HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0019.013 2002-2004 December 17, 2002
To: Chair Bobbie-Jean Leithead-Todd '~y (~j
Planning Committee, Hawaii County Council u~j?1~1M -l 1 tl.~
Volcano is a community of residences and some small businesses, including many vacation
home rentals and bed and breakfast establishments. For many of us residents as well as visitors,
Volcano is a quiet community where people come to get away from crowded cities, noise and
traffic. I live in Mauna Loa Estates and I own a vacation rental in Volcano Village. Many of my
guests at the rental are from other Hawaii locations that visit Volcano just for that reason to
escape to a quiet place.
There is no doubt that the Volcano community will grow. But, what will that growth look
like? Is there a way to grow that we don't become just like everywhere else and lose what
most of us came here for in the first place?
Good planning makes good sense. Allowing light industry like a lumberyard with its
associated heavy truck traffic and noise to begin to develop in the center of Volcano Village
simply does not make good sense.
I'm a woodworker. I've built a small home in the azea and am now completing a lazge
addition, but, I don't need a lumberyazd in Volcano. The accessibility of lumber in Hilo works
just fine for me. However, some people think it's important to have one more convenient.
Regardless of how much a lumberyard may be perceived to be needed or not needed, this
sort of operation clearly does not belong in the center of the village I think granting
permission to do that ranks somewhere between bad and poor planning for Volcano's future.
Most of us have seen what poor or no planning can do as communities grow. If Volcano
is to begin to need this type of light industry support now or in the future, then we'll have to
accept it. But, industrial development in the center of the community is not acceptable.
This proposed lumberyard and any other future similar light industrial businesses
must be placed in a well defined area outside of the village's current residential and small
business area. This type of development within the current residential and small business azea is
unacceptable.
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County Co•vnci~~>~'
illiam G. Gilmartin
P.O. Box 540, 11-3888 Sixth St.
Volcano, HI 96785
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