2003-10-03 TRUTTER - Laserfiche WebLink

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been the wise leader of the effort to protect the land and culture of this area, and Karen Eoff, the intelligent, benevolent women who still at this moment eats, sleeps, and dreams Kohanaiki. I thank them and all of the other people who have worked, I have worked with since the last ``oma as open public space. 1980s in the effort to protect Kohanaiki and I appreciate the opportunity to speak before this Commission and hope that some of the wrongs of this body's past decisions can be righted today. Today we begin in a new way with new though abridged hopes and plans for the County, developer, and community to combine efforts and resources to create a park which will be a showcase for Hawai`i and beyond. Great diligence and focus must continue to come from our government leaders to ensure that the voices and work of the community are forefront and the creation and implementation of a park plan for Kohanaiki and ``oma and the community must feel empowered in its involvement in the park's creation. I ask that that connectiveness and benevolence of those who have worked so hard to create a positive outcome for this land be forever respected and this cas development and that at Kohanaiki it's never allowed to be replaced by the heavy-handedness and commercial mindness that we have seen everywhere else in fragile Hawaiian environments when corporations have held sway over the host community and lan Besides ensuring that the community is forefront in planning and management of the park, other parameters are crucial to maintaining what's unique and important to this area, but I'm going to send you a follow-up letter outlining my concerns and also Sierra Club's, rather than cover them now. Many of the points have been made by others speaking, so I'll just send those in. However, I'd like to mention that I feel that camping should be preserved as the bedrock of what has made Kohanaiki and ``oma so important, not just to our community but the culture of Hawai`i whose connection to the shoreline is traditionally free and open, the loss of which is fragmenting Hawai`i's social and cultural fabric in insidious ways. I ask that the allowance of camping be written in stone in any agreement made with this and subsequent landowners and that the likes of , where promises for camping were made and not kept, are not all Hpuna happen here. In fact, I ask the landowners, right now, to allow the renewal of camping today, not just for a few days a year, but for all days. Camping is not a problem when caretakers are on site at least every couple of days to give permits and occasionally patrol to eliminate the problems of squatting, long term squatting and the weekend partying of the teenagers. Camping has been the most deeply positive enjoyable experience for our youth and families and the reason why this area is so much different and more important than any other coastal `` area. The fight to protect Kohanaiki and oma has always been about the keiki, for them to be able to act in natural ways in a natural environment and to follow in the footsteps of a `` culture where ina, ohana and aloha aren't just concepts but a way of life. By definition, compromise leaves all sides a little sick and are sad to varying degrees. My heart weeps with joy and sadness to see the living legacy of what has been saved so far by nurturing land and connected community and culture, but I fear for the future of those children who have already lost the opportunity to go on an unrehearsed campout at Pine Trees, while all sides have spent the last year working on a plan for future use of this land. That year in the 23