2024-05-01 Kathleen Mumme SU - Laserfiche WebLink

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From: Kathleen Mumme To: W PCtesti mono Subject: Punalu'u Village Date: Wednesday, May 1,2024 2:15:19 PM Dear Planning Commission: We are writing again in support of the project above. Much has been said on social media and after nearly two months of this all I can feel is a mixture frustration and sadness. The frustration comes with all of the misinformation being promoted. The sadness comes from many of us who feel as though we have no right to an opinion because we are for it or because we weren't born and raised here. This does not promote the Aloha spirit. We hope that at the next meeting on May 6th more time will be allotted for Black Sand Beach LLC ito present its project in a public setting. This seems the only way to achieve fairness. FACTS: 1. Black Sand Beach LLC owns the 400 plus acres in Kau where the proposed addition sits. 2. Less than half that acerage is within the footprint of the area that was excavated and developed over fifty years ago and which comprises this project. 3. Personal property rights should be as important as the opinions of those of us who call Kau home. 4. There has always been a community at Punalu'u and Ninole. There have been over 100 residences in the area and in the Kalana Estates for decades. 5. A sewer and water system has served this community for decades. 6. Black Sand Beach LLC,who also owns the private sewer and water system, has spent the last four years here in Kau listening to people who call it home. 7. BSB has adjusted its plans based on that input and taken steps to reduce the number of units,while still enabling them to seek the capital to complete its project, and to insure that critical maintenance is done to the sewer and water system. This maintenance will insure that the system is safe and functioning in the future. 8. Homeowners and condo owners in this area have mixed opinions on the future of this project, but all of us are very concerned about the future of our sewer and water system, including the fire hydrants. 9. Punalu'u's Sea Mountain Resort was approved and building began in about 1970. Since then, at least three different corporations have tried and failed to add units to this development. All of them were huge projects and none of them asked the people of Kau what they could accept in the way of development. 10. The area around Sea Mountain and Colony One saw four decades of neglect. Everything from non-native plants choking out the grounds, dilapidated buildings, over-growth in the parking and walking areas and in the upper nine holes of the closed golf course, all adding danger in an area where people LIVE and where people recreate every day. BSB has spearheaded efforts to clean it up and invested many dollars to do so. 11. Despite the neglect that surrounds it, and its heavy use, Punalu'u Black Sand Beach thrives. The people come—both local families and tourists and so do the turtles, the birds, the monk seals and the fishermen. 12. Opportunities for jobs and entrepreneurial enterprises for our local people are a part of this plan. 13. Between Volcano NP and South Point, Punalu'u is the only developed area and one of very few privately owned coastal parcels . While all Hawaiians are given access to the shores of the state BY LAW,this additional fact means that almost the entire coast line here BELONGS to Hawaiians and with diligence, can never be developed. That is a huge benefit