Committee Chair Chock: It is coming up. Ms. White: Okay. Good morning and thank you for having me back. I am here today to talk about implementation. This topic, where it fits into the overall plan, is Chapter 4. It is addressed in the topic of"Implementation and Monitoring." So tying it back to the nineteen (19) overarching policies articulated in the plan, the one that really resonates with implementation is "communicate with aloha." So this is about involving Kaua`i's residents in planning and decision-making, sharing information, encouraging input, improving public processes, and being responsive. This is a key part of what the implementation process is keeping in mind. There is a number of lessons learned from the 2000 General Plan. I think many of us are well-aware of and we took stock of these lessons and we also did a review of best practices in comprehensive planning by looking at plans that have been done across the country and the American Planning Association's (APA) guidance on SPECIAL PLANNING 23 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING comprehensive planning. Briefly, I just want to go through a few lessons learned and then kind of relate them to current best practices in planning. So lessons learned from the 2000 General Plan—what we found was that there was not really an internal tracking and reporting system for what has been done, what has not, and what has changed. We had to do a lot of forensics and kind of interviewing people across the departments, trying to figure out what took stock of what had been implemented and what had not. It ended up being quite an effort and many people have left since that time or not remembered what was happening. So that is something that became very clear, was kind of the gap as we did this process. We also discussed the need for stronger linkages between the General Plan and Capital Improvements Program to drive and prioritize projects so that there is a clearer linkage between what the plan lays out and the spending priorities. Needless to say, the County has limited resources for implementation, so putting the implementation onus on the County to do everything that is called for in the plan is not sustainable, so partnerships are becoming more and more important, not only here, but everywhere as resources are limited further. Finally, political will is essential in order to carry forward the objectives, policies, and actions during the plan. Everyone needs to be on the same page and be willing to push them forward. So going to best practices, what we see in the literature and in other plans that are kind of at the cutting edge, we see that departmental structure and programs are adapted to support implementation. So rather than just piling on the responsibility for implementation onto existing departmental responsibilities, there is enough staff time and resources carved out to allow for the types of review and documentation that are needed. Plans are more action/project oriented, clearly defining their responsibilities for implementation. They have greater accountability for results and built-in monitoring practices that allow for interim adjustments, so they may not be set in stone and they acknowledge that things can change over time. The monitoring process is designed to allow for those kind of corrections. The monitoring and reporting of public and transparent and designed to keep up the momentum. So these are things where it does not just go into a hole of bureaucracy. The public is aware as this plan is updated and as actions are taken to support it and plans have a direct nexus to the Capital Improvement Projects (CIP) budget, again linking spending with policy and objectives. Public/private partnerships are incorporated into implementation and community education and involvement is incorporated into the implementation, so that people are not just aware of what is going on, but they are educated about how they can be part of the process. I am going to touch on a few of the plans we reviewed and some of the examples of how these best practices are being applied. Up in the top right, you can see the overall guidance from the American Planning Association. It says that "cutting-edge plans define their communities' desired outcomes and link them to measurable metrics that assess the results of planned policies and implementation." This is a clear guidance that we can carry forward. As an example of that, the planned Salt Lake document includes an implementation matrix that is reader-friendly with color-coded topics and it lists metrics, a baseline, and a 2040 target for each of its SPECIAL PLANNING 24 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING thirteen (13) guiding principles. Then it also has kind of an inventory of implementation tools that are available that document existing programs and resources. Best practices for measuring progress—imagine Austin as one example of a plan that clearly links policies, goals, metrics, and actions and it is a chapter on implementation and measuring success. The city charter requires that the planning commission and staff provide an annual report to the city council about the implementation of the comprehensive plan, including metrics to track progress. There are interdepartmental working groups that meet annually and they establish priorities and assess progress, compared to the performance metrics. Regarding the public educational component, to keep the public informed and awareness up, they do an educational speaker series on different planning topics. In terms of the nexus to budgeting, Philadelphia is an example of something that might be closest to what Kaua`i has, where there is a six-year capital program and budget that is reviewed and developed on an annual basis. This entails considerable interagency coordination and partnership with the budget office and various agencies. What Philadelphia has is district plans and these play a key role in prioritizing the expenditures that are discussed at the CIP annual review. So by linking those district plans with the CIP process, they are ensuring that the goals and investments are consistent with the development goals of the plan. Partnerships. One example comes from Lafayette, Louisiana where there was a spinoff organization called "project front yard" that took a chunk of the key issues. This group was included government, as well as business partners, and attracted other kinds of investment so that overall there was a greater responsibility for implementation. This program had a life of its own and took responsibility for implementing a number of the actions that the community felt were important. Then on that similar note, shared responsibility and getting the community involved and informed. So much like the theme of this document, Kaua`i Kakou, where we recognize the people in the community that have programs and initiatives that support the vision of the plan. Utah has something that actually has that formal way of recognizing these organizations and community members, so they do these annual awards called the "common good awards," honoring people that are upholding the vision of the plan. Back to Philadelphia again, there is actually a more formalized Citizens Planning Institute that offers a seven-week course and goes in-depth into planning, zoning, and development process and really instructs interested citizens how to take a more active role in shaping the future of their neighborhoods and creates a sense of broader ownership over the plan. So zooming back into here, to Kaua`i, this is a graphic that was taken from the implementation section of the plan and it is an implementation and feedback loop. So it starts with approval of the plan, and then it goes through starting to implement actions, going through the progress tracking, assessing outcomes, adjusting course along the way, and having community input inform each of these steps along the way. So this is kind of our visual representation of the framework that acknowledges that shared responsibility and accountability are imperative to staying focused and making measurable progress. In the tools for implementation, the General Plan is a SPECIAL PLANNING 25 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING tool in and of itself. It sets the framework for good decision-making and integration by other planning efforts such as these community plans and functional plans. Other primary tools for permitting and code changes include the zoning ordinance, zoning maps, and development codes, and the plan review and approval process. If you notice, these topics are sorted by the types of actions that we have in the plan, permitting and code changes, plans and studies, projects and programs and partnership needs. So continuing on to projects and programs, the capital improvement program is a critical piece of implementation by designating the funding needing to implement in the departmental structure and programs, again, by allowing the resources that are needed to keep up this kind of documentation and review process to report on the progress of the plan. Then partnership needs...that is where partner and developer contributions come into play. I will get into that more in a short bit. At the County level and this being a County plan, the key implementation drivers are on the left here: the Mayor, the County Council, the Planning Commission, and the Planning Department. But other County agencies have a key role in this as well, so that includes the Department of Public Works, Department of Parks & Recreation, Housing Agency, Transportation Agency, Office of Economic Development, Emergency Management Agency, and the Department of Water, many of which have their own functional plans or reporting requirements. So having these align and nested in a way that supports and compliments the General Plan is critical. Sorry about the text on this side because it is kind of small, but partnership needs, this is to acknowledge that partners are critical in implementation and that the County cannot do this alone. There are partners at multiple levels, from the private sector, which includes businesses and professionals, people who own land and develop land. For State partners, the Land Use Commission is a key one because it designates land use patterns as well so the County zoning and State Land Use Designations have to work together. Business, economic development, and tourism— the Office of Planning and DLNR, as was just mentioned in the previous topic. Health, education, transportation, and Hawaiian Home Lands, and all of these partners have been identified in actions within the draft plan. They have been specifically identified where they need to be involved. Then utility service providers, like the Kaua`i Island Utility Cooperative on this island, and community as well...community groups, neighborhood associations, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which includes nonprofits and business associations. The plan clearly identifies where partnership needs are called for. It actually includes almost two hundred (200) actions that are identified as possible partner actions. Performance measures. So going back to the need and the best practice to define desired outcomes and link them to measurable objectives. So the plan framework, if you recall, as the hierarchy of policies and then objectives. Under each topic, there are objectives laid out and each objective has an associated performance measure that is being proposed for it. The performance measure are where measurable outcomes come in. There are forty-nine (49) measures in total that are included in the plan and how these were developed was a couple of factors waiting to their selection—one is the availability of baseline data because it is not always SPECIAL PLANNING 26 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING realistic to collect new data or establish new processes to collect data when there are a lot of data sources that exist. So looking at the existing data sources, how we can leverage them and utilize them for efficiency, and to help this reporting process be implementable. That is one factor. Another factor was to look at complimentary initiatives that support the plan's overall commitment to sustainability and that is the Aloha+ Challenge, the statewide example that has been also embraced at the County level. We looked at those objectives and those performance measures and how we could tie in the plan's objectives to those. What is proposed in the plan is to have a biennial reporting process on these performance measures to the Planning Commission and the County Council and to have community events associated around those. This would be where every other year, there would be a review and reporting process that would be public and the platform to allow the County to take stock of where they are in implementing the plan. The actions matrix, going one level deeper, there are objectives and then under each objective are actions. There are close to six hundred (600) actions in total in the plan. So this actions matrix breaks down all of those actions and sorts them by the type of action. As I mentioned before, permitting and code changes are one, partnership needs are another, plans and studies, and projects and programs. So this action matrix is included in Appendix G and it assigns a unique number to each action so that they can be referred to by that. This also identifies clearly the lead agencies and partners responsible for implementation and it links them back to the policy objectives. This is a tool that can be used to develop tracking and monitoring materials that can be filled out by the different departments and used as a framework for monitoring progress. Another idea that is new to this plan is a Kakou Committee and somewhat similar to the Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) that we had for the development of this General Plan. This would be something that would be appointed by the Mayor and would include public and private partners and their role would be to help with review of the performance measures, establishing baselines and targets, helping with that biennial review of what is happening with the plan and helping to keep the community informed and engaged. Adding to that layer of community involvement would be a community education capacity building process and this is also outlined in Chapter 4. This would need to increase community involvement in planning processes, would involve community events and education that would be held around biennial reporting on General Plan progress and ongoing education to keep community organizations and partners engaged and importantly to include all ages. In terms of updating the General Plan, and in the spirit of keeping it as a living document, comprehensive updates of the entire document are called for every ten (10) years and this is consistent with what is in the County Code. This is in addition to the biennial review to look at what is working, what is not, and any course adjustments that may be needed and periodic updating of policies, actions, or land use maps, as needed, to allow for unexpected changes or new information. Now bringing this back around, I would like to just point out the linkages between the best practices and comprehensive planning that we discussed earlier and what is being done in this General Plan Update to be consistent with those and to ensure this plan is on the cutting edge of what is happening with community planning. So supportive developmental structure and programs. In the General Plan SPECIAL PLANNING 27 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING Update, this would be upheld by a departmental reporting process to keep a record of action and progress, so between each biennial reporting, there would be this process of taking stock within each department of what has been done, what has not, and what has changed. So best practices of action-oriented with defined responsibilities. This is where the actions matrix comes in, which identifies concrete actions and who is responsible for them. Built-in monitoring practices that allow interim adjustments and this was envisioned through the performance measures and biennial reporting requirements that are included in the update. Public and transparent monitoring and reporting to keep up the momentum and that is where the Kakou Committee would have a key role, as well as community education and capacity building that I was mentioning. The direct nexus to the CIP budget is something that comes through a prioritization of actions that would be done through the departmental review process, much of what has been done in Philadelphia. Incorporating partnerships into implementation, so that is where we have identified partnership needs clearly and they have their