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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2008-08-22 TSKCDP PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAII HEARING TRANSCRIPT AUGUST 22, 2008 A regularly advertised hearing on the SOUTH KOHALA COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT - PLANwas called to order at 6:08 p.m. in the Waikoloa Beach Marriott Hotel, Alii III Room, 69 275 Waikoloa Beach Drive, Waikoloa, Hawaii, with Chairman Rodney Watanabe presiding. PRESENT: Lani Bowman ABSENT & EXCUSED: C. Kimo Alameda Takashi Domingo Rene’ Siracusa Andrew Iwashita Shelly Ogata Rodney Watanabe Rell Woodward Ivan Torigoe, Deputy Corporation Counsel Christopher Yuen, Planning Director Jeff Darrow, Staff Planner Maija Cottle, Staff Planner Deanne Bugado, Planner, Kona Office Allen Salavea, Planner, Kona Office And approximately 50 people from the public in attendance. SOUTH KOHALA COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PLAN Review of the draft South Kohala Community Development Plan (CDP) submitted by the South Kohala CDP Steering Committee and its consultant, Townscape, Inc. WATANABE: Will the Planning Commission meeting please come to order. We are on our Agenda Item 6 – and I’m sure we are past 6:00 by now. I have at this point eight people signed up to testify, but obviously we have many more people than that here. If anyone wants to testify, please go up to Noriko Sauer, the recording secretary, and sign up there, if you wish to testify. It would help me to kind of know ahead of time how many people are hoping to testify; we kind of judge by that as to how much time we’ll allow because we do want to make sure we provide everyone with an opportunity to testify.Yeah? So then with that, we are on Agenda Item No. 6, South Kohala Community Development Plan, I’ll turn it over to Mr. Salavea. I guess I should swear both of you in. Would you raise your right hand, please. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth now before the Planning Commission? SALAVEA: I do. TSUCHIDA: I do. WATANABE: Thank you. EXHIBIT E 1 SALAVEA: Thank you, Mr. Chair. Director Yuen, esteemed Commissioners, my name is Allen Salavea. I’m the project manager for the South Kohala CDP. On behalf of the residents of South Kohala communities, I’d like to thank you for your time and effort in hearing the South Kohala CDP this evening. Before I begin, I’d like to take care of a few housekeeping items. I’d like to first introduce the Steering Committee members for everyone’s benefit. If I could ask the Steering Committee members to go ahead and stand up, please, in the audience: beginning to my right, Ms. Ruth Smith, Robby Robertson, Margaret Wille, Sherman Warner, Tom Kelly and Pohai Kirkland. So thank you very much. Next, for the benefit of the public I’d like to run through the dates for the approval process of the South Kohala CDP very quickly. Beginning with the Planning Commission’s schedule, the first nd Planning Commission hearing is tonight, August 22, the second PC hearing will be on th September 4, 1:30 p.m. at the County of Hawaii, Aupuni Center Conference Room, the third th and final PC hearing will be on September 19, 11:00 a.m., Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel, and at that hearing the Planning Commission will vote to transmit the South Kohala CDP to the Planning Committee with a positive or negative recommendation – hopefully, positive. Regarding the County Council hearings, first hearing by the Planning Committee will be held in early October. There are then two hearings at the Council level: one at the end of October and the second in the beginning of November. I have provided the schedule on the website, HCRC, so the community can go to www.hcrc.info, and get that information. I also provided some copies of what I just covered up front. Next, I’d like to give you an idea of who and what we’ll be presenting this evening. Beginning with myself, I’ll briefly cover the CDP planning process and key dates for you. Mr. Bruce Tsuchida from Townscape Inc., who served as the prime consultant, will cover content of the Plan and highlight some key areas. And finally, Mr. Sherman Warner from the South Kohala CDP Steering Committee will be providing you with the community perspective regarding the planning process and the actual document. Our presentation will be brief, so we can answer any questions you may have regarding the material we cover or other questions that you may have. Additionally, I have seated behind me members from the Steering Committee to help answer questions regarding the area plans: Robby Robertson will be doing Puako, Sherman Warner will do Kawaihae, Ruth Smith will do the Waikoloa community, and Riley Smith or probably Margaret can help with the Waimea community, and then Margaret Wille can answer questions regarding district-wide policies. If I may ask, Mr. Chair, that the Commissioners run through your questions in these areas, that’s how the South Kohala CDP is put together, and then that will help facilitate in having the testifiers up at the table. WATANABE: Okay, so then if I understand this properly, when we have one of your Steering Committee members up here for a particular district and once they are done with their presentation, I address the Commissioners to see if they have any questions for that particular area -. SALAVEA: Well, they won’t -. EXHIBIT E 2 WATANABE: Is that what you are proposing? SALAVEA: Sorry. They won’t individually be doing a presentation on the areas. What we can do is if we have a question for Puako, if we could ask all the Commissioners, you know, about their questions for that particular section to direct the questions at that time, since we have that person. But they won’t be doing presentations individually on each area. WATANABE: Okay, thank you. SALAVEA: With that, I’d like to begin by outlining the South Kohala CDP by beginning with the Community Readiness Program that preceded. The CRP was a collaborative effort between the Department of R & D and the Planning Department. Beginning in 2006 and 2007, over 1,200 people, or roughly 9 percent of the total population, participated in over 80 talk-story sessions. The Community Readiness Project data served to help the Steering Committee prioritize the community’s input and select priority issues that would be the focus of the South Kohala CDP. In August 2007 the Steering Committee was asked to prioritize land use issues for the entire district based upon the results from the Community Readiness Project. The priority issues that the Steering Committee selected were the following: preserve culture/sense of place, traffic and transportation, affordable housing, emergency preparedness, and environmental stewardship and sustainability.At a subsequent Steering Committee meeting priority issues for four South Kohala communities were discussed – around the Waimea, Waikoloa, Kawaihae and Puako areas. It was then agreed that the South Kohala CDP would focus on planning for these four communities, rather than attempting to develop action programs on a district-wide basis. In effect, then the South Kohala CDP became a collection of four distinct community plans. The Steering Committee then prepared to hold the first pair of community meetings on August th 29 in Waimea and August 30, 2007, in Waikoloa to accomplish the following: first was to introduce the Steering Committee to the community, also to introduce Townscape and its staff to the community, third item was to report back to the community regarding the CRP process, fourth was to outline the process and timeline of the South Kohala CDP, and fifth to begin recruiting community members to participate as Focus Group members in the Focus Group process. From October through December of 2007 the Focus Groups for the Puako, Kawaihae, Waikoloa and Waimea areas were formed, and met approximately 18 times. As a result of those meetings Townscape was able to produce working papers, which serves as the basis of the South thth Kohala CDP. On February 12 and 15 in 2008 the Steering Committee hosted the second pair of community meetings to accomplish the following: first to update the community regarding the Focus Group phase, second to validate the information developed in the Focus Groups meetings by presenting the working papers to the community, and third to outline the next steps for the South Kohala CDP process and update the timeline. From the end of February through April the Steering Committee, Focus Groups and Townscape worked on developing the South Kohala CDP. And on May 7, 2008, the public review draft was released for comment and input from the greater community. To facilitate this process, the following outreach was done. Over 9,500 fliers were sent to all postal recipients in the South Kohala community, outlining the following: the South Kohala CDP EXHIBIT E 3 was available online for their review along with the website link that they could access the document. A limited number of hard copies, 250 to be exact, was available at the following locations, free of charge: at Puako General Store, Harbor Gallery in Kawaihae, Waikoloa Elementary School, and the North Hawaii Hospital. The names of the South Kohala CDP Steering Committee members and their willingness to be available to answer any questions and concerns was also talked about in the flyer, my contact information if any questions regarding the process. Along with the flyer, we included a summary produced by Townscape, highlighting key points of the document. And finally, an announcement of the upcoming community meetings scheduled for May that the community could attend and give their input. thnd On May 20 and 22 the third pair of community meetings were held in Waimea and in Waikoloa. Then from May through July the Steering Committee, Focus Groups and Townscape used that input and, through a series of iterations, created the South Kohala CDP pre-final draft that you have before you. At this time I’d like to ask Mr. Tsuchida to give you an overview of some of the content. WATANABE: Mr. Tsuchida, as a formality, name and address, please. TSUCHIDA: Yes. Thank you, Allen. Good evening, Mr. Chair and Commissioners. Again, my name is Bruce Tsuchida. I’m the president of a planning company called Townscape, Inc. My address is 1159 Kamiloiki Place, Honolulu. I’d like to share with you just a few comments about the Plan. For the past year as a, I think I mentioned the last time I was before you our company has actually been working on both the North Kohala CDP and the South Kohala CDP.I recently had a chance to go back and check our time records for these projects, and totaled up hours put in over the past year for myself and my planning staff; we’ve put in over 5,000 hours of professional time working on these Plans. So I thought that was quite a few hours. But I also am pretty sure that collectively the community folks who worked on these Plans have put in actually far more hours than we have. And I think we should all commend the community for the work that they have done. From the very beginning of the planning process we tried to emphasize a couple of, I think, very important planning principles both to the Planning Department and to the community folks. We said for one thing that these Plans need to be focused Plans.We cannot – especially since we only had a little bit more than a year to work on these Plans – we told folks we can’t try to address everything, all issues, all problems, all possible solutions because that’s going to take years to do, and if we only have a short period of time, we’re going to end up with a Plan that maybe has a lot of words in it but is not actionable – it’s not specific enough. So we said we have to be focused, we have to be action-oriented, we have to really drill down to the most important ideas and the most important things to do. And I think by and large people agreed with that. And as well as Allen has already pointed out and as you folks in looking at the Plan can certainly see, the Plan was