Revised Ordinances of Honolulu

5.    IMPLEMENTATION 0 Implementation of the City’s revised Development and Sustainable Communities Plans will be a major challenge for the City’s planners, engineers, and other technical and policy-level personnel, as well as elected officials who determine the allocation of City resources. In contrast to previous Development Plans, which functioned primarily as regulatory guides and a prerequisite for City zoning of parcels proposed for development, the revised plans are oriented toward implementation on a broader scale. They now seek to implement a vision for the future by providing wider guidance for decisions and actions related to land use, public facilities, and infrastructure as well as for zoning matters. As a result, many of their provisions reflect the consultations which occurred throughout the planning process with pertinent implementing agencies and community representatives. Many other city, county, and town jurisdictions on the U.S. mainland have instituted comprehensive planning programs that emphasize a proactive community-based planning and implementation process. These local governments seek 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 of this Chapter are intended to strengthen the linkage to implementation to realize the vision of the future presented in this plan. Implementation of the Ko’olau Loa Sustainable Communities Plan will be accomplished by:     ·    Initiating zoning map and development code amendments to achieve consistency with the policies, principles, and guidelines of the Sustainable Communities Plan;     ·    Guiding public investment in infrastructure through functional plans which support the vision 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 the vision for Ko’olau Loa;     ·    Incorporating Sustainable Communities Plan priorities through the Public Infrastructure Map and the City’s annual budget process; and     ·    Conducting a review of the vision, policies, principles, guidelines, and CIP priority investments of the Ko’olau Loa Sustainable Communities Plan every five years and recommending revisions as necessary. 5.1    PUBLIC FACILITY INVESTMENT PRIORITIES The vision for Ko’olau Loa requires the cooperation of both public and private agencies in planning, financing, and constructing infrastructure. The City must take an active role in working with the State, private landowners, and the community in planning infrastructure improvements. The priority public facility investments include: drainage improvements in Kahuku, La’ie and Punalu’u; highway safety improvements along Kamehameha Highway; and development of neighborhood parks in the region. 5.2    DEVELOPMENT PRIORITIES Projects to receive priority in the approval process are those which:     ·    Involve publicly funded improvements that are consistent with the Sustainable Communities Plan vision, general policies, and planning principles.     ·    Involve applications for zoning and other regulatory approvals which are consistent with the Sustainable Communities Plan vision, general policies, and planning principles.     ·    Are located on vacant usable parcels within the Rural Community Boundary and are consistent with the Sustainable Communities Plan Land Use Map in Appendix A. 5.3    SPECIAL AREA PLANS For areas requiring particular attention, Special Area Plans provide more detailed policies, principles, and guidelines than the Sustainable Communities Plans. 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 would provide guidance for development and infrastructure investment in areas with distinct historic or design character or significant public views. Plans for Redevelopment Districts would provide strategies for the revitalization or redevelopment of an area. Plans for Resource Areas would provide resource management strategies for areas with particular natural or cultural resource values. A coastal wilderness park is being considered for the lands along the Kahuku shoreline from Kahuku Point to Malaekahana Bay. Planning for this park could be addressed through a Special Area Plan, with particular natural and cultural resource values. 5.4    FUNCTIONAL PLANNING Functional planning is the process through which various City agencies determine needs, assign priorities, establish timing and phasing, and propose financing for projects within their areas of responsibility that will further the implementation of the vision 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. The functional planning process involves annual reviews of existing functional planning documents and programs by the City agencies responsible for developing and maintaining infrastructure and public facilities or for provision of City services. 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 which 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 priority to 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 transportation planning activities that are conducted in association with the O’ahu 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 evaluation, and financing. Outreach activities should involve the Neighborhood Boards, community organizations, landowners, and other parties who may be significantly affected by the public facilities and infrastructure projects or programs to be developed. The functional planning process should be characterized by opportunities for early and continuing public involvement, timely public notice, public access to information used in the evaluation of priorities, and the opportunity for the public to suggest alternatives and to express preferences. The functional planning process provides the technical background for the Capital Improvements Program and related public policy proposals which are subject to review and approval by the City Council. 5.5    REVIEW OF ZONING AND OTHER DEVELOPMENT APPLICATIONS A primary way in which the vision for the Ko’olauloa Sustainable Communities Plan will guide land use is through the review of applications for zone change and other development approvals. Approval for development projects should be based on the extent to which the project supports the vision and policies, and the planning principles and guidelines of the Sustainable Communities Plan. Projects which do not involve significant zone changes will be reviewed by the Department of Planning and Permitting for consistency with the vision, policies, principles, and guidelines of the Ko’olauloa Sustainable Communities Plan during the Zone Change Application process. Those projects requiring environmental assessment shall follow the provisions of Hawai’i Revised Statutes, Chapter 343. Projects involving significant zone changes will require an Environmental Assessment. 