HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0977.026 2010-20122009 -10 Board
President
Mike Gleason
President -Elect
Jon Miyata
Vice President
Vaughn Cook
Treasurer
Charles Erskine
Past President
Mary Begier
Directors
Howard Ainsley
Mitchell Dodo
Charles Esrkine
Stan Fortuna, Jr.
Judith Fox- Goldstein
Jay Ignacio
Ka'iu Kimura
Karina Leasure
Marco Mangelsdorf
Keith Marrack
Eugene Nishimura
Spencer Oliver
Glenn Santos
Margaret Shiba
Kimberly Shimabuku
Alice Sledge
Mele Spencer
Art Taniguchi
Ron Terry
Steve Ueda
William Walter
Hawaii Island
Chamber of Commerce
October 20, 2010
Members of the County Council
RE: Kamakana Villages at Keahuolu
io6 Kamehameha Avenue
Hilo, Hawaii 96720
Phone: (808) 935-7178
Fax: (808) 961 -4435
E -mail: admin @hicc.biz
www.hicc.biz
My name is Jon Miyata and I am the President -elect of the Hawaii Island
Chamber of Commerce, whose membership includes over 300 businesses,
representing over 700 individual members. We are writing in support of the
Kamakana Villages at Keahuolu Project.
The vision of Kamakana is a community knitted together by design where
residents of all income levels will have the opportunity to interact with
neighbors through strategic placement of homes and gathering places, open
spaces, street facing lanais, schools, bike and pedestrian paths and mixed use
centers. Forest City and the Housing Finance and Development Corporation
have worked hard to see this project reach fruition and provide West Hawaii
with the much needed affordable homes inventory. Currently the petitioners
are asking for certain 201H exemptions which relate to meeting LEED
Neighborhood Development, SmartCode principles, Kona CDP guidelines, cost
reductions and to expedite the permit review and project approvals. Flexibility
in the Hawaii County Code is required in the master planning of Kamakana
Village to achieve this goal.
By your supporting this request, you will allow Forest City to fill a void in the
West Hawaii affordable housing market and provide jobs to the hundreds of
construction workers who are now out of work.
We urge this Council to support these smart growth and New Urbanist best
practices. Let's get this affordable mixed -use development going.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Very truly yours,
Miyata
dent -Elect
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