organized primarily by addressing four very distinct communities in South Kohala. And this again was very strongly voiced by community folks from the very beginning that they felt the Plan could not be just general ideas for the whole district as a whole because the communities within South Kohala were so different and distinct. So that’s why in a way this is, yes, the South Kohala Plan, but obviously it has separate chapters for each of the EXHIBIT E 4 four main communities within South Kohala: so that is, of course, Waimea, Waikoloa Village, Kawaihae and Puako. I might comment, too, that originally we had hoped to produce a somewhat shorter Plan; our idea was, let’s have a short readable Plan that won’t weigh too much. But kind of, as a natural process in trying to address four separate communities, the Plan kind of grew so that this final document is close to 200 pages. We apologies everyone for having kind of a weighty document now, but that, I think, turned out to be necessary in a way. Again, in terms of the action orientation for the Plan, you’ll note a lot of the writing is directed toward specific action programs. And those programs are summarized toward the back of the Plan – actually this is from Pages 150 to 152. There is a three-page, relatively brief, kind of a table or matrix outlining the critical actions, what needs to be done, who the implementers might be, some comments about costs when costs are available. And the last column – not always contained in this kind of table but was strongly suggested by community members – tries to briefly summarize what impact, what benefit do these actions have for the community. So that was a way of summarizing the actions. Lastly, without trying to go into all of the content here, I’d like to emphasize two what we feel are very important parts of the Plan. First, at the very beginning, the first page of the document contains a vision statement for South Kohala as a whole, as well as a summary of some of the important community values that we heard again and again from the community in developing this Plan. And then, starting on Page 47 is a section on district-wide policies. Again, yes, this focuses on four separate communities, but there are some very important district-wide policies. And these next few pages – Pages 47 to 53 – there are actually five major district-wide policies, and then there are some more detailed, related, what we call sub-policies. But just to draw your attention to those major policies and to paraphrase briefly, the five overall district-wide policies address preservation of culture and sense of place, providing for transportation needs, providing affordable and workforce housing, developing programs to protect people from natural hazards and disasters, and promoting environmental stewardship and sustainability. These are big, big important themes for the community, and I feel that the details of the Plan really flow from these overall themes. And hopefully, you can see that most of the details in this Plan are very consistent with those kind of overarching major themes. So that’s what I wanted to summarize for you today, and I’ll be glad to answer any questions that may be of a technical planning nature. Now, I believe Sherman, no, Uncle Billy is going to -. WATANABE: Okay, since it seems like the two of you gentlemen are going to provide some testimony, may I swear you in. That would be, I guess, Dr. Bergin and Sherman Warner. Could I swear you in. So would you raise your right hand, please. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth now before the Planning Commission? BERGIN: Yes. WARNER: Yes. WATANABE: Thank you. And I guess you are Dr. Bergin, is that correct? Before you begin your testimony, could you state your full name and address for the record, please. EXHIBIT E 5 BERGIN: My name is William Carthage Bergin, and I live at 66-1520 Puuhuluhulu Road in Kamuela, Hawaii, 96743. WATANABE: Thank you. You may begin. BERGIN: I would like to open with a little bit of appropriate statements of gratitude. I’m soon to be 68, and in that many years of my life I don’t recall our County government ever giving those of us in the field an opportunity to participate in planning this far ahead. And I think many, many, many of us have made that observation and sought the opportunity to be participatory in this opportunity, So that’s a general statement of gratitude to the Council, to the Mayor, to the Planning Department, to its Director, to Corp. Counsel that was available to us, maybe not as often as we like her to be but nevertheless was there, and through Allen Salavea who did, I think, a very remarkable job of coordinating everyone, and of course, to Giovanna who was really our moderator whose job was to herd cats – and I think that’s a very, very, very mild way to describe what her professional role is in keeping us together in going in the same direction. But now down to the business. If we were to be convened by appointment through our County government, we didn’t start from scratch. What had taken place in the 18 months leading up to our appointments was the outreach program that in the general community of South Kohala was conducted by Uvonne Sakamoto Lindsey. And she did what we thought was a very thorough job in getting out into the field, into the smaller aspects of our community, and feeling out those people that often by their nature would not really be coming to meetings but would have very rich contributions to make to the direction in which we were going. And I think from that you can really look at the four point direction, our vision, and that really reflected so much of the sympathies and sentiments of those people. Now, as the process we were on, we needed some reminders; none of us are professional planners, and we needed to have the resource of our Corp. Counsel to help guide us in the direction to be careful, to be respective of those rights of property owners relative to the direction in which we felt we would like to go. On the other hand, we also had many community leaders that stepped forth and really helped us understand that in probably more graphic terms. And I think we owe a debt of gratitude to people like Mike Luce, Greg Mooers, who were willing to come forth and express those concerns in a very frank manner. We are grateful for the fact that the leader of Parker Ranch, CEO, Chris Kanazawa, was a frequent attendee at these meetings. But in addition to that, the four beneficiaries of that outfit, which as we all know owns the bulk of the land around that community, were kind enough to come before us and serve the expression that do be careful that whatever we do, not to go ahead and stifle the opportunity or the ability of that charitable trust to do what the law says it must do in terms of its beneficiaries. And we appreciate that. The aspect of our individual areas of interest, I think, was a rich combination of people that do in fact have background in planning and engineering, not certainly to the degree that we needed to have from the professional standpoint, but the experience of having subdivided property, of having land divided among family members to make sure that each of the four children did have an acre. But we were also very, very sensitive. As you can see, two of the vision points have to EXHIBIT E 6 do, one is, with traffic and, one is, with housing.And we had to go ahead and make sure that we were respectful of the role of the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands and their lessees to have them deal with the challenges before them as their business and not ours to butt into. Specifically, when it comes to transportation, the bypass, it does affect them. That’s an issue that that body has to work out with its lessees; it wasn’t our business to intervene. In the same token we do collectively feel we badly need to improve transportation through our community. And I don’t think there is a person in South Kohala that wouldn’t say if we had a bypass today, we would all be very, very happy people. But the other aspect of being sensitive to the fact that South Kohala is a very Hawaiian community, that there is a historic Kuhio Village community and also those homes that have been planted in Lalamilo. Yes, they will affect our traffic, it will impact our community, but those have been granted as rights to those people and in effect it doubles up and helps us address the issue of affordable housing. So in those two regards we really, again, were sensitive to those bodies of landowners that do have, that would be definitely impacted by anything that would be too rigid, too harsh and not manageable or negotiable. So I would like to close my part with an expression of gratitude to our cohorts, those of us that served on that Committee that so loyally came to those, especially in the last few weeks, for the intensity grew to be almost weekly and then nightly, and everyone hung in there and learned a lot from each other. So I express that as a token, more than a token, of appreciation to each of the members. Thank you. I’ll take any questions that are necessary. WATANABE: Do we have any questions for Mr. Bergin? WOODWARD: If I might. I think maybe it would be best if we handle this as we did the last CDP; and that is, give all the people who want to testify a chance to give their testimony, if that’s all right with Mr. Chairman, and then we can throw the questions out because I have a few. WATANABE: Okay, okay. So you are suggesting that maybe we take all of the public testimony first -. WOODWARD: No, no, just the -. WATANABE: Oh, just all of the -. WOODWARD: Just the Steering Committee. I think we’ve got one more member here. WATANABE: Okay, yes, okay. Mr. Williams (sic), then. And we’ll come back and ask questions of each of you. So if you care to add, Mr. Williams (sic), anything to this -. WARNER: It’s Mr. Warner, Commissioner Chairman -. WATANABE: Excuse me, excuse me, Mr. Warner, I’m sorry. WARNER: It’s all right. You are not the only one who’s ever done that. I was really here unsure if Dr. Bergin was going to come. But he’s done what he was going to do much better than I could, so I’ll pass at this time. EXHIBIT E 7 WATANABE: I beg your pardon? You’ll pass at this time, you said? WARNER: I was his understudy. WATANABE: Oh, okay. WARNER: And he showed up at the last minute, made the curtain, so -. WATANABE: Okay. In the event that someone does ask or you do need to respond to some of the questions, since I already swore you in, just for the record, would you state your full name and address. And that way, you know, I wouldn’t have to interrupt you. WARNER: Okay. Sherman Warner. I live at 62-2040 Mahua Street in Kamuela, 96743. WATANABE: Great. Thank you, thank you. Then, with that -. Yes, Mr. Woodward. WOODWARD: Well, as usual – and Commissioner Bowman called me Simon the other day when I was asking questions, from what, American Idol. Well, first of all, I want to compliment Allen Salavea again for doing a great job on this and all of the Steering Committee and the people that have contributed to this. And I think we are getting better at this process as we go along, you know. I read this 200-or-so-page thing, and there were only a couple of things that came up. One of the first things I have a question about, and I think it’s already been answered in part by Allen and the various participants, this is the first time we’ve ever seen five CDPs in one: we have an umbrella CDP, and then we have four individual CDPs for each of the larger communities in South Kohala. And the way I looked at that was there are either two things going on here – one is these communities are so diverse that they don’t have anything in common and therefore they have to have their own CDP, or these people just can’t get along. And so I’d like to hear from somebody which one it is. Then I have a few more things. But I’d like to hear that first. WATANABE: Mr. Tsuchida first maybe, and then we’ll have Dr. Bergin address that? TSUCHIDA: From my point of view as the planning