Committee forwards three Pahoa zoning measures to planning commission

The Hawaii County Policy Committee on Planning, Land Use, and Economic Development voted Feb. 3, 2026 to forward three related measures — Bill 126, Bill 124 and Bill 125 — to the Windward Planning Commission and the Planning Department for review and recommendation.

The package would create a new Downtown Pahoa Commercial (DPC) special zoning district (Bill 126), authorize a companion rezone of identified parcels into the DPC if property owners opt in (Bill 124), and clarify duties, procedures and membership of the Pahoa Village Design Review Committee (Bill 125). Sponsor Councilmember Ashley Kirkwitz said the measures aim to expand permitted uses to include small-business, cultural and creative enterprises and to help Pahoa recover economically after fires, eruptions and the pandemic.

Kirkwitz, who opened the committee item and identified the bills as a coordinated package, told members the DPC would be geographically limited to Downtown Pahoa (described in the draft as the area between Post Office Road and Akeakamae Loop, adjacent to Pahoa Village Road) and stressed participation for property owners is voluntary: owners must opt in to have their tax map key (TMK) included in the rezone ordinance. "This is not an improvement district," she said, repeating that no special assessment or new property tax is being levied as part of the measure.

Public testimony included Robert Golden, executive director of Puna Rising Ohana, who said the package "aligns zoning and lived reality" in Pahoa and argued the measures would help preserve plantation-era character and support a locally rooted economy. Golden told the committee, "Culture is not an accessory. It is an infrastructure." Kevin Kushel, acting president of the Main Street Pahoa Association and president of the Pahoa Lava Zone Museum, also urged support and described local efforts to restore downtown activity.

Councilmember Heather Kimball asked whether calling out uses such as a coworking innovation hub, creative media space and "cultural enterprise" in the DPC would exclude those activities from other zoning districts. Jeff Derr of the Planning Department said the callouts reflect contemporary uses and that a forthcoming comprehensive zoning-code update offers an opportunity to include the language more broadly. Deputy Corporation Counsel Gene Campbell told the committee the bill language is intended to read as "including but not limited to," and — as the department interprets it — should not limit the broader commercial definition elsewhere.

Kirkwitz also clarified taxation: real property tax assessments follow actual use, she said; "If there is no change to your use, then there's no change to the tax structure that is applied to your particular property." In other words, the district designation itself does not automatically change an owner’s tax assessment.

After discussion the committee moved all three bills to the Windward Planning Commission and the Planning Department for review and recommendation. The transcript records the clerk's vote tallies as follows: for Bill 126 the transcript reports "8 in favor" with Councilmember Connie Aliki Kleinfelder excused; for the companion rezone (Bill 124) and the design-guideline clarifications (Bill 125) the clerk recorded "7 ayes." The transcript contains minor variations in how those counts and excused members are reported; the committee's action in the meeting record was to forward each bill with a favorable recommendation for additional review.

What the bills would do

- Bill 126: Create the Downtown Pahoa Commercial District as a special zoning district, expand permitted uses to explicitly include cultural enterprises, creative media spaces and coworking/innovation hubs, and allow limited light industrial uses adjacent to the village core. Sponsor Kirkwitz said the intent is to enable small entrepreneurs and cultural organizations to operate locally and to help reestablish downtown economic stability.

- Bill 124: Authorize rezoning of identified parcels within the proposed DPC from Village Commercial (CV) and single-family residential (RS-10) to DPC. Kirkwitz said the county will contact property owners to request permission to include their TMKs in the ordinance; property owners who do not opt in would need to seek a rezone themselves to use DPC provisions.

- Bill 125: Amend the Pahoa Village Design District code to clarify the design-review committee’s duties, application procedures, membership and a decennial review requirement for the guidelines, while preserving the community-driven (grassroots) nature of the body.

Next steps

All three measures will go to the Windward Planning Commission and Planning Department for formal review and a recommendation back to council. The committee did not adopt final ordinances at the Feb. 3 meeting; the referrals create the next opportunity for public hearings, technical review and any recommended revisions.

Speakers and attributions in this report are drawn verbatim from the meeting transcript. Where spelling or naming varied in the transcript, this article follows speakers' self-identifications when provided (for example, Chair Ashley Kirkwitz's self-identification). Any vote tallies quoted above reflect how they were reported in the meeting transcript and are noted as such.

Ending: The committee adjourned after forwarding the bills for planning review.