2008-05-08 TPUNAcdp - Laserfiche WebLink

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you’ll realize that Kurtistown is probably the fastest growing community as far as the business district is concerned. We now have a 7-Eleven that just opened up, we have a self-service pump, and believe it or not Kurtistown even has a traffic light. And we’re expanding, and we want to expand more, and we want to create jobs for the community. I submitted six pages of written arguments regarding what I consider a very, very bad road plan. And I tried to address the situation that the Puna Community Development Plan in my mind is a major complex legislation. And complex legislation should really be scrutinized in every single aspect. And for a complex litigation or legislation to simply go through the process that it did I think is very unwise because there’s a huge amount of unintended consequences. I tried real hard, I worked real hard on this plan as you can see from my submittal. But I felt that it really didn’t nail it on the head, and I worked and worked. And if you’ll give a little time I’ll try to explain what I mean. I’ve been a part of traffic planning for many, many years. I worked with Governor John Burns in the 1960s when he was involved in designing the Queen K Highway. And in understanding the economics and the velocity of Queen K Highway I learned that it has a tremendous economic role to play. Now that’s really why I’ve gotten involved in the Puna Community Development Plan. First of all, I was a member of the 1989 State of Hawaii Long Range Transportation Plan. And in that plan I was probably the harshest critic of the Department of Trans because I felt that they very, very badly manipulated the process to a point where the consultant pretty much knew what he wanted to give us. He let us put a lot of public input and piece by piece he got rid our input; and it ended up with the final plan pretty much what they started with. And I thought it was very cynical and I was very, very upset. And so I got involved with the Puna Regional Circulation Plan which was ended in 2005 with the professional consultant that was responsible for coming up with the final plan; and I think that the person did a great job. I know that not everybody was happy but I felt that type of plan is far superior to what we have today. The Community Development plan should be a master plan created by the Puna Community. But it isn’t. The Hawaii County Planning Department who designed and managed the process -. WATANABE: Mr. Fukumoto, I don’t want to cut you short. I’m perfectly willing to let you proceed a little further, but if you’re going to read your written testimony that was provided to us then -. FUKUMOTO: No, this is a condensed version. WATANABE: Well, okay, let’s be mindful of the time then, please. FUKUMOTO: Yes. WATANABE: Cause I still have to be mindful of everyone else’s -. FUKUMOTO: I understand. 22