Kona, Hawaii: Assessing Green Infrastructure

The Kona Community Development Plan (CDP) wins the 2009 Outstanding Planning Award from the American Planning Association’s Hawaii Chapter.

Mandated by the Hawaii County General Plan, the Kona CDP was initiated by the Planning Department in 2005 in order to create a regional plan for the specific areas of North and South Kona. The community outreach was unprecedented and innovative. The plan took three years to complete and was officially adopted last year as the district’s guideline for future development.

The prime consultant that prepared the Kona CDP was Wilson Okamoto Corporation, which provided planning and engineering services. ACP Planning+Visioning led the community participation process together with the Environmental Simulation Center supporting the community mapping workshops. Also contributing were The Conservation Fund on “green infrastructure” and David Paul Rosen & Associates on affordable housing.

“Special mahalo to the Kona CDP Steering Committee, who reached out to over 800 residents for input on the long range plans of how they wanted 800 miles of land in Kona to look in the future,” Mayor Billy Kenoi said.

The award was presented at the 2009 Hawaii Congress of Planning Officials conference on September 23-25. The annual Hawaii APA awards are given to recognize individuals, communities, and organizations whose work exemplifies the planning profession’s highest goals and ideals. The awards program serves to raise public awareness of the benefits of good planning by showcasing significant contributions that planning practitioners, professionals, and community groups make to the State of Hawaii.

For original news release click here.

For a plan report and other technical elements click here.

Summary

The Conservation Fund completed the Green Infrastructure Technical Report for the Kona Community Development Plan in 2006. The report provides a strategic framework for guiding future land development and land conservation decision making within the North Kona and South Kona Planning Districts within the County of Hawai’i. Building on principles, objectives, and preliminary actions outlined in the County planning process, the Technical Report recommended an array of approaches for expanding the green infrastructure network in Kona, including using development as a tool for conservation and establishing Leadership Forums for long-term stewardship of critical lands.

Challenge

The Kona Community Development Plan utilized an extensive public involvement process to identify desired locations for future development that will accommodate projected population growth over the next 20 years. Critical to the success of the plan is the identification of opportunities for enhancing green infrastructure within preferred growth areas and in Kona’s rural watershed lands that contain an array of working ranches, public lands, and other critical ecosystem resources.

Solution

Using the green infrastructure approach to strategic conservation, the Fund inventoried existing managed lands, identified opportunities for ecosystem service demonstration projects, and mapped potential ahupua’a connection opportunities where a natural link could be maintained between the shoreline and mountain lands. The report also outlined a set of planning guidelines to encourage sustainable land use activities within classified agricultural lands where critical native vegetation currently exists.

Results

The Technical Report has been incorporated into the Community Development Plan process and is providing a framework for land conservation and land development decision making. Future efforts to develop Leadership Forums and craft specific development incentives and regulations are currently underway.

Kona Community Development Plan Land Cover Map (Download PDF)
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