consultant, I would say the situation is very much the former, i.e. the diversity was such that the Steering Committee felt both collectively, as well as as representatives of their particular community, that the CDP really did need to focus on very specific issues specific to those four separate communities. There certainly are some overarching commonalities, but there are a lot of details like, you know, if we just take Kawaihae and the port and the Superferry coming and the historic sites in that area, etc. – that’s very special to Kawaihae, so -. WOODWARD: Okay, fair enough. If I might get into a few specifics, if that’s all right, Mr. Chairman. WATANABE: Sure. EXHIBIT E 8 WOODWARD: On Page 48, Section 1.2, “The County Planning Director is requested to submit a draft of a bill to the County Council that sets out a concurrency management system for South Kohala. The purpose of the bill is to create a system that will impose reasonable and fair infrastructure concurrency requirements on developments within the district that already possess zoning entitlements, and are therefore not currently subject to the concurrency requirements of HCC 25-2-46.” What you are basically doing is retroactive concurrency charges. Is that not correct? Anybody. TSUCHIDA: I’m not a hundred percent sure what you mean by “retroactive?” WOODWARD: Well, these are people that already have their zoning requirements in place and, based on current law, don’t have any concurrency requirements placed upon them. And this sentence adds additional fees retroactively. That’s what I’m saying. TSUCHIDA: Well, excuse me, but I think it would be correct to say this sentence itself does not add any fees. This whole paragraph is a recommendation for the Planning Director and the County to create this new set of concurrency requirements. And yes, it would be for already zoned but not yet subdivided properties. But again, this is a recommendation and does not establish any fees per se at this time. WOODWARD: Okay. Could I get Mr. Torigoe’s opinion on that? TORIGOE: Mr. Chairman. WATANABE: Sure. TORIGOE: Well, Mr. Woodward, what kind of opinion are you looking for at this point? I think the Planning Director also has discussed this in some depth with the CDP Steering Committee. I’m not sure exactly what you are asking for. WOODWARD: Well, is this legitimate? First of all, is it legal? And then secondly, is it fair? I can’t ask you to answer the second one because you are an attorney. But I can ask you to answer the first one. (Chair had brief discussion with Director Yuen.) IWASHITA: Mr. Chair. WOODWARD: Sorry for the delay. We seem to have a little bit of deliberation going on here. TORIGOE: Mr. Woodward, this is -. WOODWARD: Yes, sir. EXHIBIT E 9 TORIGOE: This is not a simple paragraph here, so I feel a little reluctant trying to give you a simple answer to what is, you know, not a simple question. Anytime you have, well, again to go back, the representation that has been made from the Steering Committee is that this in itself does not establish any particular requirements on any particular property. It is basically requesting that the Planning Director submit a draft of a bill to the Council -. WOODWARD: So it’s a guideline; it’s not a mandate. TORIGOE: Well, at this point it’s just requesting that the Planning Director provide a draft. I suspect what you are really asking is if the draft came out, would that be something that would be legal. And that’s something that’s difficult to crystal ball really without seeing the draft in front of one. There will always be questions that arise when you’re trying to apply or change the conditions basically on properties that already have their zoning and that already have certain conditions, possibly exactions, as conditions of their zoning. So, to go back and change that would probably be something that we have to be approached on a case-by-case basis, and it will depend, too, on whether the developer has gone ahead and invested in good faith reliance on their zoning and how far they’ve gotten with that. WOODWARD: Okay, thank you. I just have a couple of other things and I’ll try to be very brief. On Page 52, I want to congratulate you incredibly for the light pollution ordinance. I think that is wonderful and I’m sorry that we haven’t seen that in the other CDPs – it’s Item 5.7. That is absolutely great. So there is the carrot. Now, another stick. On Page 106 where they are talking about access roads, access road to Queen Kaahumanu Highway, and about almost the second paragraph from the bottom there, “The County recently retained a special consultant to develop a financing plan for this second access road, and a special committee of Waikoloa community members is currently evaluating the preliminary financing plans. The consultant’s draft report estimated annual costs to Waikoloa Village home owners as follows: Existing Single Family Homes – $90 per year, Existing Multi-Family Homes – $45 per year, New Single Family Homes – $1,463 per year, New Multi-Family Homes – $731 per year.” Now, is that forever? I mean, that would seem to be what this states; it’s per year so you would think that you are not going to get a break. If you just built a house, you are paying $1,463 a year, and somebody who’s been living there for ten years is paying $90. Is that right? TSUCHIDA: These charges would not be “forever.” They would be for the number of years required to pay off a bond or bonds that would be used to finance the construction of the road. I don’t have the term of the bond in front of me, but I would think that typically this could be a 20- to 30-year bond. WOODWARD: So somebody who built a new home there is going to pay $1,500 a year for 20 years and somebody who has an existing home is going to pay $90 a year. Is that what you are telling me? EXHIBIT E 10 TSUCHIDA: Well, that was the calculation from the consultant’s report. These are not our numbers; we are just quoting what was in that report, which in turn was commissioned by the County. WOODWARD: Is that fair? TSUCHIDA: That’s not for me to say. WOODWARD: No, it’s not. Okay, next. Page 137 -. WATANABE: Mr. Woodward. WOODWARD: Yes, sir. I only have one more. WATANABE: Can I have -. YUEN: No, I can give you a little background on -. WOODWARD: Okay. YUEN: The concept there. This is something that hasn’t been adopted, but it’s one proposal to finance a second road out of Waikoloa Village. And the idea, it’s not actually that all new houses would pay the elevated fee, but new houses in certain areas that are currently un-subdivided would pay the larger fee. So if you happen to have a vacant lot in a current subdivided area, you might, if this proposal went through, my understanding is that the higher fee -. Well, the basic idea is that you would have this bond that would be financed by charges on people in the community, and that there’s, the un-subdivided areas are largely toward the northern or Waimea end of Paniolo, and the developers of that area see some benefit to them in having a second access directly to Queen Kaahumanu because their own residents can scoot out much more quickly to the main Highway and to their final destination. So they would want this road, and as a way of financing the road, they put this fee on the lots that they sell. And at the point when you do the Community Facilities District, their lots are un-subdivided, so they vote their area, and then they are making a business decision that they can get people to buy into their area with the back road and carry that fee. Now, the people who are already living in Waikoloa Village, there is no way to make them pay for a fee like this unless they vote to do it. You can make people who don’t vote to do it pay, if the majority votes to do it; but if you set the fee at a level that the majority of the people say, “We are not going to vote for it,” then they won’t. And so there is a political element in how you assess this for the existing residents versus people who choose to come in and pay – to buy a lot that has this fee assessed against it versus somebody who already is on a lot. So that’s an explanation of why there is the differential, besides the fact that the benefit of the second road is more direct to the lots that are in the northerly part of the development. WOODWARD: Thank you, Mr. Director. But I would say to you that if you look at this, if it’s a 20-year bond and somebody builds a new house, they are putting $30,000 up and EXHIBIT E 11 somebody that has an existing home is putting less than $2,000 in that same period of time. That doesn’t seem exactly fair to me. But we are going on to the next and my final point. Simon says, Page 137, this is in Puako. Strategy 1.2, “the overwhelming majority of residents in Puako oppose any development in this area that is not in keeping with the existing character of the community. Multi-family, resort related, and multi-story structures should be prohibited.” Anybody have any comment on that one? SALAVEA: If I could, Mr. Chair, ask Mr. Robertson to come up and give some input in regards to intent and desire on the community’s behalf. WATANABE: Yeah, for the record, Mr. Robertson already was sworn in and did state his name and address for the record. So you may proceed. ROBERTSON: Sure. The Puako community was concerned, or is concerned, that there are a few little remnant properties in Puako that are resort-zoned, and they don’t want to have construction of that nature – multi-family or hotel construction in the community. It’s just they feel overwhelmingly that it would be completely inappropriate for Puako. WOODWARD: How exactly does that then square with the affordable housing provisions that the County seems to be so much in love with right now? ROBERTSON: You mean, in terms of new construction of that nature, multi-family, or -? WOODWARD: Well, that’s generally what the affordable housing is, by and large. ROBERTSON: Well, if it was, say, high-rise or units that encompass more than, say, townhouses or something, there would be opposition to that kind of construction. That was a community sentiment. And there is very little room, not to mention the price of real estate in Puako, for affordable housing. I just don’t see it being possible there, just the price of real estate itself. WATANABE: Yeah, I might add also, though, these are, I think, recommendations. I hear where you are coming from as far as, Mr. Woodward, from a fairness standpoint and how does it all fit in with the affordable housing and what not. On the other hand, I’m not sure that this is enforceable simply by passing the CDP. Yes, Mr. Woodward. WOODWARD: I was just asking the tough questions. But that’s all Simon has to say. So I’m done. Thank you. WATANABE: Well, actually we appreciate your asking the tough questions. Okay. Do we have any further comments, questions? Mr. Iwashita. EXHIBIT E 12 IWASHITA: Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’d like to make my record acknowledging all of your participation and your turning out tonight. The value of your work, in my mind, is only partially reflected in this book. And I join the applause that you gave yourselves earlier. I just had one comment on what Dr. Bergin mentioned earlier, and I think his words are something to the effect of having the opportunity for, or being afforded the opportunity for planning this far ahead. I’m not exactly sure what you meant by that, but I took it to mean, you know, your expression of gratitude and being involved in the process. And I want to, it’s called the Plan. In our off-the-record discussion earlier, the Director mentioned the difference between a plan and a program. And Community Development Plan in my mind is more of a program, and is probably a misnomer. The Council passed the action committee legislation recently, which basically will give a structure, right, a process by which you can work your Plan, you know, to address further the affordable housing concerns and those things in your communities that you’ve expressed the need to deal with. And