HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0426.005 2004-2006 Aloha Council Members,
My name is Dorothy Walsh. Most of you have already received a letter from me
regarding my position concerning the agricultural tourism bill.
Before going any further though, I want you to know that I applaud the county and
the commissioners attempt to develop viable economic opportunities for our
community. I appreciate the challenges you face with so many competing interests.
And I trust you will consider them all and make wise decisions that will balance
these interests and benefit our community for years to come. Thank you for
facilitating this forum and the opportunity to contribute to the formation of this bill.
As you know, I have very personal reasons for making this submission. This is why I
have come today. My family lives next door to an emerging agricultural tourism
business. I can speak from first-hand experience about the important, practical and
sensitive issues to be considered when thinking about the implications of this bill on
those residents whose homes are nearby to the businesses covered in this bill. I
would like to share several issues from our experience and raise them for your
consideration from the point of view of those living nearby to potential ag tourism
businesses. We are a case study of the issues raised here.
We live less than 100 feet from a new local tourism venture. Their exit is 5 feet from
our properly, emptying onto a private road. This company is attempting to be a
world class visitor center giving tourists an experience in the history and the process
of local coffee production. They operate 6 days a week. There are probably a
hundred vehicles of one sort or another including tourists, supply trucks,
construction workers, in and out. They run a coffee processing pleat. The
challenges we have been faced with are issues relating to a still-on-going three year
building process, significantly increased traffic and wear and tear on our small
private road; and, very loud, industrial level noise for hours at a time from the
coffee processing machine. These may not sound important spoken here today. But
imagine these things going on right next door to your home, your place of refuge
from the busyness of our everyday work world, and I think you can appreciate our
concerns. We built our home before the development of this tourism project. We
didn't intend on living near a commercial business. And it has had significant
implications on our lives.
What I would like to ask you today is to please outline the issues you've considered
regarding the impact of these proposed new ag businesses on their neighboring
community. And then, the ways you intend to protect the interests and rights of
homeowners neighboring them. In other words, what safeguards have you
considered to protect the iuterests of community members living around emerging
companies from, say, the deterioration of their private road, significantly increased,
prolonged industrial noise, and other equally important considerations that have
been a part of our daily lives that I have not listed here for the sake of time.
Comm. No.
Ref. To: ~re~ar~i
Ref. core _ SF PL (1 90f15
Second, could you please outline bow and why you came up with the "30,000"
annual visitor number? That's 100 people a day excluding Sundays. How many
businesses being proposed would even come close to that? How or who will keep
track of the numbers of people?
Third, how do you propose to enforce the rules outlined in this bill? Who will say
what machinery is too loud or how many cars on private roads is too many before
adversely affecting it's overall condition? Who will pay for upgrades? The residents
who live there? Is that fair? What recourse will we have when the proposed
boundaries are neglected for one reason or another?
In short, I am making this submission to contribute to the process of creating a
balanced bill that considers the practical impact of proposed businesses on
neighboring communities that ensures harmony and benefits everyone with the
minimum of hardship. As this bill appears in it's current form the county will not
have to ever enforce the new codes outlined.
Please revise this bill to include a provision to protect the neighbors of agricultural
tourism operations. Thank you for you time.
Dorothy Walsh
P.O. Box 90
Kealakekua, HI 96750
322-3005