Land use is usually a contentious topic, but only about a dozen people showed up at meeting Tuesday evening in Hilo to provide input to a state agency seeking to improve the process.
The state Office of Planning will hold its next session from 6 to 8 p.m. today at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority conference room in Kailua-Kona.
It’s been almost 15 years since the office has held statewide meetings on land use regulation, said Leo Asuncion, the agency’s acting director. He said about 45 people showed up for a meeting on Oahu and about 40 at a Maui meeting.
The focus of the latest meetings is the Land Use Commission, a quasi-judicial body that’s often the target of criticism. In fact, the state Supreme Court ruled last week the commission didn’t follow the law when it took action that stopped work on the Aina Lea development in South Kohala.
Asuncion said he’s heard some say the process is too slow, takes too long and inhibits the development of affordable housing, while others say it doesn’t do enough to protect the environment. The agency is taking all suggestions at this early stage in the process, he said.
“Everything from low-hanging fruit to pie in the sky,” Asuncion characterized the suggestions.
Among those with concerns in Hilo was Ken Church, who asked why a small landowner seeking a boundary or category change on a $100,000 plot of land must follow the same rules as a major developer building a $50 million project.
“Little people are thrown in the same basket as big developers,” Church said. “The little guy doesn’t stand a chance.”
But Deborah Ward, an environmentalist, said generally the Land Use Commission does a good job.
“I think we’ve protected land that otherwise would have been developed and the results would have been catastrophic,” Ward said.
Land use in Hawaii is categorized as urban, rural, agriculture or conservation. Conservation land dominates land on Hawaii Island, with 52 percent of the acreage. Agriculture is second, with 45.8 percent, followed by urban, with 2.2 percent and rural, with 0.1 percent.
Rodney Funakoshi, planning program administrator for the agency’s Land Use Division, said a task force has been meeting to evaluate input. Input will be accepted through mid-January, with a report expected sometime in the summer.