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HomeMy WebLinkAboutFY 2024 (Planning Department) Budget Narrative THE DEPARTMENT OF PLANNING FY 2024 BUDGET AND OPERATIONS SYNOPSIS Ka‘aina Hull Director 2 Department: PLANNING Fund: GENERAL FUND 1. FY 2023 to FY 2024 BUDGET COMPARSION Fund: GENERAL FUND Department: PLANNING FY 2023 FY 2024 $ + / - % + / - Salary and Wages 1,773,878 1,944,896 171,018 9.6% Benefits 1,178,198 1,223,178 44,980 3.8% Utilities 0 0 0 0.0% Vehicle/Equip, Lease 1 18,000 17,999 1799900.0% Operations 284,018 302,478 18,460 6.5% 3,236,095 3,488,552 252,457 7.8% 55%36% 0% 0% 9% FY 2023 Operating Budget Salary and Wages Benefits Utilities Vehicle/Equip, Lease 56%35% 0% 0% 9% FY 2024 Operating Budget Salary and Wages Benefits Utilities Vehicle/Equip, Lease 0 500,000 1,000,000 1,500,000 2,000,000 2,500,000 Salary and Wages Benefits Utilities Vehicle/Equip, Lease Operations FY 2023 and FY 2024 Comparison FY 2023 FY 2024 3 2. MAJOR CHANGES AND/OR VARIANCES IN OPERATIONS BUDGET The Department’s FY 2024 budget request reflects an increase of $252,457 or 7.8% from the FY 2023 Budget. The FY 2023 Operating budget was at $3,236,095 and the proposed FY 2024 Budget is $3,488,552. Highlights of the changes to our FY 2024 operational budget are as follows: a. Increase in Salaries by $171,018. The increase in funding is due mainly to collective bargaining increases. We currently have three vacant planner positions. Two planner positions (Position 2009 and 9754) that are vacant are currently under recruitment. The third (Position No. 2008) remains $1 Funded in our FY 2024. b. Increase in Fringe Cost by $44,980; c. Increase in non-salary operational budget by $18,460. This is a 6.5 % increase in our non- salary cost to account for projected increases in the Hawaii consumer inflation rate by the State of Hawaii Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism; d. Increase in the equipment account by $17,999. The Department is seeking to purchase a trailer to support community outreach activities and placemaking exercises. Programmatic reviews and evaluations indicate the value of tailoring engagement efforts to our unique communities. This includes expanding upon outreach activities where "we come to you", complimenting the existing outreach toolkit of community meetings, social media campaigns, and workshops. In addition to expanding our programmatic outreach capabilities, the Planning Department is working to enhance our options to rapidly advance Placemaking activities. Placemaking activities help to bridge the time-gap between the adoption of plans and final implementation solutions by installing temporary installations or features to refine designs or evaluate possible scenarios. The purchase of a trailer will provide an ideal location to store and stage Placemaking equipment and tools; and e. There are no new positions proposed for the FY 2024 Budget. 3. OPERATIONAL CHALLENGES a. Maintaining level of service to the public and permit review timeliness with limited staffing: Over the past year the County has continued to adapt our operations and service delivery to the public. To note, we have also found that during the COVID pandemic via our teleworking system that our permit technicians averaged twice as many building permit and zoning application reviews and actions than under the previous in-office (pre-COVID) system. As the Department staff and community have opened back up without any further restrictions, the Department had intended to utilize teleworking as a unique tool with the permit technicians working on a revolving basis to service both front counter traffic and expeditiously review permits through teleworking. However, as we have opened this past year, we have correspondingly seen a significant increase in front counter traffic. Recognizing the clear need for customer service at our front window, and a limited staff, we have delayed implementing a rotational front counter/telework system with our permit techs until we can fully staff this division. 4 b. E-Plan and Land Information Management System: The ePlan review program has greatly assisted in moving projects through the County Building permit system especially during this COVID pandemic. The County recognizes a need for an accompanying integrated land management system and has hired a consultant firm to assist the county with this initiative. Over the past year the Department has worked with the Land Information Management System (LIMS) Consultant on creating an integrated solution for the County toward the goal of paperless process to work with the LIMS system and the ePlan system. The Department is nearing completion of the electronic zoning permit application process and anticipates rolling out the project in a few months. The Department will also work the LIMS Consultant and IT Division to migrate its existing data over to the LIMS System. After the rollout of the LIMS public interface and the digital zoning application, the Department will be looking both internally and externally for resources and staff to digitize our 50 plus years of paper zoning permit applications. Through the eplan process, we have been digitizing all zoning permit applications and plans since 2019; however, all of our historical files and plans remain in paper format. There is a clear need to digitize these records for both intergovernmental and public access and usage. c. East Kauai Community Plan The Planning Department is preparing an update to the Wailua-Kapaʻa Development Plan (1974). The East Kauai Community and Circulation Plan is a long-range land use and transportation plan for the East Kauaʻi planning district. It will supplement and update the General Plan by providing finer-grained, specialized attention to the Future Land Use Plan, and other policies regarding the region. The Department is currently procuring a consultant. 