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project because we have no clear picture of the Queen Kaahumanu widening schedule? Let's look carefully at what we would kill if we nixed this pruject. We would sacrifice a gift to the County and the people of Kona of 17 acres of beautiful shoreline with a 300' setback. That gift adjoins Kohanaiki's shoreline, also gifted to the County. It's a beautiful and rare stretch of pristine, white sand beachfront. It's worth millions of dollars. It's being offered to us as an outright gift. We would lose a negotiated 20% complement of affordable housing offered by the developer on-site. That's double the requirement required by law. We need affordable housing in North Kona and we need people who step forward to build it. We would lose a rezoning of property from industrial to commercial/residential zoning. A lot of noxious enterprises can occur on industrial-zoned properties. Do we want eyesore industries adjacent to NELHA? Is this the first impression we want to register with visitors arriving at our airport? We would lose a good neighbor to the Natural Energy Lab. Their executive director has testified in support of Clifto's. Why? Because this project will provide housing shops, places to buy lunch, and a business hotel in one location. It's a model of concentrated "smart growth," not sprawl. Does it make sense to have a business hotel adjacent to a successful research and development park? 1 think so. When a West Hawaii campus of the University of Hawaii is built within two miles, will this hotel serve that university community? I think it will. It's been suggested that the Clifto's project will serve as a kind of"Keauhou North." In other words, a North Kona alternative to the Keauhou Shopping Center. Will this relieve traffic for all the North Kona residents who must head south daily to shop? 1 think it will. On a broader scale, we see a conflux of land preservation initiatives in South Koua. Governor Lingle and Rep. Herkes are committed to a vast Soutlt Kona Wilderness Area. Senator Inouye Itas voiced Iris support to preserve the historic Hawaiian fishing village of Milolii. The Nature Conservancy has bought huge tracts of native forests in South Kona to preserve in perpetuity. The Hokulia project is mired in litigation. The Alii Highway project is on hold. In all these matters, iYs clear that development in South Kona will be greatly curtailed. Where, then, will "smart growth" planning be implemented for the inevitable growth that faces us? The answer is clear. We must look north. That was the vision of Governor Burns and Mayor Shinichi Kimura many years ago. That vision gave birth to the Queen Kaahumanu Highway and Kohala's world-class resorts, beginning with the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel built by Laurence Rockefeller. That planning today provides much of our employment base, along with a hefty tax base for services throughout our island. Within this greater scheme of a forward- looking world-class North Kona community, the Clifto's project is a good fit. It will provide jobs and housing where people live and work. Do we want to scuttle all this in a single vote today? Or should we keep working on the real problem? The real problem is getting a highway built to meet the concurrency standard we all want. Nixing Clifto's won't widen Queen Kaahumanu. But nudging our state and federal officials to fund and build Queen Kaahumanu as rapidly as possible does make sense. 3