2015 Chapter Awards
Outstanding Planning
South Kaua‘i Community Plan and Form-Based Code (Kauai County Planning Department, PBR Hawaii & Associates, Inc., Opticos Design, Inc.)
The APA Hawai‘i Chapter jury commends the South Kaua‘i Community Plan for its visionary approach that goes well beyond vision statements and policy development. The community advisory committee incorporated a public process that sought inclusion and transparency beyond typical community meeting formats. Implementation was the target from the start with integration of the community, the consultants and the County participants, all leading to strong public support. All of the planning documents and presentation materials were highly professional in both their contents and graphics.
Best Practice
South Kaua‘i Community Plan and Form-Based Code (Kauai County Planning Department, PBR Hawaii
The APA Hawai‘i Chapter jury commends the South Kaua‘i Community Plan for its use of innovative public participation processes including open-design charrettes, walking tours, polling devices, social media, and person-to-person interactions leading to strong community support. The creation of form-based codes for new development controls will result in more compatible and user-friendly communities. The plan contains a wide variety of subsequent programs and tools to enable government and residents to achieve community goals.
Community Based Planning
O‘ahu Island Plan (State of Hawaii Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, PBR Hawaii & Associates, Inc.)
The jury selected O‘ahu Island Plan as the winner of APA Hawai‘i Chapter’s Community-Based Planning Award. The plan provides thoughtful, long-range planning to meet DHHL’s responsibility of fostering well-being and economic self-sufficiency through the creation of homesteading opportunities for its beneficiaries. It is comprehensive and balances DHHL’s responsibilities, goals and challenges with stakeholder and community desires. Its beneficiary consultation process was well designed and executed. Insights from the process allowed preliminary identification of appropriate land uses and generated alternatives to traditional homestead development. The plan is transferable to other DHHL projects and to community-based projects in general. The overall quality of research, analysis, and presentation of the plan is commendable.
Distinguished Service
Steve Lettau
Steve Lettau is the Hawai‘i Principal at The Onyx Group and is the 2015 recipient of the Distinguished Service Award for the American Planning Association Hawai‘i Chapter. This award recognizes individuals for their service and support of the Chapter. Steve has been an APAHI member since 1996 and a member of the Chapter’s Executive Committee since 2007. Steve has served as APAHI’s Vice President (2007 to 2010), Chair of the Awards Committee (2007-2010) and continues to serve on the Executive Committee as the Chapter’s webmaster. Steve has also been an active participant in APA National’s Federal Planning Division, having served as its Secretary and Treasurer.
Donald Wolbrink Chapter Achievement
David Callies
In his more than 35 years at Richardson School of Law, Professor Callies has taught over 2,200 law students and dedicated countless hours to our members in support of their certification maintenance for the American Institute of Certified Planners and for helping our members stay current with land use law in the islands. Mahalo nui loa, Professor Callies!
Environment/Preservation
Hale‘iwa Store Lots (Kamehameha Schools, Group 70 International, Inc.
Hale‘iwa Store Lots project demonstrates great innovation to preserve and enhance the historic plantation character, unique Hawai‘i culture, and natural environment. Through the rehabilitation, recreation, and new construction on the historic site, the nominee set a new standard for local historic preservation projects. The preservation of low-rise, human-scale plantation-era rural character combined with the focus on Hawai‘i business and local clientele create a novel approach to perpetuate Hawai‘i culture, and at the same time to meet local residents’ needs and vision. The nominee are meticulous to details that closely tied the development to the history of the neighborhood, such as the names of the stores and the courtyard, the hula platform, and locally-based cultural program, which all emphasize on the education for visitors and locals about the history of North Shore. A lot of effort has been put into comprehensive analyses and consultation with key stakeholders to ensure the conformance with code and ordinance, local community plan, principles of Hale‘iwa special district, public objective, natural environment, and historic cultural heritage. The APA Awards Jury would like to recognize this study as a model of historic preservation and redevelopment not only for Hale‘iwa but also for other historic town in Hawai‘i.
Urban Design
Ala Moana Neighborhood Transit-Oriented Development Plan (City & County of Honolulu, Callison RTKL)
The APA Hawai’i Chapter jury commends the Transit-Oriented Development Urban Design Plan for its thoughtful planning process that creates a realistic vision that will help garner public support and ease implementation. Its broad TOD driven goals related to community design guidelines, an array of transportation options to minimize automobile use, building massing and orientation, as well as public open spaces, all define the future growth of the area. The pedestrian experience is a high priority, with walkable linkages between all major activity nodes.
Transportation Planning
Honolulu Complete Streets Design Manual (City and County of Honolulu Department of Transportation Services, SSFM International, Inc.)
The Honolulu Complete Streets Design Manual has already yielded positive results. The King Street Protected Bike Lanes were designed and constructed in-house by City staff, opening in 2015 as a one-way facility and later for two-way bicycle traffic. Conceptual plans using Complete Street principles were prepared for 16 sites around O‘ahu. Agencies across the City are working together to implement these and other Complete Streets projects.
The editorial staff of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser underscores the need for and significance of the project stating: "Planners [in Honolulu] hope to meet the city’s need for housing by developing the urban core more densely, and the new neighborhoods are designed to encourage more walking and cycling for the short trips connecting home with activities of daily life. Increasingly the streets will be a shared zone, and it’s important for them to provide for everyone’s safety."
Student Project
Towards a More Equitable Urban Tree Canopy (University of Hawai‘i Dept of Urban and Regional Planning Students David Simpson and Wyatt Gordon)
The Awards Jury found that by blending planning and the use of geographic information systems, this year’s APA Hawai‘i Chapter Student Project Award winners developed recommendations for tree planting in urban areas in their project Towards a More Equitable Urban Tree Canopy: Recommendations for Municipal Tree Planting Initiatives in Honolulu. The project analyzed the distribution of tree canopy and the socioeconomic features (income and crime), showing the correlation between tree canopy distribution and socioeconomic status of communities in the local context. The project found that the benefits of a dense urban tree canopy are manifold: more inviting places, lower crime, safer streets, greater ecosystem services, healthier residents, and more prosperous communities. Many areas of urban Honolulu lack a sufficient level of tree cover to enjoy the benefits crucial to forming a livable community. Thus, the project forms the basis for an expanded municipal tree-planting program in Honolulu that would help the city to achieve broader goals of creating livable communities and Complete Streets, and be a cornerstone of the city’s efforts to foster social and economic justice in Honolulu.
Geographic Information System Project
Public Land Trust Information System (State of Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources, They Onyx Group)
The APA Hawai‘i Chapter 2015 award for GIS goes to The Onyx Group for their innovative application and database called the Public Land Trust Information System (PLTIS). This system was contracted by the State of Hawai‘i’s Department of Land and Natural Resources Land Division. The need to replace a cumbersome and manual process and comply with Act 54 SLH 2011 resulted in a modern tool which simplifies access for state employees to a large array of disparate data on all state lands owned and managed by multiple state agencies. The application supports both tabular reporting as well as a map based GIS information products. This application is in line with the State’s overall efforts to modernize and benefit from Information Technology, both in reducing staff time as well as proliferating information to decision makers in a timely and efficient manner.