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HomeMy WebLinkAbout10/04/2017 Public hearing minutes on BILL#2666 PUBLIC HEARING OCTOBER 4, 2017 Committee Chair Chock: Aloha. Thank you for being here today. Before we get started with our public hearing, I wanted to give a brief overview of where we will be heading with the Council's review and deliberation of the General Plan. I want to thank our Council staff who have been working tirelessly. Please be patient with us as you know this is not our regular venue, but we will get to everyone's testimony and try to get as much information out to you today. Following today's public hearing, the General Plan will be referred to the Planning Committee. Due to the size, complexity, and importance of the General Plan, the Council will enhance the regular committee process by scheduling Special Planning Committee Meetings relating to the General Plan. On your way out of the auditorium today, you may take a copy of the agenda for the meeting to be held next week Wednesday, October 11th, Thursday, October 12th, and Friday, October 13th. Attached to that agenda is also a copy of the tentative schedule for the General Plan meetings until the end of 2017. Please note that tentative dates are just that— tentative and subject to change—and depend on Councilmember availability and other Council business, so please refer to official agenda postings six (6) days prior to each Special Planning Committee Meeting. If anyone would like to receive electronic copies of Council agendas when they are posted, you can sign-up online at www.kauai.gov/council. In addition to trying to address the General Plan on specific days, the Planning Committee will also be limiting the scope of the subject-matter of the various meetings. Rather than allow Committee discussion and public testimony on the entirety of the plan at each meeting, an agenda will be set to specify portions of the plan to be handled during each meeting. The purpose of this scheduling is not to limit public testimony or Councilmember discussion—rather, the purpose is to enable the public and Councilmembers to work through the entire plan in an orderly fashion without jumping between multiple diverse topics at once. The intention is to somewhat mirror the Council's budget process, whereby specific topics from each County department are dealt with separately and completely, and then the discussion will move on. Similarly, the intention is that once a topic or sector of the plan has been thoroughly addressed, the Committee can make any needed decisions on the issue and move on without later returning to past issues. The public will still be allowed to talk about any issue throughout the entirety of the plan: via submission of written testimony any time, and in-person at any meeting that is not a limited-focus meeting—such as during this public hearing and at second and final reading. PUBLIC HEARING 2 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 For today's public hearing, each interested speaker should have received a purple sign-up sheet, so if you have not and you want to speak today, please get one of these sheets as you come into the building. These sheets are located up at the front entrance from staff in the lobby. In the upper right-hand corner of the sheet you will find your specific speaker number. Make sure your name is written on your sign-up sheet, and hold on to your sheet until your number is called. Testimony will be taken at the microphone located at the front right of the auditorium as you face the stage. That portion of seats is reserved for upcoming speakers. At this time, speakers with numbers 1-20 should already be seated there. This will enable our Council Services Staff to help expedite the taking of public testimony. Once you provide your testimony, you do not return to the reserved seating near the microphone, but rather take your belongings with you and choose a seat anywhere else in the auditorium. As time moves on and we are nearing the end of one group of speakers, we will periodically make a call for batches of speakers to identify themselves to staff. For example, our next announcement will likely be for speakers 21-40. We will continue calling batches of speaker numbers to report to staff until everyone has had an opportunity to speak. So please pay close attention to the periodic announcements and listen for your speaker number. If you originally arrived not planning to speak, and you do not have a purple sign-up sheet with a speaker number, you may return to the lobby at any time to get one. Due to the length of the plan, the amount of the material to cover, and the public's opportunity to submit written testimony, the Council will be abiding by Council Rule 11(c)(6), which states: "Oral testimony shall be limited to three (3) minutes per person." We will be using the red, yellow, and green stoplight near the speaker microphone to indicate the amount of time left for your testimony. At the beginning of your testimony, please state your name for the record and then you may proceed with your testimony. The light will shine green once you begin speaking to indicate that the clock has started. The yellow light will indicate that you have thirty (30) seconds remaining for your testimony. The light will shine red once you have reached the three (3) minute time limit. Please kindly finish your sentence at that point. I also ask that all Councilmembers be respectful in refraining from asking questions of speakers. This is their time to speak, and many people are here waiting for their turn. Pursuant to Council Rule 11(c)(10), Councilmembers may only "ask speakers to repeat or rephrase statements made during their testimony"—and only if the Chair allows. I would appreciate if Councilmembers refrain from this. PUBLIC HEARING 3 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 Please be advised that if we reach approximately 12:30 p.m. and have not completed this meeting, we will likely recess for lunch and return at approximately 1:30 p.m. If this occurs, we will need everyone to vacate the auditorium so our staff can break for lunch. Please also be sure to silence your cellphones, and be aware that we are in Convention Hall so there is no eating or drinking allowed. Thank you for your time and understanding in abiding by the procedures and rules that have been established for this process. Please do not hesitate to submit written testimony, and please come prepared for your three (3) minutes of in-person testimony. We look forward to an inclusive, thorough, and fair process that results in the best possible General Plan Update for our island. Resource material is available online at www.kauai.gov/council/GeneralPlanUpdate. Thank you for your participation and kokua. A public hearing of the Council of the County of Kaua`i was called to order by Mason K. Chock, Chair, Planning Committee, on Wednesday, October 4, 2017, at 8:39 a.m., at the Kaua`i War Memorial Convention Hall, 4191 Hardy Street, Lihu`e, and the presence of the following was noted: Honorable Arthur Brun Honorable Mason K. Chock Honorable Ross Kagawa Honorable Arryl Kaneshiro Honorable Derek S.K. Kawakami Honorable JoAnn A. Yukimura Excused: Honorable Mel Rapozo The Clerk read the notice of the public hearing on the following: "Bill No. 2666 — A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND CHAPTER 7, ARTICLE 1, KAUAI COUNTY CODE 1987, AS AMENDED, RELATING TO THE UPDATE OF THE GENERAL PLAN FOR THE COUNTY OF KAUAI (ZA-2017-3)," which was ordered to print by the Council of the County of Kauai on September 6, 2017, and published in The Garden Island newspaper on September 14, 2017. The following communications were received for the record: PUBLIC HEARING 4 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 1. Akiyama, James and Lynne, dated October 3, 2017 2. Amochaev, Renee-Eva, dated September 8, 2017 3. Arnett-Smith, Amy, dated October 2, 2017 4. Bailey, John, dated October 3, 2017 5. Bandsma, Gloria, dated October 3, 2017 6. Bator, Bonnie, dated October 3, 2017 7. Belardo, Maria, dated October 3, 2017 8. Cell, Laurie, dated October 3, 2017 9. Chandler, Kapua, dated October 3, 2017 10. Coan, Susan, dated September 28, 2017 11. Cody, Hoku, undated 12. Contractors Association Kaua`i, dated October 4, 2017 13. Cook, Mauli Ola, dated October 2, 2017 14. Cowden, Felicia, dated October 4, 2017 15. Crabbe, Kamana`opono, dated October 4, 2017 16. Crocona, Georgine, dated September 7, 2017 17. Cunningham, Dave, dated September 18, 2017 18. English, Anne, dated September 6, 2017 19. Evslin, Luke, dated October 4, 2017 20. Faye, Christine, dated October 3, 2017 21. Frederick, Anne, dated October 3, 2017 22. Fujiki, Randall K., dated October 4, 2017 23. Graziano, Francis, dated October 3, 2017 24. Guy, Joel, dated October 3, 2017 25. Hamitlon, Lyon, dated October 2, 2017 26. Hashimoto (Omo), Junedale and Jodi, dated October 4, 2017 27. Heacock, Don, dated October 3, 2017 28. Henderson, Leela, October 4, 2017 29. Hoeppner, Judie, dated October 2, 2017 30. Hoku, dated October 3, 2017 31. Holland, Fern A., dated September 6, 2017 32. Holland, Fern A., dated September 20, 2017 33. Honjo, Randall, dated October 2, 2017 34. Jones, Fithian, dated September 7, 2017 35. Kagimoto, Kyle, dated October 2, 2017 36. Kini, Agnes Marti, dated October 4, 2017 37. Kinney, Jr., William, dated October 3, 2017 38. Laranio, Tiana, dated September 6, 2017 39. Laranio, Tiana, dated September 19, 2017 40. Lyons, Mike, undated 41. Markel, Amy, dated October 3, 2017 42. McReynolds, Danie, dated October 2, 2017 43. Merrill, Nancy, dated October 2, 2017 44. Miles, Coral, dated September 6, 2017 PUBLIC HEARING 5 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 45. Monasevitch, Nina, October 3, 2017 46. Mudd, Sherri, dated October 3, 2017 47. Oakley, Scott, dated October 3, 2017 48. Partridge, Sylvia, dated October 3, 2017 49. Pence, Deborah, dated September 6, 2017 50. Peru, Kyle Kaeleleokalani, dated October 3, 2017 51. Pezzato, Dennis, dated October 4, 2017 52. Pizzitola, Linda, dated October 3, 2017 53. Rachap, Allan, dated October 3, 2017 54. Ramirez, Laura, dated October 3, 2017 55. Rautmann, Carrie, dated October 3, 2017 56. Shabert, Judy, dated October 4, 2017 57. Shigemoto, Tom, dated October 3, 2017 58. Smith, Gary, dated October 3, 2017 59. Souza, Wayne H and Jean I., dated October 3, 2017 60. Starbright, Eliel, dated September 27, 2017 61. Starbright, Eliel, dated October 3, 2017 62. Stauber, Emmeleah, dated October 3, 2017 63. Strom, Susan, dated September 20, 2017 64. Suga, Blanche, dated October 2, 2017 65. Sweet, Richell, dated September 6, 2017 66. Taylor, Ken, dated