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KERN: Any other questions for the testifiers? Seeing none, you may be seated. Thank you very
<br />much. Okay. So we seem to be at another Puna cross-road. I’m going to give my two cents
<br />real quickly cause born and raised here, Big Island, spent most of my whole life growing up in
<br />Puna and was involved somewhat with the Puna CDP when it came out. And I was really
<br />pushing for it to be a resolution instead of an ordinance so it’d be more guiding than dictating.
<br />And, to be honest, where most of the village centers and commercial centers are located with the
<br />little spotted line, they don’t benefit anybody in the community except for the big landowners;
<br />and most of them aren’t in the process of doing anything. And they’re not making land
<br />available, they’re notmaking facilities available for people to do these types of activities. So it’s
<br />a big challenge. And the General Plan doesn’t do a lot for Puna either. That needs some work
<br />there so we can open up Puna a lot more. I think it’s being, getting very clear in the last five
<br />years that Puna is a force to reckon with. It’s growing, but it needs help. And we need some
<br />infrastructure, and we need businesses, and we need services.
<br />And so, you know, this is a tricky one. It’s off the highway. That was my biggest concern at the
<br />beginning, was the traffic and basically safety. That’s my big concern, it’s not, you know, what
<br />you’re doing is a safety factor. And that seems to be somewhat, you know, taken care of from
<br />the Police Department’s perspective. So, yeah, I always try to be a friend of Puna because it’s a
<br />challenging place and dealing with government is challenging too. And that’s one of the
<br />beauties of this Commission, is that, you know, we actually get a chance to have a dialogue and
<br />figure things out and, hopefully, sometimes come to a compromise, and other times not. And in
<br />this case, you know, we’re in a touchy, touchy subject because, you know, we have to make a
<br />vote; and if things go a certain way the outcome can change very seriously.
<br />So we either make a motion right now, which is basically where we’re at -. So, Commissioner
<br />Domingo?
<br />DOMINGO: Mr. Chairman, I move that we defer action on this matter and perhaps bringing it
<br />up for consideration within the next two months.
<br />KERN: Okay.
<br />DOMINGO: And if I have a second then I’ll explain why I’m moving for a deferral.
<br />ONO: I second.
<br />KERN: Discussion.
<br />DOMINGO: Mr. Chairman, it’s obvious amongstthe Planning Commissioners that there’s wide
<br />support for this particular application, absent some, some concerns that have been expressed by
<br />the speakers here. But, more than anything else, there is that support. And the reason I’m asking
<br />for deferral, yeah, as I was about toexplain,and the reason why I’m asking for a deferral is
<br />because although the regional plan designates commercial centers -- and then as mentioned Puna
<br />is so huge an area, you know,going from one center to another center too and of which there is
<br />no sign or indication that there is a center at all --it’s only a designation. But meanwhile the
<br />people of Puna are saddled with these kind of concerns as, oh, if I need bread or something I’ve
<br />got to travel all the way, a long distance to go, and which is, I think, absurd in view of the cost of
<br />gasoline today. And as I began to mention also, the Development Plan has made no mention of
<br />using special permits to consider other uses on agricultural land to which this use is applicable.
<br />And my concern is that the people in Puna and others are looking at the Development Plan for
<br />whichever future plans they’d like to make. Yeah? And when and if we apply any special
<br />permit and a use which is altogether different from what you would find in an agricultural
<br />designated land, you know, then they’ll question why has this use been permitted, what or how
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