Note: The transcript records the meeting as convening on September 25, 2025, while the provided timestamp indicates September 26, 2025. This summary uses the supplied date for the title.
The Committee on Energy, Environment and Sustainability received an informational briefing from the Department of Planning and Permitting (DPP) on the update to the North Shore Sustainable Communities Plan (SCP). Franz Krenz, Branch Chief for Community Planning, presented the process, community engagement results, and major themes of the public review draft. No votes were taken; the session served as a discussion forum for Councilmembers to ask questions and offer suggestions before the close of the public comment period.
Good morning. Will the Committee on Energy Environment and Sustainability please come to order? It is 9.03 a.m. on September 25th. I'd like to welcome Councilmembers Tupola and Toba to the chamber. I know Vice Chair Dosantos TAM is on his way. Pursuant to section 92-3.7 Hawaii revice statutes. This meeting will be conducted as a remote meeting by interactive conference technology with the following procedures in effect for the meeting. Members of the public will be allowed to provide oral testimony on all items on the agenda in two ways remotely and in person in the council chamber. Remote and in-person oral testimony will be allowed when the agenda item is taken up. As both English and Hawaiian are official languages of the state of Hawaii, pursuant to Article 15, Section 4 of the Hawaii State Constitution and Section 1 13 of the Hawaii by statutes. Members of the public may testify in either language. For oral testimonies offered in Olilo Hawaii, additional time as may be necessary, will be allowed for the test buyer to provide an English translation of their testimony if they so wish. Before testifying, each person shall state their name. Each speaker may not have anyone else read their statement and is limited to a one-minute presentation on each item. All persons who have registered to testify remotely by video conference or phone will be called upon first. When your name is called, please monitor your screen and activate your audio feed when prompted. I will then give persons who have not registered an opportunity to offer test testimony. Please utilize the raise hand feature in Zoom to be called upon. For those who are joining us by telephone only, please press star nine to indicate your desire to speak. I will then identify the last three digits of your phone number. When your phone number is called, please press star six to unmute yourself when prompted. Some friendly reminders and tips. Please video conference and required location if possible. If you're also watching the proceedings on Olelo, please mute your television at the time you're called to testify. When the timer on the screen reaches zero, please conclude your remarks promptly. Once the remote testifiers have testified, I will proceed to in-person testimony in the council chamber. Persons who have not registered will be given an opportunity to speak following the oral testimonies of the registered speakers. HRS section 92-3.7 requires all votes that remote meetings to be conducted by roll call unless unanimous. Therefore, I'll with otherwise call for objections. And if there are any, I will call for a roll call vote. However, I do note that today's meeting is an informational briefing for those council members participating from outside the council chamber who we don't have at this time. But if they log on in accordance with section 92-3.7, the meeting will automatically recess if we lose audio-visual contact with you and cannot reconvene until we re-establish contact. Therefore, please announce beforehand if you'll be voluntarily signing out of the meeting. Written testimonies, including the testifier's address, email address, and phone number, will be available to the public as described on the posted agenda. As a courtesy, please turn off all cell phones and we'll go to the first item for action informational briefing. Presentation by the Department of Planning and Permitting on the North Shore Sustainable Communities Plan. Joining us in the council is Franz Krenz from the Department of Planning and Permitting, who will be providing a brief presentation for your information. The presentation is available online, is Departmental Communication 710 2025, and I believe that was distributed to the committee. We'll go ahead and turn it over to our guests today if you want to introduce yourself and proceed. Mohalo. Thank you. Aloha and good morning, Chair Wire and members of the Energy, Environment and Sustainability Committee. My name is Franz Cranes. I'm branch chief for the community planning branch within the planning division of the Department of Planning and Permitting. We're here this morning to provide you a briefing of where we are in the planning process for updating the North Shore Sustainable Communities Plan. The we also want to share with you some of the highlights of the initial draft that we have. As is customary, we've been meeting with uh various council members, and we met with Chair Weyer first since this is his district, and he requested that we come and make a presentation before you this morning. The North Shore Sustainable Community Plan. This is the second five-year review or update of the plan.