CHC 1979-03-06 - Laserfiche WebLink

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later on this year And . I - asked myself whether we could do that, legitimately, within the planning arena and I couldn ' t,, . say, again, yes. The reason why largely because the basiccem- 1 {phass af� n planng STs, :to provide overall coordination. Making sure there is a balanceaof concerns. Not only between a.gri- culture 'and tourism and the other economic activities. But, once, for example, .the Planning Department :becomes the head of a. tourism program like for the` ASTA, convention or heads a major program like overseeing the Kohala Task Force Agri ' culture Development and acbually. gets involved with the implementation, what unfortunately happens w=ithout realizing it 'is that there is a somewhat diminished credibility in terms of the planning functions being more or less -:broad and objective. and being able to balance all of these different kinds of concerns. . Take for example if you were' to really push, very strongly on the tourism program and then all of a • • sudden there is a tremendous change in terms of emphasis maybe . not towards tourism. So, I 'm kind of Wandering, in the back of' my mind, how would' people look at the overall planning process of the County of Hawaii when the County of • Hawaii process has been oriented towards tourism development and I think we run that kind of risk. • A good case in point. .another example, rather, is the . whole geothermal' energy development program or the search for alternate energy. That started way back in the early ' 70 ' s and finally we begin to feel the fruits of that effort. But if that program was not initiated back way in the early ' 70 ' s, we wouldn ' t be as far as we 'are right now • in terms of energy development. Back in the early ' 70 ' s what we were concerned with from the planning end, there was • a strong emphasis on the environmental aspect, trying to get a broader planning umbrella. as reflected in. the general ' plan. . I saw planning as being more of trying to : balance all of the different kinds -of concerns ; the agri- culture; the tourism; the water; the sewers ; the pas and recreation. Just as much as how it becomes unreasonable for the Planning Department to. handle fully the functions of the, Water Department or the functions of determining where the ' seWer program should be; where the parks should be; I think . . it would also be difficult for the Planning Department to actually implement a tourism program, or an agricultural program. I think our role would be more instrumental in making sure that when these kinds 'of plans are developed that • theyall fit together. This is why, as it relates to my . comments on page 3 saying .that there should be a statement • that the Planning Director should' be responsible in preparing plans. As it right now reads, the Planning Director prepares only the general plan. ' And I don ' t think that should be the sole responsibility' for preparing plans -by the Planning Director. . The Planning Director should also 'be responsible in preparing plans as >they relate to tourism and as they relate to agricultural. Functional area plans as they" relate . to water, specifically, or as they relate to Parks and Recreation should be handled by the different agencies. But • - 13 -