2008-01-11 TMAUNAKEA - Laserfiche WebLink

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This year Ms. Blakemore documented other specific instances where access was wrongly st impeded. On March 21, I said this year, I mean last year, and it’s 2007. We just started the st new year, haven’t we? March 21 she was told there was no public parking spaces but when she th drove down she noticed two. April 6 she was told there were no public spaces available and they couldn’t drive down at all, in direct contradiction of the easement that the public has down th there. On July 28 she was told there was no public beach parking when in fact there were two th spaces available. I need to point out to you this July 28 occurrence took place after staff members of the Planning Department talked to the Mauna Kea officials about problems the nd public was having with security guards not letting people down there. On September 22 a security guard told her there were no parking spaces when in fact there were four open public parking spaces. It is not sufficient for them to come to you and make these promises and telling you that oh, yeah, it’s a problem we deal with. Why is it that a native Hawaiian is continually facing these kinds of falsehoods? And it shouldn’t be up to members of the public or a member of the Planning Commission to have to call to complain about something. This needs to be done 100 percent properly. And this is done in a way that impedes the public in a systematic manner. Now in spite of what Chris has told you, there is no official approval in the Planning Department’s files of this parking system that they have in place. It may make some sense to have a beach pass system; but pass out those beach passes down below at the parking lot, not up above at the highway where those guys up there have no idea how many parking spaces are down below, when no one can verify whether there are spaces or not. Have them pass out those beach pass parking passes down below at the parking lot. That way we don’t get the kind of abuse that we’ve been seeing. And it’s my understanding, talking to Ms. Blakemore and others, that actually the security folks that work below are far nicer and far more competent than the ones that are up on the highway. If you look through the records of the Planning Department you’ll see that the resort has no legal authority to use this parking pass system; and it is entirely inconsistent with the law when it’s used in a way to block people from access. We have asked for a couple of conditions. No. 1 that the additional parking spaces be made to 20, 20 additional ones, to make a total of 50. The language that Mr. Yuen has provided to you is pretty good. But I want to point out, there are three problems with it. No. 1 we think it should be 20 additional spaces, not 10. Secondly by leaving it wide open in terms of where the parking should be we think there is room for abuse, given the kind of abuse that the members of the public have faced. And I’m not just telling you about the testimony I’m presenting to you today. If you look through the files of the Planning Department, you’ll find complaint, after complaint, after complaint in there of people who have been denied access and how Mauna Kea Beach Hotel has manipulated the system. So I think the language that Mr. Yuen has provided needs to be tightened up. The parking should be provided either where it is now or on the north side where the other hotel guest parking is near where there’s an access. In other words so members of the public don’t have to walk miles to get to the beach; the parking needs to be convenient. The other change that needs to be happening is there really needs to be a timeframe in there. We’ve seen developers throughout the State fail to abide by conditions arguing that, well, there’s no time limit. Oh, yeah, we need to provide parking but it doesn’t say when. So, for example, on Oahu people don’t have access to Kawela Bay yet 20 years after a permit was provided EXHIBIT B 8