Communication No. 2021-10- Mele Kailani Testimony

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Communication No.2021-10 From: Mele Kailani Sent: Friday,June 18, 20211:09 PM To: Planning- Kona <kona@hawaiicounty.gov> Subject:Testimony open space June 22, 2021 Hello, my name is Mele Kailani and I am 12 years old. I was born and raised in Kailua Kona Hawaii. When I go and drive down Alii with family and friends I always wonder why I can only see the ocean in and out through buildings that do not belong there. I can see plenty of vacant spots on the other side of the road where it would not block ocean view. When you put your big buildings in such a small spot, you'll most likely have to destroy beautiful things like trees to even have enough space. Even so you may not even have enough space for parking, especially the people who want to go to the shoreline access. Another main issue is building sea walls. Sea walls ruin beautiful sandy beaches because over time rock walls will erode away, causing fallen rocks to scatter the sand, making shoreline access dangerous. On top of that, making another on top will just cause the same problem again.This also ruins surf and just beaches in general. Back to where I started, I really do love to see the ocean from the road, so I really love what they did with the old hotel by Kahalu'u, now instead of seeing the big hotel I see ocean view driving past, it's truly beautiful. I'm hoping that we as Hawaii citizens can preserve as much ocean and ocean view as we can, stop developing buildings that only benefit a small few, start making things that can restore Hawaii's natural beauty, and preserve Alii drives open space for future generations. Mahalo, Mele Kailani