2019-07-23 KCDP Minutes.v02 - Laserfiche WebLink

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2. Brenda Ford, representing herself, testified in opposition to the proposed amendments. She introduced herself as one of the original Kona CDP Steering Committee members among the other hundreds of participants in the drafting process. She stated a history of struggling to get the County to put in the infrastructure and roads needed in the Kona area. Ms. Ford expressed her strong opposition to changing any of the "shalls' to "shoulds' or "musts" to "wills' in the plan. She stated that softening the language will only enable developers to get around the requirements and that developers need to pay their share for infrastructure improvements. 3. Dwight Vicente, representing the Hawaiian Kingdom, testified in opposition to Bill 87, Kona CDP Amendments. He expressed that lands referenced in the CDP still belong to the Hawaiian Kingdom and that the County has no legal jurisdiction. 4. Corey Harden, representing herself, testified in opposition to the proposed amendments. She shared that after the hundreds of hours of hard work that community volunteers put into drafting the plan, she did not want to see it amended by a few public officials. She expressed concern for environmental protections that are in place in the adopted plan and praised the Missler case for protecting Waikaku'u. She expressed concern that without the mandating language stated in the plan, all (or many) of the trees in Waikaku'u would have been cut down. 5. Franz Weber, representing himself, testified in support of the proposed amendments. Mr. Weber expressed his appreciation for the work the County has done to work on these amendments and to explain and educate participants during the process. He shared his concern for the liability issues the County is subject to due to the mandating language of the plan. He stated that many of the policies provide very little flexibility for the County to implement the plan, for example, when delineating future roadway alignments. He expressed gratitude that the Planning Department had recorded the concerns that did not make it into this amendment package for consideration during the future comprehensive review. He shared that the County needs to be more careful in the future with how they draft community plans. 6. Charles Young, representing himself, testified in support of the proposed amendments. Mr. Young introduced himself as the chair of the Kona CDP Action Committee. He shared that the AC went through great lengths to discuss to try to resolve each amendment that they were uncomfortable with. He stated that while he is not an expert on all of the proposed changes, he was concerned to find that some of the originally adopted language was inhibiting processes that would otherwise be favorable and in alignment with the CDP. 7. Larry Ford, representing himself, testified in opposition to the proposed amendments. Mr. Ford shared that the Kona CDP provided assurances on how the Kona community would grow and develop. He shared that it is imperative that the clauses in the plan be abided by in order to follow the community's wants. He stated that mischaracterizing the amendments as a liability is a fear tactic and goes against the spirit of the plan. He concluded that County Council members have the responsibility to implement the plan as written. 8. Michael Matsukawa, representing himself, testified in opposition of the proposed amendments. He introduced himself as an attorney from South Kona and an original member of the Kona CDP Steering Committee. He explained that the plan requires backing by County Council to fund and implement all the infrastructure that it calls for and expressed disappointment that the Council www. hip Ian ningdept.com konana,hawaiicounty.gov Page 2