2017-06-01 Hearing Transcript - Kau CDP

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SELF (from audience): Right. Or even with you guys. WHITMORE: Keiko, quick question. This meeting is agendized as a Steering Committee meeting. Is that correct? MERCADO (from audience area): Yes. WHITMORE: Yes, all right—we have an answer. HALL: There we go. HENKEL: Okay, thank you. WHITMORE: Okay, very briefly. I have everything we presented back in May at the hearing, but I have no intention to present it all again because it's the same four Commissioners here present, same staff Do want to give a very brief refresher and then touch on a few items. One is a question that came from a Commissioner that I'd like to respond to, and the second is some additional public comment that was received by the Department between meetings. Again, big picture. I tend to have a pretty calm demeanor, but I am really very excited to be at this point in the process, and this very much is a cause for celebration because the Ka`u community and the Steering Committee members specifically have worked long and hard to get to this point, and we very much appreciate the support that we, that the plan received through agency review and through the Director's positive recommendation. But, again, just to reinforce some of the three key things to keep in mind as you're concluding your deliberations is that this was, this process that resulted in this recommended plan was extremely credible, highly participatory, collaborative, very systematic, strategic, and transparent. So, throughout the process, the process was clear, the decision points were clear, and everybody who had a stake in the decisions being made had more than ample opportunity to weigh in. Which leads to the second point that this has been vetted at all levels to an extreme—at the community level, Steering Committee level twice, and through agency review. And, again, to remind you, every single strategy in the Community Development Plan has a rationale behind it that is in writing, and so if questions do come out, come up about specific policies or actions, we ask that you start with the rationale behind those when considering any potential recommended revisions to be consistent with the process that's led us to this point. So, again, the CDP does what you would expect from a community plan, and as is provided, as—for the direction also provided in the General Plan in Chapter 15, does four fundamental things. One is it lays out the preferred land use pattern for the district. And, then building on that foundation, it tackles very specifically, the three main pillars of what makes for healthy, sustainable communities: natural and cultural resource management; the building blocks of community including infrastructure facilities and services; and then what builds on top of that, a resilient, sustainable local economy. And, those numbers on the screen there correspond with EXHIBIT C 3