HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0349.028 2006-2008 Page 1 of 2
Fleming, Melissa
From: Julie Enriques [konavb@aloha.net]
Sent: Monday, April 30, 2007 2:50 PM i f r ~';a ; ~.~j~i ~2 r"'
To: Jacobson, Bob
Cc: Yagong, Dominic; Ikeda, Donald; Yoshimotb, J; Higa, Stacy; Naeole, Emily; Ford, Brenda; Pilago, K.
Angel; Hoffmann, Pete; cohmayor@co.hawaii:hi.us; planning@co.hawaii.hi.us;
repherkes@Capitol.hawaii.gov; repgreen@Capitol.hawaii.gov; senkokubun@Capitol.hawaii.gov;
mazie.hirono@mail.house.gov; Neil.Abercrombie@mail.house.gov
Councilman Jacobson:
Bill 169-07 should be stopped immediately until this community has had a chance to look at all the
possibilities. Once again, your Bill continues to highlight your consistent effort to railroad your own
agenda and the agenda of a vocal minority, rather than providing equal opportunity for community
groups and individuals to voice their thoughts. Identifying Ka'u Preservation in the Bill as the sole
community organization to develop management plans and use, only serves to divide this community
and create more animosity and frustration.
I am sure you aze aware that Mayor Harry Kim is attempting to organize vazious community leaders to
come up with a format to discuss the issues regazding Punalu'u. His effort to give this community equal
platforms to speak is extremely refreshing. Let's wait to see the outcome of his labor before rushing in
to the purchase of such a financially questionable and sustainable property.
The County is considering the purchase of Kawa Beach, Honoapo has recently been acquired by the
land trust, much of Kahuku has been fumed into a national park, Mazie Hirono wants to survey the
majority of Ka'u Coastline to see if it should be turned into a national pazk and now this bill wants 150
more acres of already developed land to be tamed into a County Park. Ka'u has 80 miles of pristine,
untouched and undeveloped coastline. How much more land does our government need to encumber in
Ka'u, before we eliminate the real endangered species.....the local people. You know how badly we
need to keep our workforce off the roads, how poor our school is performing and how many or our
children are leaving with no economic opportunity to return. "Keep Ka'u, Ka'u" is no longer a slogan
we can be proud of.
As the President of ' O Ka'u Kakou(OKK), we believe there needs to be balance in how we care for the
land and how we care for our people. We have neglected our people far too long. We need to take ow
time and look at all the options. OKK has been the only group willing to communicate with
Seamountain 5 (potential Developers of Punalu'u). It is unfair for you, Councilman Bob Jacobson or
any of the newspapers to label us as pro-development when we have never publically or within our
community made that claim. We do not feel that it is prudent to support a bill such as 167-07 or support
developers as Seamountain 5, without first doing the research and looking at all the possibilities. In
regards to development, OKK has taken Mayor Kim's advice to "create a development plan that can be
acceptable to a majority of our community." And only our community, together, should make the
decision to support or not support this development or bill 169-07.
As part of the negotiations between OKK and Seamountain 5 agreements that aze reached will be written
into a memorandum of agreement (MOA), in which Seamountain 5 will donate the 7 acres of the
existing County Park that is now on a month-to-month lease. We are close to agreement on including
another 50 acres (approx) of critical shoreline to the County or public land trust free of charge. It
includes all the open coastal shoreline areas towards the Naalehu side of the existing beach park and the
sensitive bluff area by the chapel and the important archaeological sites around Ninole Cove and the old
Ninole Cove School area.
So why rush to buy 150 acres when there is a good possibility to get approximately 56 acres of the
critical shoreline donated to the County or public land trust. This bill needs much more conside2ra/ti/o//Jn~, O
r: . °n P~ F-c.
4/30/2007 F4f. ~,1?; _i _
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thought and input from the Ka'u community. Please reject this bill.
Mahalo,
Guy Enriques
4/30/2007