2014-05-19 Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes

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Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – May 19, 2014 criteria and standards – the public access – whether you’re heading for the mauka regions or makai regions – then it’s up to whoever’s at our level to ensure that there’s some consistency in the application of the laws that are on the books. Because if we don’t see it and we don’t push it it’s very easily overlooked by people who have other primary responsibilities whether they’re in the planning department or elsewhere in the administration. We have different planners who are responsible for subdivisions. They should be looking at Chapter 34, they should be looking at HRS 205 A. But understandably to a certain extent – I’m not excusing that but – they may have so much detail that they really need to be looking at underneath the zoning code and the subdivision code that often times things like Chapter 34 kind of get overlooked. And it’s easy to do. When I first started working on subdivisions back in 2003 – and for the short period of time that I did do it – Chapter 34 was at the bottom. In fact I was doing it for six months before I even realized what was there. And I don’t have an answer to that or an explanation on how to deal with but the lack of having a comprehensive program to guide the acquisition to government and management of public accesses in this county is chaos. Q.: At the county level, who would be accountable for putting such a plan together? A.: Mr. Brown stated, it’s up to the planning director and or the mayor and or the council. Also, organizations such as GMAC could lend support or community development plan action committees particularly the one in North Kohala – that have a very pro-active public access community-based group. They need to make this a priority for the county. It needs to become a priority and it’s been really tough to do, especially in the last 7 or 8 years with the economic downturn that there just wasn’t the money available. Maybe hiring a consultant and dedicating staff to work on putting something together that works. A plan was started back in the late 70s. They got a draft done. but for whatever reason that draft plan when it hit the adoption phase died. It didn’t go anywhere. It was a good start. I’ve looked at it and it needs to be seriously updated and detailed out to a greater degree than it was originally produced but it was a beginning. Q.: Is there anything like if you sell a tract of land or small ranch or wherever you have like 2500 acres or 1,000 acres or more – is there any mechanism to have access through to a contiguous – not six lots – but just one piece of property – agricultural land or whatever? A.: Always go to individual property owner and try to negotiate either an easement or an outright purchase, fee simple purchase of a right-of-way. The funding that’s provided through the Public Access, Open Space Commission could be utilized for that, but somebody needs to take the initiative to identify and get a particular alignment on their list, so you need to submit an application and apply for it that way. 5