2006-08-25 D-BAR - Laserfiche WebLink

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TESTIFIERS:I do. ALAMEDA:Thank you. You may be seated. We will start off with Mr. Tyler, if you don’t mind. Please state your name and address for the record. TYLER:Good morning, Mr. Chairman, Members of the Hawai`i County Planning Commission, Mr. Yuen, Mr. Torigoe and other staff. My name is Curtis Tyler. My residence address is 73-1305 Hiolani Street, Kailua-Kona. I appreciate the opportunity to present some further comments this morning. I wanted to let you know that I have met with Mr. Fuke subsequent to the meeting, past Planning Commission meeting on this subject, also with Mr. Dickler and one of his associates, Mr. Brooks, regarding some of the concerns I had, as well as some of their specific plans. And they were very cordial productive meetings, I might add. I appreciate the questions that Commissioner, well, all the questions that the Commissioners have posed this morning to the Applicant and their representatives. I especially appreciate the questions by Commissioner Siracusa. It’s very nice to see you, you’ve come all the way from Puna and, also, Mr. Graham who touched on some of the cultural resource issues, which I very passionately touched on at the last meeting. I continue to have ongoing concerns about the process that is, is or is not being followed with respect to SMA applications. And while I agree that, while I understand that we have a difference of opinion, some of us may have a difference of opinion, the fact is that no cultural impact assessment was done for this project. Archaeological inventory survey was done. Outreach was made to the possible descendants. But no outreach, no assessment, no study was done to address the existence or nonexistence of any traditional and customary gathering practices. And I would note, I want you to note that at the bottom of Page 5 of the Planning Director’s Recommendations, it says and I quote, “In view of the recent Hawaii State Supreme Court’s ‘PASH’ and ‘Ka Pa`akai O Ka `Aina’ decisions, the issue relative to native Hawaiian gathering and fishing rights,” and it’s much more than that, I might add, it’s traditional and customary practice, “must be addressed. These rights must be addressed in terms of cultural, historical, and natural resources and the associated traditional and customary practices of the site.” This has not been done. Dr. Hahn has done an outstanding job of assessing the archaeological inventory. He has contacted myself, and I believe a couple of other people, regarding our connection to this land; and I greatly appreciate the fact that he has been really proactive, as has Mr. Brooks and Mr. Dickler, have Mr. Brooks and Mr. Dickler. However, the issue covered under, which is covered in Rule 9 of your SMA Permits, and it’s very specific in there and it’s addressed again here in the Director’s report, has not been done. And so the questions that Commissioner Siracusa asked were absolutely pertinent questions. And I say this not because I’m opposed to this project. I say this because the process is not correct; and as long as the process is not correct, we’re going to have problems. I don’t anticipate major problems with respect to this particular one because there are large preservation areas, and I think you know about that. But those of you who’ve been around these meetings for a while know that my position has always been pay attention and be proactive upfront. If you don’t then you have problems. As an EXHIBIT B 23