October 4, 2017 67. Taylor, Ken, dated October 4, 2017 titled"Traffic issues in the General Plan 68. Taylor, Ken, dated October 4, 2017 titled "Before Approval of this Plan, PLEASE ask for a Cost Analysis 69. Taylor, Ken, undated, titled "Our Ecological Footprint" 70. Taylor, Gabriela, dated October 3, 2017 71. Taylor, Gabriela, dated October 4, 2017 72. Thurston, Anne, dated October 4, 2017 (petition) 73. Unnamed, undated titled "A+ General Plan Necessary" 74. Valier, Kathy, dated October 3, 2017 75. Walker, Maria, dated October 3, 2017 76. Waldon, Laila, and Lowry, Inana, undated 77. Walton, Anne, dated October 4, 2017 78. Wilmore, Douglas, dated October 3, 2017 79. Wood, Karen, dated October 3, 2017 80. Worth, Flora, dated October 3, 2017 81. Wright, Sarah, dated October 3, 2017 82. Wright, Sarah, undated 83. Yangco, Allen, dated October 3, 2017 84. Zwiebel, John, dated September 6, 2017 85. Zwiebel, John, dated September 8, 2017 (7:49 a.m.) 86. Zwiebel, John, dated September 8, 2017 (8:08 a.m.) PUBLIC HEARING 6 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 JADE K. FOUNTAIN-TANIGAWA, County Clerk: Committee Chair Chock as of this morning, we have sixty-five (65) pieces of written testimony. (Note: More testimonies were received at the Public Hearing Meeting.) Committee Chair Chock: Madam Clerk, do we know how many signed up for in-person testimony this morning? Ms. Fountain-Tanigawa: They have their numbers and they are in line ready to go. Committee Chair Chock: Okay, thank you. Can we have the first registered speaker? RUSSELL FU: My name is Russell Fu and I am a junior currently attending Kanuikapono Public Charter School in Anahola. I just wanted to talk about the plan and how it includes the major roadway improvements. I was curious about some of the things that they have to say about that. I read it and it said that there is going to be extensions and even widening some of the roads from two-lanes to four-lanes and even some roads from four-lanes to six-lanes. I saw that there are going to be new bypass roads and that they are going to add on some roads going from Po`ipu to Port Allen as a short cut, pretty much. I was curious because all those roads, personally, I do not believe that will help out too much because it is more so like you are making more space for people to come in and clog it up again. The roads are clogged up now and I understand if you folks want to add-on more roads, but what does not make sense is why add-on more roads if they are going to come back and clog it right back up and make it even slower than ever? That was just one of my main concerns. I was also worried because at our school, we focus on a lot of the cultural things and personally I think that the roads are going to go through some of the lands that used to be sacred to our kupuna and that they will lose value once they have roads crossing them. I feel that it is just something to consider and I think this is going to really affect the kids of today, the keiki of today, and this plan is really meant for the keiki. I feel like I have a real responsibility to come up here and say something and speak up a little bit about the plan. I was just a little worried about that and curious. I think that minimizing all the roadways and the amount of roads that are being added, that is fine, as long as it is not all made, not all added, and not all extended—I am just worried about Kaua`i turning into O`ahu. O`ahu and Kauai, we are both completely different islands with completely different futures. I would just love it if Kaua`i had a brighter future than O`ahu because some people see O`ahu as the main island of this State. I cannot help but think that they recognize that island because of the amount of city and amount of roads and I just do not think that is right. Committee Chair Chock: Thank you, Mr. Fu. PUBLIC HEARING 7 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 Councilmember Yukimura: Mr. Chair? Committee Chair Chock: I was wondering where that voice was coming from. Councilmember Yukimura: I just want to say that we are not able to answer questions or really engage in dialogue, but Mr. Fu, thank you very much for asking your questions and giving us your comments. If anybody would like to engage in dialogue about how we can actually solve the problems, please contact me so we can have more dialogue and conversation because I think that is where we can find solutions. Committee Chair Chock: We will be going into these different topics that are being talked about today and you folks are expressing concern on forthcoming. Today is really about public testimony, to hear you folks. Next speaker, thank you. LOKELANI MAHUIKI: Aloha. `O wau o Lokelani Mahuiki. No Ha ena ka aina Kamakani Loop hua maka moku halele a mai au. Aia au ma ka papa `umi kumakahi. I am going to be talking about the water, which does not really include in the General Plan, but is also a big impact on our island. To start off, Wai`ale`ale is a known mountain of Kaua`i. It is a natural resource to the community and for a while that water has been taken away, which affects us because the streams have been blocked off by Blue Hole. This makes it a bigger issue because the water does not reach the ocean. There will be consequences which are that the reef and limu will come to an end, which has sadly