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lessons from the past and current hard times, it seems like our leaders would see the madness of
<br />putting more eggs into the tourism basket.
<br />One other concern we have is that people generally want to see successful agencies with great track
<br />records taking on more responsibility. Why would we entrust an agency to manage and expand the
<br />airport facility when it allowed the Honolulu Airport to degrade to North America's third worst?
<br />And I have one comment that wasn't in my testimony from what Planning said. Despite the project
<br />not being in Conservation land directly, it certainly will affect Conservation lands that are adjacent
<br />to it. And as far as building a quarantine hotel at the airport, we have plenty of hotels that can be
<br />used, especially when there is a pandemic, which creates even" 46wer occupancy.
<br />And to close, with all these concerns and more, we ask the.comnittee members parse the land use
<br />and financial needs of our residents in a different light than those who need proposed zoning
<br />amendment. We hope that you and the Planning -Department will focus on more sustainable,
<br />diverse, less tourism dependent projects, especially ones that don't sit,ptecariously close to our
<br />special hard-won places and our delicate coastline:,;
<br />Mahalo for your time, and thank you,so much for letting :me go before other speakers.
<br />CARR SMITH: Thank you very much, `Janice;.gpreciate it, All right, let's move on. Mr. Yuen
<br />and Mr. Bisgard, you folks want to be next? And please let us. know your name and where you are
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<br />calling in from and what your position is;,please. And unmute'-please.
<br />WONG YUEN: Okay; are we good.now?
<br />CARR SMITH: Yes, go ,Ahead.
<br />WONG YUEN: Okay; --thank'your. ' Chaii-Carr Smith and Members, thank you so much for allowing
<br />us to contribute this morning. My name is Chauncey
<br />Wong Yuen. Real quickly, I'm a Big Island
<br />boy, born,i'n,Hilo but raised in= Kona: t` -graduated from Konawaena High School. I count on
<br />amongstmy mentors, the original environmentalists that were here on this coast, folks like Alice
<br />Greenwell and,_ :who took us up into the mountains, and [inaudible] Sutherland, my teachers. We are
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<br />talking about John Wahinekapu, my scoutmaster, who taught us values of the scout law. So these
<br />lands on which this airport sits are, near and dear to me. In fact, before this airport was an airport, I
<br />grew up in Kailua, hav piwalked,-as a scout from Palani Road all the way to what now is the
<br />existing Honok6hau Harbor and"Ai`opio fishtrap where we can't [inaudible]. So I'm just saying all
<br />of this to let you know that, you know, we are not making decisions or, or looking at planning and
<br />development from a State-wide point of view. So as we are looking at this development—I've been
<br />here 50 years, all 50 years of it, I started working here at this airport in 1970. I was a kid then, 16
<br />years old, working for my dad with the Gray Line corporation. I joined Hawaiian Airlines in 1973,
<br />Aloha Airlines in 1995, and I've been with the State of Hawaii since 2002. So, I've managed both
<br />airports in Hilo and in Kona. During the period, of course, we've seen, you know, much growth.
<br />And if it were not for the pandemic, we actually had this opportunity to reset and take a look at what
<br />we are going to do with facilities in particular.
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<br />DRAFT
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