own section of the action matrix. The shared responsibility is just really encapsulated in the overall theme in the document, which is Kaua`i Kakou and that is my presentation. Thank you very much. Committee Chair Chock: I do not know where to start. Do you have a question? Please, go ahead. Councilmember Kawakami: Thank you so much for that presentation. With the Kakou Committee concept, it kind of stuck out. Is that not something that the Planning Commission could do or do you see better value if we were to create...sometimes we create so many commissions and committees that it becomes a challenge to fill them at times, and then it just gets clouded at times. Would there be a conflict between the Kakou Committee and Planning and how would that work out? Mr. Dahilig: At the outset when we were going through the drafting process, the Kakou Committee was not an initial thought. We got a lot of testimony particularly from the Kauai Community Coalition concerning wanting some type of external committee to the General Plan to hold accountability. So as a means to try to compromise with what the coalition had been wanting us to try to implement as part of their comments, we looked at this Kakou Committee as a way to try to create that external body from the Planning Commission that involved a wide variety of community members to promote both independence, transparency, and accountability. That is where this committee came from. Councilmember Kawakami: Okay. Thank you. Committee Chair Chock: I guess for me, I would like to dive into...there is this I guess you could call it an amendment. There is testimony attached to an amendment from the coalition and Anne's work here. I do not know if you have a copy of it. Mr. Dahilig: Is that the one that was transmitted yesterday? SPECIAL PLANNING 28 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING Committee Chair Chock: I think I just got it yesterday afternoon. Mr. Dahilig: We have not had the chance to digest...I do have...we pulled the testimony from the coalition over the past six (6) months regarding just specific topics, so we can definitely try to look at what our past evaluations have been. Committee Chair Chock: Mike, you and I have had this discussion on the front end of this process as an area of focus, at least from my perspective. This is obviously the most updated. It does not refer to the policies, instead of goals, and I just wanted to get a general read from you on some of the underline because I think that this has been amended from their previous submissions. Mr. Dahilig: I will say that we have had over the past fifteen (15) months since we have gone through the drafting process, the coalition walking parallel to this process, and we have been consistently given input and feedback on how this document should evolve and be drafted and have certainly taken a lot of their testimony input into account. I will say that there is...fundamental disagreement that I think our department does have concerning and what the framework leads to this discussion of implementation and accountability. As you see from their testimony on page 2, they are emphasizing this phrase "sustainability and resilience" and you will see that consistently throughout their testimony, going back to the last October all the way through January and even through the end of the Planning Commission process. As we have described in our opening discussions with the Council, our structure is built upon a notion of balance and that sustainability and resilience certainly is a key component of our need to balance, but is not the only one. When you look at how we designed our structure on page 25 of the plan, the piko or the heart of the plan does look at sustainability and resilience, but also has to balance other factors, like uniqueness, accountability, and equitable opportunity. So that is why I think there has been some interpretation that our department has either been ignoring or not taking into account their input, but I would like to state very clearly that we do not necessarily believe that prioritizing sustainability and resilience as the core foundation of the overall structure is the right approach, given our public process, as well as what we have received throughout our lengthy discussions with our community advisory committee. That being said, again, it is up to the Council how they would like to look at structure, but I believe these were discussions that we brought up with the Council back in October when we first started this process and acknowledged that there was a bit of a disagreement in terms of where the foundation of this should start. That being said, we did, back in the day, also receive of a matrix from the coalition concerning how we were to look at accountability and that is where the comments that we received from the coalition, as well as these draft matrices kind of helped to shape Chapter 4 of the plan. I was actually the author of Chapter 4 myself and I want to kind of walk you through just briefly how we took a look at what was...besides the Kakou Committee, elements that the coalition had brought in to us as a concern regarding accountability, targets, and those types of things. We are a small department and the amount of staff that we have to actually generate statistical information is already...to do so would be a taxing endeavor given the amount of staff that we have and the responsibilities that we already carry. So what we focused on was in developing benchmarks was data SPECIAL PLANNING 29 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING that was already developed by other agencies at the State and Federal levels. So when you look through the performance measures that are proposed as part of the draft measures on pages 217 through 219, it takes the objectives that are already outlined throughout the plan as Melissa mentioned, but has paired it with information that is readily available, and that is where the baseline discussion concerning the best practice of communication and on our community value and consequentially that policy of"communicating with aloha" comes from that we know as a department that we need to step-up and provide easy access to information that is already out there. By providing a dashboard, we do mention in the plan that I think one of our approaches that we are looking at is a dashboard type of system that we can take these metrics that you see on pages 217 through 219 and update it as each agency at the State or Federal level is already putting their information up online. So that helps with that. It is a biennial is because a lot of these statistics are not updated on a regular basis, as you heard from the guys from SMS that when you look at the visitor counts and the visitor projections, the Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism (DBEDT) does not provide this on an annual basis. We need to also acknowledge that as one of these metrics are all updated at the same time on an annual basis and that is why this whole dashboard is meant to be, as Melissa put it, a living kind of method for us to be able to consolidate that information and provide that information to the lawmakers, as well as the general public. We do take seriously that need for accountability and I think that need is met by us at least as a department being able to make that information readily available. Ultimately, as Melissa's presentation did articulate, it is incumbent upon our partners, as well as the appropriation process in general to be able to implement. Our department's role is only a fraction of what ultimately can be done either by a heavy hand or by action to implement many of these facets of the plan. Committee Chair Chock: I really appreciate all the work already in the implementation section. I would agree, I am not advocating for a framework change in any manner, as it might lead towards sustainability and resiliency. I do think that what I would like to see is if there is more that can be complimented what it is you have already done here, particularly when we talk about the emphasis and need for prioritization moving forward. I am just referencing the second paragraph on page 2 of the last submission, which is about the five hundred (500) actions laid out across the ten (10) sectors and to realistically accomplish the meaningful results of these actions, it has to be prioritized. Then it starts to move into the direction of how to do that, one aspect of being able to do that. I am okay with the biennial, I totally get it. To expect six (6) months is really difficult and I like matrices, so I am okay with that as well and I understand how it is related back to the benchmarks. I think also what I am seeing, and I have not read it in detail, I just got this yesterday afternoon as well, but when we are talking about monitoring evaluation, I think there are some suggestions in the first level, second level, third level monitoring and evaluation. That really could be considered in terms of how it is we move forward. I guess what I am saying is generally speaking, I would like for us to look at those as mechanisms for us to improve upon the implementation section and that would be my interest. The other aspect is really on...again, adaptive management, which I think is something worth...I think it only strengthens how it is people who are looking and going to be acting on this plan will approach it. Perhaps, that is something that we can continue to look at. I know that we have had these discussions, so perhaps you SPECIAL PLANNING 30 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING have already been working on it and we have not had the chance to look back at it and I hate to take up all of this time right here to actually dive through every single piece in there that I am talking about or that is being presented here. I know we have talked about CIP and how to look at that and the prioritization aspect of it. I am just wanting to request that we do get back together on where the pieces are connecting and not. Mr. Dahilig: Certainly. Over the past few months, Committee Chair, we have been already entertaining and looking at expanded language that we will probably propose as amendments, given some of the discussions regarding prioritization. I know that we are, as we have stated previously, very cautioned...we caution ourselves when we get into this discussion of touching upon prioritization that could preempt or provide some encroachment on what are traditionally policy powers of the Council as a body, particularly when it comes to appropriations and legislative prioritization. With that being said, given now that we are here at a legislative process discussion point, if those are the types of things that from a partner in implementation that the body would like to include as these discussion points with, let us say, the six-year CIP process, how we develop it on a timely basis, how do we show it, because right now, when you look at the Charter, the six-year CIP process, it is not even required to be annual based on the Charter. How do we flesh those out is discussion language that we are probably going to be throwing up, too, as part of the amendments for the Council to entertain. I think when we are looking at it from an adaptive management standpoint, we are wanting to keep this flexible. The more flexible that we are with targets, with information, the better we are able to actually adapt. It is not to say that we want to have things without any guidance, but it becomes this "too hot or too cold" discussion that may not ultimately satisfy everybody given how we may approach it. The language that I am looking at here...certainly we agree that adaptive management is what we are stressing, but how we execute on the adaptive management is a point for further discussion. Committee Chair Chock: Absolutely. I understand the delicacy and balance of it. I think everyone in the room and over this process has understood that political will is really what will drive and determine the outcome of this plan and it has in the past. That is why a plan is there, to help the guidance and as much as possible we can articulate that direction, whatever the decisions made by those in the situations or in the seats. I am more focused on process in terms of articulating that there needs to be a process in place and for clear decision-making to be made. We will come back to that. Are there other questions? Councilmember Kaneshiro. Councilmember Kaneshiro: Once you get a chance to review what the coalition has provided, I am constantly battling as far as are we putting too much information or too little information into the General Plan? I read as far as first level, second level, third level monitoring, I am kind of in the predicament...we mentioned creating this Kakou Committee and we do not say how many members are in the committee and we do not put a lot of that information on, knowing that this is the General Plan and additional information is going to be needed to put that team together; and how is the team going to operate? I am kind of like in this battle. When I read these amendments, I feel like they should something that is going to spin off SPECIAL PLANNING 31 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING of the General Plan and the Kakou Committee is designed, formed, and they will implement plans on how they want to monitor. I do not know. It is always a battle of how much information do we put in the plan versus not? We went through probably almost one (1) hour of information with the Department of Health on indicators, but for me, I am kind of taking a step-back, like I do not think we should add every single health indicator into the General Plan. We addressed that the Department of Health has a plan and they are working on it and they are going to monitor it. But as far as us starting to add that information in, I kind of feel like if we start doing that, then this plan is going to get extremely large and people are not going to really pay as much attention to just the overall view of what the General Plan is. As amendments are going to be coming up, we are very shortly...for me, I am going to be taking a lot direction from you folks as far as, "Should this be in the plan? Should this be an amendment that we should be adding? Does this add to the plan? Is it something that the plan is addressing and it is going to be another part to the plan that comes out later?" That is where I am at and I will be looking for your direction on that because I am sure that we are going to get a lot of amendments coming through and there is that battle. I would love to add of this detail into the plan, but then you make the plan so big that nobody is even going to want to look at it. That is kind of where I am at. Mr. Dahilig: We have used the analogy that the plan has tried to be as "big-tent" as possible. At the end of the day, many of the action items would be the number one priority for somebody out there that has participated in the process. So that notion of whether or not something is more important than another, given the breadth of what this plan affects and who is out there as part of our public process, really becomes a challenge, because we do not want to necessarily say that an action item may or may not be important to somebody. With that being said, we certainly recognize that in trying to manage the amount of input and what people have been participating through the process and giving us information, the action items really are reflective of that community process. When you look at the forty-nine (49) metrics that we are trying to outline here, if we start adding to metrics, let us say, concerning how many kids are vaping or what is the rate of teen pregnancy—these are the types of discussions that ultimately if we are tasked to fold that it to what we are trying to put together as an information dashboard, we certainly can. I think ultimately the big picture question is what is the story that these numbers are going to be telling over time? Is that level of detail necessary to tell that story or can it be told with these higher level kind of points? Drunk-driving is important. It is an important statistic for us to monitor, but does it tell that overarching story with how we are trying to move together forward in implementing a land use management plan? I have my thoughts on that. That is the kind of question that we have been wrestling with and that battle that you descried on how to actually create that balance on what is the right information to also be showing to the public to give that accountability, to give that measure, because I could definitely say that things like teen pregnancy, vaping, or drunk-driving may not necessarily give a picture of how we are progressing with a land use management plan. Committee Chair Chock: Okay. As