Court Opinion

ID: 9559468
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 17:29:52.252235+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:11:10.296887
License: Public Domain

DISSENTING OPINION OF
KIDWELL, J„ WITH WHOM RICHARDSON, C.J., JOINS
I disagree with the conclusion reached in the majority opinion and would hold that the plaintiffs (the “Council”) are empowered to employ independent consultants to provide the services described in the proposed contract.
By the stipulation of the parties which submits this case to us as an original proceeding under Rule 21, the issues were stated to be, first, whether the Council may employ independent contractors to perform consultative services and, second, whether such authority, if existent, “is limited in exercise to valid legislative purposes.” Defendants conceded the first issue in their brief. As to the second issue, defendants argued that the Council may employ consultants only to assist it in carrying out its legislative function and that a study commissioned for the formulation of a development plan of Kakaako is outside the ambit of a valid legislative purpose. The statement of facts expressly informs us that the parties are in agreement that the Charter authorizes and empowers the Council to revise or amend the general plan or any existing development plan, and it appears that there is no question that the Council’s legislative function includes such revisions or amendments. The arguments advanced in the defendants’ brief make it quite apparent that the proposed study is viewed by them as having for its purpose the preparation of an initial development plan which the Council is without authority to initiate, prepare or formulate. In their brief, the defendants carefully distinguish the powers granted by the Charter to the Council to revise or amend the general plan or any existing development plan from its authority to adopt the original general plan or an initial development plan. It is nowhere argued in the defendants’ brief that the Council lacks authority to employ consultants to assist it in a *88revision or amendment of the general plan or any existing development plan, and defendants argue only that the Council lacks such authority with respect to the formulation of an initial development plan. To appreciate the significance of this distinction, it is necessary to look at the Charter provisions relating to the planning process.
The Charter creates a department of general planning, of which the administrative head is the chief planning officer. Charter § 5-401. Among the duties of the chief planning officer, as spelled out in the Charter, are those of preparing a general plan1 and revisions thereof at least every five years and development plans2 and annual reviews thereof. Charter § 5-403(a). The Charter provides: “The chief planning officer shall prepare the general plan and development plans” and: *89“The council shall adopt the general plan or revisions thereof by resolution and development plans and revisions thereto by ordinance.” Charter §§ 5-411, 5-412.
The manner in which the general plan and development plans are to reach the Council when prepared by the chief planning officer is not prescribed in the Charter, although reference is made in § 5-410 to the submission of the plans by the chief planning officer to the Council. Specific provision is made, however, for the proposal by the Council of any revision of or amendment to the general plan or any existing development plan, which is to be processed in the same manner as if proposed by the chief planning officer. Any such revision or amendment is required to be referred to the chief planning officer and the planning commission, and if not approved by the planning commission may be adopted by the council only by a two-thirds vote. Charter § 5-412.
Despite the obvious significance of the question whether the proposed consultant contract dealt with the preparation of an original general plan or an initial development plan, on the one hand, or a revision or amendment of an existing general plan or development plan, on the other, the agreed statement of facts leaves this question to be resolved only by reference to its exhibits. We find by a recital in Ordinance No. 4551 (1975) (Exhibit G) that the Council “is in the process of formulating development policies and plans for the Kakaako area which may involve amendments to the existing General Plan, Detailed Land Use Map, Development Plan and the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinances.” (Emphasis supplied). Were it not for this recital we would be wholly uninformed by the record as to which of the distinct and separable function of the Council in the planning process the proposed consultant contract relates.
The record adequately informs us that the Kakaako area is included in the existing general plan for the City and County of Honolulu, and this was conceded in argument. It may be debatable whether we are informed by the record as to the existence or nonexistence of a development plan for this area. The arguments which the defendants present contain an assumption that any development plan which the Council *90might propose would be an initial development plan and that no development plan now exists. As troubling as this factual question is, I regard it as avoidable. Clearly, the first step in any process which looks to the creation of a development plan for Kakaako, whether an initial or an amended one, must be a review of the general plan as it now exists and its revision, if necessary, to provide the “development objectives and policies” which a development plan implements and accomplishes. Charter § 5-409. The record tells us, at least, that a purpose of the proposed consultant contract is to assist the Council in determining what revisions should be made in the general plan as it affects Kakaako. Is the Council foreclosed from obtaining this assistance because the information obtained might also be relevant to the formulation of a development plan? I think the answer must be that the employment of the consultants, if within the Council’s authority in furtherance of its legislative function, is not to be denied to the Council because it might also assist the Council in an activity outside of that legislative function. At the very least, on the present record which leaves the status of the development plans for Kakaako so much in doubt, it seems to me quite unwarranted on our part to taint the consultant contract with a fatal infirmity for this reason.
We are told by the agreed statement of facts that the purpose of the proposed consultant contract is “to review, evaluate, consolidate and update all previous planning studies made of Kakaako and present to the Plaintiff City Council the consultant’s considered opinion of the optimum alternatives for the development of Kakaako and propose legislation by which said alternatives may be realized. ” I find it difficult to better define the investigation which the Council should undertake in formulating a revision of the general plan for this or any other area included in the general plan. Cf., Dalton v. City and County, 51 Haw. 400, 462 P.2d 199 (1969). No reference to the preparation of an initial development plan for Kakaako appears in the agreed statement of facts or its exhibits, including the text of the proposed consultant contract. We may not bar the Council from proceeding with this investigation in furtherance of its legislative function to *91revise the general plan, merely because it might stray beyond prescribed boundaries and also consider a development plan. If there is forbidden territory into which the Council should not stray, a barrier can be erected to keep it in bounds without excluding it from its assigned responsibility.
To this point, I have been looking only to the Charter to ascertain the scope of the Council’s legislative function. The conclusion should be tested by considering whether, under general principles, the formulation and amendment of municipal land use plans is a legislative or executive function. The Charter confuses the issue somewhat by incorporating the provisions with respect to adoption and amendment of the general plan and development plans in Article V, dealing with the executive branch. However, it is beyond argument that the enactment of the ordinance by which such adoption or amendment is effectuated is a legislative act entrusted to the Council in the exercise of its legislative function.3 It has not been suggested that any part of the executive function has been assigned to the Council. Rather, it appears that the Charter Commission may have departed from a strict separation of powers by assigning to the executive department a portion of the legislative function, being the formulation of ordinances adopting the original general plan and initial development plans. Clearly, that responsibility does not fall within the “implementation and execution of the policies set by the legislative branch”, as the primary responsibility of the executive branch is described in the majority opinion. The case thus becomes one in which what *92is, in the basic concept of the separation of powers, a legislative function is sought to be characterized as an executive function. To the extent that the Charter has given it that character, the Charter necessarily controls. However, the implications are to the contrary.
The parties have presented a limited issue, and we should not go outside the narrow limits of the submission in this case. There is no controversy with respect to the propriety of the proposed contract if it will ‘assist the Council in the performance of a legislative function. The record before us requires that we consider only the function of amending the general plan, to which I regard the consequent adoption or amendment of development plans as incidental and not requiring separate consideration. The Charter does not expressly or by implication confine the formulation of such amendments to the executive branch. The Council’s contentions should be sustained in the case before us and its authority to employ independent contractors to perform the proposed consultative services should be sustained, although we do not have a sufficient record to enable us to consider the propriety of the particular contract.
My disagreement with the majority opinion is fundamental and goes to the basic question of the division of powers between the legislative and executive branches in the Charter. However, even if I were prepared to accept the conclusions of the majority on this question, I could not concur with the posture in which the majority leaves this case. The majority announces a rule which would permit the Council to proceed with the preparation of, or formulation of amendments to, a general plan or development plan if “after a proper request by the city council is made, the executive branch is uncooperative or has faded, within a reasonable period, to assume and proceed with their responsibility.” The majority opinion also states:
Critical to this controversy is the fact that the city council never made or submitted a request to the executive branch for the type of study under question. The record is devoid of evidence of any resolution made by the city council to the executive branch accompanied *93by proper appropriation, if necessary, requesting the proposed study.
I agree that the record before us, consisting as it does only of the agreed statement of facts, is silent on this question, which the parties obviously considered not relevant in preparing their submission of the case to us. Consequently, nothing in the record supports the finding of fact that “the city council never made or submitted a request.” We are wholly uninformed with respect to this fact and if it is critical, as the majority opinion makes it, we can do no more in this case than determine that the rights of the parties depend upon the resolution of the question whether an appropriate and sufficient request was made. That question is not among the issues submitted and I would not regard it as litigated or resolved by the gratuitous statement in the majority opinion. Rather than leave the case in this posture, I would permit the parties to supplement their submission in order to provide a basis in the record for a factual determination whether the past relationship between the Council and the executive branch supports the exercise by the Council of the reserved powers which the majority opinion identifies.

