Many counties, cities and other local jurisdictions on the U.S. mainland have instituted comprehensive planning programs that emphasize proactive, community-based planning and implementation processes. These local governments have sought to establish a strong link between planning policies and guidelines, and specific organization, funding and actions needed to implement a variety of public and private projects and programs. The following sections are intended to strengthen the linkage to implementation to realize the vision for the future and the policies, principles and guidelines articulated in this Plan.

Implementation of the Koolaupoko Sustainable Communities Plan will be accomplished by a variety of means, including:

* Initiating zoning map and development code amendments to achieve consistency with, and carry out the purposes of, the policies, principles, and guidelines of the Sustainable Communities Plan;

* Guiding public investment in infrastructure through functional planning activities in support of the vision and policies, principles and guidelines of the Sustainable Communities Plan;

* Recommending approval, approval with modifications or denial of developments seeking zoning and other development approvals based on how well they support, conform to and carry out the purposes of this plan;

* Incorporating Sustainable Communities Plan priorities through the Public Infrastructure Map and the City's annual budget process;

* Conforming City Administration and Council actions to the vision, policies, principles and guidelines of this plan;

* Advising the State government on the content of the Sustainable Communities Plan and seeking to conform State actions including those of DHHL to the vision, policies, principles and guidelines of this plan; and

* Conducting a review of the vision, policies, principles, guidelines, and CIP priority investments of the Koolaupoko Sustainable Communities Plan every five years and recommending revisions as necessary.

The vision for Koolaupoko requires the cooperation of both public and private agencies in planning, financing, and improving infrastructure. The City must take an active role in planning infrastructure improvements, such as land acquisition and site improvements for proposed parks, provision of adequate public access to the shoreline and mountain areas, provision of pedestrian, bicycle, and other transportation options, and improvements to wastewater and stormwater management systems and other proposals of this plan.

Projects to receive priority in the approval process are those which:

P Involve land acquisition and improvements for public projects that are consistent with the Sustainable Communities Plan policies, principles and guidelines.

P Are appropriate to the boundary area(s) within which the proposed project site is located.

* Are within the Urban Community and Rural Community development boundaries delineated in this plan.

* Are already zoned on vacant land parcels and which further conform with the boundaries delineated in, and the policies, principles and guidelines of, this plan.

* Involve applications for zoning and other regulatory approvals which are consistent with the Sustainable Communities Plan vision, policies, principles, guidelines and boundaries delineated in this plan.

* Are located on vacant usable parcels or sites ready for redevelopment and conform to the Sustainable Communities Plan Map A-2, Land Use.

* Have adequate required infrastructure in place or are guaranteed to have required infrastructure in place upon completion of project.

* Conform to the population policies for Koolaupoko in the General Plan.

* Conform to the height policies set forth in this plan.

* Are not proposed for sites in hazardous areas such as flood and erosion zones, steep slopes and where unstable soils exist.

* Will not further impair and/or will promote reestablishment of soil percolation capacities.

* Do not adversely impact the existing character of residential areas or the enhancement thereof.

4.1.1 PUBLIC IMPROVEMENT PRIORITIES
A number of major projects have been advanced by this plan. It is recommended that those projects be implemented in accordance with the following priority schedule.
PRIORITY ONE

§ Reconstruct and rehabilitate existing sewer system and connect areas with existing cesspools or septic tanks to the sewer system.

§ Construct in-pipe sewage flow capacity for wet-weather flows.

§ Eliminate noise and odor nuisances at the Kailua RWWTP.

§ Expand inventory of communitybased parks throughout the region.

§ Begin establishment of the Koolau Greenbelt.

§ Complete establishment of Haiku Valley Nature Preserve.

§ Provide improvements to Haiku Valley and Waihee Nature Preserve.

§ Begin undergrounding of overhead utility wires.

§ Pursue acquisition of additional public shoreline access sites in Kaneohe.

PRIORITY TWO

§ Continue to evaluate alternatives to relocate the Kailua RWWTP at Aikahi.

§ Improve drainage and pedestrian facilities on Kailua Road between Hahani Street and Wanaao Road.