promised, we are going to have to break at 10:30 a.m., but we have a few minutes if there is a question. Any further questions right now? Councilmember Yukimura. SPECIAL PLANNING 32 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING Councilmember Yukimura: I am just looking at the plan Salt Lake and how compact and yet broadly-reaching and well-organized it is in terms of indicators and principles. I think they have thirteen (13) guiding principles around which they organize their whole plan, and then from there, indicators relating...well, they have a very good discussion, a basic policy discussion around the guiding principles and the indicators that are going to help them measure whether they are reaching their goal and objectives, and one of the key points, as you pointed out in your PowerPoint, is that they have to be measurable metrics. The quote you have here is "cutting-edge plans define their communities' desires outcomes and link them to measurable metrics that assess the results of planned policies and implementation." So if we go to the implementation indicators, just starting with number one–maybe we can put that up...that is page 217—"To accommodate and support Kaua`i's projected population growth and housing needs." First of all, to accommodate, what does that mean? I think we want to meet our housing needs, right? Then the draft measure is conformance with population allocation. There is not even a relationship between population allocations and meeting housing needs. First of all, you need a relationship so you know that whatever you are trying to achieve is actually being measured by the indicator, and then conformance with population allocations...we do not even have to go farther than that because I am not sure that is really measurable. Even if it is, it does not tell you if you are meeting your housing needs. The next one, "to meet future housing needs through `missing middle' housing types affordable by design"—they might be affordable by design, but they might not be affordable by price. I just went to the Opticos website and I probably have to read a lot about "missing middle," but I do not know that it is well-defined. It is used throughout the plan, but I do not know what it really means. I do not even know if it is going to achieve our housing needs, and then the measure is building type of new residential units. How are you going to measure that? Committee Chair Chock: Why do you not wrap up the question because we have to end and they can respond when we get back? Councilmember Yukimura: How are your performance measures actually measuring what we need to know? That is my question. You can go through each one and I would like to know your answers. Committee Chair Chock: We will be back at noon everyone. We will have an early lunch and see you back here. Thank you. There being no objections, the meeting recessed at 10:30 a.m. The meeting reconvened at 12:18 p.m., and proceeded as follows: Committee Chair Chock: Aloha and welcome back from lunch everyone. We are currently on question and answers. Councilmember Yukimura has the floor. We are talking about the implementation section. Councilmember Yukimura: When we ended, I was looking at objectives one and two and saying actually that I felt we needed the kind of analysis I was trying SPECIAL PLANNING 33 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING to do to make sure that first of all we are articulating our objectives well, and then we are actually having measures that actually measure what we are trying to accomplish. Our objective is to accommodate and support...well, this is a good way to go over each of our objectives, but... Committee Chair Chock: Councilmember Yukimura, I know they had the question previously, so I did ask them to kind of prepare like how would we respond to the real issue here, which without having to go into each. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay, then I should shut-up. Committee Chair Chock: If that is okay? Councilmember Yukimura: That is fine. Committee Chair Chock: Councilmember Kaneshiro was sort of wanting to move us in that direction, too. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. So we should hear their answers now. Thank you. Mr. Dahilig: We can provide this in writing if that is what you would like to see. We tried to correlate a metric with each of the objectives that was easily attainable and also had a degree of reliability. So we relied on data coming either from the United States Census Bureau, from DLNR, from DBEDT, or could be done using our GIS system. So generally, the level of what made our first cut with respect to why we choose certain datasets, because we know that there is always questions concerning data and whether or not the data that is being generated is via appropriate methodology or via done with the appropriate analysis or how it is being analyzed. It was for us to be able to come in from an angle that we do not have the capacity of actually being able to generate a lot of these statistics. We can take statistics in and produce a derivative set of information. For instance, with number one, if you know what the average household size is and you know what the average household size is across the nation, as well as locally, then we can compare those two (2) metrics then we know whether or not we are in a situation where we are oversized on our household, but we would have to take that information from the census bureau. We have forty-nine (49) objectives that we can go over each of the datasets that we have aligned with each of these things, if that is what the Council would like to do. We can also provide this in writing. Committee Chair Chock: If you do not mind, just in terms of my request, and Councilmember Yukimura has probably her own interest, but for me, I would like to see how we can answer some of the gaps in comprehending the implementation piece. What can we do further to address some of the gap? That is just my interest. I will let Councilmember Yukimura have the floor. Councilmember Yukimura: First of all, I think philosophically, I do not like the idea of choosing objectives based on what data we have. I think we should go around saying, "What is our objective and how we will be able to tell whether we are SPECIAL PLANNING 34 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING meeting it?" I think in the issue of affordable housing, the data is there, but we have to be clear what our objective is and I do not believe it is to accommodate...to accommodate Kaua`i's projected population, actually both the State statute that says that the general plans should be desired objectives, not projected. There is a question in itself. Even if we say "accommodate projected population growth," we have to say we want to meet Kaua`i's housing needs. Do you not agree that that is really what we want to do? We want to meet Kaua`i's housing needs. So what are Kaua`i's housing needs? It is nine thousand (9,000) units based on your data and one thing that was really missing from your policy analysis was where those nine thousand (9,000) families fall in the income brackets? It is clear that eighty percent (80%) of the need is in the one hundred twentieth percent (120%) of median income and lower. In order to really meet the need, we are going to have to produce housing that is affordable to the one hundred twenty percent (120%) and then we talk about that other twenty percent (20%) from one hundred twenty (120) to one hundred forty (140) and how we are going to meet that need. It is different strategies because the subsidy you have to do for those one hundred twenty (120) and lower is much deeper than the subsidy that you have to do for the one hundred twenty (120) to one hundred forty (140). What are the criteria? How many homes have we produced every year in that affordability range? To me, that is going to be one of the indicators. How many have we produced in the one hundred twenty (120) to one hundred forty (140) median income family range? That would be the prime indicator for meeting affordable housing needs. So nine thousand (9,000) divided by twenty (20) years, you get five-year intervals of how many houses you need and that is what we would be checking every two (2) years...you keep further breaking it down, right? The data I believe is available and if it is not available, what other alternative data that is close would suffice or are there ways that we can actually structure our land information system to produce that data? To me, that is how we would deal with number one and that is just an example of what I am looking for in terms of all of the objectives. Ms. Williams: I am sorry because I am realizing that it is not clear in Table 4-1, but each objective is tied to a sector or subsection as well, so our affordable housing objective is actually number 13, "to increase housing opportunities for low to moderate income households" and the indicator is new affordable housing units. The first eight (8) actually have to deal with the land use chapter, chapter 2. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay, to increase, but we are not going to just increase it by five (5) a year, right? If we do five (5) a year, we are meeting that objective technically, but we are not meeting the need. So it has to be something like producing nine thousand (9,000) units over the next twenty (20) years. New affordable housing units means newly available. They might be old units that we buy and they were market...is that what you mean? Ms. Williams: Yes, and I will also point out that the measures shown in the implementation chapter are draft. We kind of realized when we were drafting them that there is such a range of information out there, so it was very difficult...even though there are a lot in here, it was very difficult to just narrow it down to one connected to each objective. What we do realize is that more work does SPECIAL PLANNING 35 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING have to be done, not only to refine what we are going to keep track, but perhaps develop a baseline and then a target and if there are any interim goals to meet as well. That would probably be a future effort through the Kakou Committee. Councilmember Yukimura: I see that there is some reference in the plan, but also in the text that is suggested by Ms. Walton, there is a further delineation of the process that you would follow. We went through this with the Lihu`e plan. Has there been any work for the last two (2) years on indicators for the Lihu`e plan? Ms. Williams: In long-range, we have been completely focused on the General Plan Update. Councilmember Yukimura: I know. Ms. Williams: Just due to the size of our staff. Councilmember Yukimura: I understand, so maybe one of the actions is expanding the staff so that implementation and monitoring can be done in reality. To say it is going to be done and then not have the staff to do it, you end up with all of these things that are not done. Mr. Dahilig: I will agree to that amendment if that is the case. Councilmember Yukimura: Very good. I want to see that. That is part of the plan, the capacity to do the work that we have laid out that has to be done. Committee Chair Chock: There is a follow-up. Councilmember Kaneshiro. Councilmember Kaneshiro: In lieu of adding an employee to your staff just to monitor and implement the General Plan, was it not the intention for the Kakou Committee to be the ones that would go through these objectives and implementation? Mr. Dahilig: The Kakou Committee was really...these are my words, so I want to be clear about that...the way we interpreted it was that it was meant to be an independent objective body of community members that would be able to disseminate information and be able to hold County agencies accountable for whether or not they are meeting their benchmarks or not. That is why I look at the Kakou Committee not necessarily as the one generating the work, rather the ones that would look at the indicators, whatever they may be, and actually give feedback to us as an agency to disseminate to our agency partners about do we even tweak this? How are we doing on this? Do we need to look at other indicators? We know that this plan and the statistics that are involved are going to evolve over the next planning period. That is why what has been...I have never been shy about this discussion was why we have always, in developing this particular portion of the plan, that try to focus on things that we could already draw upon, versus things that we would have to generate. Could we bring in a capable staff member to do that on top SPECIAL PLANNING 36 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING of the work that we already have—Marie has the capacity to do a lot of these statistics, but I cannot ask her to do that plus manage her staff and manage projects. So that is why we were looking at ways to meet the overall community objective for us, which was to try to communicate again. This is a communication tool and we are really trying to focus on here to ultimately give feedback to those partners and County agencies that are responsible for implementation. Again, we do not build the roads, we do not prevent drunk-driving, and these types of things. So that is why it is designed with that specifically in mind that we are trying to do this as efficiently as possible. We leave it up to the Council as a body whether or not the indirect commitment...should we restructure the implementation program be required to yield more resources be directed to our department? Councilmember Yukimura: May I add some supportive... Councilmember Kaneshiro: I see you drooling when we said we will add an employee, so I just wanted to bring us a little step back that it takes a lot to add an employee to your staff. That is what I thought the Kakou Committee was for, rather than going and saying, "Now we are going to need somebody to do this or that and for this whole plan, we need four (4) more employees" and you have a Kakou Committee. I know you are anxious for it, but do not hold your breath. Councilmember Yukimura: I just want our Budget & Finance Committee Chair that I have been sitting in on the Built Environment Committee that Marie has been chairing and we have had just the small scope of trying to measure and define indicators for smart growth programs; that is why we want to measure whether there is an increase in pedestrians and bikers using Hardy Street and that kind of thing. We are trying to be very evidence-based. The development of indicators and the data to...and the monitoring is not a voluntary committee's work. It is a staff person's work and it is quite involved. Like Salt Lake City and other cities, it is no use having a plan if you are not going to have this other part of implementation. You lose all value in planning if you cannot really track whether you are achieving the planning goals. To me, this is not a want; this is a need if we want to do good planning in this County and we want to actually achieve for this community the benefits that this planning is saying it wants to get. Committee Chair Chock: Will you be submitting an amendment? Councilmember Yukimura: Yes...well, there is a whole thing about planning organization, which... Committee Chair Chock: You are opposed? Councilmember Yukimura: Yes. Committee Chair Chock: Okay. Councilmember Kaneshiro. Councilmember Kaneshiro: I am not advocating for us to not do anything, I was just saying that that is what I thought the purpose of the Kakou Committee is for. SPECIAL PLANNING 37 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING Councilmember Yukimura: It is not... Mr. Dahilig: Just to be clear, it is not. It was meant to be a body of community members to essentially provide that real time feedback over that biennium to take the information we are giving them and provide the questioning and the accountability on it. We have always been concerned about the resources because we do not want to hold ourselves, from a departmental standpoint, to a set of indicators that we cannot either provide as accurate information or readily defined. I think that as you have seen again with the discussions from a community standpoint about the veracity of the data that is used by our department and by other County partners, it has to be defensible. That is why I think we have tried to outlay these as draft measures because we know that some people may not like the information that comes from State parks. They are going to say that State parks is counting things wrong. So that is why we are not locked in and why we are trying to emphasize it is draft measures is because we are trying to be illustrative in the types of dashboard material that we are going to be pulling. Our overall philosophy here is to try and