HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0042.048 2002-2004 June 16, 2004
To: Hawaii County Council
From: Sherry Bracken
(PO Box 248, Kailua-Kona HI 96745; 808-334-1521)
Aloha,
Thank you for holding this hearing in Kona.
I'm a ten year resident of the Big Island, and although I'm speaking today as a private
citizen, most of you know that I've done lots of volunteer work for Kona Outdoor Circle
over the years. I often get people coming up to me asking that KOC do something to
help deal with the proliferation of sandwich boards and other unsightly signs.
Here's the problem: I'd like to do something. And so would Kona Outdoor Circle's
board and members. People think that Kona Outdoor Circle can do something,
because The Outdoor Circle is the organization that worked to get the territorial
legislature to pass laws back in 1927 that banned billboards in this state. Everybody
loves that we don't have billboards. However, KOC cannot on its own do anything. But
you can. That's your job.
I'm asking you to please, pass this revised sign code. Why? I have friends who are
merchants, who want to keep our island beautiful. Some of them feel it's most unfair
that some merchants flaunt the law, and put up sandwich boards and banners and flood
the area with signs that merely clutter, and lose their power to inform. I, as a person
who lives here partly because it's a tropical paradise, want to keep the area beautiful.
Under the sign code, merchants will have full ability to display an appropriate sign.
Shopping centers will have full ability to display signs that list all their merchants. The
new sign code is probably not perfect, but it does provide for simplicity for such things
as banners advertising specific events, and for real estate signs, and for things that
would be onerous if each needed a permit. And mostly, it allows the county to enforce
the law, easily, and even with the help of volunteers, just as volunteers help enforce
handicapped parking.
To remind you, KOC has committed to help communicate what this law is once you
pass it. Please, let us spend the money we've allocated for that function.
Please, you've had this before you, one way or another, for at least four years. Please,
pass this sign code and let's move forward.
Respectfully submitt`ed~with great mahalo,
E~? I ` ' ~ ~ 2'~"
Sher Br
ry
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