5/6/16: Honolulu City Council is finalizing the City’s operating budget for the next fiscal year. The current budget bill includes a $500,000 appropriation for surveys to identify historic properties and cultural landmarks to determine their eligibility for a Hawaii or National Registers of Historic Places within the one-half mile radius around each transit station. Historic Hawai‘i Foundation supports the measure and encourages others to submit testimony in support.  Click here for the fact sheet CCH_CB14-2016_CD1_HistoricInventory_UpdatedFactSheet and see the information below with additional background.

ACTION NEEDED:  Please consider submitting written testimony in support by Monday, May 9 for the next Budget Committee meeting.  Testimony may be sent via the following link: http://www.honolulu.gov/ccl-testimony-form.html

The following is a sample template/format for submitting testimony:

To:       Budget Committee Chair Ann H. Kobayashi & Committee Members

Date:   May 10, 2016

Re:       Bill 14, CD1 – $500,000 for surveys to identify historic properties and cultural landmarks within a one-half mile radius around transit stations

I support the $500,000 appropriation in Bill 14, CD1 for surveys to identify historic properties and cultural landmarks within a one-half mile radius around transit stations. 

(Please state your personal reasons)

Thank you for the opportunity to testify in favor of this appropriation in Bill 15, CD1.

(Name)

(Address [optional])

(Phone number [optional])

MORE INFORMATION:

Budget Committee Agenda: http://www4.honolulu.gov/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-180685/051016%20Bud%20Sp%20AGENDA.pdf

Council Bill 14 (2016) Status Sheet: http://www4.honolulu.gov/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-177586/BILL014(16).htm

Council Bill 14 (2016): http://www4.honolulu.gov/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-179842/BILL014(16)%2c%20CD1.pdf

Please contact Councilmember Carol Fukunaga’s Senior Aide Chris Delaunay at 768-5069 or at cdelaunay@honolulu.gov if you have questions.

4/1/16:  Honolulu City Council is considering a measure to provide funding to identify historic buildings and other historic resources that are located in areas that could be affected by transit-oriented development.

Historic Hawai‘i Foundation supports the proposed funding measure (CC63) and encourages that it be added to Council Bill 14, the Executive Operating Budget and Program.

If approved, the funding will support the Department of Planning and Permitting and direct DPP to conduct a historic resource survey to identify historic properties and evaluate their eligibility for the Hawai‘i or National Registers of Historic Places.

The resulting identification of eligible historic properties would then inform plans and zoning in the station areas.

ACTION NEEDED:

To support the funding measure, submit comments on CB14 proposed CD1 for the Committee on Budget meeting April 5, 2016.

Sample Testimony:

To:
Councilmember Ann Kobayashi, Chair
Committee on Budget, Honolulu City Council

From:[Name] [Address]

Committee Date: April 5, 2016

RE:  Support for Amendment to CB 14 for Historic Resource Survey

Please support the proposed appropriation of $500,000 to the Department of Planning and Permitting to conduct a historic resource survey to identify historic properties, scenic and cultural landmarks and evaluate their eligibility for a Hawai‘i or National Register of Historic Places designation within the one-half mile radius around each transit station.

To make informed judgments and defensible decisions about the future growth and development patterns in Honolulu, we first need to understand which existing places have significance and meaning to the community. The historic resource survey will provide the factual basis and inventory for decision-making, and help avoid irreversible loss of historic places that could occur through lack of knowledge or sufficient information.

Hawaii’s heritage sites connect us to our past, and—with appropriate conservation and stewardship—will continue to do so into the future. With its diverse and unique history, it is imperative that Hawai‘i maintain and preserve the state’s significant sites.

Thank you for considering funding for the project and support for identifying our historic places.

SUBMIT TESTIMONY:

Written testimony may be transmitted via internet at http://www.honolulu.gov/ccl-testimony-form.html or faxed to 808-768-3827 for distribution at the meeting.

Comments may also be submitted to the Office of Councilmember Carol Fukunaga, to the attention of Chris Delaunay at cdelaunay@honolulu.gov or 768-5069.  Mr. Delaunay can also assist those who would like to speak at the hearing.

MORE INFORMATION:

BACKGROUND:

The Transit-Oriented development (TOD) special district ordinance explicitly directs that Neighborhood TOD plans shall address the unique community historic and other design themes, and that objectives shall summarize the cultural and historic resources that form the context for TOD (ROH Sec. 21-9.100-2).

Further, the ordinance states that the TOD development recommendations for each TOD zone shall include “identification of important neighborhood historic, scenic and cultural landmarks, and controls to protect and enhance these resources” (ROH Sec. 21-9.100-4) [emphasis added].

Although the TOD Neighborhood Plans drafted to date include sections on historic and cultural resources, the lists are incomplete. The data sources include: 1) properties already listed on the Hawaii and/or National Register of Historic Places; and 2) the inventory and survey of eligible historic properties conducted for the transit project.

Historic Hawai‘i Foundation has recommended that the City’s transit-oriented development plans include a more thorough inventory of properties that are eligible for the Hawai‘i Register of Historic Places. HHF is concerned that the draft plans only include properties that have previously been listed on the register, and not those that are eligible for listing.

The list is beneficial within its limits, but those limits are significant. The survey boundary for the transit project was the guideway alignment and one parcel to each side of the transit line (or 400 feet in cases where there is not a parcel line). This boundary is not consistent with the TOD planning area boundary one-half mile radius around each transit station.

Therefore, any potential historic property that lies between 400-feet and 2640-feet from the stations, unless it is already listed, has not been included on the identification of historic and cultural resources. The exclusion of numerous significant historic properties may have been done as matter of convenience, but it is not appropriate. These sites deserve the same opportunity for recognition and protection as other cultural resources.

To complete the identification, a Historic Resource Survey should be conducted by qualified historic preservation professionals. The proposed appropriation will provide funding to support the study and ensure that historic properties are known and considered when land use planning and development decisions are made.