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HomeMy WebLinkAboutINDIVIDUAL COMMENT EMAIL - 129219cr Mori, Ashley From: Sent: Thursday, October 31, 2019 12:08 PM Y To: General Plan Subject: Suggested Incorporations into General Plan - Climate Change Attachments: 2019 10 30 Honokaa Special Design Guidelines.pdf;Addition to GP Climate Change Section.pdf f r Hi Stephanie, Thank you for your valuable time yesterday. It was a most interesting conversation for me. It afforded me new ideas, challenges and opportunities. Communication goal #1: Achieved. Attached are two sets of suggestions for the Draft General Plan. The first Attachment is from living in Honolulu, is responsible for most of the preservation and historic recognition activities which have taken place in Honokaa over the past 10 years. He was previously the State Historian. He is responsible for placing many of the Buildings in Honokaa on the State and National Historic Registry. contacted him yesterday, asking for his comments on a preservation section of the GP. Second, please consider my suggestions for addition to the Climate Change section. r cG t Z cx) 2929 1 October 30, 2019 Mr.Alex Roy, Hawaii County Planning Department 101 Pauahi Street, Unit 3 Hilo, Hawaii 96720 Aloha Alex, The Historic Honokaa Town Project (HHTP) wishes to support the establishment of a Special Design District for Honokaa's Mamane Street. As you know over the past six years,the HTTP has been engaged in the Honokaa community while conducting historic research on the town, providing economic support to restore buildings and placing structures on both the Hawaii and National Registers of Historic Places. Promoting Honokaa's unique cultural heritage both reinforces a sense of community identity and creates new employment opportunities. Design guidelines could ensure that new construction in Honokaa would be architecturally compatible with the existing Plantation Era buildings. Doing so will do much to maintain "a sense of place" while not interfering with the commercial or residential use of properties. Thus, the Historic Honokaa Town Project supports design guidelines for the town. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me through any of the media below: Mahalo nui loa, SUGGESTED ADDITIONS TO GENERAL PLAN - CLIMATE CHANGE Responding to the challenges of Climate Change, welfare of the public (including generational scale timeframe) and intention toward mitigation of this Island's contribution to Greenhouse Gas accumulation will assume position of priority over maintenance and development of current economic structures. In an emergency situation as reflected in the Council Resolution 322-19, the usual laissez faire position of the County Government must be abandoned in favor of County creating policy and imposing policy which will have been determined and agreed upon as the greater good. The laissez faire position of awaiting the emergence of private actors can no longer be applied. Toward the goals stated in the Hawaii County Climate Emergency Resolution and repeatedly emphasized by administrative and legislative officials, the County will encourage public education and intimate engagement by the public in the transformative processes needed to address the challenges of Climate Change. The County administration, in concert with community groups, public organizations and various stakeholders, will actively and regularly inform the public through various news outlets, broadcast and social media platforms and public meetings of the gravity and potential hazards and remediation strategies of Climate Change. The County will initiate studies to determine the appropriate usage of its authority to levy fees and taxes on sources of activities which contribute to Greenhouse Gas emissions. This will include Environmental Fees levied on air travel to or from the island of Hawaii and taxation 'at the pump' on gasoline and diesel sales. Appropriate assignment of recipients of those revenues will be a critical element of those studies. As the Visitor Industry is currently the foundation of the Economy of the Big Island, and is also the largest contributor to Hawaii's Greenhouse Gas inventory(awaiting presentation)studies will be initiated to understand the effects, and remediation of those effects, of progressive reduction of the number visitor arrivals, both foreign and domestic. (I have been told from an academic, seemingly authoritative, source that Hawaii County has the largest Carbon footprint per capita of any administrative area(?) in the world. The way it was explained it made sense, though I question it.) The above studies will emphasize the context of both State and County declarations toward food and agricultural security and independence of the State and County, with diminishing reliance on mainland and international importation of food. Studies will evaluate strategies for transition of workforce away from the visitor industry and toward Agriculture and Forestry (Greenhouse Gas mitigation) in support of the goals discussed above. The intentions and outcomes of these studies will be regularly brought to the attention of the public in preparation toward a challenging transition of the County's economic base from the Visitor Industry to Agriculture. All new developments, housing or commercial, must be demonstrated to be carbon-neutral or net Greenhouse Gas neutral. Carbon sequestration may be utilized for offset of Greenhouse gasses generated.