Posts: 8,465
Threads: 1,032
Joined: May 2003
Punaweb is focused on Puna from district, county, state and perhaps federal perspectives at times. If some foreign country should declare war on Puna or something then international might apply as well.
Assume the best and ask questions.
Punaweb moderator
Assume the best and ask questions.
Punaweb moderator
Posts: 2,381
Threads: 125
Joined: Jun 2009
I would like to point this out.
Pre planned communities are not blanket zoned resort, retirement etc. The preplanned community may be sub zoned within the tract to reflect a given type of community but it is not intentionally blanket zoned to create the outcome through municipal pen and ink. For example; a community designed to be a private residential community will most likely not contain a hotel and may be sub-zoned R-XY and Z, it might even have schools in it and a local convenience store. A resort community may be sub zoned to consist of a hotel zone with real hotels on it and it may contain a golf course sub-zoned appropriately and it might have a residential zone where actual houses are located. It might also consist of a multifamily zone that has condos on it, etc. all bound in CC&R’s and this is what makes it a “resort community”. A retirement community is most often reflected in the CC&Rs but might be very similar in its sub zoning application to that of a resort community.
E ho'a'o no i pau kuhihewa.
Wao,
I did read your post carefully. What I would like to see are some references to the specific Planning process for this island grounding your discussion, and less about experiences on the mainland. I found a revision of the General Plan's section on RESORT zoning that dates from shortly before the condo and SFR building began.
This section of the General Plan discusses the rationale for Resort zoning (short version, it's all about promoting tourism), then discusses each district of the island's existing resort zoning and visitor facilities, talks about the vision for the future, and discusses potential course corrections.
The doc section isn't dated, but internal references are as late as 2001. At the same time, it was written before the Hyatt had sold to Hilton. It was Hilton in 2002. So circa 2001, which is useful to the present discussion because this version of the plan reflects the state of Resort zoning as it enabled the building out of the Hualalai, Waikoloa, Mauna Lani, and Mauna Kea resorts.
http://www.co.hawaii.hi.us/general_plan_...Resort.doc
For benefit of folks on dial-up, I will reprint some of the relevant sections here.
Question on what you wrote about pools: quote:
It was deep/infinity pools without obstructing surrounding safety fences that was cited… not just an “infinity pool”. Also, what you might see in an Ag zone with regard to a missing safety fence about a deep pool would be a reflection of a fence that was removed after the final sign off or a pool not deep enough to require a safety fence or perhaps a pool installed before the safety requirement was added to the zone and code.
You didn't specify what you meant by deep. I was thinking deeper than three feet, but perhaps you meant deeper. While I have seen many swimming pools in this area, the pool where I know the owners who built it is four feet deep. There was no safety fence built and removed. The house and pool are legally permitted. Not sure about the exact date it was built, but maybe 2002-04. The pool is not readily accessible to roaming small children due to the topography of the site.
quote:
INTRODUCTION AND ANALYSIS
Resort developments are intended to satisfy the needs and desires of both visitors and residents. Such areas have basic amenities and attributes [which] that support visitor accommodations and related facilities. [Another factor of major importance is the recreational facilities available to visitors.]
[Resort development sites generally have a harmonious combination of both the built environment, including buildings and landscaping, and the physical environment such as climate, specific site characteristics and scenery.] Most successful resort areas have a harmonious combination of certain characteristics, such as climate, scenery, and/or man-made facilities. In most instances, the [elements of the physical environment provide] natural factors have been the basis for the development of an area[.] and the man-made facilities were designed to enhance the area. Buildings and landscaping are generally designed to enhance the site and area. In other cases, [the features of the built environment] man-made features enhance what may be considered undistinguished physical features.
[Most resorts are planned and developed to compete for the visitor market that prefers to stay at a single place for several days to several weeks. Sufficient activities and interests within the immediate resort area are necessary to accommodate the visitors to these resort complexes.]
........
The visitor industry is generally regarded as the primary catalyst of economic and population growth throughout the State and particularly the Neighbor Islands. The visitor industry is the driving force of the economy for the State of Hawaii and contributes $14.6 billion of economic activity, employs nearly 180,000 people, accounts for 28 per cent of statewide tax revenues, and contributes nearly 28 per cent of the Gross State Product.
........
In 1969, the County of Hawaii had 677 acres zoned for resort use [, of which 357 acres were still undeveloped]. By 1985, the zoned acreage had increased to 793 acres [, of which 473 acres were not utilized]. The total acreage zoned for resort use in 2000 was approximately 1,353 acres.
