HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0112.001 2006-2008
Mr. Chairman, and council members, good morning and mahalo for letting me speak.
Community development for all of us living here in Kohala is more than just building and
regulations. It is about preserving customs, values and direction that will prepare our
community for the fixture. While gathering information from community members, an
overall sense of community development for our future, our children's future was felt
throughout the process. When speaking openly with community members, a general
sense of skepticism was felt with good reason. Most sentiments were along the line of
statements such as: "Is this for real? We've worked on so many previous plans and the
county still wants another?! When will they take our voices seriously? This is where we
live. This is what we know. Representatives cannot describe what it is we want here but
they may be at a turning point in looking at how we see our region, a small community
that thrives on home, reverence and family . As our facilitators continued to gather
information, we could see the community's mindset change to: hey this is really serious,
the county is serious- we are going to create a plan for the community. And more
important the outcome becomes an ordinance as part of the general plan not resolutions
as how previous plans were treated. This is a fundamental shift in the partnership
between our community and government - a trust and belief has been found and it is up
to us, as stakeholders in making sure our community will thrive for the best of everyone
involved.
With added publicity in the news media about the County's general plan efforts, and
seeing the community development process in Kona and Puna moving ahead, accelerated
Kohala's community participation efforts. Significantly, we had approximately 12% of
Kohala giving their input on how they wanted Kohala to look like as compared to 2 or
3% for other districts. This shows how important the level of interest had become.
Although in the past, land was getting sold in large chunks by the major landowners,
keeping the land zoned as Ag 20 or more, for the most part has kept the rural nature of
Kohala intact. Keeping Kohala Kohala, that is a rural community, was one of the main
ideas gathered from the more than 3000 community suggestions.
Now, as a community our excitement mounts despite feelings of doubt, our Kohala will
remain ours and for others to share in.. Our community is one of respect, compassion
and openness -and the greatest thing would be for us to share that with others. Given the
opportunity to create our community development plan, we can build together. Our
steering committee is now in the approval process and should be operational in mid
March or even sooner. Given this chance, we do not want to see our efforts dismantled
or held back by new rezoning requests. We are at a critical crossroads for our community
and the preservation of our culture and our way of living; we don't want to see the
progress reached by all parties annulled by rezoning during the midst of planning. In
conclusion, I ask the approval for the Kohala Resolution to hold off rezoning for one
year. Mahalo for your time.
Comm. No. ~ ~ Z
Ref. ToAr~so L
Ref. Uate ~ 0 ~ 2007