§ Pursue acquisition of additional public shoreline access sites throughout Koolaupoko.

§ Provide improvements to Waikane Nature Preserve.

§ Provide a refuse convenience center in Kahaluu.

PRIORITY THREE

§ Connect Heeia Kea boat harbor to the municipal sewerage system.

§ Implement improvements to Keaahala Road.

§ Expand Waimanalo WWTP and implement regional wastewater improvement projects.
PRIORITY FOUR

§ Construct Kualoa fire station.

For areas requiring particular attention, Special Area Plans provide more detailed policies, principles, and guidelines than are provided by the Sustainable Communities Plan. The form and content of Special Area Plans depend on what characteristics and issues need to be addressed in greater detail in planning and guiding development or use of the Special Area.

Special Area Plans can be used to guide land use development and infrastructure investment in Special Districts, Redevelopment Districts, or Resource Areas. Plans for Special Districts provide guidance for development and infrastructure investment in areas with distinct historic or design character or significant public views. Plans for Redevelopment Districts provide strategies for the revitalization or redevelopment of an area. Plans for Resource Areas provide resource management strategies for areas with particular natural or cultural resource values.

In Koolaupoko, Special Area Plans should be prepared for the following locations and purposes:

* Kaneohe Regional Town Center. A plan to strengthen and revitalize the central business district and civic center by establishing municipal parking facilities, a transit center, a pedestrian circulation system, links from the town center to the bay, and improvements to the appearance of buildings, open spaces, and rights-of-way.

* Kailua Regional Town Center. A plan to improve pedestrian circulation, public transit service, landscaping and public open spaces, street fixtures and signage, and building appearance in the central commercial district and civic center.

* Waimanalo Village Center. A plan to improve pedestrian circulation, public transit service, landscaping and public open spaces, street fixtures and signage, and building appearance in the rural commercial/civic district, and to locate a possible private baseyard if appropriate.

* Koolau Greenbelt. A plan to restore, protect and maintain the area at the base of the Koolau Mountain Range through a variety of mechanisms that may include land trusts and tax incentives.

* Haiku Valley, Waihee and Waikane Nature Preserves, Kawainui Marsh, and Nuupia Fishponds. Plans for improved public access and preservation of these resources should be prepared.

Other Special Area Plan opportunities may be identified as the Sustainable Communities Plan is implemented.

Functional planning is the process through which various City agencies determine needs, assign priorities, phase projects, and propose project financing to further implement the vision and policies, principles and guidelines articulated in the Sustainable Communities Plan. This process may take a variety of forms, depending upon the missions of the various agencies involved, as well as upon requirements imposed from outside the City structure, such as federal requirements for wastewater management planning. Typically, functional planning occurs as a continuous or iterative activity within each agency.

Through the functional planning process, City agencies responsible for developing and maintaining infrastructure and public facilities or for provision of City services review existing functional planning documents and programs. As a result of these reviews, the agencies then update, if required, existing plans or prepare new long-range functional planning documents that address facilities and service system needs. Updates of functional planning documents are also conducted to assure that agency plans will serve to further implement the Sustainable Communities Plan as well as to provide adequate opportunity for coordination of plans and programs among the various agencies.

The number and types of functional planning documents will vary from agency to agency, as will the emphases and contents of those documents. A typical agency may develop a set of core documents such as:

* A resource-constrained long-range capital improvement program. A "resource-constrained" program is one that identifies the fiscal resources that can be reasonably expected to be available to finance the improvements.

* A long-range financing plan, with identification of necessary new revenue measures or opportunities.

* A development schedule with top priorities for areas designated for earliest development.

* Service and facility design standards, including level of service guidelines for determining adequacy.

Other documents may also be developed as part of an agency's functional planning activities, such as master plans for provision of services to a specific region of the island. In some cases, functional planning activities will be undertaken in cooperation with agencies outside the City structure, such as the transportation planning activities that are conducted in association with the Oahu Metropolitan Planning Organization.

Functional planning is intended to be a proactive public involvement process which provides public access to information about infrastructure and public facility needs assessments, alternatives evaluations, and financing. Outreach activities should involve Neighborhood Boards, community organizations, landowners, and others who may be significantly affected by the public facilities and infrastructure projects or programs to be developed to further implement the policies of the Sustainable Communities Plan.