The County's existing primary resort centers [on the island] are located along the coastal areas of Hilo in East Hawaii, and North Kona and South Kohala in West Hawaii. The majority of future resort [development should be expected to be in these same coastal areas with secondary centers of development being in the southern and northern quadrants of the County. The North Kona coastal area between Keauhou and Kaupulehu is attracting considerable interest for new resort projects. This is to be expected given the area's physical attributes and proximity to the Keahole airport, the Queen Kaahumanu Highway and the existing West Hawaii communities.] developments are proposed in the North Kona and South Kohala districts.
.....
GOALS
• Maintain an orderly development of the visitor industry.
• Provide for resort development that maximizes conveniences to its users and optimizes the benefits derived by the residents of the County.
• Ensure that resort developments maintain the cultural and historic, social, economic, and physical environments of Hawaii and its people.
POLICIES
• The County may impose incremental and conditional zoning [which] that would be based on performance requirements.
• Promote and encourage the rehabilitation and the optimum utilization of resort areas [which] that are presently serviced by basic facilities and utilities
• Lands currently designated Resort should be utilized before new resorts are allowed in undeveloped coastal areas.
• Zoning of resort areas shall be granted when the proposed development is consistent with and incorporates the stated goals, policies and standards of the General Plan.
• [The County shall continue] Continue to seek funds from the State Capital Improvement Program to help develop visitor destination areas in accordance with the County's General Plan.
• [The County shall designate] Designate and allocate future resort areas in appropriate proportions and in keeping with the social, economic, and physical environments of the County.
• [The County shall evaluate] Evaluate resort areas and the areas surrounding existing resorts to insure that viable quality resorts are developed and that the surrounding area contributes to the quality, ambience and character of the existing resorts.
• [The County shall evaluate] Encourage the visitor industry to provide resort facilities [which] that offer an educational experience of Hawaii as well as recreational activities.
• Coastal resort developments shall provide public access to and parking for beach and shoreline areas.
• [The County shall re-evaluate] Re-evaluate existing undeveloped resort designated and/or zoned areas and reallocate [resort designated and/or zoned] these lands in appropriate locations.
[• The concept of a "floating zone" shall be used to allow for the future development of retreat resort areas.]
• Require developers to provide the basic infrastructure necessary for development.
STANDARDS
The following established standards shall guide the development of resort areas.
[Destination Resort Community
A destination resort is a self contained resort destination area which provides basic and support facilities for both the needs of the entire development and the surrounding regional area. Such facilities shall include employee housing, recreational facilities, regional civic center facilities, other community facilities serving the region. Basic infrastructure needs such as water, sewer and roads for the entire development shall be provided.
The designation of any destination resort community shall be established through a formal General Plan Amendment accompanied by an Environmental Impact Statement.
Maximum hotel and condominium hotel units: to be determined in conjunction with the adoption of a master plan for the destination resort community's zoning.
Resort Acreage: to be determined in conjunction with the adoption of a master plan for the destination resort community's zoning.
Active and passive recreation area: to be determined in conjunction with the adoption of a master plan for the destination resort community's zoning.
Residential acreage: acreage shall include areas for employee housing and/or affordable housing and shall be determined in conjunction with the adoption of a master plan for the destination resort community's zoning.
The required employee housing ratio and method of provision shall be determined by an analysis of housing needs of each district or relative area and with the adoption of the resort zoning; provided that the ratio shall not exceed one employee unit for every two hotel units built.]
• Major Resort Area
A major resort area is a self-contained resort destination area [which] that provides basic and support facilities for the needs of the entire development. Such facilities shall include sewer, water, roads, employee housing and recreational facilities, etc. A major resort area is designated as a Resort node or part of a Resort node on the Land Use Pattern Allocation Guide Map.
Maximum [hotel and condominium hotel] visitor units: 3,000 [rooms.] units.
Resort acreage: 90 acres minimum.
Active and passive recreation areas: 50 acres minimum.
Either participate in an off-site housing program or a maximum of 640 acres for residential use when other zoned lands are not available in close proximity for support use.
Regional analysis (bolded text was bolded in original; I think these are additions to the GP)
quote:
PUNA
[The Puna district presently has no visitor or overnight accommodations. One acre is zoned Resort, however it is utilized by a drive-in restaurant. Except for a number of scenic attractions along the Puna coastline, the visitor industry has had very little effect on the district.] The visitor industry in the Puna district is primarily comprised of bed and breakfast visitor units. A drive-in restaurant currently occupies the district’s only resort-zoned area of one acre located in Kaimu. The principal visitor [attractions] attraction in the region [are] is the Kalapana Extension of the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park [and the Black Sand Beach at Kalapana].
Although resorts have been proposed previously in the Kaimu-Kalapana, [area and other resort developments have been proposed for Kapoho, Pohoiki and Opihikao] Kapoho, Pohoiki, and Opihikao areas, none of these have materialized. These areas are also subject to volcanic activities, subsidence, and tsunami inundation. [Most of these] These areas also lack most of the basic infrastructure improvements necessary for development.
