2012-05-03 Windward Transcript Circus

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however, this has not been the case in every situation. And the truth is that we are all here today primarily because of a war waged upon SPACE by one particular complainant -- A man who hasn’t lived in Sea View, not even in the State of Hawai‘i, since April 2010, a man who recently sold his home and his only stake in our community. And through the actions of one man, SPACE has been subjected to a campaign of frivolous, fraudulent, and many vindictive complaints. Now the Planning Department has asked us how they can trust us to keep the terms of our conditions in the future. And we are saying that if the conditions are fair, reasonable, and enable us to fulfill our mission, then we can be trusted. In 2001, in our naivety, we didn’t know without the help of a lawyer, we didn’t have a lawyer at the time, that we could actually discuss what conditions were in our special permit, and we certainly didn’t think that we could actually play a part in proposing conditions that work for groups like ours. We agreed then to conditions that made it so that a few complaints could result in the Planning Director closing us down. I mean just imagine if Puna Geothermal Ventures had been subjected to the same conditions. And, of course they are not because the geothermal process has its own resource permit process. We’d like something like that for communities. We’ve come to the realization that we need a community permit process. And we hope that the Planning Commission and our County Council will come to this same realization and create new code in the near future. But here today we are facing the questions, really, who is going to build community facilities and run community programs, and how are they going to do it? We believe that SPACE has proven that we are doing a good job of this in Puna Makai, without any financial support from our county taxpayers. All we’re asking is that we are granted permission to operate legally so that we can work within the government system to bring about positive change to our island. Our farmers market, our public charter school, our performance arts programs, and related performances at SPACE have been supported by hundreds and hundreds of people for over five years now. This is people-driven development, not permit driven. This is the people telling the government what services they want in their neighborhoods. And we are here today to ask you to allow us to provide these services legally and with your blessing. Thank you. KERN: All right. Okay. I understand everyone is passionate, we appreciate that. But let’s bring it back to order. Thank you, thank you. Any questions for Mr. Ellis? Seeing none, thank you all. You all may have a seat and we’ll, or you guys just want out hang out there for a minute cause there’s probably no other seat to sit in. So with that we’ll move to Madam Director and Ms. Self? Would you like to make any comments? SELF: Yes. Deputy Corporation Counsel Amy Self. I’m here on behalf of the Planning Director and the Planning Department. And I’d like to refer, you know, we’re not here to minimize what this group has done for the community and this valuable service they provide to the community. That’s not what is at issue today. What is at issue is I’d like to remind the Planning Commission of what a special permit is to begin with. Because this is something that you grant. Okay? Now you have the authority under Hawai‘i Revised Statutes, Section 205-6. And it allows you to permit certain unusual and 18 EXHIBIT B