COM 1445.000 2006-2008 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

As a result, many of the residents of North Kohala participated in either or both the CRP and NKCDP planning process, which are the processes that facilitated the creation of the NKCDP. COMMUNITY READINESS PROJECT The Planning Department, in collaboration with the Department of Research and Development, recognized that broad-based public participation in the planning process was critical in developing community buy-in to ensure implementation of Plan. Between June and September of 2006, over 2800 ideas were gathered from over 80 small group meetings conducted by trained local facilitators in North Kohala. These meetings were offered on-demand, scheduled throughout North Kohala, and were targeted to ensure balanced demographic and geographic participation of residents. Over 730+ community members, roughly 12% of the total population participated in the "talk story sessions." The CRP data served to help the Steering Committee to prioritize the community's input and select four Priority Issues that would be the focus of the NKCDP. COMMUNITY MEETINGS. It was decided early on that community meetings would be held in North Kohala during the NKCDP planning process to help facilitate the following goals; 1) Create and maintain a relationship between the community and the planning team, 2} Introduce and make visible the members of the NKCDP Steering Committee to the community, 3) Describe the planning process and estimated timeline, and 4) Create a feedback loop to the community to keep them appraised of the latest developments as the planning process progressed. All meetings were held with tremendous support from Kohala High School who provided their cafeteria on three separate occasions. The community meetings were held August 8, 2007, January 12, 2008, and April 16, 2008. Approximately 400+ people attended the three meetings and we anticipate a large number of residents to attend a fourth community meeting to celebrate the unveiling of the approved NKCDP. FOCUS GROUPS In order to gather input from a diversity of community members, Focus Groups (FG) were formed to address each of the four Priority Issues: Growth Management, Public Access, Affordable Housing, and Infrastructure. Each FG met several times to discuss and decide on the goals, strategies, and action steps for their issue. The meetings were held in the North Kohala district at the senior center, high school, private residences, and other locations. Invitation to attend FG meetings was open to the public and people could begin attending meetings even after the group had been formed and were engaged in the planning process. Over twenty FG meetings were held from October 2007 through May 2008. The FGs were a key force behind the NKCDP planning process and provided tremendous amounts of energy and time to collect data and provide input to the planning consultant. This facilitated the creation of Working Papers released in January 2008, which are the basis of the NKCDP. The FG also worked closely with the SC to fine tune NKCDP. THE NKCDP STEERING COMMITTEE The COH Mayor and the Hawaii County Council appointed citizens to serve on the NKCDP Steering Committee (SC), representing a cross section of the North Kohala