Courses of Action
· The development of visitor accommodations and any resort development in the district shall complement the character of the area [and be consistent with the General Plan].
· Consider the development of small family or 'bed and breakfast' type visitor accommodations and small-scale retreat resort development.
NORTH KONA
The district of North Kona has historically been the focus of resort activity on the Island of Hawaii. The initial development occurred in the Kailua-Kona area with a small number of visitor accommodations. Few of these hotels contained the full range of resort amenities. As the tourism industry expanded, the character of the Kailua-Kona area has changed. [The hotel facilities are now located in both the Kailua area and at Keauhou. Other visitor related uses such as condominiums, single#8209;family dwellings, restaurants and other commercial establishments are located along Ali'i Drive between these two points. The "Kailua Village Design Plan," originally prepared in 1974 and adopted by the County Council in 1976, guides development within the Kailua Village area. The plan needs to be updated and requires more definitive design and landscaping criteria.] Today, visitor accommodations and facilities extend from the Keauhou-Kona Resort at the southern end of the North Kona district to the Hualalai Resort and Kona Village Resort at the northern end.
Keauhou-Kona Resort is master-planned and [has been] developed as a resort/residential community [and] that offers the full range of resort amenities including [a] golf [course,] courses, tennis facilities, shopping center and entertainment facilities. [A convention center is located at the Kona Surf Hotel. The expansion of resort areas in the district is anticipated north of Kailua#8209;Kona. A number of resorts have been proposed for this area.] The recently refurbished Aston Keauhou Beach resort is part of the Keauhou-Kona Resort. There are two resort-zoned sites at Keauhou-Kona Resort, totaling 59 acres that have yet to be developed.
[Other area#8209;wide facilities have helped to encourage the growth of tourism in the district. These include the Honokohau Small Boat Harbor, Keahole Airport and the completion of the Queen Kaahumanu Highway.]
The Hualalai Resort and the Kaupulehu Development's Project District will be developed as another master-planned resort/residential community. The 243-room Four Seasons Hualalai opened in 1996. Other developments in the area include a championship golf course, condominium and single-family residential units, and other support amenities.
The visitor units in the North Kona district include over 2,180 hotel rooms and approximately 1,465 resort condominium units. Approximately 500 units are operated as timeshare units, including the 263-unit Kona Coast Resort at Keauhou-Kona Resort, the largest time share project. A number of bed and breakfast units have also been established.
There are [328] 740 acres zoned resort in the North Kona District [with approximately 135 acres vacant]. However, not all of the acres zoned for resort are actually utilized for hotels. [Other uses which have largely been established are multiple] Multiple family residential uses[.] and single family residential uses have been established on some of the resort zoned lands. [In addition, there are some non#8209;conforming residential and commercial uses. The] According to the 1998 data from the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Center, the North Kona district [now] has the largest inventory of visitor units on the island. The [4,694] 4,399 units include a broad range of accommodations, [beginning with 100 units of the luxury retreat at the Kona Village to lower priced condominium units along Ali'i Drive.] ranging from hotels to bed and breakfast establishments. [For every hotel unit in the district, there are almost two condominium units that are available for vacation rentals.] Some of the older hotels are in need of major refurbishment.
Courses of Action
· Discourage strip resort development along Alii Drive.
· Re-evaluate some [of the] areas currently zoned for resort use.
· Improve and provide adequate roadways, sewer and water systems, and other basic amenities in all areas where higher density uses are allowed.
SOUTH KOHALA
South Kohala's role in the visitor industry is unique. In Waimea, the small lodging facilities totaling 29 units offer opportunities for an upland, cool, vacation experience. At Waikoloa Village active recreation attractions, such as horseback riding, hunting and golfing, are available. Approximately 40 condominium units within the Village area are available to visitors.
The South Kohala coast has long been envisioned as a prime visitor destination area since the late1960s. Its natural attributes, white sand beaches, calm ocean waters, and a dry, sunny climate have made it especially attractive. The Mauna Kea, Mauna Lani and Waikoloa Resorts, the three major resort developments along this coastal area have each developed a hotel and are actively pursuing plans for further hotel development. Each of the three existing South Kohala resorts also have recreational amenities which include a championship golf course at each development, tennis facilities and beach and ocean activities. The three South Kohala resorts' hotel room inventory has increased from 315 units in 1969 to 1,357 units in 1985. At the Waikoloa Resort, the 1,244 unit Waikoloa Hyatt is under construction and is generally expected to be the catalyst for a new wave of development activity in the County.]
There are [297] 360 acres zoned for resort use in South Kohala. [Of these zoned acres, 115 have been utilized. In addition all three of the major coastal resort areas have 268 acres zoned for multiple family residential use which may also be used for vacation rental condominiums.]
