CHC 1979-05-22 PH - Laserfiche WebLink

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to consist of residents from and representing West Hawaii. I think all of us have been concerned about the growth on the West Hawaii side and over the weekend, the economist for the First Hawaiian Bank stated that the Island of Maui will have three times the growth rate of Oahu in the next ten years and the Islands of Hawaii and Kauai twice the growth rate of the Island of Oahu. With this in mind, several months ago there was an article in the paper where the county paid for a research project by the Stanford Research Institute that stated that there is a possibility of 9 , 000 more hotel rooms, which would be a combination hotel and condominium, that could be built between now and 1989 with 75% of those being on the West side of Hawaii . I think it is essential that this split of the planning commission be made. I think that we have to look at the fact that we are going to have to have the services on this side of the island to plan for this controlled growth. And if we don ' t have a good general plan and we know that the planning director is concerned about West Hawaii , even so that he is at least giving us two days a month which is more than we have had in the past, I do believe that we have got to have a commission that is familiar with each side of the island. I think it is unfair for the commission members from West Hawaii to have to be familiar with the problems from East Hawaii. And again with energy crunch, you 've got a lot of transportation--and., you commission members are seeing ..what it ' s like to have td travel to the various parts of the island to hold these meetings. Your planning commission is having to do this once and twice a month and I think it is totally unfair to them as members and to us as residents of each side of the island to have to rely on people from the other side to help us plan our side of the- growth. Thank you. CHAIRMAN SAKATA: Thank you very much , Mr. Knutson. Next -will hear from Mr. Curtis Tyler. MR. TYLER: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I am Curt Tyler. I 'm a member of the West Hawaii Committee. I have been on the periphery of many of their meetings. I 've contributed perhaps a few ideas and suggestions. I 'm not here to speak on specifics. I think that has been ably handled by Bill and Stu and supported by many Kona citizens. My concern tonight is really about not West Hawaii but the Big Island. Why is it that you can get a turnout like this in Kona and ,you get one or two in Ka ' u and one or two in Hilo, one in Hamak'ua, and twenty-four in Waimea who basically came out because our committee went up there and stirred them up. Why change? What 's wrong? Why is it the people aren 't really concerned about this marvellous opportunity which faces us? I 've done a little thinking about it since 'laSt Thursday wheh Bill said well , we hope everybody will have a little something to say, and it seems to me that the truism that only business creates capital and only government consumes it is well cited. I think we have a classic example .her6,.:oft:;'this -2'2;-