already begun. Some of the animals are almost gone in that district like the 'o'opu and the wi. It is their natural habitat, which has been taken away, so you never really see them unless you are lucky. The water has been diverted into different routes and it leaves us with filtered ditch water, which we drink. You would think that the water would go to the community of Kaua`i, but it does not. Wai`aleale is the sacred land. Through time, it is known as a tourist attraction. It makes us feel what will come of our island and for our future generations. Committee Chair Chock: Mahalo, thank you. Please state your name as well for the record. JIM EDMONDS: Aloha, I am Jim Edmonds. Thank you for the time to speak. I want to clear something up, right up front, it is pretty obvious that I have no Hawaiian blood or even very tanned skin for that matter. You maybe be thinking, "Here is just another haole who is trying to tell us what to do." You may call me what you please; Kaua`i is my home, I have been developing roots here for over forty-two (42) years. My love for this enchanted island and for the wonderful PUBLIC HEARING 8 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 people deepens every day. My wife Harvest and I raised three (3) sons to adulthood here, two (2) of whom are serious conservationists and artists and have a great bluegrass band and two (2) of whom own and operate small businesses here. This is what compels me to speak today. I care very deeply about what is happening here. I would not presume to stand in front of you except that I have life experience, which I hope will aid all of us. Harvest and I have been in real estate in Hawai`i for a combined fifty (50) years and we are driven to help with the affordable housing crisis. Because the crisis has deadly effects of the Kaua`i families, I have come to call this crisis a gradual tragedy. In our experience the phrase "affordable housing" has become a sick joke on this island. If you live in most places in the world and you cannot afford a place to stay, then you just move fifteen (15) miles down the road and rent something you can afford. On this island, if you cannot afford a place to stay, you are gone and your family is (inaudible) under and our island's soul is being threatened and we all lose. I want to praise all of the continuing hard work and dedication that has gone into our current General Plan update. So many government people and so many citizens are working so hard and sincerely to try to make this an effective document. We are a group who are calling ourselves "Homegrown Housing." We are working with many people to submit suggestions for addenda to Section 2 which is the housing sector. As I understand it, we have two (2) important options for our General Plan. Historically, we have chosen to write a very tasteful, feel-good document. I understand that we have the option of taking our time and writing a document that actually compels us to follow specific guidelines and directs us as to who will do what when. It is my humble suggestion that we slow down and ensure that this document becomes a comprehensive doctrine, so I ask the Council for more time and I ask you to sign the petition asking for more time so that we can finalize the General Plan which will direct us in taking care of our island soul, our extraordinary families. Committee Chair Chock: Thank you, Mr. Edmonds. Mr. Edmonds: Thank you. Committee Chair Chock: Next. MEHANA VAUGHAN: Ano ai me ke aloha e na hoa aina o Kauai nei. `O wau o Mehana Blake Vaughan. I grew up in Kalihiwai on the island of Kauai. I want to thank you, Council, for your time to consider this plan and thank the Planning Department for all the work they have put in. It has come very far. I do not think it is a terrible plan. I think it is a good plan that needs work. Thank you for being willing to make the time. I encourage working on the places where the policy language is not supported by actions, where there need to be new actions, stronger actions, or where the actions actually oppose the language of the plan. To me, those key areas are fresh water; our protection of subsistence, gathering, hunting and fishing activities, and Hawaiian rights and kuleana lands; fourthly, open space and access. Talk about those more, but today I want to focus on an area where the PUBLIC HEARING 9 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 designation on a land use map, the resort designation of Princeville Phase II, is out of keeping with the policy of the plan, which is a sound policy that we have enough resort on Kaua`i. We do not want to extend Visitor Destination Areas (VDA) any further and we want to remove those where entitlements do not exist. Princeville is a place where entitlements were issued in 1983...or not entitlements, where the land use designations were issued in 1983 has not been acted on for thirty (30) years and entitlements do not exist. There are, in this area, one thousand two hundred (1,200) other units in the pipeline, which are entitled. These are additional units and I sent you some handouts, but if you look at the map, you will see a blob that is separate from the rest of Princeville. It is a noncontiguous area. In past drafts of the plan, the Planning Commission recommended removing it because it adds visitor destination area overlay