HomeMy WebLinkAboutCommunication No. 2022-25 Kohala Mountain News September 2022Communication No. 2022-25
CDP Advisory Group To Hold Monthly Public Meetings
Kohala Mountain News – September 2022
The same month that the County Planning Department announced it would
no longer staff the action committees of all district’s Community Development Plans
(CDP), North Kohala held its first successful meeting of the new Advisory Group
(AG), whose mission is to implement Kohala’s CDP.
The eight members conducting the August 31 meeting were assured that the
decision would not affect the workings of the Kohala AG because it was set up, with
the blessings of the Planning Department, to be a possible pilot project for other
districts to develop independent groups more representative of the population.
With five members of the public in attendance the group got right to the job
of re-organizing the structure of the committee, its seven subgroups, and its
relationship to the County.
First, the group decided to hold monthly public meetings at 5pm on the last
Wednesday of each month at the Kohala Intergenerational Center in Kamehameha
Park. Upcoming agendas will be published in Kohala Mountain News along with
reports of meetings and calendar notices. The public is encouraged to attend
meetings and comment on agenda items or bring up any issues they wish the AG to
address.
Officers elected to serve until next elections in January are John Winter,
chair; David Fuertes, vice chair, and Alan Brown, secretary.
Winter led the group through a draft mission statement and proposed
structure for bylaws. The main goal is to implement the goals and strategies of the
NKCDP. Several additions and amendments were made, and it was agreed to re-
visit them at the next meeting, which is scheduled for September 28.
In bringing up the recent letter from Planning Director Zendo Kern ending the
departments participation in the CDP action committees, Winter said he was part of
a small committee that has been working with the Long-Term Planning division of
Kern’s department for a year to come up with the guidelines for an independent
group with a more diverse representation of the community.
The department would be invited to attend future AG meetings, but would
not conduct them as in the past, Winter said. Agendas and minutes would be
shared with the department. The NKCDP is a county ordinance and attached to the
General Plan.
The subgroups of the Advisory Group were described at the “work horses” of
the CDP process. Winter called on members to join the subgroups and report on
their accomplishments monthly. Three groups – Community Access, Affordable
Housing and Parks, Water, Roads have continued to meet through the pandemic.
Joe Carvalho agreed to continue with Access; Collin Kaholo and Jack Hoyt will
report on Affordable Housing, and John Winter will cover Parks, Water, Roads.
David Fuertes and Sadie Young will work with the Agriculture group and Steve
Communication No. 2022-25
Hoffmann will re-organize the Power, Viewplanes and Erosion Control group.
Growth Management group is in the process of re-organizing. The Health and
Wellness Group and the Historic and Cultural Group have not met for several years.
All groups are looking for new participants. Anyone interested in serving in
the Agriculture Group contact David Fuertes at dcfuertes808@gmail.com.
Carvalho, who is chair of the new Kohala Community Plan working group,
gave an update on the progress of the long-term planning arm of the overdue
revisions to the 2008 NKCDP. He said the group would continue to stay in close
touch with the Advisory Group.