communicate in real time as much as possible, what we know about the statistical characteristics of our community and use that as a means of having the public provide us that real time feedback. "The Devil is in the details." If this matrix is an appropriate way to articulate what those are or it seems too finite, then certainly it is something that we can either look at amending or we can look at eliminating it and leaving that towards a future discussion as we were mentioning earlier. Committee Chair Chock: I like the different options that you are mentioning. I think for me, it is just about characterizing that this is a first step amongst many steps that needs to be taken to move us in a direction of more clarity and execution. That is just me. Councilmember Yukimura, any further questions? Councilmember Yukimura: I guess my question is if we know that this additional work is going to be done, and that is how I left the Lihu`e Community Plan—I was starting to look at the specifics and the indicators did not look well-thought out and they did not match, but I said, "Okay, we are going to leave it to a further process," then what do we do with this? To me, there should at least be a match. There should be a real agreement about the objective and then there should be some agreement about what is the form of the data that measures objective...are progress towards the objectives, and then you can figure out the details. You can figure out, "Oh, is the data available? How would we get it?" I think we have to be real clear about the objective. For example, if you go to the second one, "to meet future housing needs through missing middle housing"—my question today, what is the definition of"missing middle"? Mr. Dahilig: It is actually in the definition section. Councilmember Yukimura: Very good. Where is that? Mr. Dahilig: It is on page 10. We actually take the information from Opticos' website as a means of trying to talk about what "missing middle" is. I know it is a fluid discussion that many people do have an opinion about SPECIAL PLANNING 38 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING with respect to what is "missing middle," but we have taken a definition from our consultant for form-based code. Councilmember Yukimura: Can I read it for the public? Maybe we can put it up. Number 10, page 10, "Missing middle housing means housing located within walking distance to shops and amenities, filling the gap between single-family homes and apartment buildings." So what of the nine thousand (9,000) units that our housing needs assessment has said we are going to need for the next twenty (20)years is missing middle housing? Mr. Dahilig: When we talk about missing middle housing, what we are trying to emphasize is that it is a product type, not necessarily an income range. It is a product type. The emphasis has always been affordable by design and we have talked about that from a form-based code standpoint. There is not necessarily a rubric per se that says, "This specific type of missing middle product is meeting this specific income bracket," but what we are aware of is between single-family and apartment buildings, there is flexibility in the product type via the implementation of things like form-based code that can provide a little bit more compact feel, but yet have a higher degree of privacy then you will with an apartment building. It is not to drill down to specifics, because again it is a high-level land use plan, but what we are emphasizing is the product type and we are emphasizing that affordability by design, not necessarily by bracket. Councilmember Yukimura: I was looking at the Salt Lake City plan and what is really missing from even our affordable housing policy statement is there is no emphasis on affordability, which is the key. You can have a lot of houses and if the people within the one hundred twenty percent (120%) of median income and lower cannot afford it, we are not meeting our housing need. To me, that is our main objective. I do think that other than the single-family is going to be necessary to meet that affordability criteria. Right now, it says to "meet future housing needs through the missing middle." If the missing middle is not in the affordable brackets by price, it is going to be nice in terms of some variety of housing, but it is not going to meet our main housing need. If our objective, and I guess it is for the Council to decide, is affordability important in addressing housing need? If that is the case, then our main focus has to be on providing affordable housing. I believe that multifamily housing, a variety of those kinds of housing, is going to be part of the solution. If you just say, "These types of housing are what we are going to focus on," it is not going to meet the affordability criteria. Our efforts have to dovetail. Mr. Dahilig: I think the truth lies in between whether or not the design or the regulatory affordability of units is going to help solve the problem. Ultimately, we have said time and time again during discussions regarding housing that as much as the County Housing Agency does a great job in providing units, it pales on the scale of what is going to be demanded over the next almost twenty (20) years. Councilmember Yukimura: That is why we have to be so focused. SPECIAL PLANNING 39 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING Mr. Dahilig: So that is why it also requires that the codes are either narrow or flexible enough to encourage the private sector to also come in and provide some of these unit types that we cannot from a County Housing Agency can provide on its own. We are looking at volume here and it is a very high amount of volume that in reality cannot be tackled by the County alone. Councilmember Yukimura: I totally agree with you, Mike. Mr. Dahilig: As this is a land use regulatory plan, why we are focusing on diversification of housing type is a means to provide more of a gradation in how the affordability of product on the island actually sorts out. We are not going to have the whole ability to dictate via regulation, the price of every single unit on the island. So that is why we are looking at diversification as a means of providing that ability to actually sort out those affordability brackets a little more. Right now, we do not have the diversification of housing type that would allow that for that to sort out. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay, but if we get a lot of those housing types and they are not affordable, we are not going to be addressing our need. The question is how do you...what I hear you say is just supply...supply is going to bring the price down, but in Hawai`i...look at how much supply there is on O`ahu. If they go to second homes...a lot of missing middle homes would be so wonderful in Po`ipu for vacation rentals. That is the question, how are we going to make sure that this missing middle that you say is going to help our housing supply is going to be affordable? Mr. Dahilig: It gets into the question of how much of a regulatory hand do you want to have in the availability of these units? Ultimately, by the projection of nine thousand (9,000) units needed by the year 2035, it is part and parcel a supply problem, so we have to look at it from a supply standpoint. We cannot just say that that nine thousand (9,000) number is a figment of imagination. Councilmember Yukimura: You still have not answered the question, how are you going to make sure that supply is affordable? Mr. Dahilig: How we get to that again is a discussion that we have had in previous meetings concerning what are the bounds of the County's ability to regulate who can purchase units or how we exact units. This becomes a constitutional question... Councilmember Yukimura: No, it does not. Mr. Dahilig: I disagree, but it does become a constitutional question. Councilmember Yukimura: You are only looking at the regulatory process to provide housing. There is a whole other arena if you look at how the County has been providing housing and the use... Mr. Dahilig: Well, we do have... SPECIAL PLANNING 40 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING Councilmember Yukimura: Excuse me, I am not finished... Mr. Dahilig: Okay, I am sorry. Councilmember Yukimura: And using the inclusionary zoning more effectively to actually provide housing. If you look at Koa`e, we have done that and it is going to be permanently affordable. Those are the kinds of things that need to be addressed in the affordable housing policy statement. Mr. Dahilig: As stated throughout the plan, if the County were to rely on affordable housing exactions as a means of providing the delta that we are seeing by the year 2035, you would essentially have to flood the market with the number of high-priced homes. Councilmember Yukimura: Not true. Mr. Dahilig: Koa`e is actually premised on an affordable housing to build Kukui`ula. In order to be able to build something in that range, even if it is within the bounds of constitutional nexus and a proportionality, you would have to offset that by the amount of product that you are seeing right now being built in Kukui`ula. Again, that ultimately becomes a regulatory issue. That is why I disagree... Councilmember Yukimura: It is partly a regulatory issue. Mr. Dahilig: If I could finish, that is what I am saying that it is a regulatory issue and partly it is a supply issue. So how those two (2) intermesh with each other is what we are essentially we are saying in where this is a land use regulatory plan and that deals with form and character of communities—what we are saying is, "Yes, let us look at trying to diversify the product more" because right now we do not have diversification of product on the island. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. I do not have any objection to that, but I do not see how we are...that is fine, as long as we are achieving our affordable housing goals. Kaua`i Lagoons has permits for eight hundred fifty (850) units of luxury condos. They were supposed to provide one hundred (100) units of affordable housing. Because of poor land use policy exaction process, Courtyards at Waipouli is affordable...their affordability is going to be up in 2019, so eighty-two (82) units are gone and twenty-five (25) units that are right by the industrial plant were affordable only until 2008 and then we released them from their requirements, except for three (3) units, which we bought. You can see that our implementation of our housing regulatory powers was extremely poor, whereas in Koa`e, because we shared the cost, they gave us the land and offsite infrastructure and we built the vertical buildings on on-site infrastructure, we are able to provide permanently affordable housing in perpetuity in Koloa-Po`ipu at a workplace. You can see that how we structure our regulatory process can yield more affordable housing long-term and that is one of the issues that should be addressed in our housing policy. SPECIAL PLANNING 41 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING Mr. Dahilig: I do not disagree with that. Councilmember Yukimura: Well, then it needs to be in the plan. Mr. Dahilig: Again, I would point to you, Councilmember, to the statistical number of our demand. We firmly believe that based on the statistics that come in from the United States Census Bureau and the projections that we had through SMS and derivative calculations that we are going to need nine thousand (9,000) owner-occupied residential units on the island by the year 2035. In order to meet that, and as much as I understand that you look at things like Koa`e and you look at Courtyards at Waipouli and you look at things near the Kaua`i Lagoons Golf Course, those are in the order of dozens. We need solutions in the order of thousands. Councilmember Yukimura: I do not see any solution of thousands in your plan. Mr. Dahilig: That is why we are articulating that part of where we are looking at is throwing a number of lines into the water. This is not a one-bullet type of scenario. We have to look at putting in investments and infrastructure. We have to look at where we are putting in investments in our roads, water, and sewers. We also have to make sure that that aligns with the type of housing that we want to build, if it is going to be built based off of an exaction. Are we willing to open up more land for Kukui`ula-style development, in order to build more volume that is on affordable levels. Councilmember Yukimura: We are going to have more Kukui`ula style of developments; the question is how do we require them and how do we work with them to provide affordable housing. Look at Courtyards at Waipouli—we need nine thousand (9,000) units right now, we are going to need nine thousand eighty-two (9,082) units in 2019, because we are not maintaining the affordable inventory. If our policies allow the affordable housing to drop out of the inventory, then we are always playing catch-up, so one of the important things is keeping that inventory ever-growing and that needs to be a policy in here. That is done through things like permanent affordability and the way we structure Kaua`i. So how we structure our affordable housing ordinance has to look at this past experience. Mr. Dahilig: That is where I think we disagree that the ability to provide the volume of affordable units is realistic if it is premised upon the development of high-end luxury single-family units. That is how all of these developments that have been developed are either resort or they are high-end residential. If we are also listening to what the public is having some issue with is the proliferation of resort development, the proliferation of high-end residential. It comes with that balancing, Councilmember, where you have to also look at we have these affordable projects, but at what cost? There is either going to be a financial cost if there is a direct subsidy by the Council to provide that through appropriations or it has to be done in the backs with development, which at the end of the day, from a planning standpoint, we are not advocating for expanded urban footprints throughout our documents. We are caught in that conundrum where we can look at affordability, SPECIAL PLANNING 42 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING but at the end of the day, somebody has to provide that degree of subsidy, so that is why we are looking at diversification and not just saying that we have to have units developed premised upon resort development or high-end residential. Councilmember Yukimura: We already have zoned three thousand seven hundred (3,700) resort units and our affordable housing ordinance is not clear what they owe when they are built. At ten percent (10%), we could get three hundred seventy (370) units if we did it right, perpetually affordable, whereas our past track record has had housing going out of affordability every ten (10) or twenty (20) years. So you can get huge leverage in terms of numbers if you structure the requirements for development that is already zoned or coming up in the future in some way. Look at Hanamd'ulu, all of that land that somehow got general planned. All of that is going to happen and we should be really clear about what their obligation is for affordable housing. That is how we are going to make the numbers. Mr. Dahilig: In order to make the numbers... Committee Chair Chock: Can I interject for just a second because it is going in circles and I know Councilmember Kawakami has a follow-up. I kind of want to move this discussion that is happening here towards...I understand both things that are coming out of both sides, but I really want to move us towards some kind of direction, if you are wanting to focus on affordability and where that would be and how and I am hearing it, I just want to make sure that even if Planning does not agree with it, that that is something that is going to be acted on. Can we go to Councilmember Kawakami? He has been waiting. Then we will come back to you. Councilmember Kawakami: Thank you, Chair. We talk about affordable housing and the private sector is driven by the ability for a return on investment. It is a challenge to get a return on investment on some of the affordable housing that we are trying to achieve, so what can government do to help lower the cost so that they can achieve what they are trying to achieve and we can add to our inventory of affordable housing, then that is a win-win situation? What do we have in our toolbox? Can we bring in infrastructure? What should we be doing from a policy standpoint? Mr. Dahilig: I think you hit it on the head right there. Infrastructure is probably the biggest bang for your buck that you are going to get when it comes to a direct style type of subsidy for bringing in lower-cost units. Councilmember Kawakami: Taxpayers need to realize