4. TOP 3 OPERATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS FROM FY 2023 a. Plantation Camp Form-Based Code The County of Kauai recently adopted a form-based code for the Kaumakani Camp and Kaumakani Avenues areas on West Kauai. The County did look at a similar action for the Niumila Camp area; however, at the time the landowner did not want to pursue this option. For decades the de facto County land use policy for all of Kauai’s existing plantation camp areas has been to amortize these areas out of use and ultimately have their corresponding residents find housing elsewhere. The Plantation Camp Zoning District formally recognized those camps within the State Land Use Urban District and allows buildings to be re- constructed and used in perpetuity. The Plantation Camp Form-Based Code recognizes the unique historical character of region’s built environment while also allowing additional housing and limited commercial development on vacant regions in a manner that reinforces and maintains the pattern of the associated neighborhood, such as substandard and less expensive thoroughfare widths, substandard lot sizes, and community parking areas. The current landowner is working through the permit process to take advantage of the new form-based code 5 entitlements. Additionally, a number of landowners and affordable housing developers have expressed strong interest in pursing this type of housing option on other parts of the island. The Department is currently working to draft a plantation camp subdivision ordinance to vet with the community and affordable housing advocates. b. Continued Enforcement of Transient Vacation Rentals The Planning Department continues to actively monitor the world wide web and take decisive action against illegal vacation rentals operating on Kauai. In the summer of 2020, the County of Kauai became the first municipality in the nation to enter into a voluntary compliance program with TVR third-party host platforms when we signed memorandums of understanding (MOUs) with Airbnb and Expedia (the parent company for VRBO and Homeaway). These two companies constitute 70 percent of Kauai’s vacation rental market share. Through these MOUs, all TVRs advertising on these global platforms are required to list their properties’ respective Tax Map Keys (TMKs). On a monthly basis, these platforms share a list of all their operators and their respective TMKs with the Planning Department. The department in turn takes action against any illegal operator on these websites and communicates with the platforms which of the TMKs are invalid or illegal operators and need to be removed from their websites. In addition to the MOUs, we have also secured exclusive access to Airbnb’s City Portal program. This program provides our enforcement team with direct access to Airbnb’s operators’ advertisements and history, with the unique ability to immediately track individual operators and flag for removal. In 2017, there were an estimated 1,500 illegal vacation rentals outside of the Visitor Destination Area. With a combination of pro-active enforcement, litigation, and our MOU partnerships with Expedia and Airbnb, today there are an estimated less than 50 illegal vacation rentals operating outside of the Visitor Destination Area (VDA). c. Climate Adaptation Plan The Climate Adaptation Plan, contracted to Raimi + Associates, is currently in Phase 2 of the planning process. The CAP has completed its first phase of community engagement and technical analysis. Published reports include a Vulnerability and Equity Analysis, Climate Hazard Review Paper, Talk Story Summary, Survey 1 Summary, Youth Climate Change Summit Summary, and the Open House Series 1 Summary. Currently, the project team is preparing to discuss potential strategies with the community through a series of public workshops in Spring 2023. 5. REQUIRED UPDATE ON PLANNING ENFORCEMENT ACCOUNT EXPENDITURES: Section 8-3.5 (b) of the Kaua‘i County Code, 1987 as amended, establishes a Planning Enforcement Account to assist the Planning Department with enforcement of codes, statutes, and regulations for which it has the authority to enforce. The purpose of the direct appropriation of funds to the Planning Enforcement Account enables the Planning Department to have funds readily available to perform enforcement responsibilities. All Civil Fines levied and received by the Department are deposited into the Planning Enforcement Account. Section 8-3.5 (b) also requires the Planning Department to provide annual report to the Council as 6 part of the Mayor’s budget submittal on March 15th of each year. The report provides the expenditures and outcomes of the Planning Enforcement Account within Fund 251. For the period from July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022, we have collected $88,000 in fines. Section 8-3.5(b) allows the Department to utilize the funds to retain independent contractors to assist with the enforcement of the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance (CZO) and other codes. The Planning Department has expended approximately $45,096 during the FY 2022. Of this total approximately $13,559.26 was spent funding 89-day contract position to assist the Planning Department with the enforcement of the CZO, specifically focusing on codes relating to TVR. The remaining expenditures of $31,537.12 was used to purchase equipment, supplies, and other services for the Enforcement Division. The bulk of the equipment and supplies purchases were to facilitate the Enforcement Division’s new office space area in the Kapule Building. Pursuant to Section 8-3.5(b), any uncommitted funds in excess $500,000 shall be transferred and deposited into the General Fund at the close of the fiscal year. In August 2022, the balance of the funding was $147,026 and there was no funding transferred from the 251 Planning Enforcement Account into the General Fund for FY 2022.