Comm No 0021.064 - Testimony - CA-7 - PONC fund and Maintenance fund

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From: Donald Rudny <mkea13800@gmail.com> Sent: Wednesday, January 23, 2019 8:54 AM To: Charter Commission Cc: Kim, Harry; Poindexter, Valerie; Chung, Aaron; Lee Loy, Sue; Kierkiewicz, Ashley; David, Maile; Kanealii-Kleinfelder, Matt; Villegas, Rebecca; Eoff, Karen; Richards, Tim Subject: PONC Fund Aloha Charter Commission Members, I will not be able to attend Friday's meeting in Kona, so I wish to provide testimony on the PONC fund contribution reduction proposal that I believe is on this meeting's agenda for the second reading. I hope you all had a chance to hear or read Governor Ige's State of the State address yesterday. In it he emphasized the importance of acquiring and preserving more land. He is proposing an increase in funding for land conservation by removing the cap on the conveyance tax to the Legacy Land Conservation Program. This will open up more match money for the PONC program here on the Big Island. The Governor has it right and said it eloquently in yesterday's speech. Here is the pertinent excerpt in case you missed it. "Our future requires that over time — we, as a state, acquire and preserve more and more land — either as state land or in the hands of partners like the Trust for Public Lands and the Nature Conservancy. If we want green spaces... if we want to grow our own food... if we want places for recreation... if we want clean, fresh water... if we want the environment that has been so central to Hawai'i's life... we need to have special lands in public hands. Take, for example, the new state Helemano Wilderness Recreational Area. 2,900 acres of former plantation and conservation land now dedicated to protecting our watershed and wildlife habitat and providing outdoor recreational opportunities for all. In October 2018, the Trust for Public Land and the state completed the purchase of four parcels of land from Dole Food Company, using a creative combination of private, federal and state funding. In an earlier time, those lands might have been sacrificed to uncontrolled development. To a certain extent, this project was made possible because we have a plan for future development on Oahu, with growth directed to our urban core and along our fixed transit system. That lessens the pressure for development on other areas, including important agricultural and preservation lands. It also allows us to initiate discussions with other private landowners, who have expressed an interest in developing lands in places like Kaneohe and Maunawili. We would prefer to negotiate acquisition agreements with them so that we can realize similar benefits to our natural resources and recreational venues. For those unfamiliar with the neighborhoods, Kaneohe and Maunawili both include areas that the landowners have proposed for housing development. But they also contain the mauka source of freshwater streams that feed ancient to -i and flow into vital coastal waters of Kaneohe Bay and Kawainui Marsh. 1 Comm. No. 21.64