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GALIMBA: Thanks. My name is Michelle Galimba, and I'm on the Ka`u CDP Steering
<br />Committee, and I did testify in Na`alehu already so I'm going to keep this really short and just
<br />ask that the Planning Commission approve the CDP because it does have strong support from the
<br />community and expresses the desires of the community. And, I want to thank Ron Whitmore for
<br />all the work, and the Planning Commission in general for the huge amount of work that they put
<br />into making this CDP possible.
<br />HENKEL: Thank you. John?
<br />REPLOGLE: Thank you. My name is John Replogle. When the CDP idea first came out, the
<br />community in Ka`u responded very well in regards to—the people of Ka`u have always felt that
<br />they wanted a say in how our district went into the future if you will. There have been many
<br />developments proposed in Ka`u, and they've met with constant push back, and so this was an
<br />opportunity for the people of the district to express what they were looking for into the future.
<br />And, so this, this CDP that we now have here, a lot of work went into it. Effort. Fighting. And,
<br />one, one issue in particular I want to speak to is the coastal setback. That started out at three
<br />miles, and arguing that three miles was too much. That would be like to the bottom of Na`alehu
<br />school ground. So, we got it slowly. Over the debates, it went down. I wanted 500 meters, not a
<br />quarter mile, and eventually, we settled on the quarter mile. Then, it came down to there were
<br />people who had property inside the quarter mile that had been zoned for development in 1979 or
<br />something. And, so, the setback advocates conceded and said, "well, you already have that, you
<br />should be able to maintain it and keep it and we'll go forward, but anything new, we want this in
<br />place."
<br />And, we were able to get this into the CDP. And, the thinking in part is that if you are a quarter
<br />mile back from the high water, you are still on oceanfront property. And, it's just a short
<br />distance to the front. It's still your property. You can still enjoy it. Nobody's going to build in
<br />front of you. It's, and as Ron pointed out, the properties we're talking about have the room to be
<br />a quarter mile back. There, the particular ones I know of are zoned at 5 acres. That would allow
<br />for that thank you—setback.
<br />The other important thing in Ka`u is NOAA does what they call a rapid assessment of what our
<br />reefs and things are like around the State, and they get in a boat and they circle each island and
<br />they have designated points and they dive in with aqua lungs for 20 minutes and out. And, in
<br />that 20 minutes, they have to describe the biomass or that would include fish, limu, reefs,
<br />everything. And, they found on the coast off of, makai of Na`alehu, they found the biomass to
<br />be at least as great as or greater than the biomass in the northwest Hawaiian Islands. And, that,
<br />in part, is because there's no lights, there's no run-off, and it works. And, in this day and age
<br />where we're losing our reefs, The Great Barrier Reef, I think we need to take care of Ka`u, and
<br />that's—that's part of this, this whole setback. As Starlette mentioned, the cultural, the ability for
<br />you to walls along the coast and not feel that somebody's looking out their bedroom window,
<br />that's, that's who the people of Ka`u are. And, I truly hope you will support the CDP and the
<br />setback. Thank you.
<br />HENKEL: Thank you, John. Mr. Cross?
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