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We protect our culturally significant and sacred places and nurture our diverse cultural and
<br />plantation heritage. And, if I can insert a little personal note, there's a little volunteer group of us
<br />that gather every second Sunday, and we began in April 2015 to maintain, the lawnmower, to
<br />weed whack, to cut all the grass at Hakalau School. That's been our project now. We began
<br />April 2015. This is April 2018. We gather every fourth Sunday to maintain three formerly
<br />abandoned cemeteries along the Hamakua Coast. We began that in January 2016, and every
<br />year, our non-profit, Wailea Historic Preservation Community and community volunteers
<br />participate in Wailea mochi pounding. This year will be our 21st year we're doing it, and we are
<br />getting older, and we're hoping to get more young people involved.
<br />Our high quality of life is rooted in our strong sense of `ohana and community, building
<br />community by working all together. Chairperson Clarkson and Members of the Windward
<br />Planning Commission, we love, we love this place and are humbled and honored to live here.
<br />This is our home, and the place where many of us will be buried. Please support the
<br />recommended Hamakua Community Development Plan submitted to you by the Planning
<br />Department. Big mahalo to you all for listening. Thank you.
<br />CLARKSON: Thank you. Commissioners, any questions or need for discussion with any of
<br />these testifiers?
<br />RAFFIPIY: I think back to my question, my original question that I asked Bethany, yet will be
<br />to the chair of the Steering Committee. If, and let me kind of say why I ask that question. A lot
<br />of times, you know, I feel that the people that know the area the most are the people who live
<br />there. So, but if their desires and their proposals are restricted with the existing rules, perhaps
<br />rules or ordinance or statutes, perhaps is something that we may want to highlight and submit as
<br />recommendations along with the CDP, make recommendations for change, and we can go
<br />through our County Council, go to our legislators. I don't know, if there were any issues over,
<br />you know, over the course of the process that you folks have the really burning desire to insert it
<br />but you just couldn't insert it because of these existing laws and ordinances. I'm just wondering.
<br />KUROKAWA: You know, in general, I guess I would have to say is that when we listened to all
<br />the input that we got from the community, from the talk story sessions to the inputs, there's
<br />some pretty consistency in—and so, it was relatively easy to establish the values and visions.
<br />And, then, the challenge came in coming up with the, not necessarily the objectives, but then the
<br />strategies. And, I have a background in, you know, planning and design, and so and, you know,
<br />I grew up here. I have roots in Hamakua, but I also practiced on the mainland, and so, we have a
<br />lot of folks that have moved from the mainland that come here. And, so, you know, in terms of
<br />controversy, I think many of us, including people in the community would like to have seen a
<br />little stronger language in some things like the "shall" or "shoulds."
<br />And, you know, I have to applaud David for coming and, you know, voicing his specific views
<br />in terms of views, and multiple times, and I've had many conversations with him because I know
<br />what he's talking about. I know where he lives. But, I'm also a landscape architect, and I have
<br />worked for companies that have specialized in viewshed analysis, and that's one of the things
<br />that I have watched over the years of coming home, and now being home, the change. And, it's
<br />the changes that are not really protected. It's like, you know, like just the sense of agricultural
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