HomeMy WebLinkAboutGregg, Toni Makani
Tsuneda, Kaci
From:Kahoonei, Tiffany
Sent:Tuesday, October 20, 2026 9:08 AM
To:Makani Gregg; Council Remote Testimony
Cc:Council Testimony
Subject:RE: Oppose Bills 186 &187
Aloha,
This is a courtesy email to confirm that our office has received your testimony. It has been forwarded to
counciltestimony@hawaiicounty.gov for recording.
For future reference, please email testimony to counciltestimony@hawaiicounty.gov.
Mahalo,
Tiffany
Tiffany Kaho ʻ onei
(808) 961-8255
Office of the County Clerk
25 Aupuni Street, Suite 1402
Hilo, HI 96720
From: Makani Gregg <hinahele@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, October 20, 2026 8:31 AM
To: Council Remote Testimony <councilremotetestimony@hawaiicounty.gov>
Subject: Oppose Bills 186 &187
Aloha e Chair Inaba and Members of the Council,
ʻ O wau iho nō ʻ o Makani Gregg a no Moku o Keawe, Hawai ʻ i mai au. I testify in OPPOSITION to Bills 186 and 187
as an aloha ʻ āina practitioner from Pāhoa, Puna. I stand with the testimony of Pōhaku Pelemaka, which addresses
evacuation and the unsurveyed land; I write to speak for the wai, for what it means when fire comes, and for the
community these families would lean on.
THE WATER IS ALREADY SPOKEN FOR
The rain and fog that gather on the Kohala uplands feed the Waimea aquifer, the source for Waikōloa. The State set
its sustainable yield at 16 million gallons a day, and current pumping is about 90 percent of that. Waikōloa residents
are right now under a mandatory request to cut non-essential use by 25 percent while wells are repaired. Projects
already approved, including Department of Hawaiian Home Lands homesteads whose beneficiaries have waited
generations, will draw more. Every gallon promised to a new market project is a gallon no longer there for them.
THE NUMBERS ARE NOT SETTLED
This project first secured a will-serve letter for up to 1.29 million gallons a day, then revised its estimated need to
362,000. When a demand estimate moves nearly fourfold, the water question has not been answered, and Bill 187
asks only that the applicant buy units from a private utility. In In re Water Use Permit Applications (Waiāhole), our
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Supreme Court held that the public trust in water binds the State and its political subdivisions, and that uncertainty
must weigh toward protecting the resource, not against it.
WATER AND FIRE ARE THE SAME QUESTION
Waikōloa sits in grasslands that burn. The 2021 Mana Road Fire, the largest in our island's history, forced the whole
village out, and a July County study found it would take more than four hours to evacuate its roughly 7,000 residents
on the roads that exist today. Bill 187 requires the new complex to have fire flow at its hydrants, but that water comes
from the same strained aquifer, during the same dry seasons when wells are already failing. Adding 400 households
increases the number of people who must get out and the demand on the water needed to protect those who cannot.
That risk should be resolved before approval, not reported annually afterward.
WHERE WILL THESE FAMILIES GO?
Four hundred households means keiki who need classrooms, families who need parks and playgrounds, and everyone
needing groceries, clinics, and roads. Waikōloa Elementary and Middle School was described by our own state senator
as "bursting at the seams" years ago and kept its portables even after its last expansion, and Waikōloa has no high
school, so teenagers already commute out of the village. Bill 187 sets aside no school site, zones no commercial land,
and allows the park obligation to be met with a fee of about $5,673 per apartment. Every new resident would flow into
the same school, the same stores, and the same single road that already strains to serve the village.
NOT BUILT FOR THE PEOPLE OF THIS ʻ ĀINA
A median home in Waikōloa Village costs about $950,000, nearly thirteen times Hawai ʻ i County's median household
income. Three-bedroom rents start near $3,000 a month. Most of these units would be sold or rented at that market,
with nothing in the bill reserving them for island families or Native Hawaiian descendants. This development is not
designed with the people of Hawai ʻ i in mind.
I want our neighbors housed. Homes placed where the water is uncertain, the way out is a single road, and the price
is out of reach are not security for anyone. This project should not happen at this time. I respectfully urge the Council
to vote NO on Bills 186 and 187.
Ola i ka wai a ka ʻ ōpua.
There is life in the water from the clouds. Waikōloa's life comes from Kohala's rain and fog; it is not ours to overdraw.
Me ke aloha ʻ āina,
Toni Makani Gregg
Aloha ʻ Āina Practitioner
Pāhoa, HI 96778
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