2018-05-03 Hearing Transcript - Hamakua CDP

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working on Ka`u and Hamakua. So, we learned a lot through those first four CDP's and what their process was. And, so, we learned it's very important to keep this, this perspective and keep the local knowledge and all that the community have to offer to keep the plan grounded. Also, important to understand, the local planner's perspective to keep it practical. And, finally, use everything in the planner's toolbox for best practices on planning. It was very important that this be developed in a very open process. With more than just meetings, but really objective analysis and sharing of folks' perspectives. You'll notice that with Ka`u and Hamakua, we followed a very similar process and design, and so if you, Commissioners, were involved in the Ka`u adoption, you might recognize some of the content of the presentation today. We're really here to celebrate a community process. As I mentioned, it was very important to keep the community's perspective in mind when planning for what Hamakua really wanted. This was a highly participatory process. There was a diversity of community members that were engaged at every step of the way. With the Steering Committee, it was always very diverse and keeping in mind what Hamakua really wanted for their community. It was collaborative and involved consultants, community members, steering committee, County agencies, as well as the Planning Department, of course. And, it was systematic. It was built from foundations of community identity through community objectives and all the way through to actions to implement those objectives with the Steering Committee members making key decisions along the way. It was transparent. Everything was available that was being used to create the plan, either on-line or in our office. All the meetings for the Steering Committee were open, and folks could attend and provide testimony. The analysis and decision tools were available for review, and the rationale for all of the policies was documented. It involved a significant amount of vetting. The Steering Committee helped design the community's public review process, and they reviewed all the community input before making recommendations to the Planning Director. And, finally, those recommendations went through a thorough agency review as well. The foundation was very consistent. Each step of the process was grounded to the community objectives that were developed so that we could keep those in mind as we moved along in fact - based analysis and rationale. The Hamakua planning area includes the judicial districts of Hamakua, North Hilo, and a portion of the South Hilo District, and all of the lands in between. The purpose of the CDP is to implement the broad goals of the General Plan, serve as a community forum for input on services and facilities, direct land use, plan for natural resource protection, and direct public improvements. As I mentioned, we had a Steering Committee that really led this charge. The Steering Committee are volunteer members, much like yourselves today, who are broadly representative of the planning area. We had representation from Waipi`o, Honoka`a, Pa`auilo, `O`okala, EXHIBIT D 3