2024-10-11 Exh A Transcript PUBLIC TESTIMONY

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BOARD OF APPEALS COUNTY OF HAWAII PUBLIC TESTIMONY TRANSCRIPT October 11, 2024 The County of Hawai`i Board of Appeals opened the floor for public testimony at 9:39 a.m. This was a hybrid meeting held in person at the West Hawai`i Civic Center Council Chambers, Building A, 74-5044 Ane Keohokalole Highway, Kailua-Kona, Hawai`i 96740 and via the Zoom online platform. The meeting was called to order with Chair Cathy Lewis presiding. MEMBERS PRESENT: Cathy Lewis (Chair), Daina "Noe" Saiki (Vice Chair), Rachel Able, Stacey Aguiar, Scott Martin, Lisa McNamarra, and Scott Trefethen. ALSO IN ATTENDANCE: Sylvia Wan, Esq. (Deputy Corporation Counsel for the Board), April Surprenant(Staff to the Board), and Ashley DeVera (Board Secretary). WAN: I'll just note for the record that the two cases have been called. The Board has received notification of two testifiers who would like to testify in these matters. LEWIS: April's going to facilitate that for us, thank you. SURPRENANT: Yes, thank you. We do have two, one here in person and one on Zoom. Jim Medeiros, you could step over to the witness table—to your yes, thank you. WAN: So, if you could please— LEWIS: It would be good if you could use the microphone for purposes of the recording and so forth. Take your time—somebody want to give him a hand? Is it working? Okay. MEDEIROS: Thank you. WAN: If you state your name, you'll have three minutes. MEDEIROS: My name is Jim Medeiros. I am a descendant of these lands that are going to be impacted by your decision, and I'm also the president of Protect Keopuka Ohana who was once in delegation with Hokuli`a and at this point today, I am in support of what their motion to deny this road being built. My testimony is that, twenty-four years ago, the consciousness of our community was different from the consciousness of today. That road is not needed, we went through a lot to just get the bypass, pass and that road serves South Kona and North Kona. We don't need another road that will speed up the urban sprawl in Kona and avoid—we need to avoid digging up more Hawaiian kupunas. The bypass already impacted our kupunas graves and we don't need that happening again on the road that's not needed because the bypass serves its purpose. It provides access to these areas. And I also want you to deny this request for the petitioner because there was a runoff that happened several years already, that came from that property of the petitioner from doing groundwork on the property and that run off came into Hokuli`a. It destroyed a section of the Alaloa Trail and it EXHIBIT A Page 1