COM 0042.083 2002-2004 - Laserfiche WebLink

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November 10, 2004 James Atakaki, Council Chairman Hawaii County Council FAX (808) 961-8912 RE: Bi11280, Dtaft 8 -OPPOSITION STATEMENT I am unable to attend the Council meeting due to a family funeral, and I am requesting that Mr. Kunitake be allowed to read my testimony for the Council as my representative. I oppose Bi11280, Draft 8 for the same reasons presented throughout the past six months. As drafted, this bill is anti small-business, unjustifiably restrictive, difficult to understand, and therefore, unenforceable. However, my opposition has increased due to the attempts throughout this process to limit our input and mislead us through misrepresentation of County ordinance and other information while amending the Bill to make it mote restrictive to small businesses. I would like to take my limited time at this meeting to remind the Council: c~ A petition was submitted to you by Marie-Anne Rouse with over 220 signatures in opposition of Bi11280 because it is `unfair to small business'. This petition continues to be valid. The bill has been amended to be more restrictive since the signatures were collected. r~ A petition was submitted to you with over 100 signatures of owners, managers and staff of businesses in the Kailua Village Core in opposition to Bi11280 due to `excessive restrictions proposed solely for businesses located within the Kailua Village Design District' with three specific restrictions listed. Those restrictions included; 1) limiting businesses to one sign on the store front, 2) limiting the content of signs to the business name only, and 3) limiting all signs to no greater than 12 sq. ft. This petition is still valid. These restrictions still exist within Draft 8, and the restricted area has been expanded to include more small businesses since the signatures were collected. c~ It was presented at the last Council meeting that it would be illegal to include our amendment proposals to allow more than one sign per business front or signs greater than 12 sq. ft. because it would be against the Master Plan for Kailua-Kona However, the Council decided to provide us the opportunity to explore this claim and present our position more clearly. We attended a meeting at which we presented the documentation showing the Master Plan supports each of our positions; however, none of our amendments were included in this draft, and we received an e- mail message stating that there was insufficient time to address our requests and they would be `agendized' for this Council meeting. We submitted a document to the Council on Monday that we would prefer was `agendized' for your consideration. It includes a position statement cover page, four pages itemizing our proposed amendments in ramseyered format with justification and rationale, and copies of relevant pages of the HRS Chapter 445 and the Master Plan for Kailua-Kona Comm. No. Ref. To: ~raseete~ m~ Ref. Ua,~ Nov i n Anne