so I just wanted to make my record, again, congratulate all of you for all your hard work and I encourage you to double that effort to make sure it gets done. Thank you, Mr. Chair. WATANABE: Thank you. Do we have any -? Yes, Mr. Woodward. WOODWARD: I would just like to once again congratulate everybody. I think they’ve done an excellent job. And I did bring up a few points that I had concerns with, but I think the document itself is very well done, and with a few minor tweaks, I have no problem with it at all. IWASHITA: Mr. Chair. WATANABE: Yes, Mr. Iwashita. IWASHITA: I’m sorry. I had a couple of things, I forgot. Thank you. Besides the form of the Plan in having, you know, specifics for Waimea, Waikoloa and so forth – I think that’s great. In my mind that’s the preferred way to go and I think that in that way you are able to engage more people in each of the communities in getting things done. And the other thing I wanted to say is, I want to make sure on the record everybody knows I’m a lawyer, okay? So hopefully, you know, you think sometimes you can be nice. Thanks. WOODWARD: If you need a lawyer, give him a call. IWASHITA: No, please don’t. WATANABE: Okay, any further questions, comments? Mr. Domingo. DOMINGO: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. You know, I looked at the Plan, at the very beginning, it seems to me like it’s a message just coming to me. Just even in reading a part of it there is a message that comes to me and that it tells me that we are all stewards of the land which we live upon, and that there is a strong sense of feeling from the people within the planning area who feel that it’s a special place, a very special place. And that’s common with other Community Development Plans which we have reviewed during the past month, you know – EXHIBIT E 13 “Keep Kona, Kona” and “Kohala, Kohala,” “preserve that we have” and “never lose sight of it,” and now you folks have come in with the “sense of place.” It’s very important. And I feel, I think, as you do, that the land that we have has been provided for us and we are stewards of the land; therefore, we should watch over it, preserve it, and take care of it. And the projection of this Plan shows just how it should be done. With regards to that lighting and the enforcement of the existing zoning, with regards to the lighting above Mauna Kea, I know many of us feel that it’s a place that should be preserved, and it offers a large degree of opportunity for us to study the universe, and of course, there are others who feel that it is a special place, but it should also be preserved because of its rich culture and its meaning to them. I was wondering, and I don’t know if the Plan addresses the fact that, you know, with all the talk about expansion of the training in Pohakuloa and with modern-size vehicles that will be training there, and that their access to Pohakuloa probably will be through Waikoloa, and that as they train up there, the impact it will have on the land will impact on the, I guess, the lifestyle or the environment that the people who live downwind of Mauna Kea will be experiencing – you know, the dust, probably the noise, and even the light pollution. Because if they’re thinking of bringing a brigade here, surely if they are to station them and place them here permanently, there will surely be a need for housing for the military and for the dependents. Now, I don’t know if you folks have ever discussed it, and looked at that and thought of what kind of impact it will be upon the community. But you know, as I look at this Plan, I congratulate all of you for the efforts. I can sense the feeling of concern that you have. The strong values that you have with regards to families being together as one and enjoying each other, and the sense of being stewards to those who are old, kupuna, and the cultural values that they can pass onto us, as we grow, as we become mature, and then as we become older in our lives, those are very important things which enrich our belief in the spiritual aspect of what we all strive to preserve in our lives, be it whatever discipline we come from. And it’s so important, and I sense this in your Plan. And I congratulate you. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. WATANABE: Thank you. Any further comments? Ms. Bowman. BOWMAN: Just a quick, in regards to Puako. And I do have to tell you, I inadvertently wore red: I don’t live in Waikoloa, but it’s okay, I walked in and went, “Ho!” I’ve looked at some of the written testimony. And as many of you know, Leon Thevenin is a longtime resident in Puako and, I’m sure, very vocal in this process. But in regards to the keawe forest, I know, he made a comment that I found interesting about the world’s finest mangos and grapefruit are grown here. And I do see, you know, you have some buffer, so maybe that could be taken into the consideration. I know the forest needs to be protected. But I found that interesting. I also found the comments from the DLNR, as far as your harbor, interesting. So I’m sure you’ll take those into account. And then also, the comments from Jojo Tanimoto regarding North and South Kohala, I mean, I grew up in Kohala, and actually we always called Kohala, Kohala, and Kawaihae, Kawaihae, and Waimea, Waimea, but you know, I don’t think there is that demarcation that just happens to be that that line has to go somewhere. So again, thank you all for your hard work. Thanks. EXHIBIT E 14 WATANABE: Okay. That concludes the questions then. Thank you for your presentation. You may be seated. Last chance – well, I shouldn’t say last chance – but right now I have ten people who signed up. Is that pretty much it? Ten people signed up to testify – is that pretty much it? If that is, then you know, considering the amount of time that you all have put into this project, I don’t want to shortchange you, so I’ll, let’s say we’ll try to limit to a maximum of five minutes per testifier. And that doesn’t mean you have to use all five minutes, but it’s better than three. Please be concise and let’s try not to be redundant. With that, let me call up – let’s see we have four chairs – I’ll call up the first four signed up, and that will be Margaret Wille, Alice Tinsman, Lisa Yee and Peter Hackstedde. May I swear the four of you in, please. So would you raise your right hand. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth now before the Planning Commission? TESTIFIERS: Yes. WATANABE: Okay, thank you. I believe you have a mike, Margaret, so why don’t we begin with you. You’ve already provided us with your address, so you don’t need to repeat that. WILLE: Okay. Margaret Wille. And let me just say that I was assigned to answer any specific questions regarding the district-wide policies, and I just put together a little quick outline with heading, so it was handed out. I guess I just want to express something that Mr. Tsuchida mentioned as a process and the direction that we are going – sort of the history. If you read books about the Island of Hawaii politics, it always talks about how in particular this island has lack of public participation, and working with large land owners and the government, and stressing the need for more public participation. And I really see this as adding, instead of there just being a dialogue between developers and landowners and the government, now there is really a conversation with three entities, so that you have -. I think that the Stanford Carr hearing this morning in some ways to me was a manifestation of that – that they met with the key elements or key participants in the community before they came to you. They just didn’t come to you and say, okay, this is what we want, you all decide. They worked it out. Not too long ago I went to a seminar on importance of historic preservation, and John DeFries was the CEO of Hokulia, and he spoke and talked about, you know, at this point in our history we have to work with the community, we all share the same vision in what we need to protect. So I just, as we look forward, and I think the key thing is that you all passed the bill of the action committees. And as I see the action committees, it’s not just the action committees, I see the ad hoc committees under that and giving people a voice. That doesn’t mean, okay, you are making the decision. It’s allowing that voice to be heard; it’s allowing those concerns to be heard. So I see this, just looking in terms of process, as very important. I do think just in that same line that really in Hawaii you have that balancing between private property rights and sort of what is the vision and what is the public trust and what is the stewardship issues, and such as the conversation that came up about trails earlier today with the North Kohala. It’s really working through that balance. And I think there was, one of the EXHIBIT E 15 attachments to this handout that I gave is really about the precautionary principle and the Hawaii Supreme Court decision in 2006, basically saying it’s not just the State that has a stewardship role, it’s also the Counties, it’s each political subdivision, and stressing that role and the role of the Hawaiian and the historic places, and trying to figure, getting people to work together, getting the Mike Luces and the Parker Ranches and the landowners to work with the community, and how do we carve out these paths – whether it’s a trail or it’s a way of thinking. I did want to address a couple of questions that were brought up by, I think, Mr. Woodward. And I just wanted to add my comments to those. One is just in terms of the form of our CDP and the four individual communities. I do think it started out a little bit of “we are different” in that sort of section, but I really found, as we moved through, we moved to the district visions. And if you really look at the key principles, whether it was in the Waikoloa one, each of them, it was sort of that the heart is the culture and we need to preserve that, the protection of the waters and the land, the traffic issues in terms of infrastructure, having emergency services. I mean, I think you brought up, like, about how do we fund, you know, how do we look at those issues of emergency facility? And those numbers seem strange to me also – those consultant’s numbers for Waikoloa. But how do you look at that when you look at the Stanford Carr development? I mean, what do you say to him in terms of what kind of access, does he have to have that emergency exit, or is that up to his contract with other landowners? So I just want to stress that we, I think if we had gone on another three months, you would have seen it all come together under those same headings cause it’s just remarkable to me in reading through just how we were all started separately came to the same-what was important. I did want to mention on concurrency and that bill, some questions that you raised, I just wanted to make a couple comments is that when the concurrency bills first came up – and I don’t know whether that was a year or two ago – and it was only done on zoning – on the zoning level. One of the suggestions was, well, let’s do zoning now, and let’s wait and see what the CDPs say in terms of going any further, here is the one step. So I just want to bring that up, but you all in those discussions – I think Chris was there – sort of said, well, let’s just do zoning and let’s wait and see how the communities respond to this issue. We did have, Director Yuen made a number of comments to our original draft on concurrency and a number of other developers did, and that’s why if you read through that complexity, you see what it’s saying is in terms of vested rights, in terms of each of the areas that you were concerned if someone is going to be basically, some kind of additional, where they have a vested right to do something, and now it’s being changed. So we did address those issues specifically. And I think the important thing is that in zoning you can be zoned for just a category, you’re going to be commercial, but you don’t know yet until it’s the planning