The functional planning process should be characterized by opportunities for early and continuing involvement, timely public notice, public access to information used in the evaluation of priorities, and the opportunity to suggest alternatives and to express preferences. The functional planning process provides the technical background for Capital Improvement Program and public policy proposals that are subject to review and approval by the City Council. Consequently, any functional planning proposal which is inconsistent with, or varies from, the vision, policies, principles and guidelines of the Sustainable Communities Plan shall only be approved as an amendment to the Plan.

A primary way in which the vision of the Koolaupoko Sustainable Communities Plan will guide land use will be through the review of applications for zone changes and other development approvals. Approval for all development projects will be based on the extent to which the project conforms to and carries out the purposes of the policies, principles, and guidelines of the Sustainable Communities Plan.

Implementation of the Koolaupoko Sustainable Communities Plan may also involve introduction of the Industrial-Commercial Mixed Use District (IMX-1) to the region. This zoning district designation may be applied in the existing I-2 zoned areas within the Regional Town Centers of Kaneohe and Kailua. Development standards for the IMX districts should be upgraded so that the mix of uses is compatible with the character desired in Regional Town centers. This should include reasonable density, setbacks, parking, and street width requirements. Also, the frontage of Hekili streets in Kailua should be rezoned to commercial from industrial.

A zone change shall be considered significant if it involves at least one of the following:

(1) Any change in zoning of 10 or more acres of land to any zoning district or combination of zoning districts, excluding preservation or agricultural zoning districts;

(2) Any change in zoning of more than five acres to an apartment, resort, commercial, industrial or mixed use zoning district; or

(3) Any development which would have a major social, environmental, or policy impact, or major cumulative impacts due to a series of applications in the same area.

Projects that do not involve significant zone changes will be reviewed by the Department of Planning and Permitting for conformance with the policies, principles, development priorities and guidelines of the Koolaupoko Sustainable Communities Plan and the population policies of the General Plan. Those projects requiring environmental assessments shall follow the provisions of Hawaii Revised Statutes, Chapter 343. Also, for any specific rezoning application for a change to BMX, the applicant should prepare an analysis of the projected population impacts of the change to verify that such impacts will not exceed the population policies of the General Plan as they apply to Koolaupoko.

Projects involving significant zone changes will require an Environmental Assessment. This is submitted to the Department of Planning and Permitting for review prior to initiation of the Zone Change Application.

All projects requesting zone changes shall be reviewed to determine if adequate public facilities and infrastructure will be available to meet the needs created as a result of the development. Level of Service Guidelines to define adequate public facilities and infrastructure requirements will be established during the Capital Improvement Program.

In order to guide development and growth in an orderly manner as required by the City's General Plan, zoning and other development approvals for new developments should be approved only if the responsible City and State agencies indicate that adequate public facilities and utilities will be available at the time of occupancy or if conditions the functional agency indicates are necessary to assure adequacy are otherwise sufficiently addressed.

The Department of Planning and Permitting, as part of its report on the consistency of the project with the Koolaupoko Sustainable Communities Plan vision, policies, principles and guidelines, will review and summarize any individual agency's findings regarding public facilities and utilities adequacy that are raised as part of the EA/EIS process. The Department of Planning and Permitting will address these findings and any additional agency comments submitted as part of the agency review of the zone change application and recommend conditions that will be included in the conditional zoning approval to insure adequacy of facilities.

The Department of Planning and Permitting shall conduct a comprehensive review of the Koolaupoko Sustainable Communities Plan and shall report its findings and recommended revisions to the Planning Commission and the City Council five years after adoption and every five years thereafter. It is intended the Urban Community, Rural Community, Agriculture and Preservation boundaries will remain fixed through the 2020 planning horizon.

In the Five-Year review, the Koolaupoko Sustainable Communities Plan will be evaluated to see if the regional vision, policies, principles, guidelines, and implementing actions are still appropriate, with particular attention to the issue of sustaining long-term agriculture.

