HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0488.005 2008-2010TO: County Council Finance Committee Meeting 9/1/09-Comm.488 (Bill 132)
From: Lance Grolla, PO Box 687, Hilo, HI 96721, Tel: (808) 218-1528. Former Community Planner.
The bill needs to be passed for a number of reasons: ~ Prevent the sale of any more Hamakua land;
Ensure more transparent government decisions; ,~ Prevent county staff from overruling the elected
officials in land transactions; ~ Ensure adherence to the County Comprehensive Land Use Plan and the
State Plan whose goals are to make the Big Island self-sufficient; ~5) The present zoning as agricultural
can be changed; therefore, because it does not permanently ensure that the land will be used for farming,
reclassify the land as "agricultural in perpetuity"-this may require a change in the law, since law should
not result in the continuation of bad public policy merely because the law allows it; ~ The land can earn
permanent income to help pay off the county debt by leasing it for farming purpose; ~ Reappraise the
land for agricultural use and not far its speculative value as is now the case-"highest and best use" is not
always its value as a money maker there are other mare important "best use" values for ensuring the
land remains agricultural and open.
Based upon a lead article in the 9/30/09 Sunday edition of the Tribune Herald, county elected officials
and county department staff must stop seeing land mainly as money. That is short sighted and harmful.
Land is far more than an expedient commodity. You must see the land again in its original value, as our
Mother Earth, our lady who protects us, comforts us, nurtures us, feeds us. If our Mother is sold, she will
eventually end up developed, prostituted, paved and polluted.
(a) Farm land provides the open space our earth needs to renew polluted.. air and water, and provide
food. At one time in the past 100 years the Big Island grew 80-90% of its food, now we import 80-90%--
that's not progress, that's not the highest and best life for us: we need to become self-sufficient as required
in your long range plans-and self-sufficiency won't he possible if any mare farm land is sold and
eventually developed.
(b) To sell another 737 acres with an appraised speculative value of $8.2 million is short sighted,
lazy-hazy/thinking. This is not only the worst time in decades to sell land that has depreciated nearly 50%
since the recession began, but the sale is a temporary fix, it will only help reduce the county debt 10-15%.
What about next year, and the years after that? Does the mayor plan to continue to sell all the farm land
until there is none left? Then what?
(c) Then tourists will no longer visit the Big Island because it is open space, the farm and natural lands
they come to see. The mayor's short term small and temporary economic gain will eventually permanently
lose a billion tourist dollars in a decade. The land is needed not only for food but tourist dollars.
Who is boss? Who is in charge of final land use decisions? You, the elected leaders--or-- the
department staffthat inadvertently become the boss because they remain to carry on flawed past policies
through council changes? According to the Tribune, Finance Director Nancy Crawford has since 2005
persistently tried to exclude face-to face public discussions about the land, and has refused to support the
leasing of these farm lands, even though she could have long ago contracted with local coops and federal
land management agencies to assist with leasing. As a public servant, her perspective of service appears to
be limited to short term payoffs, and long term expedient economics. Has she and other agencies ever read
the adopted long range County Land Use Plan or the State. 2050 Plan. approved by the Council. Shouldn't
these plans impact the direction of the departments? Both plans see the land as far more than a
commodity. Open natural areas and farm lands are not infinite, their number on the Big Island are limited
and growing scarce. They are needed to not only remind us of our sacred roots in Mother Earth, but to
ensure we become self sufficient-it means $millions saved & $millions earned-not $millions squandered.
~,~. l~aa. ~ ~l .5
Ref. To,
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