then that if they are going to harp on the lack of affordable housing, and infrastructure is something that we can do to create this affordable housing infrastructure, that means as a society, we are all chipping in a little to bring that to fruition. That is what a society is. That is what a tribe is. We all got to collectively put in so that we can achieve what we are trying to achieve. While we are talking about affordable housing, and I posed the question before: are we looking in as a County as being innovative? I am looking across the street where we used to operate Big Save and I know what the vision is for this area; have we begin to look as far as putting up housing above the old Big Save, which is basically storage right now? You can have government operations and you SPECIAL PLANNING 43 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING can have workforce housing on top. These are the types of things that are happening elsewhere and wondering why they cannot happen here? What is standing between the policy side? What can we do? We are the policy-makers so we can change things and shake things and not just let us be lip service. Mr. Dahilig: That idea of trying to use every available resource possible, because this is a crisis and something as a department we have been partnering with the Housing Agency on, to even identify County assets where we can look at higher and better usage in the realm of providing housing. So the parking lot across the street, for example, is a good discussion point. Should we be looking at tighter, taller development in some of the County assets that are underutilized? We have a strip of land that is adjacent to the Department of Water that is over there that the Housing Agency is looking at trying to squeeze in forty (40) units. We have another park that is a passive park that we are looking at trying to squeeze in another fifty (50) to sixty (60) units. These are the types of things that we are definitely doing and it needs to continue and I think our only caution from an innovation standpoint is we also need to look at it from a big picture standpoint that as much as we place a lot of emphasis and effort on these small wins, we ultimately have to look at the bigger trend line, which is this big scale. So we know that we cannot, as a County, do it alone. That notion of the direct subsidy to our developers by providing the investments in targeted areas for infrastructure provides probably the best breadth in terms of reducing the amount of regulatory where they have to do and bring and string in infrastructure to their developments, but also direct the development towards areas that we actually want. I think some of Committee Chair Chock's discussions concerning sequencing and where we prioritize the six-year CIP plans and how we layout our projects is going to become very, very critical in providing that subsidy, because it is not just water; it is sewers, roads, and parks. It is all of these different elements, not just one thing or the other. We like to characterize to new developers that come and try to talk to us that development in Hawai`i is like a game of switches. You have to have all of these switches on at the same time. Sometimes a switch will turn off and you have to know who controls all of these switches. Unless you have an understanding of how the switches work and what switches you can try to turn on for the developer versus them trying to turn it on themselves, that is the kind of key to try and incentivize these people to come in and make those investments and return on investment. Councilmember Kawakami: I hate to pit a war between two (2) departments, but the question has come up time and time again; are our Building Code requirements a hindrance for affordable housing? Has it been viewed as overkill? It depends on who you talk to, but a lot of it is adding to the cost of construction and in some people's opinion, it is doing so unnecessarily. You do not have to answer if that is going to get you some weird looks when you walk back across the street. Mr. Dahilig: Ultimately, at the end of the day, the best practice with any building department across the nation is to follow the International Building Code. But the glove does not fit the size that we may need here. It really takes a detailed effort to maybe look...the next time an IBC comes out or the next time even an Electrical Code, a Fire Code, or even a Plumbing Code comes out, SPECIAL PLANNING 44 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING whether or not some of the things that may be very progressive based off of communities across the nation that can afford that type of development, whether or not those things are really size or environmentally appropriate for what we are trying to look at over here. I think it really takes that fine-tooth comb, rather than just passing a code and saying, "Okay, let us adopt it, because that is what the rest of the nation is doing." Councilmember Kawakami: Okay. Thank you. Committee Chair Chock: Councilmember Yukimura has more questions, but I just wanted to ask in terms of the discussion that you folks have had and the need for regulatory exaction on these unaffordable units, is there room or is there space for that to occur? If so, where, as it relates to implementation? Mr. Dahilig: I have to turn to that section on housing again. Ms. Williams: Page 114. Mr. Dahilig: I will say that when you look at the code changes that were prescribed, I think whatever we can...I hate to use the word"stuff' because we have had some criticism about "stuffing" too much into the plan, but I think this is where we need to align some of the regulatory discussion that wants to be implemented. Ultimately, this document does have a statutory purpose under State law, which if the Council is to entertain a zoning ordinance, it has to be aligned with the General Plan. I am trying to balance that language in this plan so that it is broad enough so that we can cover that statutory requirement under Hawai`i Revised Statutes (HRS) 46-4, but at the same time, provide some degree of direction. We can certainly massage some of the language in here if that is the desire of the Council. Committee Chair Chock: Does the implementation section address the need to revise the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance (CZO)? Mr. Dahilig: I think for instance, the missing middle discussion is something that would be a consequential need to revise as consistent with our discussion throughout our General Plan. In fact, that we are trying to look at infill as a growth management strategy here. Again, we are balancing the need for more housing, but at the same time, not wanting to sprawl. That is where that missing middle discussion really does come into play. Committee Chair Chock: Councilmember Yukimura, please continue. Councilmember Yukimura: Actually, your question, Chair, brings up a very important point, which is it is hard to discuss the implementation if you do not have clear consensus on the policy. That is why I think we have gotten into this affordable housing discussion is because we are not all on the same page in terms of how we are going to address this very critical housing need, which we all agree is a critical crisis, if you will, situation. I agree that it is not a silver bullet and what I am looking for is a coordinated, integrated policy that addresses the changes we need to SPECIAL PLANNING 45 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING make in our housing ordinance and how we use our regulatory power there and how that is supported by Planning, and what it does in its permitting process? Then how the County Housing Agency does its housing development and then how the private sector participates? There is a lot of participation needed for the nonprofit sector, which is through nonprofit housing developers and nonprofit housing agencies, whether it is the Kaua`i Economic Opportunity (KEO) or Catholic Charities and those that manage housing projects. To the issue of homelessness and Housing First, that is where I think a policy...then we look at what our indicators are for achieving our Housing Policy. I think you are right that we do not need too many...we should not have to go through a lot of indicators for one policy. So this number 13, which Marie pointed out, to increase housing opportunities for low to moderate income households, just needs to be tweaked in terms of having some actual numbers, using the numbers in the plan, the nine thousand (9,000), if you will, or I do not know if you have other...and making sure that we have defined low and moderate income, or else rewording it so that...if we just say, "provide nine thousand (9,000) affordable housing units in twenty (20) years" then we would need a subset that says how we deal with the one hundred twenty percent (120%) of median income and lower and the one hundred twenty percent (120%) to one hundred forty percent (140%). Then I think there is a small percentage that goes above one hundred forty (140). But we are really talking about what the market is not meeting, I think. We have to keep a regular supply of housing going, just from a market, but then we need some targets for that one hundred twenty percent (120%) and below. I think the one hundred twenty (120) to one hundred forty (140) might be met with things like...we can put that in the policy...in Seattle, the government gives interest subsidies. They do not build a house; they just help with the interest and it is the most effective, efficient way of using your resources. We are going to need more capital for housing and that is not addressed in the Housing Policy, like on Maui, where there is a percentage of the Real Property Tax set aside for affordable housing or a capital gains tax on highly-priced transactions to provide capital, which is what is needed. The way we have supplied affordable housing over the last twenty (20) years is with the forty million dollars ($40,000,000) that we got after the hurricane. Committee Chair Chock: Councilmember Kaneshiro. Councilmember Kaneshiro: Just to reel this back, because I think we went through this when we went through housing. This is a general plan and here we are talking about policy and trying to get benchmarks to resolve all of our housing issues. Again, I think the General Plan is the a "general plan" where we identify objectives, increasing housing by providing affordable housing, but I think the policy is not in the General Plan; the policy we have...all types of different housing policies that will obviously need to be tweaked to try and accomplish what the General Plan has set, but I do not think we should be here trying to figure it out and input it into the General Plan or else we will probably never get this thing finished. Housing is obviously a very difficult issue and is not going to be solved by one (1) silver bullet. We went through this whole conversation when we went through the housing section the last time. I just want to see how we can get somewhere on this. Committee Chair Chock: I appreciate your comment. Councilmember Yukimura. SPECIAL PLANNING 46 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING Councilmember Yukimura: What I have been suggesting is not a silver bullet; it is a combination of things and it is no different than what has actually said on page 117 in the nature...it says, "Streamline permit approvals for infill development, incentivize infill development, update building codes, reevaluate the definition of`kitchen."' Those are in the nature of what I have been suggesting. Councilmember Kaneshiro: I guess I am saying that if it is in here already, then let us move forward. Councilmember Yukimura: It is not in there, but it is in the same nature as this. Councilmember Kaneshiro: It is on page 117... Councilmember Yukimura: No, not everything that I talked about is in there. Committee Chair Chock: So those suggestions are... Councilmember Yukimura: So what I am saying is if we are going to amend or add to and if it is in the same nature as these, it is General Plan subject matter. What I have been talking about is of the nature that is already mentioned in the General Plan. Councilmember Kaneshiro: I guess for me, I am hearing philosophical discussions. Let us just ask them the question, is this something we can put or amend into the General Plan or not? If not, the conversation is going to go back and forth and I do not even know if it is going to come into an amendment or if it is going to be something that is put in the General Plan or just something that we discuss now and forget. Councilmember Yukimura: It is a discussion that we have been having. You are right—there is philosophy involved in that because there is philosophy involved. The Planning Director really well-stated the tension between the sustainability issue and the other elements of the four (4) overarching goals. I am really glad you are articulated it, Mike, because that underlies how we state the issues in the General Plan. So you cannot get away from philosophy because it is a place where you come together. Committee Chair Chock: I think we all recognize it. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. Good. Committee Chair Chock: I think it is time to move forward. Councilmember Yukimura: I was answering Councilmember Kaneshiro's suggestion that we should not be talking philosophy for the General Plan. SPECIAL PLANNING 47 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING Committee Chair Chock: Let us move forward. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. Very good. Thank you. Committee Chair Chock: Any further questions on implementation? Councilmember Yukimura: In terms of proceeding, if you want to point out, as Marie has done, the implementation of the housing goals are thirteen (13)...fourteen (14)... Ms. Williams: The objectives related to our housing sector include objectives...sorry...thirteen (13) through twenty (20) and the corresponding draft performance measure is shown as well. Councilmember Yukimura: Like in sixteen (16), you talk about expanding housing opportunities for workers on farms and you are going to count new farm worker housing units. How are you defining farms? Ms. Williams: That actually would be done through the Agricultural Worker Housing Permit that we have. It is something that you do have to receive a permit for, so we would just use our departmental records to assess this. Councilmember Yukimura: Except that that is not the only way that farm-worker housing is provided, because I think Kaua`i Coffee might have some housing. As the author of the bill of agricultural worker housing, I know that we deliberately focused on the small farms, but there is also the larger farms. There may be farms that already have permits or have the wherewithal to do farm worker housing. We addressed places like Moloa`a where they had no density. So I do not know that just using our permit system is going to be revealing all of the farm worker units. Councilmember Kaneshiro: Again, if you go back to our housing section, which we have went through before, they also have...in addition to improving the existing process to obtain farm worker housing permits and remove barriers for participation, they also have provided outreach on the farm worker housing law to increase participation and that is where I think something that you are talking about might come about. People might say, "We are a large farm. We are not able to fit into this model. How can we accommodated? How can we generate more housing?" For me, the General Plan addresses it. They do not have the solution, but it addresses a step that they need to take, so I am not sure if that will satisfy you or if you want to add to page 119, "Permitting Actions and Code Changes" another bullet point on what they can do to stimulate farm worker housing. Councilmember Yukimura: I was not talking about the process of producing it, I was talking about the process of counting it. I guess that can be something that is worked on in the future development of these indicators. Mr. Dahilig: As stated previously, Councilmember, again the forty-nine (49) items in the matrix were put together as a means to meet our SPECIAL PLANNING 48 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING overarching goal, which is communication and to be able to provide that feedback. Whether or not this reflects the picture as the plan has implemented in the line from an information standpoint that needs to be told in real time, then I think that is why we are characterizing this as draft measures because we are not entirely sure that once this committee is put together that this is the universal information that they are going to want us to keep on pulling the information from. There may be more sources out there that we are not aware of. Ultimately, our goal here is monitoring and our goal is to try and tell the story and whether or not these items in here tell the story that we can put together to the best of our ability is really the emphasis behind this particular chapter. We are again trying to communicate to all of our decision-makers, our partners, and our community what is going on. If there are more things that need to changed, added, or taken out, or whether or not this matrix should not even be in here in the first place and given a direction as to how to go about it and create a process for developing a matrix with the committee down the line, then that is something that we are open to. I think our approach here is to communicate the information in real time through a dashboard set up to provide all of our community members, decision-makers, and stakeholders a glimpse of where we are at any given time. