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Home My WebLink AboutSPP-21-000227 9.15.2021 B. BARKER TESTIMONY LATE Mori, Ashley From:Brit Barker <bbp.esq.hi@gmail.com> Sent:Wednesday, September 15, 2021 12:44 PM To:LPCtestimony Subject:Kona Aerials - Support Letter Attached Attachments:Kona Aerials Special Use Permit 9-15-2021.pdf Good Afternoon, Please see attached letter in support of Kona Aerials business. Thank you, Brit Brit Barker Attorney at Law BBP.Esq.HI@gmail.com (909) 912-2517 EMAIL DISCLAIMER & CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE The information contained in this electronic message is intended only for the personal and confidential use of the designated recipients named above. This e-mail transmission and any documents, files or previous e-mail messages attached to it may contain confidential information that is legally privileged, covered by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act 18 U.S.C. § 2510-2522. If you are not the intended recipient, or a person responsible for delivering it to the intended recipient, YOU ARE HEREBY NOTIFIED* that any retention, dissemination, distribution, disclosure, copying or further use of any of the information contained in or attached to this transmission is STRICTLY PROHIBITED. If you have received this transmission in error, please IMMEDIATELY notify me by reply e-mail or by personally contacting me at telephone number (909) 912-2517, then DESTROY the original transmission and its attachments without reading or saving in any manner. Thank you! 1 ImuaLawOffices@gmail.com www.imualawoffices.com P. O. Box 944 Kailua - Kona, HI 96745 (808)747-4844 BRIT BARKER HI #10044 & CA #288445 September 15, 2021 Leeward Planning Commission Re: Kona Aerials Gymnastics Special Use Permit To Whom It May Concern, My name is Brit Barker. I am a private attorney in the local area with my main focus of practice involving children, primarily but not limited to, with Child Welfare matters. I hope this letter assists you in your determination to grant Kona Aerials Gymnastics a Special Use Permit. I was born and raised in Southern California. I was a competitive gymnast for almost 20 years of my life. At approximately 8 years old, I started training to be in the international competitive group of my gymnastics facility in California. This type of training meant that vacations were out of the question. However, my family believed in the whole well-rounded person as the best form of child development and were able to come to a compromise with my coaches. The only way my coaches allowed me to go on vacation with my family was if there was a facility I was able to train at and have the coach sign off on my training schedule. Thank you to Nanette in the late 1990s, I was able to come to this island on many Thanksgiving vacations with my family. I was able to truly do what I loved as a child while falling in love with this island. I eventually earned a gymnastics scholarship to U. C. Berkeley. This led me to becoming a lawyer in California. My love of the island continued through college and law school, as I frequently visited and stopped in to say hi to Nanette throughout the years. One of those years, my college gymnastics coach and I volunteered at Kona Aerials while we were on island. Having my two passions, making children happy and gymnastics, come together at one of my favorite destinations in Kona was truly icing on the cake. My love for the island drew me back to take the Hawaii Bar and receive my license to practice law in Hawaii in 2013. Since then, I spent the majority of my law practice being a County of Hawaii Deputy Prosecuting Attorney (with a focus on family criminal law to include juveniles), a Reservist in the United States Air Force as a JAG Attorney, and owning my own practice to focus on children. I am not writing this to you for my own good. This letter is really to show you from my personal diverse experience how important it is to have good businesses like Kona Aerials to continue on in this community. This community needs more businesses like Kona Aerials and owners like Nanette that truly care about our children and this community as a whole. Children need to have healthy alternatives to spend their time. Gymnastics is an amazing opportunity for so many children. It teaches young children and adults about self-awareness, developmental skills like eye-hand and eye-foot coordination, body health, mental health and self-confidence, hard work, and healthy competition through teamwork. It can even earn children scholarships to college! Page 1 of 2 My simple understanding is that a Special Use Permit is necessary for Nanette to continue to do business at her new facility. I cannot emphasize enough how important it is for Kona Aerials to remain at their current location in their new facility and remain open for business. I personally know how hard Nanette has worked throughout the years to save enough money to have an appropriate size facility, with sufficiently safe equipment, and maintain athletes through their own lives and journeys. It has not been an easy journey for Nanette to give her own passion to this community for our children. However, she has continued to grow and develop her business to try and stay open for our children throughout the years, including COVID-19. Being a former Prosecuting Attorney and member of the U.S. Air Force JAG Attorneys, I am truly a rule follower. However, my belief is that if a rule has been broken, then find the most appropriate solution and really understand the situation. Even if it is necessary to think outside the box to get back to a point of following the rules, it is about doing the right thing to conclude the best solution. In my opinion, the right thing to do for this Commission is to assist owners like Nanette and businesses like Kona Aerials to remain open so that they can continue to provide the children of our community an opportunity to be involved in amazing sports like gymnastics. So please, think outside the box to do the right thing and help Nanette and Kona Aerials get into compliance in whichever way is necessary so our children have this opportunity to make good choices with their spare time. Issues like permitting can have detrimental ripple effects throughout our community. Closing the doors to businesses like these would devastate so many children and families in this community. Our local businesses need support not challenges. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me at the information above. Thank you. Respectfully, BRIT BARKER Attorney at Law Page 2 of 2