South Kohala Community Readiness and Community Development Plan

What is the County of Hawai`i general plan?

The General Plan is the County’s long range planning policy document. Organized into 13 Elements, the Plan identifies broad Goals, Policies, and Standards relating to land use, conservation and protection of natural and historical resources, transportation, and public infrastructure on the Island of Hawai`i.

The County Charter requires that a review of the General Plan be initiated every ten years. The County Council approved the most recent update of the Plan in February of 2005.

What are community development plans?

The General Plan, approved in 2005, established the Community Development Plan Program (CDP). Community Development Plans are intended to translate broad General Plan Goals, Policies, and Standards into implementation Actions as they apply to specific geographical regions around the Island.  CDPs are also intended to serve as a forum for Community input into land-use, delivery of government services and any other matters relating to the planning area.

What is the difference between community readiness program and community development plan?

The goal of the Community Readiness Program will be to identify comprehensive community profile through small group meetings and build community capacity by providing educational workshops.  CRP provides an opportunity for broader community representation & participation by facilitating collaboration between communities.  The process allows the “organized” and “unorganized” community to move in a more natural step to even the playing field.   During the initial community outreach phase, each of the distinct and unique communities of N/S Kohala have the opportunity to organize their own local planning committee (some communities already have organized their local planning committee).  It is our hope to pool strong community minded representative from each local planning committee to serve on the regional planning committee (advisory/steering committee), before we select our CDP consultant.

Will the community development plan be a legal document?

The General Plan now requires that a Community Development Plan shall be adopted by the County Council as an “ordinance”, giving the CDP the force of law.  This is in contrast to plans created over past years, adopted by “resolution” that served only as guidelines or reference documents to decision-makers.   Through the creation of CDPs, Communities will be invited to provide input into the creation of policies as well as to identify implementation actions designed for their specific region of the County.

How will the n/s kohala community readiness program address n/s kohala’s plannning needs?

The first task in developing the N/S Kohala CRP will be to invite the people living in the District to provide their own input regarding the needs for their community.

The completed CRP will transition into the CDP which will ultimately provide an action-oriented community plan.  It will identify a combination of land-use amendments, regulatory changes, budgetary items, public-private partnership building, and community-based implementation activities that will be needed to accomplish many kinds of goals.

The process must address, at a minimum, the 13 Elements contained within the General Plan as they relate to your community and the region. These Elements are:

• Economic
• Energy
• Environmental Quality
• Flooding and Natural Hazards
• Historic Sites
• Natural Beauty
• Natural Resources and Shoreline
• Housing
• Public Facilities
• Public Utilities
• Recreation
• Transportation
• Land Use