HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0820.006 2022-2024P / cgox
C40M1A.820
From: Honokaa People's Theatre COUNTY CLERK
Sent: Wednesday, May 1, 2024 12:24 PM COUNTY OF HAWArI
To: Council Testimony j,�.RCMIVED
Subject: Testimony on Com 820 General Plan Process'to date IMP
Dale
Aloha, I focused my oral testimony on Communication 820 on General Plan (GP) Substance as many controversial issues
lie in the Draft GP where they shouldn't be, but then realized that the process was what was under review at today`s
meeting, so here is my testimony on that.
Today Planning Director Zendo showed the timeline of the public input process which was extensive but did not clarify
why they threw out the 2005 plan & started a whole new plan, which has caused great confusion. Perhaps due to public
pushback feeling the process was not transparent as a result, he did clarify that a Rationale document for policies exists,
but when asked admitted that did not come out until the end of Feb of this year. However when was that announced?
We have been following the GP process and only discovered the Rationale Document accidentally mid March with final
comments due April 1st (after a lot of public outcry to extend the process) and it's very dense. Also pretty sure all the
public meetings were BEFORE the Rationale/Justification doc, so no training on how to use, or time for talk story on
those issues as well.
The draft GP there is divided into Challenges, Opportunities, Policies and Priority action sections, and only the Policies
section are linked to Rationale, including justification wording from the various Hazard mitigation plans and whatnot.
Most importantly, the GP Priority Actions listed right under the Policies (where all the substanstantive language and code
amendments are) DO NOT have rationales, and the Priority Actions are where most of the controversial stuff is we are
bringing up (some in the Opportunites sections). NO RATIONALE is given for nuclear, waste to energy, hydrogen, Climate
Change beachfront land acquisition program, reducing barriers to development, Zoning code amendment for Cluster
Plan Developments & Planned Unit Development to be administrative permits subject to Planning director approval
rather than County Council, Amending Ag districts to allow housing etc. So it remains a LOT of stuff in the GP in willy nilly
and in the most important policy impacting way including Code change wording, without justification.
From what I gather from this morning's County Council discussion with the justice present, currently there is no way for
the County Council to make substantive changes to the draft GP doc once it comes up in a few months, it's either a yes or
no. But due to missed deadlines there actually are opportunities for the Council to legislate a bit of process and what
ends up in in the GP, perhaps through introduction of a bill. It was a little confusing today as Holeka seemed to be talking
about substance of the the GP and the justice was talking about timelines. Not sure, but it sounded like the Council
could even deny this current draft, go back to the 2005 plan and just make amendments to that as critical timelines were
missed by planning department? Not saying that's desireable but just trying to understand options considering the
controversy and difficulty of the rollout of this draft GP. A little confused by this conversation overall and a lot of research
needs to be done, but we very much appreciate the Councils attention to this very important issue and hopefully this
very confusing and somewhat controversial process can be remedied.
Phaethon Keeney
Honokaa, Hawaii 95727
Comivn. N .
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