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. As I look at all of this—and I appreciate the guidance—to me, for affordable housing, I just really need thirteen (13) well-developed and nineteen (19) well-developed. I want to know how we are doing on providing those nine thousand (9,000) units that we say need to be developed within the next twenty (20) years. Committee Chair Chock: Where do you want that? In the implementation? Councilmember Yukimura: Yes. I want a really clear indicator or indicators. As I explained, you have to break down those nine thousand (9,000) units by affordability. Then I want to know how we are doing on reducing our homelessness. Those would be the two (2) indicators in housing. The rest are nice and interesting, but those two (2) indicators would tell us whether we are really addressing the main crisis. Committee Chair Chock: Okay. Councilmember Yukimura: If we can do that with everything else...what is our sustainability indicators? Mr. Dahilig: You start with forty (40), forty-one (41), forty-two (42), forty-three (43), forty-four (44), forty-five (45)...along with if you look at twenty-nine (29)... Councilmember Yukimura: So forty-one (41), "To increase energy self-sufficiency and maintain a reliable resilient and cost-efficient energy system, this is just about electrical energy, right? SPECIAL PLANNING 49 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING Mr. Dahilig: We are using the indicator that the Aloha+ Challenge was suggested to us by the coalition to be integrated into these indicators as part of the monitoring and implementation. So if you see the asterisks, it is actually and indicator that we know the Aloha+ Challenge is generating, so we are going to be just be actually disseminating that information from whatever methodology they are using. Councilmember Yukimura: Well, I am not familiar with their indicators, but from my viewpoint, if we are going to be energy self-sufficient, it is about electrical generation and fossil fuels. Mr. Dahilig: We can take a look at the Aloha+ Challenge and see how they develop that. Councilmember Yukimura: Hopefully, they have addressed that. You would think they have. Ms. Williams: If you look at objective forty-two (42), it also is an Aloha+ Challenge performance measure that they measure decrease and emissions across the State. Councilmember Yukimura: But our objective is not just to reduce it or to increase it...to increase energy self-sufficiency, right? Maybe we can reduce it by...how do you measure the gases? What is the unit of measure? Mr. Dahilig: Metric tons. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay, metric tons...you can do it by one (1) ton or vehicle miles, you reduce it by...the power of the metric is that it is eighty percent (80%) or one hundred percent (100%) by a certain time. Can we put in some kind of metric that way? Otherwise, it is not very meaningful. Mr. Dahilig: Again, I think it takes it one step beyond what was suggested to us in looking at the Aloha+ Challenge as a means of alignment. I do not know how they derived this data and I would feel uncomfortable if we had to dissect this data further because I do not know what actually goes into it. When I am looking at the dashboard that the Aloha+ Challenge has right now on the State government website. It does not really...if you press on detail...Committee Chair, I do not want to know if you want to pull it up on a web address, but there is dashboard that you can look at online. Committee Chair Chock: Do you want to see it? Councilmember Yukimura: I am trying to simplify for general plan purposes...forty thousand (40,000) feet view or whatever it is...the Aloha+ Challenge may have a lot of metrics, but I am just trying to say that in the area of energy metrics, and I am sure they have quantity and actually time dates. If they do not, then I do not think they are doing the right job. The main thing is two (2) metrics: SPECIAL PLANNING 50 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING greenhouse gases and fossil fuel/energy consumption. What about solid waste and what about...what are the other... Mr. Dahilig: In number twenty-nine (29), we have tons recycled. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. "Provide environmentally sound waste disposal and collection services." That is a throwaway measure. Committee Chair Chock: Excuse me? Councilmember Yukimura: It is a throwaway measure if you are measuring disposal. Actually, what you want to measure is diversion. We already have the goal of seventy percent (70%) by...so why would we not just put that in as the objective? Mr. Dahilig: Again, that is a discussion from a broad context, Councilmember, that as you are illustrating through this discussion, that we are open to the idea that not all of these metrics may tell the exact story that you may want. If there are other metrics that can be easily attained and pulled from other agencies that actually develop this information, then we can certainly include it in this matrix. Again, it is more a philosophy of how flexible you want the matrix to be. Do you want to still treat it as draft measures or do you want to actually lock it in as something that we stick to or should we toss out the matrix and say, "Let us develop a set of indicators that the Kakou Committee would like to look at." You are not hearing disagreement from me. Our primary objective with this is that we are trying to provide, as efficiently as possible a means of conveying statistics and information to our partners, decision-makers, and stakeholders on what is exactly the picture here. Councilmember Yukimura: Well, I thought...the Planning Department, I trust, has a stake in achieving the goals of the General Plan, right? So I would think that for your own knowledge, you would want to know what your progress is and of course you want to share that with the rest. Who showed me that cycle...I know it is an (inaudible), but it is this idea of set goals, implement strategies, measure where you are, adapt and change. That is where the flexibility comes in, not in the indicator. But in the evaluation of the indicator and the progress you have made or the lack of progress, and then you start adapting or changing your strategies, and it goes back like that, that is a regular planning process. So the indicators have to be really clear, otherwise you do not know whether you are achieving or not. Mr. Dahilig: What I have stated throughout the language of this chapter, these indicators are also fallible at (inaudible). Sometimes they are not continued or the agency does not develop these things any more. We are again trying to use the phrase "draft measures" as a means of communicating to a reader of this document what we are attempting to do in gathering information. I wholeheartedly agree that one of our department's missions is to try to look at and monitor implementation, but we have said consistently all along that we are not the agency responsible for controlling what other agencies do. So we can only provide the SPECIAL PLANNING 51 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING information and communicate to them where they are based the information on that we are able to find through via statistics and provide that analyses to them. At the end of the day, it is that end-user that will either hold another agency accountable or that end-user agency will try to make adjustments. Councilmember Yukimura: As we have said, it takes a lot of different agencies and people and citizens to achieve a goal. That is why you want to have a clear goal for everyone to target, the same goal. When you have measures, for example, our Solid Waste Division...they have a protocol and process for measuring diversion and they have a really clear goal that is set by people who know the business. Then why not make that the goal? It is a wonderful interaction of functional plan and general plan. Committee Chair Chock: I do not want to have Mike have to repeat what he has already said in terms of approach and what is stated here. If the interest is in rewriting the whole implementation section, then I am open for you to have discussion about what it is you are proposing to introduce or the details that you are asking to put into this specific matrix here that is already here. If you are wanting to get rid of the matrix, then that is fine. I want to hear about that. I want us to move towards a direction here... Councilmember Yukimura: I feel like we are. I am trying to understand how they have written this up and I am sharing as a decision-maker what I feel I would be looking for as an indicator. Committee Chair Chock: I think he is agreeing to that. I think he has acknowledged that there are many ways to look at these indicators. Councilmember Yukimura: So for twenty-nine (29), which I pointed out, to provide environmentally sound waste disposal and collection services does not really articulate what the goal is, which is a diversion. Why not just put in seventy percent (70%) diversion? If they agree, then let us end, we end here for solid waste and sustainability. Committee Chair Chock: That creates some inconsistency in what you are asking for. Councilmember Yukimura: Why? Committee Chair Chock: Amongst the rest of the asterisks marked indicators. Councilmember Yukimura: No. Committee Chair Chock: Hold on...I think what I am hearing is that there is an approach being taken and you want to change it. They can say yes or no and that is what I want. Other than that, I think we are going to move forward on it. Because you can introduce that amendment and give your reasons why. They SPECIAL PLANNING 52 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING have given reasons why and I have heard them already. I do not need to hear them again is what I am saying. Councilmember Yukimura: I am not asking for the reasons to be repeated. Committee Chair Chock: Okay. Councilmember Yukimura: I am just saying that tons recycled is a diversion statistic. It is the objective that is not properly worded and so if they agree to incorporate the objective of our Solid Waste Integrated Plan, then we have consistency here. Committee Chair Chock: Councilmember Kaneshiro. Councilmember Yukimura: And it is a sustainability. Sustainability is our overarching goal and this objective will be matched to our objective goal. Councilmember Kaneshiro: Councilmember Yukimura, I guess I am starting to kind of see more of where you are going for, but when I look at this...these objectives come directly out of our solid waste section... Councilmember Yukimura: No, it does not. Councilmember Kaneshiro: No, it is. This objective is the objective from the chapter. Councilmember Yukimura: Yes, that is a problem, but it is not from our solid waste plan. Councilmember Kaneshiro: No, it is from our Solid Waste Disposal and Recycling section. Councilmember Yukimura: And it is not... Committee Chair Chock: Hold on, Councilmember Yukimura. Councilmember Kaneshiro: Councilmember Yukimura, it is specifically from our Solid Waste Disposal and Recycling section objective to provide environmentally sound waste disposal and collection services. That is the objective. We went through this when we went through solid waste. For me, when I think about solid waste system, you say, "What is a measurable item that you can touch and measure that would show that we are doing something to provide environmentally sound waste disposal and collection services," and they have their measurement as tons recycled. So your recycled material is the amount you are diverting from the landfill. Councilmember Yukimura: I am not disputing the tons recycled, I agree with it. SPECIAL PLANNING 53 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING Councilmember Kaneshiro: Okay. Then furthermore, if you go back to their section, they say all of the projects and programs that they would like to happen in order to increase the amount of tons recycled. Councilmember Yukimura: I am not arguing with that either. Councilmember Kaneshiro: So I am not sure...it sounds like we are talking about apples to apples and same exact thing, so I am not sure what...you just want a different objective? Councilmember Yukimura: It is not properly stated. It is stated as a disposal objective rather than a diversion objective. Councilmember Kaneshiro: In the projects and programs, it says divert at least seventy percent (70%) of solid waste. Councilmember Yukimura: So the objective should be aligned with whatever the text says. That is just an inconsistency, but if you are inconsistent, then you do not have clear direction. I am talking about doing things with excellence and clarity. Councilmember Kaneshiro: From my point, I think they stated the objective, they have provided their permitting actions and code changes, their plans and studies, and their projects and programs to all help accomplish that objective, and then in the implementation section, they are saying that if you do that, you can measure it...I am just saying that they are being consistent. They are showing the same objective throughout the entire document and then they are saying how they are going to measure it while providing the types of programs and projects that they need to do to actually accomplish it. Councilmember Yukimura: The substance or the meaning of the words here do not reflect the actual goal of solid waste that is going to be a sustainable system. Councilmember Kaneshiro: Then I guess the amendment would be what the new objective that you want in there is? Committee Chair Chock: There are multiple amendments that you are speaking to. I think that is why we are getting confused. Councilmember Yukimura: I think they have got it, I think they know how to reword it, so I do not know what we are arguing about. Committee Chair Chock: Clarity about your amendment. You are asking questions that are... Councilmember Yukimura: If you want me to... SPECIAL PLANNING 54 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING Committee Chair Chock: You are providing the lack of systems in the flexibility and also the lack of clarity on objectives and adding, subtracting, or getting rid of the tons or adding the County measurement. I just want to get clear about what it is that you are asking because it is going in a lot of different directions about what you are unhappy about and I just want to know so that they can answer. