Committee forwards Bill 46 with unfavorable recommendation after water-supply concerns

The Committee for Legislative Approvals and Acquisitions forwarded Bill 46 to the full Hawaii County Council with an unfavorable recommendation after the planning director told the committee the requested change of zone does not meet Hawaii County water-concurrency standards.

The measure, introduced by Councilmember Kimball at the applicant's request, would change roughly 6,920.3 square feet of a 25,955-square-foot parcel at 95-5591 Maimalua Highway (tax map key referenced in the application) from Single-Family Residential (10,000-square-foot minimum) to Village Commercial (CV-10, 10,000-square-foot minimum). LA Services Inc. is the applicant. The Windward Planning Commission and the planning director both forwarded unfavorable recommendations to the council.

Planning Director Jeff Darryl told the committee that while the property sits inside the county’s Urban Land Use District and a commercial zoning designation would be physically consistent with surrounding parcels, the request “does not meet the minimum concurrency requirements for water as set forth in Hawaii County Code section 25-2-46, subsection M,” and the Department of Water Supply had advised it could not supply water for the application without significant infrastructure improvements. “In the past … the cost of [a dedicable system] is extreme,” Darryl said, adding that meeting the county’s dedicable-standards for supply typically requires large storage and well infrastructure.

Darryl described the technical scale the county usually requires for a dedicable water system in such circumstances — for example, systems built to county standards can require a roughly 100,000-gallon tank or equivalent well storage, placement above project elevation, and multiple wells and distribution infrastructure — and said those solutions are “meant more for a larger project” and would be unlikely to be cost-effective for a small portion of a parcel. He also said there was no specific development plan before the committee; the rezoning would allow a range of commercial or residential uses, which drives the concurrency analysis.

Councilmember Villegas said he would not support forwarding the bill with a favorable recommendation, noting that both the planning department and the Windward Planning Commission issued unfavorable findings. Councilmember Galimba, whose district includes the property, said the zoning change might "fit" the commercial center from a land-use standpoint but agreed that proceeding without adequate water supply was "unwise" and voiced support for the planning director’s recommendation.

Councilmember Cherry Nava moved to forward the measure to council with a favorable recommendation; the motion was seconded. On voice and roll-call votes the committee recorded nine votes opposed. The clerk announced, “Bill 46 will be forwarded to the council with an unfavorable recommendation.”

The committee did not record a specific development plan or estimate for the infrastructure improvements necessary to meet Department of Water Supply standards. The committee adjourned at 11:17 a.m.

Next steps: Bill 46 will go to the full Hawaii County Council with the committee’s unfavorable recommendation; any future consideration that seeks to address the concurrency issues would require either detailed water-supply plans meeting county standards or commitments to fund and construct the necessary supply improvements.