HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0106.021 2004-2006 Welina mai `oukou Mr. Chairman and members of the Hawaii County Council,
'O Chuck Flaherty ko'u inoa. I'd tike to start with a quote from former President Herbert Hoover:
"You know, the only trouble with capitalism is capitalists. They're too damn greedy."
For over a decade now, local citizens have pleaded with our County govemment to "Keep Kona
Country". A survey by the Kona-Kohala Chamber of Commerce in 1996 found that 92% of our
community's residents wanted West Hawaii to keep its rural lifestyle and quality of life.
Did our County government listen to its citizens? Or did it listen to wealthy, often out-of-state
developers? A drive from Captain Cook to Hawi speaks louder than any words.
Your citizens never asked for luxury, gated subdivisions and condos for out-of-state residents, but
that's what we got. We didn't ask for commercial and industrial development, but that's what we
got. We didn't ask for thousands of hours of work and family time to be stolen from us by traffic,
but that's what we got. We got it because our govemment didn't listen to We the People.
So it's no surprise that the County is now facing the possibility of financial bankruptcy for its past
actions. Our brilliant American democratic system of checks and balances does indeed work.
The current affordable housing crisis has more than proven that an unregulated housing market is
unhealthy and immoral. Allowing speculative investment in basic human needs, such as housing,
goes against the values and principals upon which this nation was founded.
And so this County Council has an historic opportunity placed before it. You can be different.
This Council can ho'oponopono your citizens' problems if it has have the will, fortitude, character,
and intelligence to do so.
Please enact a conditional moratorium on all County rezonings, subdivision approvals, and
building permits. Keep the moratorium in place until Regional Plans are created by local
communities and enacted by you, the Council, as provided by the new General Plan.
In the interim, only allow construction of roads, water supply, and homes affordable to those at or
below 100°~ of median income, because, despite a huge demand for these homes, none exist.
Some may fear a slowdown in construction if you enact a moratorium. But affordable housing
projects will come online before the current backlog of building permits is exhausted.
Even if there was a temporary construction slowdown, Hawaii has the lowest unemployment rate
in the nation. The job market can handle it.
Regardless of what you choose to do, we cannot build our way out of this mess with the current
lack of comprehensive and enforceable planning. If we do so, our quality of life and
constitutionally-protected environmental and cultural resources wilt be destroyed forever.
Our local communities need time to gather their wits and work with County government to
develop regional plans.
Until that is arxomplished, we must have an immediate conditional moratorium in place allowing
construction of truly affordable housing, roads, and water supply only.
Mahalo a ke Akua,
, f l
Charles R. Flahe J . l ~ ~(p.
Comm. No.
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