The South Kohala coast has developed into a major destination resort area for the island of Hawaii, as well as the State. The three major developers of the area are Mauna Kea Properties , Mauna Lani Resort, and Waikoloa Land Company. The major hotels within these developments are the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel, Hapuna Prince Hotel, Mauna Lani Bay Hotel and Bungalows, The Orchid at Mauna Lani, Hilton Waikoloa Village, and The Outrigger Waikoloan Beach Hotel. The number of hotel rooms within these three resort nodes totals over 3,250.
A limited number of visitor accommodations are also available in Waimea. Some visitor units are also available within the Waikoloa Village.
The South Kohala resorts greatly benefited from the direct flights to Kona International Airport at Keahole from Japan and the mainland United States. These direct flights significantly increased the number of visitors to the South Kohala resort destination areas. As a result of these direct flights and the potential for growth of future visitor accommodations, the visitor industry at the South Kohala coast should expand. The excellent climatic conditions of the area and its ease of access from the Kona International Airport at Keahole provide an optimistic future for the South Kohala coast's major resort destination area.
Course of Action
• Adequate access, sewer and water systems, and other basic amenities shall be provided in all areas where higher density uses are allowed.
• Major Resort Area
Note to Cat:
I found one reference to the Kalapana resort. Yes, a large scale resort had been proposed there upon the now-inundated Kalapana Black Sand beach. The quake and tsunami of 1975 squelched the development plans, which turned out to be fortunate considering what was yet to come.
To those who feel that a discussion that brings in other districts of the island is too far afield -- it's all one island, one Mayor, one council, one County budget -- and whatever happens on it in some sense affects Puna.
Posts: 8,465
Threads: 1,032
Joined: May 2003
I recall another resort effort in the Kapoho area several years ago. Bulldozers were rumbling and then it came to a sudden halt. Seems it was to be a resort/wellness center and former Gov. Cayetano was involved. A few hundred acres in size.
You may be aware that a county water line exists down that road. I was told the only reason it was installed was to benefit the intended development.
Could be wrong.
Assume the best and ask questions.
Punaweb moderator
Posts: 2,381
Threads: 125
Joined: Jun 2009
Why don’t they indicate what Hawaiian Beaches, Parks and Shores is zoned?
It’s not the only area lacking zone labels.
http://www.co.hawaii.hi.us/maps/zone/Zon...5-8-22.pdf
Also, where’s the FA (X)a zoning in Puna, I see it addressed in the Zoning rules but don’t see it anywhere on the Puna zoning map. Puna only appears to have A (X)a zones with regard to agricultural and no mixed zone usage. The zoning rules don't appear to say anything about A (X)a existing zones. Only that A zones are to be 5 acres or greater and that makes no sense when looking at the way Puna is zone labeled.
Here are the Zoning rules and regulations (crazy as they are).
http://www.co.hawaii.hi.us/countycode/chapter25.pdf
I'd also like to note the special addendums added to single family structures under Ag zones vs Resort/hotel zones and that there are no addendums to the single family homes (plural not just one per lot). That creates special privileges in those single family homes with regard to allowable content.
The zoning methods employed by the County are skewed and not uniformly applied and that's where the issue of legalities rise.
See anything odd in this section of the zoning regulations?
Division 7. A, Agricultural Districts.
Section 25-5-71. Designation of A districts.
Each A (agricultural) district shall be designated on the zoning map by the symbol “A” followed by a
number together with the lower case letter “a” which indicates the required or minimum number of acres for
each building site. For example, A-10a means an agricultural district with a minimum building site area of ten
acres.
(1996, Ord. No. 96-160, sec. 2; ratified April 6, 1999.)25-5-71
Section 25-5-74. Minimum building site area.
The minimum building site area in the A district shall be five acres.
(1996, Ord. No. 96-160, sec. 2; ratified April 6, 1999.)25-5-74
Section 25-5-75. Minimum building site average width.
The last two entries are what perhaps existed from a previos code that was modified yet they "forgot" to remove the last two cited sections? It appears to be in conflict with the primary citation.
E ho'a'o no i pau kuhihewa.
Posts: 4,533
Threads: 241
Joined: Jan 2006
quote:
Originally posted by KathyH
Note to Cat:
I found one reference to the Kalapana resort. Yes, a large scale resort had been proposed there upon the now-inundated Kalapana Black Sand beach. The quake and tsunami of 1975 squelched the development plans, which turned out to be fortunate considering what was yet to come...
In trying to find the reference to Kapoho's resort, found this link interesting: http://www.kycbs.net/PunaConnection.htm
I have to get the Land and Power in Hawaii book! Bet it is a great read! It tells a lot about how Hawaiian Acres subdivision set off the great subdivide process in the 60's. Also read the small part about the Realtor advertising in High Times!
|
