|
KERN: Very good. And are you giving testimony -? Just give us your name and area you represent, and you
<br />can give testimony, and then clarify whether it’s yours or Debbie’s.
<br />
<br />HARDEN: Okay. So this is Debbie’s testimony. She says, “…I did not see anything relating to botanic
<br />gardens, which, although they may not produce an ag product or something for sale, are indeed agricultural
<br />tourism. I have a neighbor, on an old, weedy sugar cane land, who has put up a sign “Ualani Gardens, National
<br />Botanic Garden” and claims she will bring tour buses in along the old state railroad right of way to her place. I
<br />would hope that these rules would apply to this operation too.”
<br />
<br />And another, “…most ag operations allow cesspools, but if a place is going to be visited by 40-50 people a day
<br />(for the minors) who is going to enforce the rule that requires job johnnys rather than flushing into the
<br />cesspools? Would the DOH even be alerted about a ‘minor’ ag tourism operation?” So two more thoughts.
<br />
<br />And mine, first I appreciate all the hard -.
<br />
<br />KERN: So that was -?
<br />
<br />HARDEN: That was Debbie’s.
<br />
<br />KERN: That was Debbie’s. Okay, are there any questions relating to that testimony? Seeing none, thank you.
<br />Now just give me your name and area you represent, and -.
<br />
<br />HARDEN: Cory Harden, and I’m from Mt. View but just speaking for myself.
<br />
<br />KERN: Go for it.
<br />
<br />HARDEN: Okay, and first I appreciate all the hard work that has gone into this. I mean I’m going to be
<br />bringing up some concerns but -. I mean I know Bobby Jean is a very hard-working person so –. I do request
<br />that decision-making be postponed just cause the difficulty of, you know, the final wasn’t available till like two
<br />o'clock yesterday afternoon. It might have been changed after that. I tried to get the documents before your
<br />previous meeting, went to Planning, they were not available. And Daryn very kindly sent them via e-mail, so I
<br />took them and I did all my comments up really nice. And then the revision came in at seven o'clock last night,
<br />and I went oh, my goodness. And part of the stuff was missing in the e-mail. Anyway, so, you know, it could
<br />be a Sunshine Law problem. So I hope you’ll postponed decision-making. So based on what I know so far -.
<br />
<br />It just seems that food self-sufficiency should be a real high priority. Just to kind of get it in perspective, there
<br />was headlines today about a bill before the State Legislature, and it was talking about how we import 92% of
<br />produce, livestock, and dairy products, how we are 2500 miles from most source of most our food. And there
<br />was some testimony at the Legislature replacing just 10% of our food imports with locally grown produce will
<br />give a nearly 200,000,000 boost to our economy, create more than 2,300 jobs and raise more than 6,000,000 in
<br />state revenues. It’s not just food, it’s the economics. And they talk about what we all know that, you know, our
<br />long supply lines make us very vulnerable to disruptions and economic volatility, global. And as you all know
<br />we only have a few days supply of food on this island. Also look back at the County's agriculture development
<br />plan, which is like 100 pages long, and ag tourism I could only find like three paragraphs. So just to get a
<br />perspective on this.
<br />
<br />Let’s see. And a couple of concerns I came up with, I do not support automatic approval after a certain review
<br />time. I mean that is a loophole big enough to drive a truck through, and people do it all the time. I would like to
<br />keep the 60-day review, not cut it to 30 days. I'd like to see approval required for minor as well as major
<br />operations. I'd like to see a site inspection required before final approval for major operations. I'd like to keep
<br /> 5
<br /> EXHIBIT A
<br />
<br />
<br />
|