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. The County has a goal of a seventy percent (70%) diversion by 2023 so that would be an objective: to divert seventy percent (70%) of our solid waste by 2023 and it would be measured by tons recycled. There are actually other things besides recycling, which is a way of reducing and we should be precise about it and we should follow the experts, who are the Solid Waste Division, but I am not going to get into that detail. Committee Chair Chock: Thank you. I understand what you are saying now. The question is whether they agree on either adding it. Mr. Dahilig: If it is just a little bit into that specific item, we can look both at this section and (inaudible) align that amendment, but I would proffer again that my suspicion is that may not be the only element of wordsmithing that you may have concern about with the other forty-eight (48) items that are here. Like I have offered previously, if you would like to take a look at the source information that we reviewed and identified in this draft measures column to help facilitate the development of an amendment that wordsmiths these things and ultimately align it with the other objectives that are scattered throughout chapter 3 of the plan, then we are happy to review that. I would just suggest that if you would like this information, we can definitely send it over in a transmittal as to what the source of information is so that way there can be some consistency behind what the objective is behind Section 4.2 is meant to do as well as what are the objectives that are throughout the document. Committee Chair Chock: Is that satisfactory? How would you like to move forward on it, Councilmember? Councilmember Yukimura: I would like to see proposed changes from Planning that articulate the main objectives that will get us to our goals and indicators that actually measure progress for or against the goals. Thank you. Committee Chair Chock: Okay. Is that clear? Mr. Dahilig: A submittal will come over in writing, so we will respond to it. Committee Chair Chock: It is going to take some work back and forth in order to address each one of those. Councilmember, I do not know if everyone else wants to stay here to go through each one is all. Councilmember Yukimura: I do not want to go through that either. Committee Chair Chock: I know you are not asking that, but... SPECIAL PLANNING 55 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING Councilmember Yukimura: I am asking them to go back and do the work if they could to the extent that they are willing and that they understand what I am trying to drive at. If they do not, then I guess I am going to have to go with each one and try to make amendments and proposals and that is not really very kind to any of you, but how do we achieve a plan that has very clear objectives that are tied to our overarching goals that can be measured? I do not know how else we do that. Councilmember Kaneshiro: The way I read it, you have the objective as the overarching thing and then you have all of these individual goals as far as seventy percent (70%) diversion and you have created a new landfill, maybe a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF), and then you have the indicator. But when you are speaking, you are saying that the goal is the overarching and then the objectives is what you want...the objectives needs to be clear. I think it is... Councilmember Yukimura: Well, I am tying everything to our overall vision: sustainability, health, equity, and a beautiful, natural place. All of our objectives should be tied to this. That is why I am asking you about the sustainability objectives. Look at this one, "To support modernization and user-friendliness of Kaua`i airports and harbors." I am not sure... Committee Chair Chock: What number? Councilmember Yukimura: Thirty (30), just below the recycling thing. Committee Chair Chock: Okay. Councilmember Yukimura: Then we are going to use capital expenditures for Kaua`i airports and harbors? Are you kidding? We can spend money doing the worst things possible. This does not ensure that we are making a user-friendly Kaua`i airport. That is totally divorced. We know we can throw money down a rat hole or we can use it to build the most incredible County building or whatever. There is a total disconnect there. Why would we spend our time trying to monitor that with those indicators? Committee Chair Chock: Further questions? It will be looked at with you, Councilmember. Councilmember Yukimura: I do not want to waste to cause any additional burden on anybody else, so I will just leave it at that. I will not ask any more implementation questions. Committee Chair Chock: I do not think it is a burden as much as it is really trying to get clear about what you are trying to accomplish. Councilmember Yukimura: Well, is it clear now? I told you it is the overall arching goals, objectives to achieve that, and indicators to know whether we are achieving those goals or not. SPECIAL PLANNING 56 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING Councilmember Kaneshiro: Again, that is why it is different because I think we are using the wrong words because the way the plan has it, it has the objective, the goals, and then the measurements and then you are saying that it should be the goals, objectives, and measurements. Councilmember Yukimura: Where is the goals under the objectives? Councilmember Kaneshiro: If you look in each section, so the objective for airports and harbors, "To support the modernization and user-friendliness of Kaua`i's airports and harbors" and it says, "Permitting actions and code changes would be goals that you would try to accomplish..." Councilmember Yukimura: Those are not goals; those are implementing actions. Some of those... Councilmember Kaneshiro: So "at airports to accommodate shuttles and transport visitors through resort designations"—that is not an action and a goal to achieve better support for our airports? Councilmember Yukimura: No, it is a strategy or an action to achieve a goal. The overarching goals are those four (4). The objectives are supposed to help us achieve those overarching goals. Correct me if I am wrong anybody. Then those objectives get implemented through these actions. Committee Chair Chock: Okay. Councilmember Yukimura: So you have to have these connections of logic and everything like that. Committee Chair Chock: Any further questions on implementation from anyone? If not, what about overall? I know you had some other questions from earlier this morning that you wanted to get out. Councilmember Yukimura: In the provision of water... Committee Chair Chock: Watersheds? Councilmember Yukimura: Well, they tie together, but there is discussion about how big our aquafer system is, far more than what we are drawing from so that the real bottlenecks are the infrastructure that acts as the aquafers, such as wells, and transmission lines and storage. I do not have a good handle on how we are structuring our land use planning to address those obstacles. So the objective is to ensure water infrastructure is planned to accommodate domestic needs and protect the public trust. I think that is well stated, so I presume that based on the General Plan land use maps now the Department of Water will calculate the infrastructure needed to support that and develop their Water Plan 2020. Is that the basic concept? Mr. Dahilig: That is the theory. The theory is that as you characterize it and in terms of crosscutting tie back to this, it also has to be looked in SPECIAL PLANNING 57 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING concert with what the graphical policy is, so the maps do play a key in where we are looking at trying to create the demand for that infrastructure or those infrastructure improvements and that is why we have critical infrastructure maps along with a land use map. If you look a page 117 again where we are talking about housing, we are specifically talking about projects under C.1. where we are trying to direct infrastructure investment and facility improvements into those infill areas. So the discussion concerning that directed infrastructure growth from a graphical standpoint really kind of crosscuts both the maps on page 137 and 117 with respect to that particular question. Councilmember Yukimura: Do you have any policies that ensure or prioritize that the affordable housing and basic housing needs will be given access to the infrastructure before second homes and investment property? Mr. Dahilig: Again, we talked about this during the housing discussion earlier and we looked at the specific projects and programs under Section 1.2 on page 115. There was a discussion concerning whether or not you can come in and prioritize water availability for affordable housing units and I think that was a discussion that the Water Manager on their end has a certain approach towards. If there are suggestions as to how direct the water availability based off of the land use growth pattern and articulate that in Chapter 1 concerning affordable housing, that certainly can be included under subsection C. Councilmember Yukimura: I wonder if we could do it by Facilities Reserve Charge (FRC) charges or water rates. Mr. Dahilig: We do already from an FRC charge, the Board of Water Supply has already adopted a significant discount for those projects that are sponsored by the County for affordable housing purposes. Councilmember Yukimura: That is good. Committee Chair Chock: I have a question in 1.1 that refers to CWRM's expectation of issuing an updated resource and protection plan that is more cautious. Is it based on a different measurement or is it a different approach given the knowledge built up in understanding how the Lihu`e basin is formed? Councilmember Yukimura: What are you referring to? Committee Chair Chock: Page 136, 1.1. I think that there has been some disagreement on how that sustainable yield is being measured. It depends on the geology I guess. Mr. Dahilig: Right, we are aware of it...it is funny because the Hydrologist at CRWM is actually my UH classmate from the Geophysics Department, so we stay in pretty close contact with respect to what their approach is and what they are looking at. I think what we are suspecting is that the sustainable yields are going to be...there is going to be downward forecast with respect to the current sustainable yields. SPECIAL PLANNING 58 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING Committee Chair Chock: So it would be lower? Mr. Dahilig: It would be lower, but how that actually shows up from a scaling standpoint with respect to the current number is whether it is a significant drop or an insignificant drop. I have no idea because they still have not come out with that information. Committee Chair Chock: When do they expect that? Mr. Dahilig: My understanding is that they are still working with the United States Geological Survey on that. I do not know. I can check with Jeremy Kimura. Committee Chair Chock: But we do use CRWM's methodology? Mr. Dahilig: By State law, we ultimately have to adopt their sustainable yield projection because that, in turn, comes into play with respect to whether or not our development area has to fall under water management, under the State Water Code. So that number is critical in dictating whether or not we end up with this King Solomon type of process that has to be taken. Committee Chair Chock: It could change significantly. Mr. Dahilig: Yes. Committee Chair Chock: Thank you. Councilmember Yukimura: I have a follow-up to that. Using the existing estimates, have we assured ourselves that the Lihu`e Community Plan has enough water? If it changes, which you just talked about, they are relooking at that and re-measuring, then we would need to least assure ourselves that there is sufficient sustainable yield in Lihu`e to support the growth that we are planning for. Mr. Dahilig: Unless there is something of the order of a seventy percent (70%) to eighty percent (80%) drop in sustainable yield, that would be a problem given domestic water usage in the Lihu`e basin. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. Mr. Dahilig: I will say, however, that if were to drop significantly, what does come into play also is the need for free flow to support other public trust requirements, like cultural practice and agricultural usage, which under current case law are not the three (3) uses are not prioritized under Supreme Court case law. So that is where you end up with this discussion that again can be characterized as a King Solomon type of process that has to go before the Commission on Water Resource Management to allocate water amongst the uses. We do not foresee that as being unnecessary, but it would literally require something on the order of a seventy percent (70%) to eighty percent (80%) drop in the current SPECIAL PLANNING 59 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING sustainable yield to start kicking us into that realm of water management kind of hearings. Councilmember Yukimura: There is also a question as to how much agriculture we anticipate in the Lihu`e Community Plan district and what their needs will be present and future, too, right? Mr. Dahilig: The difficulty with projecting what the water needs would be or will be is also incumbent on the type of crop that is going to be grown. Let us say expansion of wetland kalo—it is difficult to say that you are going to need only a little bit of water because if you expand that, you need an actual free flow of water to sustain that type of large-scale agriculture. We have not really gone down the path of saying that there is enough water for expanded agriculture operations should they once occur again, because I do not suspect we are going to be seeing big sugar and that type of thing. But ultimately, it is crop-based because the amount of water that is required per crop can drastically vary from place and type. Councilmember Yukimura: Because some of the lands around Lihu`e are really good agricultural lands, too. Mr. Dahilig: I understand. Councilmember Yukimura: In Singapore, most of their food is grown within the city limits, so there is not necessary a separation. I think agriculture could be compatible with urban, depending on how it is worked. Mr. Dahilig: We certainly support notions of urban agrarianism and those types as well. Councilmember Yukimura: Or it may be right outside the urban growth boundaries that you have a flourishing agricultural activities or enterprises. Either way, I think the urban edge boundary is not the whole district, right? Mr. Dahilig: We would not disagree. Committee Chair Chock: Any further question? You got your book back, right? Councilmember Yukimura: I did. At every action, I have the question, "Who?" Councilmember Kawakami: You are like an owl. Councilmember Yukimura: That is right. Councilmember Kawakami: A wise owl. Committee Chair Chock: This is our last of the topics. SPECIAL PLANNING 60 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING Councilmember Yukimura: Thank you for putting that adjective there. Mr. Dahilig: To briefly answer that, it is in Appendix G, so "who" is in Appendix G. Committee Chair Chock: We have gone over all of the topics, so I just wanted to make sure that the opportunity is still open to submit questions and get answers to the department. I know while there is some disconnect for you, Councilmember Yukimura, on the layout, and where there is some gaps for you. I am hoping that we can work towards at least get something work done that will help strengthen it. I would like to know where...we are walking into amendments where there are some big changes that might be occurring from any of the Members and that is where I get a little nervous that we can accomplish it. Councilmember Yukimura: Thank you for thinking about the timetable because I do not know...is Planning going to try and relook at these three (3) pages of objectives and draft performance measures and send something back to me, I guess, or do I just prepare amendments to it? Mr. Dahilig: I think what we would prefer is we will send you what we believe is the corresponding source information. That relates to the right-hand column so that can be a launching point for whether or not...we are also from a tracking back standpoint, trying to align is something that will at least capture and communicate that objective as much as possible given our limited ability to actually generate specific indicators. If there is room in any of the forty-nine (49) that you feel could be massaged or changed, that again, has an alignment back to Chapter 3, which is the sector-by-sector discussion. We are happy to look at suggested wordsmithing from you, but for us, we have always approached the forty- nine (49) items as really more of a flexible discussion point as it relates to that right- hand column. If you are wanting to wordsmith the objectives, then that really relates to a discussion in how the subsectors in chapter 3 are structured and not necessarily whether or not they correspond with the type of indicator that we are trying to match with that objective. So it is a little more than just looking at the matrix and trying to agree with the language of the matrix, because it really does tie it back to whether or not that particular objective that is being put in paper actually encapsulates the body of action items that are there and can be strung consistently with the nineteen (19) policies and the four (4) vision goals. Committee Chair Chock: That is where I was getting... Councilmember Yukimura: I do not agree with this idea...I guess maybe I do not understand this idea of flexibility, because to me, the main question is does the indicator measure progress toward your goal. There has to be a certain cause and effect logic or else to me, it is not meaningful. Mr. Dahilig: I guess if I could make it more simplistic, if the concern is the nature of the indicator, then that is something we can address as part of the chapter 4 discussion. If you have a concern regarding the objective, then SPECIAL PLANNING 61 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING that is something that should really be encapsulated into the discussion as part of the overall chapter 3 subsector. Councilmember Yukimura: I totally agree with