BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE:
The County of Kauaʻi adopted the first General Plan in 1971 (updated in 1984
and 2000). Subsequently, the County of Kaua‘i adopted the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance (CZO) in 1972. Since its adoption,
the County of Kaua‘i has approved several amendments to specific provisions of
the CZO. However, the entire document has not been updated in a comprehensive
manner. A project to update the CZO was initially started in 1996. Shortly
thereafter, the County began the process for the third update the Kaua‘i General
Plan in 1998. The decision was made that the General Plan Update process should
be completed first and then followed by the completion of CZO update. In this
manner the findings and recommendations of the General Plan could be utilized to
supplement the amendments proposed under the CZO update. This course of action
would also provide a formal guide to ensure that the changes being recommended
in the CZO update are consistent with the updated General Plan. As a result,
finalizing the CZO update was deferred until the General Plan was adopted
November 2000.
Under Section 9.3 (b) of the 2000 Kauaʻi General Plan, entitled "Preparation
of amendments to the CZO to conform to General Plan policy", listed in general
order of priority are amendments to be prepared which include but are not
limited to the following:
-
Regulation for alternative visitor activities and accommodations, including
B&B vacation rental units.
-
Transfer of zoning regulations from Chapter 10 into Chapter 8, R.C.O.
-
Review and revision of the Open zoning district and the Constraint
Districts.
-
Review and revision of zoning requirements for residential use in Agriculture
zoning districts.
-
Development of Scenic Roadway Corridor regulations, based on preparation of a
study assessing scenic qualities of Kauai’s major roadway corridors.
-
General review and revision of zoning regulations for Resort, Industrial and
Commercial districts. Regulations should incorporate revised standards that
reflect ongoing practice, with reference to the typical conditions placed by the
Planning Department on zoning and use permits. Wherever possible, discretionary
zoning permits should be eliminated or reduced in favor of clear standards that
are included in the CZO. This is intended to reduce uncertainty for landowners
and developers, and to eliminate unnecessary permit actions to save time for
applicants and County staff.
CURRENT CZO UPDATE:
After consideration of a comprehensive update of the CZO, it became apparent
that the extent of the proposed changes may become too complex and cumbersome to
incorporate into one update document. Certain amendments to the code may also
have generated substantial discussion and could have delayed the entire CZO
update process.
In February 2007, the Planning Department resumed the CZO update project and
hired the consulting firm of Helber Hastert and Fee (Consultant) to assist with
the Update of the CZO and over the course of the past two to three years, the
Planning Department and the Consultant has worked on updating the CZO. The draft
CZO document is a result of the following task:
-
Review recommendations from the 1996-1998 update
of the CZO.
-
Series of meetings and in house review of the CZO
by the current Consultant and Planning Department beginning in 2007. The
Consultant has incorporated these changes and revised the overall look and
function of the document to make the zoning code a more user friendly document.
This has been accomplished by reorganizing the document, using charts and
figures to provide better visual aids in understanding the document, and
providing suggested language changes based on their review of other codes and
laws.
-
Review of the 2000 Kauaʻi General Plan
recommendations for amendments to the CZO.
-
Codification of amendments made to the CZO some of
which were based on certain recommendations of the 2000 Kauaʻi General Plan.
This includes individual amendments to the CZO such as, the Transient Vacation
Rental Ordinances (Ord. Nos. 864, 876, and 904) which originated from a 2006
Single Family Transient Vacation Rental study conducted by a consultant hired by
the Planning Department, the Open District Ordinance No. 896, and the Additional
Dwelling Unit Ordinances Nos. 843 and 886.
The document also includes other adopted
amendments to the CZO including the recently adopted Shoreline Setback
Ordinances Nos. 863 and 887, the Enforcement Ordinance No. 883, the Farm Worker
Housing Ordinance No.903, and the Transient Accommodation Unit Certificate
Allocation Program Ordinance No. 912.
-
Modification of the overall look and format of
the zoning code to provide a more user friendly document. To accomplish this
end, changes to the organization and format of the document were made. In
addition to organizational changes, new sections were created to accommodate
user friendly aids, such as the "use table".
In presenting CZO Update to the public and the decision makers, the CZO
Update document has been divided into two phases, with the first phase focusing
on organizational and format changes. This involves mainly moving or relocating
existing provisions to more appropriate locations in the code. The first phase
also includes the re-codification of ordinance amendments made to the CZO to
date. The second phase will show the newly reformatted document with recommended
substantive changes to the code in a Ramseyered format which will be forthcoming
after the first phase has been completed.
This first phase provides the public and the decision makers (Planning
Commission and County Council) with a document consisting of all existing
provisions and new codified language in the new format. No substantive changes
have been made. New material generally consisting of language from adopted
Ordinances which have amended the CZO is underscored. Material to be deleted is
bracketed and strikethrough.
Click here to view the CZO Update Phase I draft document
Comments to the Phase I draft document are welcome. Please submit your
comments by January 20, 2012 by sending email to czoupdate@kauai.gov.