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And generally my comments related to changing zoning, is Im against upzoning
<br />basically, especially for agricultural lands and lands that are in native forest. Im trying
<br />to preserve that for the future generations for the kids, so they have something to enjoy
<br />and be proud of as something unique to the rest of the world. But if we develop over all
<br />that it will all be gone, so I try not to make that happen in as many ways as I can. And
<br />one of them is Im involved with the Puna Community Development Plan which is also a
<br />big process that has a lot to do with land use and making recommendationsto Planning
<br />and to the County Council as far as future growth, growth management, lots of different
<br />landuse issues. Theresactually ten different working groups that address all of the
<br />issues that were faced with in Puna, beingthat the population is growing really fast; and
<br />most of it is, you know, people coming from off-island, out of state. There are a lot of
<br />things that those people need to know when they move here.
<br />And I also work for my community association, the roads maintenance tax office,
<br />becausewehaveprivateroads.Wehave45milesofprivateroadsinFernForest;anda
<br />mandatory roads maintenance assessment. So I take care of the bookkeeping for that, and
<br />the billings, and what not. So I get all the calls, too, because I have the telephone in my
<br />house. So people call and they ask me, you know, everything. Its residents, potential
<br />residents, absentee lot owners, realtors, mortgage companies, you know, everybody calls
<br />me. My job is to take care of the bookkeeping for the roads maintenance assessment; and
<br />nobody pays us for anything else except for transferring properties, you know, $25 for a
<br />transfer fee if it goes through escrow. But the point is that theres a lot of burden on our
<br />subdivisions, our substandard subdivisions, because of all these new developments, too.
<br />So I dont think that we really need more new developments on the island because I live
<br />in one of those subdivisions thats only maybe, you know, 30 percent full right now. But,
<br />of course, thats not where the jobs are. So theres an economic thing that has to happen
<br />too if we want to do good planning. Theres a whole bunch of things that are involved in
<br />good planning for the future.
<br />And community development plan working groups have come up, you know, theyve
<br />been working for about a year on different ideas, different things that could possibly
<br />work. One of the things the groups have come up with is in doing agricultural parks,
<br />industrial parks, and what not, so that we can have some of these issues resolved ahead of
<br />time with traffic or what not. But they havent, you know, I dont think they all, those
<br />reports are not going to all tell you exactly where they want all the parks to be. There are
<br />some suggested places. But I think that once people accept, you know, once those plans
<br />are accepted then we could have more discussion about exactly where things should go.
<br />Anyway, back to this again. The things that Im concerned with these bills are that they
<br />dont really steep all of the different types of public services that I would consider
<br />essential public services, and a lot of other people would too. And then they state some,
<br />but some people dont. Its kind of vice versa, you know, transportation and water are
<br />big things if you want to develop a community. But if you live in a community where
<br />you get three inches of rain a night, every night for a week like we have had in the last
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