2009-11-20 TPARKERSCHOOL - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

built, owned and operated the Paniolo Country Inn Restaurant next to the school. I operated that for many years, built the restaurant in 1992. IÓve previously served on the County Council. I was a prior chair of the South Kohala Traffic Safety Committee and the Waimea Community Association, and I currently serve on the State Commission on Transportation. So IÓm extremely familiar with the school, the neighborhood, the community and planning and transportation issues in the area. And most importantly, though, IÓm speaking as a neighbor I think who, like I say, IÓve lived there most of my adult life, and I hope to live and die at some point in that neighborhood Î hopefully not too soon. The key points Î and Carl and Jeff have covered a lot of this Î that I want to just briefly touch on is that this school, Parker School, will only grow, if the commu thing IÓd like to point out, which you may or may not be aware of, probably not as acutely as we are, is that there is no public high school in the South Kohala District and there is no planned public high school in the South Kohala District. So we are somewhat unique in that area. And private schools play a particularly vital role in our community and in the District. And if you think about it, without a high school you have very limited public facilities in terms of gyms, auditoriums, playing fields, that kind of thing, which pretty much other communities have; when you look at North Kohala, when you look at Kohala, the school facilities they have, the parks, the swimming pools, all those things that most communities are supplied by public high school, we donÓt have in Waimea and in the District. Parker is already a very important community school. They have a community theater and an auditorium. The Waimea Community Association meets quite often in the school auditorium. And hopefully in the future, if we are allowed to grow, weÓll be able to provide a gym, additional playing fields and more facilities including greater community education opportunities. So if there is a need and a demand that Parker School can provide, you know, IÓd like to make the very strong argument that what better location than in the middle of town. We have great accessibility in terms of walking, biking, mass transit, a close commute for a large majority of the population, including being adjacent to the planned trails and greenways system. And we are also close to the projected growth areas in Waimea Î both our neighborhood and pretty much across the street and the Parker Ranch future developments. ThatÓs the greatest density of housing projected in the community. So we are very well served to the proximity to serve those communities. You know, the rural nature of this area is somewhat of an anomaly. And I guess itÓs, you know, easy for me to say; I donÓt live right there. But I did live, and my community or my street was similarly rural when I moved there 35 years ago. We used to keep horses across the street. My daughters used to ride horse shows at Paniolo Park in HPA. And itÓs changed pretty dramatically in terms of the housing in the neighborhood. This area which happens to be right in the heart, right in the center of town, is also the most open and rural neighborhood within Waimea. So itÓs somewhat of an anomaly, and IÓm not unsympathetic to that. But if you think about modern planning concepts where I think everybody is focused on promoting more livable communities, this really is the area, from a planning standpoint, that we should be promoting more growth and more density right in our urban core. So I think in that context Parker School fits into that extremely well. And as a neighbor, if I lived across the street, IÓd be a lot happier about the school going in in terms of, you know, the uses there than I would be at other EXHIBIT A 25