stage or the subdivision stage really what’s going to happen and what impact that will be. So it’s often in other communities it’s really looking at the plan stage or the subdivision stage that really you understand what the impact and can decide in terms of concurrency or impact fees, what is appropriate. And so I did want to just bring up one thing, which I see really in our district-wide, in a way it looks to you all as an entity, and that’s on 5.1, sort of the sustainability decision making and asking you, what we are saying is proposing that the responsible public entities to ensure sort of the long-term sustainability of the ecosystem in terms of questions that are raised regarding natural resources such as land or water. And I think that whole idea of stewardship and EXHIBIT E 16 sustainability is changing how you make a decision. And I’ll just give one quick example is like on the Stanford Carr is, he says, okay, we’ll do it if it’s economically feasible in terms of how we handle the effluent – it’s, do it, do it, you know, show us that you’re not going to hurt the ocean. So I just want to bring up that 5.1, which is basically incorporating that Supreme Court precautionary principle into your decision making and helping to change the way we think in terms of long-term vision. Thank you. WATANABE: Okay, thank you, Ms. Wille. Do we have any questions for Ms. Wille? It doesn’t look like it. So you may be seated then. Okay. Alice Tinsman? Would you state your name and address, first. TINSMAN: I’m Alice Tinsman at 68-3720 Ehako Street, Waikoloa Village. And if you all look behind me, all the people in red are from Waikoloa Village who came out to support us. Okay, I sent you a letter, and I noticed after I’d sent it that I misspelled Mr. Rodney’s (sic) first name, Watanabe (sic), I misspelled it, I’m sorry, and I went back and hand-corrected it. But basically what I have to say here is that I am representing myself, part of this process and the fact that I’m Vice President of the Waikoloa Village Association. We have 8,000 acres surrounding Waikoloa Village that the board that I serve on – and I’m serving my second term – that we are responsible and stewards of that land. So we have a lot of responsibility. It’s open and we have to be very careful what happens to that land. During this process that we’ve gone through of planning all this, our councilman, Pete Hoffmann, came forward as Waikoloa Mauka and Bridge Aina Lea were going to go forward with their plans for their developments and their fair share monies would come through the Parks and Recreation, and asked the Association and the people of Waikoloa Village what would they like to see done with that money, and it came up with a community center. We had a committee on that community center that worked and worked and worked. And you’ll see in the Plan that the different areas for this community center, as those projects go forward, for us to be able to build. We went to our membership, which is required by our Bylaws, and we asked the members, “Do you want to use Waikoloa Village land for this?” because we cannot give our land away like this without permission of our 3,000 lot owners, which is about 7,500 to 8,000 or 9,000 people. They approved it. The location has not been decided. In the Plan you will see there’s little stars around that we can use that. And so that’s one of the issues that we have solved as we’ve gone through this process. Having had a home here on the island for 21 years and lived on the island 16 – eleven of them were in Kona and five of them here in Waikoloa Village – I’m very aware of all of this. And I want to tell you I appreciate this process. I spent many, many times, when we lived in Kona, of going to Planning Commission meetings, and you did not listen to us. So this time, when the County came forward with the Community Development Plan and going ahead, putting it forward, I was very happy to get re-involved and think, well, maybe, you will listen, you will appreciate it, you will support it, and you’ll send it onto the Council for them to approve, so that when the community ask you for something, we live in this community whether it’s Waimea, Kawaihae, Puako or Waikoloa Village – since we are talking about South Kohala – and we are telling you how we feel, what we want, and we want you to listen. EXHIBIT E 17 And if you look at my letter real quickly, I kind of separated it in here and I put in the things that I thought that as a whole that we wanted for all of our communities here: we want infrastructure to help with the traffic mitigation which we are sorely missing; we want to preserve agricultural lands and natural resources; we want affordable housing, which is now happening because the County Council has gone forward and Kamakoa is in the process of being grading and starting that; we want more and better parks to meet the needs of the young and old – wouldn’t it be great to have picnic facilities for family and neighborhood gatherings besides providing recreational facilities; we want adequate public schools so our children do not have to travel long distances; we want to preserve and protect our oceans and historical landmarks from destruction, which is happening now – if you go up Waikoloa Road, on the Kona side you’ll see this cinder cone that’s being destroyed. Anyway, Waikoloa Village needs are as follows: we want more community facilities for residents use; we want another road to enter and exit so we are not the largest cul-de-sac in Hawaii County; we want environmental concerns as to agriculture and fire mitigation – the Village Association itself is working very carefully with the grazing agreement now so that we are having our lands, which they were done previously, Parker Ranch used to have a contract with the Waikoloa Village Association and they grazed our lands and so we have that back in place so cattle are coming on the lands mauka of the Village so that we can preserve and hopefully stop any major fires – we don’t need another one like we had when we had 25,000 acres burned; we want to make our community more user-friendly to make more services available locally to cut down driving long distances for goods and services; we want to have Urgent Health Care facilities within the Waikoloa Village area – and I understand the land that Waikoloa Mauka sold to Metric Holdings is in the process of possibly putting in an Urgent Health Care area; and we want local schools so driving long distances is not necessary. Now, I know that you cannot, as the Planning Commission, pass onto the County Council and ask them to have schools, but you can influence schools being built in our area so that as Waikoloa kids go through schools, they go elementary, intermediate, high school, they will not have to drive to Kealakehe High School where we used to live very close to in Kona. Thank you. WATANABE: Thank you. Do we have any questions for Ms. Tinsman? No? Thank you. Lisa Yee? YEE: I’m Lisa Yee. My address is 68-1787 Ho`oko Street – with the okina between the two o’s – Waikoloa, 96738. I’m kind of humbled and impressed by all the previous speakers, and my presentation is a little more simpler. But basically, I live in Waikoloa, I totally agree with Alice – all the things that are set forth, district-wide as well as in the Waikoloa plan, I fully endorse. I really feel like it came from all the people. I don’t know if you notice all the keikis back there, you know, that the parents brought. But you know, it’s really hard, when you are working, you know, everybody, lots of people here, they rushed over here after work because this is something really important to us. And I’ve lived on this island for 29 years. I’m a second-generation Chinese, born and raised in Honolulu. I came here, went to Hilo College, I met Chris Yuen, I met Hanna Springer there. And you know, people who are our age, we have not had this democratic opportunity to contribute to working laulima together to plan and take action at, like Mr. Domingo said, to preserving this really beautiful place we live in. Ha – the air, the breath. Wai – the fresh water. And the kai – my blood is like sea water. You know, this EXHIBIT E 18 is really good Fung Shui over here, like they say, you know, it’s a very special place, and I know that’s really important. But what I want to say is I spent the last two years of my life dedicated to this process for the Community Readiness Program which, I felt, really gave us lots of information and education about not only what was going on in the present, but also with the talk-stories we had the kupunas come and tell us how it was like a long time ago in, like, Puako, you know, or Kawaihae or Waimea or, like, Waikoloa, you know, is actually an ancient name for a wind goddess because there are more than 200 winds that come through our district, you know – things like that. So it really gave people sense of place, wahi pana. And I’m a local; I’m not a native Hawaiian – we were represented in that place with Pohai Kirkland. And I figure we all leaned – the kamaainas and the manahinis – cause there are a lot of retired people in our community that have moved here from the mainland because they love it so much, and they volunteered in this program alongside with us because they moved here because it’s such a great place. So I’m really happy about that. But I just want to summarize some of this experience I had. We had plenty people come, you know, to all of these meetings. Some of the meetings were as big as 300 people in Waikoloa in the cafeteria, and that one was with the developers. So I want to comment and, you know, really support the first two testimonies in terms of when you provide information and then you allow time for communication, then you are building relationships. And it’s not like us against them; it’s like we all stay over here, so let’s laulima, let’s do it together, let’s paddle the canoe together. So I was really happy about that because we can actually work, the community can work with you folks, the County government. We can work with the people in our community and the developers that are coming from afar or maybe from Honolulu over here, you know. And there hasn’t been that kind of a chance for us to get together and really, you know, try to tell each other what we need and want and try to figure it out and create that together. So I think that the process was very successful. I think the product as you have in your hands is a very beautiful product. I want to thank our consultants and our liaisons with the County and all the people that worked on this. And I’m just speaking to one particular area. There are other people in the testimony or here that will talk about other areas. But what is really close to my heart is the environment – that is so important to me. And you are right, we did not in our Plan address Pohakuloa because it was not up; the community didn’t put that up in the first four or five important things. We are living in a largest cul-de-sac, you know, and when we had our fire, ’05, it was very scary – hard to get out of there. So that’s why transportation came up, you know – that’s really important. That’s why emergency comes up; because if we have a tsunami, guess what, people from the coast, they are going to come up to Waikoloa and Waimea, right? If we have a hurricane, we need to be ready for that. We had, ’06, the earthquake. We had no communication there for like 15 or 16 minutes, you know – everything went down. So emergency preparedness, that’s really very, very important. But what I want to talk about and one of the sad things, like Alice mentioned, Puu Hinai, you know, I think that the whole district, if you drive around our district, no matter what point of view, you are coming from Puako, Kawaihae, Lalamilo, Waikoloa, Waimea, Kamuela, you’re EXHIBIT E 19 going to see five mountains – we’ve got to save that. You’re going to see the ocean – we’ve got to save that. You’re going to see all those puus. And no wonder, they are mining here and the one in Waimea. They