LIHU‘E – Honolulu-based consultants have begun work with Kaua‘i County Planning Department planners and North Shore leaders to map out the future of Kilauea town over a ten-year span, Mayor Bryan Baptiste announced Wednesday. Updating of the Kilauea plan is
LIHU‘E – Honolulu-based consultants have begun work with Kaua‘i County Planning Department planners and North Shore leaders to map out the future of Kilauea town over a ten-year span, Mayor Bryan Baptiste announced Wednesday.
Updating of the Kilauea plan is needed to address growth Kilauea town and surrounding areas have experienced since the closure of Kilauea Plantation in the early 1970s.
Consultants from PlanPacific, a Honolulu firm hired by the county to help develop the county’s General Plan Update in 2000, have begun visits to Kilauea, Baptiste said during a media meeting at his office at the Lihu‘e Civic Center Wednesday.
The consultants will use methods that will shorten the planning process to expedite the development of the plan.
Baptiste said the “charrette planning process” will still allow for full participation by community residents who want to give their input.
The development of the plan “will be a collective vision of people from all walks of life…to create their vision for Kaua‘i,” Baptiste said, and government is the tool to carry out “what they want.”
County officials have no pre-set notions of how Kilauea will look, Baptiste said. But in talks with the consultants and county planning officials so far, leaders with the Kilauea Neighborhood Association have voiced a preference to keep the Kilauea area rural, Baptiste said.
“I have heard that people want to be working on stopping urban sprawl in the area and to keep the rural area,” Baptiste said. At the same time, association members want to address the issue of affordable housing and gap housing, Baptiste said.
Both concerns may be included in the plan, he said.
In a statement, Baptiste announced John Whalen and Lisa Imata of PlanPacific on Tuesday toured Kilauea with Deputy Planning Director Gary Hennigh and Keith Nitta, a senior planner with the Kaua‘i County Planning Department.
They met with KNA folks, including Linda Sproat, Beryl Blaich, Gary Smith and Gary Pacheco, who began offering their recommendations, Hennigh said.
Hennigh indicated their many years of living in Kilauea and their perception of growth will be invaluable assets in the development of the plan.
“These four people, with their collective history of Kilauea, have seen many changes that have occurred over the last 50 to 60 years,” Hennigh said in a statement.
The foursome discussed changes to Kilauea town with new residents settling in and “how they could co-exist with those new residents,” Hennigh said.
The consultants are trying to get a lay of the land before they begin developing the plan, “seeing how the town has developed and getting a view of the residential and commercial make-up of the community,” Hennigh said.
To shorten the planning process, the consultants will be conducting a “multi-day charrette,” thus bringing together planners, consultants and residents for interaction, Nitta said.
The process leads to decision-making scenarios, which help guide and set the tone for the future layout of Kilauea, Nitta said.
Using the planning process was not an automatic option, Hennigh said. “Keith and I weren’t so sure in the beginning. We did some research and the charrette (process) seems like a good process,” Hennigh said.
Nitta said the process has been used on Kaua‘i before, for the development, he recalls, of the master plan for the civic center area for Lihu‘e, the island’s town seat.
The ultimate goal behind this planning process is to develop “a preferred plan” that will be agreed upon by the majority of Kilauea residents, county officials said.
The first draft of the plan is to be compiled into a report and it will be available a few weeks before a series of final public hearings are to be held in mid-April, 2005, officials said.
The final plan is to be made available by the end of May 2005, and may incorporate revisions from final public meetings. The plan will then be sent to the Kaua‘i County Council for review and possible action.
Baptiste said he anticipates the planning process to go smoothly because the Kilauea community boasts “involved citizens.”
“As we look at the growth issues and needs facing the town, it will be crucial to hear from the residents and see their perspectives,” Baptiste said in a statement.
The plan is among four county plans that are to be updated and one study that have been supported by Baptiste and funded by the council.
The Kilauea plan was funded at $140,000; the Lihu‘e urban design plan was funded at $220,000; the updating of the county’s Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance was funded at $70,000; the Kapa‘a/ Wailua Development Plan was funded at $300,000; and a three-phase, coastal erosion control study was funded at $100,000.
Work has gotten under way for the first three plans, Nitta said, with the procurement process for the fourth plan anticipated to be completed in December or January.
Hennigh said photographing of coastal areas with erosion and identifying beach areas with erosion will be tackled in the first phase of the coastal zone study. The other phases will follow once money becomes available.
Baptiste said he hopes to have plans for South and West Kaua‘i communities updated in the future, pending the availability of funds.
Updating the plans are vital to the future development of the island and serves to ensure Kaua‘i continues to have a high quality of life, Baptiste said.
Lester Chang, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 225) and mailto:lchang@pulitzer.net
