Planning staff propose revised land‑use map, add ‘natural’ and ‘productive agricultural’ categories

HILO/KONA — Planning Department staff presented the draft land‑use section of Hawaii County’s 2045 General Plan to a special Council committee on Sept. 23, 2025, proposing new map categories, revised urban‑center standards and mapping intended to focus future growth within designated centers.

Bethany Morrison, Planning Program Manager for the long‑range division of the Hawaii County Planning Department, said the draft reorganizes the chapter that contains “the meat of the plan” — land use, transportation, utilities, public facilities, housing and integrated systems — and adds new, clearer categories such as “productive agricultural” and “natural.”

Morrison told the committee the general plan map is a broad, flexible guide to future decisions, not an automatic change to existing zoning or subdivisions. “This general plan land use is something that has always been part of our general plans, and it’s meant to guide future decision‑making,” Morrison said, adding that landowners must initiate any zoning change.

Planners proposed several substantive changes: - New categories to reduce confusion: “productive agricultural” (to distinguish county mapping from the state’s Important Agricultural Lands), and a “natural” designation to identify largely passive lands such as mauka forests, historic lava flows, steep slopes and other areas where active production is limited. - A clearer set of urban center standards…