General plan for Kauai
By Anthony Sommer
still not finished
Star-BulletinLIHUE -- Kauai's effort to write its first new general plan since 1984 is now officially a year behind schedule -- and counting.
The general plan is the primary source for land use planning by the county. The version now being contemplated is expected to meet the county's needs through 2020.
Kauai Planning Director Dee Crowell announced in a news release yesterday that the deadline for completing a "discussion draft" of a new general plan has now been "extended" until November.
And that does not allow for time to complete a final draft nor time for the Planning Commission and County Council to debate and approve the document.
When the 34-member Citizen Advisory Committee appointed by Mayor Maryanne Kusaka first met on Feb. 19, 1998, a one-year effort was contemplated. That later slipped to 18 months and now a minimum of two years.
The advisory committee met Tuesday for the first time since before Christmas.
Crowell was unavailable for comment as to the reasons for the delay yesterday because, his office said, he took the day off. The deputy planning director had left early, as had the senior planner assigned to the general plan rewrite.
Robin Foster, vice president of Plan Pacific, the Honolulu planning consultant hired by Kauai to put the plan together for $500,000, was not available, nor was Kauai planning consultant Nadine Nakamura, a subcontractor to Plan Pacific.
