2004-01-16 Western United Life - Laserfiche WebLink

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I was the one that brought up at the meeting about the Hawaiian hawk. I watch the hawk that - , one of the families that fly from that area and they come and they stay in the tops of the `` hia trees on my property because I kept a lot of trees. But they don't nest there. They fly back and they head back to the site. I have not actually seen where their nest is. I would guess that it's probably on the cinder cone, because that's the highest point on that property and there are large trees up there and there are no way for other predators to get up to the nest. And by being at the high point, they also have the best advantage to protect their small hawks, I don't know the correct name for a baby hawk, but the baby hawks when they're in the nest. I am glad to see that the Planning Director and the Planning Department said that the cinder cone area should be saved. At one of the meetings, and I believe it was with the Punahele/Crescent City group -, people, there was a gentleman there, and I forget his name, he mentioned something. He's grown -. I've only lived here for 25 years, so I don't have a long family history of stories, but I've heard it from friends, and this gentleman mentioned that he had heard as a young child and growing up that there were actual burial sites on portions of that area, and particularly in the area where the cinder cone area is. I don't know if that's accurate or not. I'm glad archaeological reports are going to have to be done. But I think these should be done or more definitive, and maybe they are, but when the community is asked what information's been gotten on it, we've been told they really haven't been completed yet or haven't been done. Before a blanket approval to change this zoning, and the majority of it is Ag-1A, to this Urban Village high density development which is -. It has been done on this u Island, and it was mentioned by the developer's representative that it was done over at Hallai because they needed to be able to quickly react to problems in the development phase. Well, Huallai is probably the most expensive residential development area and resort area that's been developed on this Island ever, and this project is not with -, in the same classification, from what we've heard. I have a concern that there's no real addressing affordable housing in this whole plan. We've asked that question. I'm concerned because the County has -, we've got a shortage of all ` house inventory in East Hawaii right now, it's really a tight market, but affordable housing, which has got to be affordable for the general public. And it has been mentioned that maybe they would look at -, you know, so it could be affordable for starting teachers and starting policemen and start -, you know, new people coming into the work force. It's got to be affordable housing in the general concept of what affordable housing is, and it doesn't seem to be, it's not being currently addressed in this plan. And I would like somebody, if the Planning Commission knows or if Mr. Yuen knows, actually, what's the exact acreage that they're planning to build on for the residential and the transient housing? Because when you start cutting out -, the cinder cone's going to be protected; how many acres is that? The flood plain is approximately 49-plus acres for that. Ten acres was mentioned for the 150 transient vacation units that they're talking, or short term rental units, but how many actual acres are being planned to put residential development on? 18