5.5.1    Adequate Facilities Requirement All projects requesting zone changes will be reviewed to determine if adequate public facilities and infrastructure are or 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 are established as part of the Capital Improvements Program process. 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 will review the project for consistency with the Ko’olauloa Sustainable Communities Plan vision, and summarize any individual agency’s findings regarding public facilities and utilities adequacy which are raised as part of the EA/EIS process. The Department 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 should be included in the Unilateral Agreement or Development Agreement to insure adequacy of facilities. 5.6    FIVE-YEAR SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES PLAN REVIEW The Department of Planning and Permitting shall conduct a comprehensive review of the Ko’olau Loa Sustainable Communities Plan and 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 that the Rural Community, Agricultural and Preservation boundaries will remain fixed through the 2020 planning horizon. 5.7    TRANSITION FROM THE CURRENT SYSTEM This section discusses the transition from the former Development Plan to this revised Sustainable Communities Plan, including its independence from Development Plan Common Provisions, its relationship to the General Plan guidelines, and the need for review and revision of development codes, standards, and regulations. 5.7.1    Development Plan Common Provisions and Existing Land Use Approvals This Sustainable Communities Plan will go into effect upon adoption by ordinance. At that time, the revised Sustainable Communities Plan will become a self-contained document, not reliant on the Development Plan Common Provisions which formerly applied to the Ko’olau Loa Development Plan as well as all 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 new zoning action to further implement the vision and policies of the Ko’olau Loa 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. 5.7.2    Relation to General Plan Population Guidelines The Ko’olauloa Sustainable Communities Plan implements the General Plan population policies (in Population Objective C) as follows:     ·    The total potential population in the Ko’olauloa Sustainable Communities Plan Area will account for 1.5 percent of O’ahu’s total population in 2010. This relatively small share of the islandwide population is one tenth of one percent higher than the 1.3% - 1.4% share stated in Population Objective C, Policy 1 and Policy 2. It represents a declining growth rate from 1.7% of the islandwide population in 1990 to 1.6% in 1995, and 1.5% in 2010. Ko’olauloa’s declining proportion of islandwide share is expected to continue, and it is projected that by the year 2020, Ko’olauloa’s population will account for 1.4 percent of O’ahu’s total population, which is consistent with the General Plan’s population distribution policies.     ·    Ko’olauloa’s total potential share of islandwide population in 2010 implements Population Objective C, Policy 3, which is to manage physical growth and development in the urban-fringe and rural areas so that an undesirable spreading of development is prevented and that the suburban and country character of these outlying areas can be maintained.     ·    The General Plan population share for Ko’olauloa in 2010 according to Population Objective C, Policy 4, should be between 1.3% and 1.4% of O’ahu’s total in 2010. The estimated residential development capacity (i.e., assuming all planned and zoned lands are fully developed) for Ko’olauloa in 2010 is 1.5% of the capacity for all of O’ahu, or slightly higher than this range. However, much of this capacity consists of small, scattered parcels that have been zoned for residential use for years but have not been developed due to market and/or physical constraints. Full development of these areas by 2020 is highly unlikely, and it is anticipated that the actual pace of future development in Ko’olauloa will be consistent with implementing the General Plan population guideline. Under the new Ko’olauloa Sustainable Communities Plan, projects will be evaluated against how well they fulfill the vision for Ko’olauloa set forth in the Sustainable Communities Plan and how closely they meet the policies, principles, and guidelines selected to implement the vision. 5.7.3    Review and Revision of Development Codes 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 Communities 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 for the Ko’olau Loa region, as identified in this Plan, as well as consistency with its policies, principles and guidelines.     ·     Land Use Ordinance . (Chapter 21, Revised Ordinances of Honolulu). Zoning code standards and the zoning map for Ko’olau Loa need to be revised to further implement the 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 right-of-way standards used for subdivision and consolidation of land need to be revised with community input to reflect rural development standards consistent with the transportation policies, principles, and guidelines in the Sustainable Communities Plan.     ·     Traffic Standards Manual . (Department of Transportation Services, July 1976, as revised). Standards which are applied to local and most collector streets need to be revised to reflect transportation policies, principles, 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 which may conflict with the transportation policies, principles, and guidelines in the Sustainable Communities Plan.     ·     Standard Details for Public Works Construction (Department of Planning and Permitting). Engineering standards for the dedication of public works construction need to be revised to reflect Sustainable Communities principles and guidelines.     ·     Storm Drainage Standards (Department of Planning and Permitting). Standards for the dedication of drainage systems to incorporate retention basins and the use of v-shaped bottom channels, rip-rap boulder lining of stream banks, and streamside vegetation into the design need to be created to further implement the Sustainable Communities Plan policies, principles, and guidelines.     ·     Wastewater Management Design Standards (Department of Design and Construction) 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, in accordance with established public health and safety standards.