2008-05-08 TPUNAcdp - Laserfiche WebLink

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as a community member that we needed the professional planning expertise, so that’s just my comments with, yes, and they were from Honolulu also. My other comment is that, yes, we maybe got a letter from the Volcano Community Association, but again relating back to development plans the demographics are changing, I’m sure there as in Kohala. And oftentimes people who comment or write letters may not be the people who worked on the other master plan. So I think we need to take those as two separate entities, not to say that because the Volcano Association now wrote a letter that it is indicative of the master plan. And I just want to comment that I’ve worked, I’m not on the Steering Committee for this North Kohala Plan but I have worked on the others, so I take the comments that have been made seriously. And I thank you and I thank the community too for all the work that they’ve done. Thank you. WATANABE: Do we have any further questions? Okay, yes, Mr. Iwashita. IWASHITA: Mr. Arakawa, you made a comment about the inconsistency of the CDP with the General Plan and I guess -. Would you disagree with me when I say that the General Plan can be amended so that if the community really wanted changes to the General Plan so that what the local communities wanted, either be it Keaau or Volcano or Pahoa or Paradise Park, that the General Plan in the end could be amended so that it would conform to what the community thought would be best for its community? ARAKAWA: I agree 100 percent with your statement, Mr. Iwashita. But, what I’m saying here is that the County Planning Department and the Council should have, I mean, this place is going to be bigger than all of Hilo and so they should have, excuse the expression, the cojones do what they were elected to do, to do what they are appointed to do. To be the Planning Department -. Okay? One, it’s very important to listen to the community. I was involved in Waipahu and so we want our plantation town. While it’s very important to listen to that, some people with the expertise have to step up and say, you know, that’s all fine and good but for the good of the island, wherever it is, whichever island it is, we think that the population is going to go out to Puna, you know. Or they can change it, they can say all the population stays in Hilo. But -. IWASHITA: Okay, I -. You know, just one follow-up, Mr. Chair. And basically would you agree with me that the Council on Maui and the Council on Oahu, did just that, they stepped up to the plate and they made the decisions and they got what they got, right? ARAKAWA: Yes. IWASHITA: All right. And, you know, I’ll reiterate my comments before – I don’t think we want the same thing. And so, the Council does have the ultimate authority to make decisions under the Charter. My suggestion to you is that, you know, there needs to be a better process for the Council to make those decisions; and in my mind getting the people out like this is the direction to go. When you go to a Council meeting 18