have stories: Puu Hinai was an actual person, and like in Hawaiian there’s huna, there’s so many layers – there is historical, there is allegorical, there is, like, spiritual. But that’s what anchors and roots us all over here because we live here. So one of my biggest things was we need to preserve the open space, the grasslands. My vocation has to do with health and healing. And people are healthy when they have space. You know, you crowd rats together, they start fighting, yeah? Yeah, they are not that happy. If they cannot get to Kona, they are not happy, either. So anyway, that was really important to me that we preserve this beautiful view that we have. And I think it’s economic. I mean, when visitors come over here, what do they want to see? They want to see our special island. This is the healing island, for real. So that was really close to my heart. The other thing is, you guys, I’m worried. With the oil crisis, it’s kind of like, okay, Matson doesn’t come, Aloha Air, all the airlines go down, let’s see, KTA has, like, maybe two weeks of groceries – what – or one week, and what about toilet paper? My husband said to me the other day, oh, maybe you’d better go to Costco and stock up. But you know, we preserved in Waikoloa – it was maybe slated for urban and we are asking to reserve our Ag because, I went to the mayoral forum, and guess what – okay, time – first time I heard this, that we might be the breadbasket of the State? Okay, so try look the Plan. I think we are trying to preserve sustainability, self-sufficiency. I know we are starting with the wind farm and energy, but I really think food is really important. And that we look at our water. We look at the depleted uranium that’s blowing down on Kona side, and the high incidence of cancer over there that, you know, it’s really important that we preserve Ha-wai`i. Aloha. WATANABE: Any questions of Ms. Yee? None? Okay. Peter? HACKSTEDDE: My name is Peter Hackstedde, and I live at 69-1955 Puako Beach Drive. And I’m just here to tell you that we had a lot of community input in on this Plan, and a lot of the community showed up for this thing, and it was really a great thing for the community. We laid it out in the way it has a lot of community input in it. And I just want, we want to make sure that this thing is implemented in the way it’s laid out in this Plan. It’s a great Plan. And I just, that’s mainly what I want to hear is make sure that this is implemented the way it’s laid out in here. I’ll keep mine brief and short. Thank you. WATANABE: Thank you. Do we have any questions for Mr. Hackstedde? DOMINGO: I’d just like to mention -. WATANABE: Mr. Domingo. DOMINGO: Mr. Chairman, that I appreciate your comment because what we are witnessing is a phenomenon. Just imagine, by the end of this year, hopefully, the County would have adopted four Community Development Plans. And if you look back in the history, it has been many years since such an endeavor was taking place. And if it was ever taking place, it would have been probably just one plan a year.But what we are witnessing is not the result of EXHIBIT E 20 Plans being adopted; but more important is that many hundreds and hundreds of people are participating in this process, and that the Plan that comes from each community is a plan that the people themselves have drafted and it reflects their needs, their wants and their hope for the future. And that’s the best part of it. I just want you to know that we know about that. And as soon as we can get this done with, we’ll send it up to the Council with a positive recommendation. Thank you. WATANABE: Mr. Iwashita. IWASHITA: Did he just cast a unanimous ballot by himself? WATANABE: Well, that’s debatable, but anyway -. IWASHITA: Thank you, Mr. Chair. Well, your words just sort of overwhelmed me, Commissioner Domingo, I forgot what I was going to say. Just talking about the overall Plan, I made my comments about the four separate community plans – that’s great. My Fellow Commissioners know that as far as the island-wide concerns, my view, and I would just share with you, and when your action committee starts working on this, please keep it in mind. One, Ag is important, and in order for us to, to me the County’s role is to provide the infrastructure, the roads. In my mind, when there is half a million, 700,000 people, living on this island, the train, and you know, they are fighting about that on Oahu now, but that’s a fight they should have got over a long time ago. So when you’re working on making this Plan work in the future, infrastructure is important, needs to be fleshed out like that, so you know where the train station go in Waimea in, like, 30, 40 years – that kind of stuff. And you know, as far as, obviously, schools is a very difficult jurisdictional issue because the County got actually nothing to do with school infrastructure – that’s a State function. But when you are organized, continue to be organized as you are as a community or in your various communities, so that you can pull your resources and figure out, because DOE has its own – my wife is a principal – DOE has its own ways, right, some of which – nobody tell my wife I said this but – some of which principals don’t agree with, okay? And you know, so to the extent that you as a community can be really engaged in terms of trying to help the schools be better, you know, however that is, then please continue to do so and engage more than you already have, Mr. Souza and other DOE people, right, in your ideas, right, because it has to go up and then come back down. Or maybe, I don’t know, Con Con is coming up – if there’s enough organization and enough radical ideas, you know, maybe something even at Con Con. But to me, I join Commissioner Domingo’s praise and observation really that, I mean, for myself having been raised in the 60s, right, and having those kind of radical notions, and being in my right mind, you know, it really does impress me. I am really impressed that the community comes out, because to me, I mean, when you’re talking about democracy and all of that, you know, that only works when the people come out, right? And the reality is we had the poorest voter turnout, like, in the country, right? And hopefully, this kind of process, and if it continues, and as I urged you earlier to double your efforts, if not more, if you can get more and more people involved, then as far as I’m concerned, it works. It has worked, it will continue to work; EXHIBIT E 21 when the participation dissipates, then it won’t work. So that is your challenge. And that is I guess our challenge in terms of helping to facilitate that. Thank you, Mr. Chair. WATANABE: Thank you. Any further comments? Okay. I have seven other testifiers, but you know, I’ve also had a couple of Commissioners that had issues, and I’m beginning to have mine, too. So let’s take a 10-minute break so we can go to the restroom, etc. Reconvene, yeah? RECESSED The Chair called a recess at 7:38 p.m. RECONVENED The meeting reconvened at 7:50 p.m. WATANABE: The Planning Commission meeting, please come back into order. You all are a relatively well-organized group and we really appreciate that, you know. The fact that we don’t have, say, 30 or 35 people signed up, that helps. That’s it.It has been a real long day for us. I mean, I’ve been here since 9:00 this morning. So, and I’m not looking for sympathy; I’m just asking for cooperation -. WOODWARD: Yes, you are. WATANABE: Really, we are asking for some cooperation here. Some of you, I think, had some real heartfelt messages to deliver – I can appreciate that. But can we kind of try and watch the clock, yeah? We have seven more people, so we want to make sure that everybody has an opportunity to testify. With that, let me call up the next four that I have on my list: Marjorie Mrasek, Anika Glass, Beverly Brand, Pohai Kirkland. Do we have those four individuals here? Okay, great. May I swear you in, please.Would you raise your right hand. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth now before the Planning Commission? TESTIFIERS: Yes, I do. WATANABE: Thank you. And I guess you have a mike. So name and address first, please, and -. MRASEK: My name is Marjorie Mrasek. I live at 68-3840 Lua Kula Street, E206, in Waikoloa Village. I’ve lived there about ten years. I urge your adoption as the Planning Commissioners as an ordinance the South Kohala CDP Steering Committee pre-final draft. As a concerned and involved citizen, I participated early on as a member of the Waikoloa Village Logistics Team, also known as the Log Team. That Log Team was the guiding force behind the many town meetings and talk-stories that were held, leading up to the formation of the South Kohala Steering Committee. This draft reflects untold hours of grassroots to directed Committee work. Our community, Waikoloa Village, is eager to witness action by our County government, beginning with you, as a direct result of the CDP process. At this time I would like to acknowledge and to thank Sara Peck who was Waikoloa Village’s, Sara was our excellent and most able Log Team facilitator and mentor, and we do want to recognize her. And also I’d like to acknowledge and thank the Village’s three Steering Committee members: Pohai Kirkland, EXHIBIT E 22 Ruth Smith and Tom Kelly. And finally, I’d like to acknowledge Alice Tinsman who was communications coordinator, it seemed. Mahalo. WATANABE: Thank you. Fellow Commissioners, do we have any questions for Ms. Mrasek? Seeing none. Thank you. Anika? Is that correct? GLASS: Anika Glass. I’m from Waikoloa. That was really well done, Marjorie. I think that it’s important to know how much our community appreciated the opportunity that the County gave us to participate in this planning process, and how readily people stepped up to it and stepped into it, and people were found and did come forward, and put tremendous effort into it. It’s been a tremendous opportunity to participate in something like that. In terms of whether it’s a South Kohala Plan or a Waikoloa Plan or a Kamuela Plan, I think initially it did have to start out to be separate plans because we each had such pent-up need to express what our needs were in our communities. And I think we also recognized that people in Kamuela could probably plan circles around the rest of us. So we do, though, I think, definitely believe that we are all part of a larger community. We know that infrastructure problems in Waimea, Kamuela and in Kawaihae are as critical to us as they can possibly be, even though we are in Waikoloa. I would ask that you not nitpick this Plan; that your nit is probably something that was wordsmithed for dozens of hours by many people, and that it could be a form of disrespect to try to pick the Plan apart and find little things wrong with it. I would encourage you to forward this entire Plan onto our County Council Planning Committee. Thank you. WATANABE: Thank you. Mr. Woodward. WOODWARD: Yeah, I would echo what you had to say with regard to the Planning Department’s efforts, and I think all the tribute there goes to Allen Salavea who has done a fabulous job both in the North Kohala and the South Kohala Community Development Plans. And you know, we are not nitpicking so much as pointing out things that don’t seem exactly right. It doesn’t necessarily mean that we are not going to vote it through as it is, but there is room for some changes to occur, and we’ve seen that with the North Kohala Plan – mainly matters of clarification. So, but again, hats off to Allen Salavea and all of volunteers. I think they’ve done a great job. WATANABE: Any further questions? Okay. Beverly Brand? BRAND: Hello. I’m here, I live in Waikoloa at 68-3720 Lua Hoana Place. I’m representing the Waikoloa Village Outdoor Circle. And I would like to thank the Steering Committee and all of the people that paid attention, asked us for our opinions, asked us what we wanted, and actually listened to us and wrote it down, and I think they did a great job. I’m here mostly just to represent the Outdoor Circle members who are very concerned about environmental stewardship, open space, parks, green space around our Village that would act as a fire break. We have, the Outdoor Circle has a license agreement with the Village Association to steward 275 acres that we call the Waikoloa Dry Forest Recovery Project. In our Project, in the next 15 years we will remove all of the grass, build a fence around it, keep out the goats. In EXHIBIT E 23 that area, there are ten endangered trees – uhiuhi trees – and probably about 100 wiliwili trees. We are willing to spend our time and our efforts to steward that area. But we’re also concerned about there is, this isn’t the only place where this very rare dry forest remnant remains; there are other areas just outside our project that have other uhiuhi trees – three more – and wiliwili trees that are on the makai and mauka side of Waikoloa Road. We’d just like to point out to the Planning Department that this is a really rare environment, that there are lots of places that could be developed that don’t contain any of these trees that were very important to the Hawaiian community. And we just want to emphasize that we don’t expect the County to do everything for us, that we are willing to work really hard for our community, and we appreciate the opportunity. Thank you for listening. WATANABE: Thank you. Do we have any questions for Ms. Brand? It doesn’t seem like it. Okay. Pohai Kirkland? KIRKLAND: Pohai Kirkland. 