This section discusses the transition from the former Development Plan to this Sustainable Communities Plan, including its independence from Development Plan Common Provisions, its relationship to the General Plan policies, and the need for review and revision of development codes, standards, and regulations.

This Sustainable Communities Plan will go into effect upon its adoption by ordinance. At that time, the Plan will become a self-contained document, not reliant on the Development Plan Common Provisions which formerly applied to the Koolaupoko Development Plan and the other Development Plans.

Land use approvals granted under existing zoning, Unilateral Agreements, and approved Urban Design Plans will remain in force and guide entitlement decisions until any zoning action to further implement the vision and policies, principles and guidelines of the Koolaupoko Sustainable Communities Plan is initiated. If an Environmental Assessment or Environmental Impact Statement (EA/EIS) was accepted in the course of a Development Plan land use approval for a project, it should be acceptable to meet the requirement for an initial project EA/EIS when zone change applications are submitted for subsequent phases of the project unless the project scope and land uses are being significantly changed from that described in the initial EA/EIS.

Upon completion of the Development Plan Revision Program, current regulatory codes and standards should be reviewed and revised, as necessary, to maintain their consistency and effectiveness as standards to guide attainment of the objectives and policies envisioned for all Development Plan or Sustainable Community Plan areas. At the time such reviews are conducted, the following regulatory codes and standards may warrant further review and revision to ensure achievement of the vision, policies, principles and guidelines for the Koolaupoko region, as identified in this plan, as well as consistency with the Koolaupoko Sustainable Communities Plan:

* Land Use Ordinance. (Chapter 21, Revised Ordinances of Honolulu). Zoning code standards and the zoning map for Koolaupoko need to be revised to implement the vision, policies, principles, and guidelines in the Sustainable Communities Plan.

* Subdivision Rules and Regulations. (Department of Planning and Permitting, pursuant to Chapter 22, Revised Ordinances of Honolulu). Public rightofway standards used for subdivision and consolidation of land need to be revised to reflect transportation policies, principles, and guidelines in the Sustainable Communities Plan. Review and revise agricultural subdivision regulations as necessary to implement the plan.

* Traffic Standard Manual. (Department of Transportation Services, July 1976, as revised). Standards that are applied to local and most collector streets need to be revised to reflect transportation policies, principles, and guidelines in the Sustainable Communities Plan.

* State Highways Division Procedures Manual, Vol. 8, Chapter 5, Section 4 (State Department of Transportation). These State highway standards need to be reviewed to identify provisions that may conflict with the transportation policies, principles, and guidelines in the Sustainable Communities Plan.

* Standard Details for Public Works Construction (Honolulu Department of Planning and Permitting with Kauai, Maui, and Hawaii County Departments of Public Works, September 1984). Engineering standards for the dedication of public works construction need to be revised to reflect Sustainable Communities Plan principles and guidelines.

* Rules Relating to Storm Drainage Standards (Department of Planning and Permitting, January 2000). Standards for the dedication of drainage systems need to be reviewed, revised and, as necessary, created to further implement the Sustainable Communities Plan policies, principles, and guidelines for open space.

* Wastewater Management Design Standards (Department of Design and Construction Design Standards, Volumes I and II) and the 1990 Revised Ordinances of Honolulu, Chapter 14 (relating to sewer services). These standards and ordinances may require review to further implement Sustainable Communities Plan policies and guidelines.

4.6.3 RELATION TO GENERAL PLAN POLICIES

As required by Section 6909 of the City Charter, this Sustainable Communities (Development) Plan implements and accomplishes the policies of the General Plan. Of particular note and interest to the Koolaupoko community are the population policies found in Objective C of the General Plan and the need for the Sustainable Communities Plan to implement and accomplish these objectives, i.e.:

Policy 4: Distribution of Oahu's residential population in accordance with Koolaupoko’s share of the 2010 population which currently accounts for 11.0 12.2 percent of Oahu's total population.

Policy 3: Manage physical growth and development in the urbanfringe and rural areas so that: (a) an undesirable spreading of development is prevented; and (b) their population densities are consistent with the character of development and environmental qualities desired for such areas.