2024-10-30 Tawn Keeney MD Testimony GP 2045

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From:tawn@honokaapeople.com To:WPCtestimony Subject:Testimony - General Plan 2045 Date:Wednesday, October 30, 2024 11:38:58 AM Attachments:Testimony before the Windward Planning Commission on the Final Draft General Plan 2045.pdf The attached and document below is testimony from Tawn Keeney pertaining to General Plan 2045 Final Draft. Thank you for your consideration. Tawn Keeney Testimony before the Windward Planning Commission: Final Draft General Plan 2045 Commission Meeting Nov. 1, 2024 Submitted by Tawn Keeney MD The basic concept underlying the notion of General Plan is desirable. However this Final Draft General Plan 2045 raises questions about practical application of that notion. It is found, in survey of the proposals here that the Draft General Plan is laden with contentious ideas which are likely to represent the thinking on one administration but may well be rejected by a subsequent administration, or, more importantly by the general public. If the General Plan is to be posited as a guideline or aspirational document that spans a period of 20+ years then contentious proposals, or proposals that have a shifting or limited source of support or are poorly understood by the public or the administration, should not be a part of the document. Regardless of whether the apologists of placement of contentious proposals in the Draft General Plan attempt to justify this document as a ‘Living Document’, this Plan posits itself as foundational to the development of ordinances and administrative rules that may subsequently arise. Where there would be significant opposition, even if the document framers should feel themselves in a majority position, the General Plan should be avoided as residence of that directive. If a General Plan directive may expect even modest opposition, then that proposal should be accompanied by a full explanation of the reasoning behind its position, as inclusion in the General Plan may become rationale for proposal as ordinance or administrative rule. Does the State of Hawaii or the United States have a ‘General Plan’ that it creates periodically? No, they have constitutions. However these ‘constitutions’ are not given to contentious proposals which arise with the shifting of societal circumstance or environment. They are fundamental guidelines which are truly foundational and not subject to whim of administration. And it is from that document that legal applications arise. There is no intermediate ‘General Plan’, formulated as aspiration by one administration after another, not subject to public debate and discussion. If a General Plan is posited by an administration as description of intention of where its aspirations lie, and especially if that Plan contains contentious or poorly