COM 0842.001 2010-2012 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

home was built with $40K and a heap of recycled lumber, recycled windows and other materials 1 gathered for cheap or free while living in a tent, a very nice Yurt tent. My profession is in non profit education and community development and 1 am not a building contractor but 1 have many neighborhood friends with many construction skills who,over ten years have worked on my house for free or for a small payment in the spirit of community building and volunteerism. I owe nothing on my home,never have done,l built it as 1 gathered the money and the resources over ten years. I have no fears of any bank foreclosing and evicting my family. My 8 year old daughter and I live well with all the conveniences we need for a quality life in the 21st century. My home has been visited by Mayor Billy Kenoi, Council Chairman Yagong and by at least 6 Council members over the last decade, there is consensus that it is a quality family dwelling. It is however, not incompliance with current code and cannot be legally permitted for several reasons. With food from my land and our SPACE farmers market, with no mortgage and utility payments limited to telephone,internet,a little propane and gas to drive my truck and because of my communal lifestyle 1 can live on a very, very small budget. A low overhead reduces the impacts that global or local economic turbulence will have on the quality of my life. I also have the benefits of a supportive community. I live in an ecovillage with nearly 30 people. Our chosen lifestyle may not be the one desired by the majority of residents on the Big Island but if sustainable living is an objective for the County of Hawaii then we, and individuals and other organizations like us,have much to offer. Our land is manicured by horses and not gas powered mowers or weedwhackers, our chickens are our bug controllers and fertilizers as well as egg producers. We make fertile, composted soil with worms and horse manure instead of importing chemical fertilizers,we drive solar powered golf carts instead of tractors, we build with lumber harvested from our own land, we share tools and equipment and appliances like washing machines,we dry our laundry in the wind, we never have to lock our doors and can leave our keys in our vehicles, we always have a neighbor to provide help when we need it,we have a village to raise our children. In 2007 we built a 6,000 sq ft community center that hosts a public Charter School, a Farmers market and a world reknown performance arts program, all for $300,000. About the same time it cost the County of Hawaii $150K to build a keiki playground down the road in Pohoiki. Our County needs models for more sustainable and affordable methods of infrastructure design and