that. Mr. Dahilig: That is a discussion that we are going to have to have and we welcome it. Committee Chair Chock: That is a big discussion. Councilmember Yukimura: It is very big. Committee Chair Chock: Last day everybody. Mr. Dahilig: So that is where if the concern is with specific subsectors and whether the subsector captures your policy idea for that particular subsector, then I think that is something that we would probably need a little bit more guidance from you on because I do not think it can be simply captured in a one-liner that is right now meant to only provide an objective for a subsector. If the overall concern is with everything in the subsector, then we can certainly get into the discussion of wordsmithing that to either broaden it, change it, or narrow it, but we think that most of the action items are reflective of what we have come up with as either strategies or reflective of the community process. Councilmember Yukimura: That is what I was trying to do as I began to understand better how you have organized this. My interest is mainly the key objectives that are tied to the four (4) overarching goals. That is why I looked at housing and sustainability; what are your sustainability indicators? I would love to at what your equity indicators are. I do not know if we are going to have to have all our amendments for the 13th or if there is going to be another time for it because you can see this is as somewhat of an iterative process. I am sorry, but we have not spent the amount of time that you have on these plans and we do not know it as well, so I am still trying to absorb all of it. I love that one of your overarching goals is equity and justice because I do not think many general plans include that, but they are intertwined as you recognized with the physical infrastructure systems that we had and all of our housing issues and all of that. I can spend the rest of the time we have until 4:30 p.m. addressing my main cluster areas. I realized that I should not go over each one because some of them are not as important to me and they still are okay as indicators, but the ones that are really important to me are, what are the core indicators that reflect the four (4) overarching goals? It is a beautiful vision and I would like to move towards it. Ms. Williams: It seems like a lot of what you are talking about relates to whether or not this General Plan has kind of a hard target for all of the forty-nine (49) goals, like the objectives that we have in the plan. In the case where there is a more specific strategic plan, such as our Integrated Solid Waste Management Plan, we know that through that plan there is a goal that makes sense and a strategy to achieve that, even with our Multimodal Transportation Plan as well; that is kind of our more strategic transportation plan and only through that SPECIAL PLANNING 62 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING process were we able to come up with goals related to what mode shift would be. In some of these areas, such as for example, health of coral reefs is kind of a broad indicator we use. I am not aware of a strategic plan that actually assigns a number of a target, a goal to that. Just as we were talking about yesterday with cesspool conversion...I guess the point I am making is that it would be difficult for us in a comprehensive plan since it is so broad to actually drill down for each and every topic in the plan instead of target without the benefit of a strategic plan that is really focused on what that number is so that it is not just a number we throw out. We actually had that debate amongst ourselves, like do we have targets for everything? If we have a number, how do we ensure that it means something and that it is not just throwing out a target out there? I just wanted to explain why our objectives are worded the way they are. Maybe a solution could be to identify those strategic plans that actually have that target that has been set in place and calling that out and having that somewhere and that could possibly help. Councilmember Yukimura: I appreciate that analysis that you have just given us. I was going to try and go back to the Salt Lake plan because I just saw it today after Melissa identified it, but it had sixteen (16) what they called "principles," which are kind of funny, because they are not even worded as a complete sentence, but it must be topic areas. Then a policy discussion and then they have initiatives. I think it is the initiatives that have indicators attached to it. I would be satisfied if we had nineteen (19) indicators that were generally a really good indicator for our nineteen (19) policy areas and maybe some of them might have two (2) or three (3). All of this I am just conceptualizing now, but we are trying to co-create, I think, something that is going to work. I believe, like I think you just said, Marie, where we have clear functional plans, like our Solid Waste Plan and our Multimodal Plan, incorporating a key objective in there...they have a lot, but maybe in our multimodal, it is vehicle miles traveled. I do not know for sure. It is harder where we do not have a comprehensive affordable housing plan because that plan should have already and those objectives. So in the absence of that, we just pick...I was just trying to identify two (2) key housing indicators and one would be the number of affordable units that would fit that nine thousand (9,000) unit projection, and then homelessness. That is why I was just kind of grasping for key indicators in each policy area. Committee Chair Chock: The approach there that I heard was that the caveat is that this would be a sort of draft move towards coordination with the Kakou Committee that would help to follow this on and actually refine it. That is kind of where I am stepping back and saying, "Well, there is not much more work to be done here," and I guess I am kind of leaning back to what Councilmember Kaneshiro said, "How much," because I do not want to do anything too drastic without fully vetting it, not to say that we should not look at it more, I just want to get that assurance that that is really the direction that I have been presented from you folks in terms of...we need to make sure that all of the variables are there and that there is process in place for us to move forward on it. Like what Councilmember Yukimura said, I am open to it. It is not the end of the road is what I want to make sure is clearly articulated. Councilmember Yukimura: What if perhaps with Jenelle's help, Planning and I meet and maybe try to see if we can identify core indicators for those four (4) or nineteen (19)...I do not know what it would be...the four (4) overarching goals or the SPECIAL PLANNING 63 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING nineteen (19) policy areas, not more than one (1) policy area if anything. We may not be able to come to any agreement, but we might on some of them. I feel like already we have a couple of them. Then say with those, if the Council is willing to, then we put it in the plan and we give it to the long-term implementation with the Kakou Committee to work on it. Mr. Dahilig: Again, we are flexible. We are again looking at a way to correlate items in the plan with data, what items we choose, rather than being the objectives be the goals and policies. We are open to that discussion being vetted and characterized by finding appropriate data sources that reflect those types of things. Again, our overarching objective in Chapter 4 is to figure out a way to characterize in data what is going on and communicate that freely and openly and that is all we are trying to get at with that point. Committee Chair Chock: Anything else, Councilmember? Councilmember Yukimura: I am exhausted. Committee Chair Chock: No ways. Councilmember Yukimura: You folks take over. Committee Chair Chock: If there are no more questions, I know you did ask the question about amendments. So we will come back on the 13th...we still have a Committee Meeting that day, but we would introduce... Councilmember Yukimura: I am sure there will be amendments to introduce. I just hope that is not the final day for amendments. Committee Chair Chock: We have three (3) days set up for that. I do not foresee us taking those three (3) days, but with the intention, at least currently, what we have been discussing is that I think that is the last Committee day for the year that we would look towards the next Committee day to kind of come back and make sure that everyone has had a chance to review all of the amendments ...that would be the deadline I guess for amendments in January. So we probably would ask for the beginning on the year. This is sort of what is in my head. Those amendments would come in if there are any stragglers at the end of the year, we would hear those, have public testimony on the semi-final draft, and then vote perhaps on that day on the amendments and get it out of committee. We are looking at January. Mr. Dahilig: The only thing I would suggest Committee Chair is that when we went through that process with South Kaua`i and we worked with Council Services Staff and what we started to notice was that sometimes the amendments from different Councilmembers were going to overlap. Committee Chair Chock: Yes. Mr. Dahilig: So that is where I know that maybe not having a hard and fast deadline maybe the preference, but we can provide better SPECIAL PLANNING 64 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING analysis in whether there are things that are conflicting because what will happen is that things are proved in time or at what time if things follow, they could contradict that amendment. So we probably want to work Council Services Staff to bunch these things up appropriately and package them so that we are not creating more of an editing nightmare down the line. Committee Chair Chock: I have had some discussion with Jenelle on sort of how it is we are organizing. I think that she has a good handle on it right now. If we, in fact, get bombarded at the last minute...that is why I am really appealing to everyone to say that if you folks are going to work on something, let us know ahead of time so that we can start to organize them, then we can see an end in sight and work towards it. I hope that is amiable for everyone on the Committee. I know that everyone is not here, but there is still a couple more weeks before we get back to the table on the first round of amendments. I think that is it. Any other questions or discussion? I will open it up for discussion on anything else. Councilmember Kaneshiro: For my discussion, it is just if we do amendments to get clarity on what words we are using and if we are using them correctly, because I think when you look at the overall plan, it is very consistent in the way that it is set-up. If we use the word "goal" or talking about an action item, then I think the plan gets very confusing because if you look at the plan, there are four (4) main goals: having a sustainable island, healthy and resilient people, unique and beautiful place, and equitable place and opportunity for all. Then you have your nineteen (19) policies and objectives and the way that they have it laid out now, I am comfortable with it, but if we start saying, "I think diverting seventy percent (70%) of solid waste should be a goal," then we are kind of...when diverting seventy percent (70%) of solid waste is actually an action item, then we are going to start really affecting how this whole plan flows, knowing that diverting seventy percent (70%) of solid waste is part of an action item, that is part of an objective, that meets certain polices that reaches our overarching goals. I know we had a lot of discussion on it before and I think we are all taking about the same thing, but we may have been using words that start getting convoluted as far as a goal being an action item or an objective being our goal. How the whole thing flows...for us to start changing these types of things, it is going to change the entire flow of the document. Again, you have your goals, your policies, your objectives, and your action items. Then you have your draft measures, how do you accomplish it or what is the measurement to show that you are doing all of these things? For me, it flows pretty well and I know we were going back and forth and I think it was just a matter of words, using the wrongs words on what we wanted. If we can just talk to Planning and get that clear if this change actually an action item or is it making the objective a little clearer or is it really changing the goal? Then we will be able to probably clean up or settle a lot of differences in the conversation we had today. Councilmember Yukimura said that she is going to take time to go through it with them. If we can agree to agree or agree to disagree on when you folks are going through it. For me, if we come in and the four (4) main goals have turned to six (6) goals and this whole thing starts changing, I can tell you that I probably will not vote on an amendment like that, but if it is a matter of saying, "With this action item, I think we should make the objective a little more clearer and maybe put some language from the action item into the objective," or things like that, then I would probably be amenable, too. Just SPECIAL PLANNING 65 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING keeping in mind on how this whole thing...there is so much work that went into this. To tell you the truth, I do not know how you folks put it together to make it as organized as it is, because if I had to do it, people would probably not know where to look or where to go. For me, I really appreciate the way it is set up. Keep that in mind as we have amendments and discussions going forward. Committee Chair Chock: Councilmember Yukimura. Councilmember Yukimura: I appreciate your comments, Councilmember Kaneshiro, because I hear you saying that we need to be consistent in our use of the terms so that we can keep things clear and the words we use are important in terms of clarity. I fully agree with that. I want to say that to achieve a seventy percent (70%) diversion by certain time is not an action; it is actually a target goal. You are going to have to figure out what are the actions to achieve that target to accomplish that goal or objective. I do appreciate the time we have spent on this, the work that has gone into the plan, and thank you, Chair, for facilitating this process over pretty complex materials. Committee Chair Chock: You are welcome. Anyone else? On the amendments, I will just reference it one more time is that we have sort of these typo or word changes that are generally accepted are going to be in one pot. I think what we are looking at is also a pot of amendments that Planning is taking on on behalf of the Council, so you will have Councilmembers' names along with if Planning is really the ones who are supporting it or not, so I think that will help some Councilmembers who are saying, "Hey, I am really not going to support it unless Planning is behind it," but we will have those and we will be clear about those, as well as some of the...then everything else from individual Councilmembers to kind of work through individually. That way, you will be able to make decisions easier and faster on those. Councilmember Kaneshiro: Again to reiterate, I should have looked at the book a little closer when I was saying "action item for seventy percent (70%) diversion," it is actually under projects and programs, which it is all laid out. You have permitting actions and code changes, plans and studies, projects and programs. There are a few other...I would say there are kind of action items...I do not want to use the word "goals" because we are going to get confused, because we have our four (4) main goals. A lot of times, we can probably be arguing about something and talking about the same thing. I may be saying it is a goal, someone may be saying it is an objective, and really it is just an action item that should be in here and we are arguing about the same thing and not having the correct term for it. Committee Chair Chock: Target goals/action indicators. Councilmember Kaneshiro: Yes. Councilmember Yukimura: Some of the actions are actually policies. Committee Chair Chock: Go to work. SPECIAL PLANNING 66 NOVEMBER 30, 2017 COMMITTEE MEETING Councilmember Kaneshiro moved to defer Bill No. 2666 to the December 13, 2017 Special Planning Committee Meeting, seconded by Councilmember Yukimura, and carried by a vote of 4:0:3 (Councilmembers Brun, Kagawa, and Rapozo were excused). There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 2:20 p.m. Respectfully submitted,1 Codie K. Tabalba Council Services Assistant I APPROVED at the Committee Meeting held on January 3, 2017: MASON K. CHOCK Chair, PL Committee