 Section 5-408. General Plan. The general plan shall set forth the city’s broad policies for the long range development of the city. It shall contain statements of the general social, economic, environmental and design objectives to be achieved for the general welfare and prosperity of the people of the city through government action, city, State or federal. The statements shall include, but not be limited to, policy and development objectives to be achieved with respect to the distribution of social benefits, the most desirable uses of land within the city, the overall circulation pattern and the most desirable population densities within the several areas of the city.

 Section 5-409. Development Plans. “Development Plans” mean relatively detailed schemes for implementing and accomplishing the development objectives and policies of the general plan within the several parts of the city. A development plan shall include a map of the area of the city to which it is applicable; shall contain statements of standards and principles with respect to land uses within the area for residential, recreational, agricultural, commercial, industrial, institutional, open spaces and other purposes and statements of urban design principles and controls; and shall identify areas, sites and structures of historical, archeological, architectural or scenic significance, a system of public thoroughfares, highways and streets, and the location, relocation and improvement of public buildings, public or private facilities for utilities terminals and drainage. It shall state the desirable sequence for development and other purposes as may be important and consistent with the orderly implementation of the general plan.
Development plans may contain statements identifying the present conditions and major problems relating to development, physical deterioration and the location of land uses and the social, economic and environmental effects thereof; may show the projected nature and rate of change in present conditions for the reasonably foreseeable future based on a projection of current trends; and may forecast the probable social, economic and environmental consequences of such changes.

 “The law is settled that the zoning of property, including the preparation of comprehensive land use plans, involves the exercise of judgment which is legislative in character and is subject to judicial control only if arbitrary and without rational basis.” Higginbothams. Barrett, 473 F.2d 745, 747 (5th Cir. 1973). To the same effectsee Diedrichs. Zoning Commission, 393 F.2d 666 (D.C.Cir. 1968), holding that the functions of the District of Columbia Zoning Commission in preparing and promulgating comprehensive land use plans and maps “are obviously exercises of judgment legislative in character and are subject to judicial control only if arbitrary and capricious.” In O’Loane v. O’Rourke, 231 Cal.App.2d 774, 42 Cal. Rptr. 283 (1965), it was held that the adoption of a city general plan, although not a precondition to the exercise of zoning control, is a legislative rather than administrative or executive act and subject to referendum.