After adopting revisions in mid-December, the Hamakua Community Development Plan’s steering committee sent the document to Hawaii County for review.
After adopting revisions in mid-December, the Hamakua Community Development Plan’s steering committee sent the document to Hawaii County for review.
The plan is based on community input received throughout seven years of meetings and will help guide development from Wainaku to Waipio Valley.
The document will next be reviewed by county staff before being sent to the Windward Planning Commission and County Council for approval.
Community development plans act as the foundation for future decisions surrounding growth.
The Hamakua plan includes dozens of action items directed at the county and community groups.
One of its priorities is limiting rural sprawl onto agricultural lands by focusing development in or nearby existing towns.
“Areas beyond the Urban Growth Boundary and Rural areas are to be preserved for agricultural uses, open space, scenic viewsheds, and natural beauty areas,” the plan says.
Other policies include identifying priority areas for wastewater service, improving pedestrian access in Honokaa, forming a community group to manage the lower Hamakua ditch and designating Waipio Valley as a wahi pana.
The wahi pana designation would include a natural resource overlay zone that would include greater setbacks and viewshed protections and creation of a long-range management plan.
The plan also includes changes to the land use guide maps, which could affect future development.
The revisions include changing parcels near the cliffside in Hakalua to an “open area” designation from low-density urban and industrial, frustrating at least one landowner who says his development plans would be affected.
County planning officials say that won’t affect current zoning.
Steve Shropshire said he remains concerned the move would prevent him from attaining a special management area permit for his property at Hakalau Point if the general plan is amended to adopt the land use guide map changes. The development would include shops, a farmers market and warehouses for agricultural use.
Some Hakalau residents want to see the property turned into a park.
For more information, visit www.hawaiicountycdp.info/hamakua-cdp.
Email Tom Callis at tcallis@hawaiitribune-herald.com.