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Josephine l.. Keliipio P.O. Box 368 Kealakekua, Hi 96750 (808)326-7998 Hawai°I County Committee on Planning 10-01-02 Attn: IMs. Bobby Jean Leithead-Todd g Chairperson Hilo, Hawaii 996720 . R~: general ~I~n ll~~at~ ~y .n„~ ®ear Ms. Leithead-Todd, X44 P`~ - Mahalo for holding community meetings around the island to obtain input from as many people as possible for our General Plan, a plan whose policies will affect our island home for the next 10 years. So far, this is the 4th community meeting that I have attended to comment on a variety of issues because I am greatly concerned with how this General Pian will affect and change the character of our unique island communities like North Kona where I come from. The following are more of my concerns regarding this General Plan update 1) even though the Planning Director, and other county officials, has continually emphasized that we have had numerous public meetings and workshops over the last 2 ~/z years, those "workshops" were not true workshops. No planner sat down with us to educate us in any planning methods or techniques. All the planners did was tell us what changes they made to the maps, then they took notes on what we wanted, and then they applied what they received as they saw fit to the General Plan update. There were many assumptions made by the planners without input from the public. One of these assumptions was that North Kona will serve as the only urban center for V10est Hawaii with tons of cars commuting from other regions creating more noise, traffic, pollution and hazards and basically destroying the quality of life for those of us who live in North Kona. Another assumption made was that the island will continue to be heavily auto-dependent despite the obvious existing auto-dependent problems in Honolulu and other mainland communities that we should be learning by. I cannot see how we can go forward to finalize such a plan when the public was not given a chance to "start from a clean page" without county-influenced assumptions. 2) As I have stated before, the General Plan update lacks a vision for the island. It is not adequate to say that the General Plan identifies the "`visions of the people" when in fact, we were not given the opportunity to actively discuss what our vision should be. I have included copies of Kaua`I County's Vision for their island, which is very comprehensive and takes up an entire chapter of their General Plan. A vision provides a picture of h®w we want this islan Coxiam. N®< File No. Ref. o: .Ref.