68-1700 Ho`oko Street, Waikoloa. And I had to think about it, okay, now, why would I want to come up and testify, and who do I represent. So I represent everybody, you know, all my kupuna from the past, I definitely represent all of the people that have been involved here in the present, and I definitely represent what happens in the future, and then on another leg, the South Kohala Hawaiian Civic Club. And that is the capacity, actually, on which I sit here in front of you this evening because I am so thrilled that the sense of culture is going to be maintained – not just Hawaiian culture, the sense of culture, the wahi pana of all of these four distinct ili or kulana or the true ahupuaa. And so I wanted to also, you know, explain that. That’s one of the reasons, as the Steering Committee, we were really excited about all four distinct areas, because as Olani Lilly said eloquently – and I will do it no justice – and that is, whatever affects the kuahiwi affects the uplands, whatever affects the uplands and the kuahiwi affects the lowlands, and all of that affects the ke kai.So on that note, I want to say mahalo so much because I know that you have your work cut off for you, and now it begins, so -. Thank you. WATANABE: Do we have any questions for Ms. Kirkland? Okay, thank you for your testimony. Thank you, also, for your cooperation; you were very organized and brief. The last three testifiers I have that are signed up are Ruth Smith, Lester Seto and Gunner Mench. SMITH: We have one more. WATANABE: Well, yes, would you come up also, ma’am. Okay. Let me swear you all in then. Please raise your right hand. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth now before the Planning Commission? TESTIFIERS: Yes. WATANABE: All the mikes are on this side – would you like to start, ma’am? I don’t have your name so you could start with your name and address. STAPLETON: Malia Stapleton. 68-1802 Puu Nui Street, Waikoloa. All right. Good evening. I’m here tonight not just as a lifelong resident of the South Kohala district but as the EXHIBIT E 24 president of the Waikoloa School’s Parent Teacher Student Association. We are proud to have a very involved, committed group that helps Waikoloa Elementary & Middle School in a variety of ways. I volunteer a lot of time to the school on behalf of my own children and the children of our community. I notice that time is a limited commodity for most parents in our community. Many of our Waikoloa families stay afloat economically because both parents work – sometimes, a parent works more than one job. This limits time for other community activities, such as the CDP process. Apparently, the absence of adults with school-age children at all of those evening meetings came to the attention of those involved in the CDP process. It came as a pleasant surprise to the PTSA organization to be approached by Bruce Tsuchida of Townscape to come to our meeting. We meet at an hour earlier, and our children are present as we get our business done. In this somewhat chaotic environment, Townscape let us know about the CDP process and got our input on what matters to the younger adults in Waikoloa. We so appreciated being included and consulted in November 2007 and March 2008. We are thrilled that the pre-final CDP identifies our need for public educational facilities for elementary & middle school students within Waikoloa Village and for high school students in South Kohala. We know that the DOE is a State entity and a County document cannot dictate what the State will do; however, we hope that this document serves as the “voice of the people” on needs and desires of our community that cannot be confined by separate areas of jurisdiction between the County and the State. We need schools at all levels in our area and are glad that the CDP states that clearly. As parents, we want the parks to play in as families and when our kids are on teams, and we need the meeting areas and centers beyond that offered by the school for community-based activities such as Boy and Girl Scouts. We want to be able to escape from the Village safely in case of emergency. And we want this place to continue to be the beautiful, marvelous place to live and always to honor the Hawaiian culture. All of these priorities are included in the CDP. I support the CDP for South Kohala and am committed to seeing the basic principles enacted in our community. Please recommend this Plan to the County Council for approval and to the Mayor. Thank you. WATANABE: Do we have any questions of Ms. Stapleton? None? Okay. I believe this would be Ruth Smith then, yeah? SMITH: That’s me. I’m Ruth Smith. I live at 68-1909 Koiula Place in Waikoloa, 96738. You’ve heard a lot tonight from people about the involvement that has happened at the community level to bring this document before you, and I think one of the conclusions you have to draw from that is sometimes democracy is messy. We are not always able to contain where it is that we go and what we discuss. And some of the issues that have been raised by various Commissioners about what we’ve said and how we’ve done it, I hope there is understanding that, when you initiate a process like this, CDP process, that you can anticipate that there will be changes that come up and that will be recommended by community. It has been a remarkable EXHIBIT E 25 democratic process, and thrilling one to be involved in. And we all are very grateful to actually be asked and listened to on this. There were two specific areas that I wanted to address, and not to belabor the point, but to go back, I do want to, I submitted to you a written testimony, and I want to just stick with a little bit of that. The issue, though, of concurrency that has come up and was addressed is a very critical issue for the people of Waikoloa. All of the properties around Waikoloa were zoned 30 years ago when none of the people sitting in this room lived there. It was a very different community; those of you who’ve been around will know that it used to have post office boxes, and coolers at the back and a gas pump up front, and that was commerce in Waikoloa. So it has changed a lot and our needs are tremendous. The existing Waikoloa community suffers a great deal from lack of parks, community facilities, and bike ways, roads, paths, police presence, and emergency preparedness. So when we look at projections that are contained in this document about the proposed build-outs that are quite truthfully staggering, we know that this cannot be done in a way that does not allow for some kind of concurrency in that when developments come, that we still have or keep these very livable and safe places to get in and out of and to enjoy the life that we love here. So we knew that was, the Steering Committee really worked very hard. We know that this concurrency issue is one that is sitting there with, you know, a little “Hello” sign on it. That being said, it was the kind of thing that we could not leave out and represent what we heard from our communities, and that was for the full Steering Committee. Within Waikoloa, and sir, I also serve with the Department of Education, I’m an educational officer and a school administrator, so I’m really aware of what the DOE process is and the limitations are. But for us to leave out the issue of schools in anything about Waikoloa is like not mentioning the elephant in the room. This August, we opened Waikoloa Elementary and now Middle School with 710 students. In 1994 there was 320. We are very much a growing community, and we still have very pressing needs. So we felt that even though the Department clearly has to go through all of its jurisdictional protocols, that we must include that in this document to be representative of our community and the long-term vision that absolutely does impact things that the County has to coordinate with us on. I’d like to conclude by – and I know you all have this – but I do want to read just one tiny section of the Vision Statement because I believe very much in vision statements, and we worked hard to come through this. I’m not going to read the whole thing, but I will just reiterate this one part: “We are blessed to live in one of the most unique, exquisite places on the planet, and we know it. We promise to plan to do everything possible to live responsibly and wisely on this sacred island for current and future generations.” We bless you as you go forth in your considerations of this, and thank you for your time. Mahalo. WATANABE: Thank you. Do we have any questions for Ms. Smith? Mr. Iwashita. IWASHITA: I get stuck in education. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Can you repeat what you said about the enrollment in the School? SMITH: Yes, I can. The document that you have in front of you will show that Waikoloa School’s enrollment is, on Page 99, it will show that 620, that was as of 2006. It also EXHIBIT E 26 shows the capacity of 650. And we did open the door as of this year at 710. We literally are holding classrooms in sections of the library. We do have three lovely portables that just arrived two days ago on our campus, but there is a contract dispute about putting those portables in; so the person who got allocated the bid is being contested by the second-place person who did not get allocated the bid. So we have portables sitting there that we cannot go into, and we are packed to the maximum. We are at 710 and in part that’s because we added, in addition, last ththth year we added 6 grade and this year we added 6 and 7. And our intention is next year, th miraculously somehow, to add 8 grade, so -. th IWASHITA: So you have up to 7 grade students. SMITH: Seven-ten, 710. IWASHITA: No, no, are you a K-6 school or a K-7 school? SMITH: Oh, yes. No, we are K-7. This year we are K-7. IWASHITA: Okay. And you have 710. SMITH: Uh huh. th IWASHITA: I’ll share with you – you can have my copy – August 14 letter from Superintendent Hamamoto that takes issue about the 06-07 enrollment number. But anyway, it’s just an example of a need to continue to be more, I guess, engaging with the Department. SMITH: Oh, yes. Well, I can only be, I was with Waikoloa Elementary since it has been, and there was a good deal of time when we opened the School initially, they didn’t know we were here. I mean, I’m serious, there was a report that came out -. IWASHITA: Well, I’m not going to, you know, as I said my wife is a principal. I know about all the dates you’ve got to get, your home and numbers, and that kind of stuff, and the weighted student formula and all of that. Enrollment, obviously, is very important. But I