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HENKEL: Thank you, Jeff Now, being at County Council, they're the initiator, there's no one
<br />here representing them to, so we'll move right on to the, into the public testimony portion if no
<br />one else has any questions for Jeff Darrow.
<br />Okay, we have one person signed up. Cory Harden, would you come up, please? And, would
<br />you raise your right hand? Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth on this matter before the
<br />Planning Commission?
<br />HARDEN: Yes.
<br />HENKEL: Thank you. You have I'll give you a little more time. You're the only one, and I
<br />noticed that the thing you submitted was a little bit lengthy so five minutes? Is that enough?
<br />HARDEN: I don't, I don't talk that much, so, anyway, so, do want to first thank you folks for
<br />your service on the Commission. And, I'm speaking for Sierra Club, Moku Loa Group, and we
<br />support agricultural tourism, but we really would like to see it encouraging agriculture more than
<br />tourism.
<br />You also want to see neighbors' interest protected, and health and safety protected. So, much of
<br />what I said about Bill 227 also applies to the current situation, and I'll just go through some
<br />highlights. You guys already have enough to read on this thing. And, since, the other counties
<br />haven't done any ag tourism regulations yet, whatever we do here may set a precedence for the
<br />other counties, so I'm glad that people are really taking time to think about it.
<br />So, just kind of some highlights. I looked at a checklist and it said, have people thought about if
<br />staff have a way to contact other staff on a large property in case of some emergency with
<br />visitors coming on who don't really know how to act on a farm. Are guests told not to eat
<br />produce that hasn't been washed, because they might not know anything about rat lungworm
<br />disease? If there's a whole lot of guests coming, are there people out directing traffic? Like,
<br />sometimes, there's annual events where a lot of people come and what happens with the traffic.
<br />Road access can be a problem if you have some of these, you know, gravel roads out in Puna
<br />someplace that are barely hanging together. And, then you have buses and vans and a lot of
<br />visitors coming that can put wear and tear on the road, and then the neighborhood association
<br />goes hey, you put all this wear and tear. Then, there's a disagreement about who actually put the
<br />wear and tear on, who has to repair it.
<br />So, we're saying, no private road access unless the agriculture operations only entire road, or
<br />they have an easement for the ag tourism operation on the road.
<br />Other events we'd like to see not allowed are musical events, dances, mechanical amusement
<br />rides, dirt bikes, all -terrain vehicles and other off-road motor vehicles, and hunting with guns.
<br />Perhaps hunting without guns would be okay, but, you know, you got the noise and so forth.
<br />9 EXHIBIT C
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