appreciate your input about how the School is growing, and you know, just in my mind it makes it more urgent really, right, that you continue to double your efforts, especially in the area of working with the Department of Education, you know, so that your vision of having a local school through high school can become a reality. And that’s a real hard role to tow, you know, so double probably not enough, maybe four or five times your effort now. Okay. Thanks. SMITH: Thank you so much. We will. WATANABE: Yes, Mr. Woodward. WOODWARD: I’d just like to ask a question following up on what Commissioner Alameda (sic) just said. If you went from -. WATANABE: Iwashita. EXHIBIT E 27 WOODWARD: I’m sorry – Iwashita. I’m getting a little punchy. It’s been a long day. thth If you went from Kindergarten to 6 grade, and now you are Kindergarten to 7 grade, you’d think if you’ve got one more grade, that’s going to add more students. So I don’t know how you would compare those numbers from the year previous when you were K through 6 – now you are K through 7. So maybe you can address that. SMITH: Yes, I can. As I said, in 1994 Waikoloa School opened with 320 students. By 2003 – 2002, possibly – we were at 550 with just the K through 5; so K-5 has grown, okay? And of course, every year that you would add a grade, you would add in terms of aggregate number; so we were at about 550, and then last year we ran about 615, and this year we are at th 710. And the 710 is not only the additional 7 grade, but our population in other grades has also increased. So it really is going up in very real terms, not just in addition of a grade. And as we watch the Kamakoa project coming, which is a workforce housing project, that will absolutely bring us children in a way that some of the higher end things do not necessarily bring us children into Waikoloa because the people who are buying, their children are grown. But Kamakoa will definitely bring us children, and so we have to be planning for them. WATANABE: Sure. Follow-up? WOODWARD: If I might, Mr. Chairman. This really is not our bailiwick, I mean, we are talking about it, but we have nothing to do with the Department of Education. We support your efforts to get a school, to get improved school facilities. We are just asking questions to try and find out what’s going on, but in point of fact we don’t have any power over that. SMITH: Yes, sir. And we are quite aware of that. The important thing that we want for this process and we want to model after what Kamakoa did, which is that in their planning they do at least show a site. If people will leave a space for a school, the community can go and work with the Department on actually getting a building there. But first, we need a space for both our parks and community centers and the schools. And the site is the critical thing that we want the County to understand our need for. Thank you. WATANABE: Thank you. It doesn’t look like we have further questions. Gunner Mench? MENCH: Yes. My name is Gunner Mench. I live at 64-5245 White Road in Waimea. I’ve been a Big Island resident now for 15 years. And first, I want to say that this Plan you have before you, this 200-some-odd page Plan, is like a process vehicle for the community; it really represents the consensus of the community as a whole and its individual components in coming together to present to you a guideline for what we see in South Kohala. And I urge you to please move this Plan forward as you have stated earlier. And I thank very much the comments of Mr. Domingo in this regard. EXHIBIT E 28 I’ve been a resident of Waikoloa. I’ve been a resident of Puako. I am now a resident of Waimea. Some of you also know that I’m very active in a lot of volunteer groups, civic groups. I am the Vice Chair of the South Kohala Traffic Safety Committee. The Mayor appointed me to lead Hawaii County Highway Safety Council. I am also a member of the Kawaihae Local Resource Council, and I’m on the Superferry Advisory Board. And why do I get involved in all this mess? Well, I have to thank my wife, Elli, for being able to run the gallery that we have that supports over 150 local artists to allow me to spend the time to get involved and do some civic things here. I live up at 2,900 feet in Waimea. I commute 15 miles to my business in Kawaihae at sea level. And sometimes, because of these interconnected communities, you can’t travel directly from one location to the other. There’re times when there’s fires on Kawaihae Road and I have to go through Waikoloa to get to work and back. There are times when other things are happening with construction that make it advantageous one way or another to do it. Most of my business, most of my work, most of my life is throughout South Kohala, but in every neck and corner of it. I also go to church in Puako every Sunday down at the Hokuloa United Church of Christ – the historical place down there that’s also in your CDP. And there are a lot of things interconnected in the community that have to be taken into account. But I don’t want you to ignore Kawaihae even though I don’t think there is anyone else here really to represent Kawaihae’s portion here tonight. Kawaihae is such an important part of this whole Plan. Everything that comes into this island from this side of the island comes through Kawaihae, and we all know it when we see the truck traffic, and we all know how important all the interconnected roads are and all the rest of it. But we are very dependent on it. And I know earlier it was mentioned that the military plans to increase their presence here on the island, and it was mentioned going through Waikoloa and up to Pohakuloa. But it all starts in Kawaihae; the military comes through Kawaihae. They bring tons and tons of explosives and ammunitions through the harbor that few people consider on a regular basis as well. This is the only State that I know of where the smallest denomination of government is a county, and I must commend the County that for the first time I see a county allowing communities to identify themselves almost as municipalities. And perhaps, if we have a Constitutional Convention that convenes this year, we might be able to get municipalities that would have a little more say in what happens in the local communities. And I appreciate the opportunity that you’ve given us to act as municipalities and to further our efforts here to work with the County for the good of all of us in South Kohala. Thank you. WATANABE: Thank you. Mr. Woodward. WOODWARD: You bring up a very interesting point – the Constitutional Convention. And it addresses a number of different items, one of which is the education system where we have one Board of Education for all of the islands out of Honolulu, and that’s probably the single biggest thing that could be changed by a Constitutional Convention. The other thing, I think the County, particularly the Planning Department, has done a good job. But this is the only state in the Union that I’m aware of, and as you said, the lowest common denominator here is county government. You know, Kailua doesn’t even exist as a town; it’s just a spot on the map. Hilo is the same way. So, it’s a double-edge sword, though, in that you’re going to build more levels of EXHIBIT E 29 bureaucracy. So you need to think about both aspects of that. Do you want more bureaucracy? But I think, you know – well, I don’t want to get into political statements here – but you know, I think, when you bring up the question of a Constitutional Convention, it’s Con Con can can, you know, we can potentially change the education system, which I think is the most important thing we can do. If there is a Constitutional Convention, we can have independent school districts like every other state in the Union, we potentially could have other jurisdictions, municipalities that have Charters. But again, you are loading on top of that bureaucracy. So you know, I appreciate your comments. MENCH: May I add to your comments and just say, in a situation where 70 percent of the County revenues come from West Hawaii and 70 percent of the expenditures continue to be placed in East Hawaii, that it’s a situation that should be rectified on a municipal basis in my belief. Thank you. WATANABE: Okay. WOODWARD: That got a little off target, didn’t it? WATANABE: Well, I live in West Hawaii, but I came from East Hawaii. And I understand the frustration there, but there was a time when East Hawaii supported West Hawaii, also. So we’ve got to keep that in mind. It’s one county. Anyway, Mr. Seto? SETO: My name is Lester Seto, and I live at 68-1898 Ehako Place in Waikoloa. I am president of the Waikoloa Lion’s Club and the kahu at the Waikoloa Lutheran Church. And I know that the Planning Commission and the County Council are very concerned that there has been a broad community base in the formulating of a Community Development Plan, and I would simply like to attest tonight that that has been the case in Waikoloa, and from what I’ve heard, in the other communities in North and South Kohala. Due to my work schedule, change in my work schedule, I wasn’t able to attend some of the later meetings in the development of this Plan, but I did attend the early meetings, and at the meetings I did attend, there was diversity of participation and also it was representative of the community. I sat in one of the focus th sessions for the preservation of culture and sense of purpose, and there was a mother, and a 4 grader from Waikoloa Elementary School there, and a retiree, there was – I remember – a person there who was born and raised on the Big Island, and others who had moved within the last two years. And so again, I would just like to affirm that this Plan is not a product of a few individuals but that involvement was wide and deep. And so I thank you for your consideration of this Plan as you deliberate upon it. Thank you. WATANABE: Thank you. Do we have any questions? Yes, Mr. Iwashita. IWASHITA: I just want to note for the record that Kahu Seto is a proud Viking from Hilo High School. Thank you for being here tonight. WATANABE: Yes, Mr. Woodward. EXHIBIT E 30 WOODWARD: I would like to thank all of the people that came here tonight and all of the great participation you had in your communities and, again, Allen Salavea for doing a fine job for the Planning Department. Nobody has said anything, one of the few times that the Planning Department has had nothing but praise – and that’s a really good thing. WATANABE: Yes, Ms. Bowman. BOWMAN: Thank you, Simon. I just want to add, I’m really excited. This is our fourth Plan and I don’t think you realize, and all the people that worked on all the Community Development Plans, how much easier I foresee our job in the future when we review plans that are coming in, when we have a Plan to really refer to, and that maybe, you know, one meeting won’t take twelve hours or ten hours or whatever it is, because I think a lot of this legwork has been set by you. And so I really commend not only South Kohala but I think all the CDPs for making our job as Commissioners in future meetings really a lot more succinct. So, mahalo. WATANABE: Thank you. No further comments. So just, last call – is there anyone else who would care to testify? It doesn’t seem like it. I want to thank you for your cooperation in this. Again, you were an organized group. And we appreciate your testimony; it will be all reflected within the record. And as indicated earlier, no decision is being made at this meeting. We do have two more hearings on this CDP. So that would conclude -. IWASHITA: Mr. Chair. WATANABE: Yes. Mr. Iwashita. IWASHITA: I’m sorry. When Mr. Domingo made his comment, I made an aside. I would just like to for the record indicate my support for the Plan, just in case some of you don’t show up at the next two meetings. Thank you, Mr. Chair. WATANABE: Okay, so that would conclude this meeting. The meeting is adjourned. The discussion ended at 8:30 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Noriko Sauer, West Hawaii Secretary EXHIBIT E 31