to agricultural lands, which they felt was poor policy for the future of Kaua`i and for what the plan says is needed. I also want to add that resort activities that have occurred in the area such as the condominiums, which have been built on the golf course have significantly affected the reef. It is a sensitive area located next to one of the largest and most healthy barrier reefs in the State. Also, just to end, having resort in that area significantly affects area families. We surveyed and interviewed forty (40) individuals who grew up on the coast of Anini, just below this area. This is a place rare in Hawai`i where twelve (12) Hawaiian families still own lands in that area. Of twenty (20) who live in the coast in the 1960s, all but two (2) told us that they are struggling. They are struggling because of property taxes from surrounding luxury developments and they are struggling because of pressure from surrounding area developers who see their lands as exclusive standup paddle boarding centers or boating centers or spas and are targeting those lands. This designation makes that so much worst. It makes it harder for our families to maintain their lifestyle and stay in their place, which is so important on Kaua`i. Mahalo. Committee Chair Chock: Mahalo nui. IAN JUNG: Good morning, Committee Chair Chock and Members of the Council. My name is Ian Jung and I am a registered lobbyist appearing on behalf of PRW Princeville Development Company, LLC. PRW would like to thank you first and foremost, as well as the Planning Commission, Planning Department as well as the CAC members who spent a lot of time and energy pouring their thoughts and mana o into this plan. This plan does look at new land use mapping. One of the big issues that PRW has faced with this particular plan was dealing with the loss of its residential lands on the mauka side. As a consequence of that, they are now focused on the resort designation that there are some opposition to. In that resort designation, what we are looking at is the opportunity to have this first step for entitlement process. As you know with the entitlement process, the first step is General Plan, the next step is looking at State Land Use Commission, boundary adjustments from Agriculture to Urban, and then followed by zoning entitlements, which brings that back to this body for further deliberation, and then into an entitlement stage which is at the Planning Commission level. Through this PUBLIC HEARING 10 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 process, there is a number of studies that are necessary to get through looking at the various impacts, whether it is traffic, environmental, cultural, and historical; all these are analyzed. With new development, there are new tools, and new availability of ideas for sustainable projects versus those of the past, in the 1980s, and early 1970s. Preserving the opportunity for resort designation out there—it is the last set of lands out there that has resort capability adjacent to an existing resort area. The theory that I have gathered from the General Plan is that they are trying to consolidate or almost create an urban core boundary in these areas. If the resort designation is taken out of these areas, it forecloses the opportunity in the next twenty (20) to thirty-five (35) year planning horizon to look at any future resort development out there. In the appendix "D" of the General Plan, there is a lot of thought and dialogue that went into the growth rates. A lot of people are in opposition and looking at no growth, but the reality is we are going to have to have moderate growth. With moderate growth comes the opportunity for new projects. It also comes with the opportunity of redevelopment in old projects, but with new projects comes public/private partnerships. With these public/private partnerships, we can look at new affordable housing projects, we can look at all kinds of things with park improvements. A lot of people forget that the Anini Beach Park area was a consequence of the rezoning and redistricting of the Phase I Princeville lands. So we ask that the Council look at this issue very closely, preserve the potential for resort designation, and work within the Planning Department's thought of the use it or lose it policy, because with the use it or lose it policy they will have ten (10) years to do it or they lose it. We thank you, Councilmembers, for your time. Councilmember Yukimura: Mr. Chair? Committee Chair Chock: Yes. Councilmember Yukimura: I have a question of Mr. Jung. I want to know if you have submitted written testimony. Mr. Jung: We have, yes. Councilmember Yukimura: Under what name? Mr. Jung: Under PRW Princeville Development Company, LLC. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. When did you submit that? Mr. Jung: It was submitted yesterday and then we delivered copies this morning. Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. PRW... PUBLIC HEARING 11 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 Mr. Jung: PRW Princeville Development Company, LLC...is the entity that owns the lands. Councilmember Yukimura: I just want to make it clear of what the name is. Mr. Jung: PRW Princeville Development Company, LLC. Councilmember Yukimura: What does PRW stand for? Mr. Jung: You know, I do not know. It is just an acronym. Councilmember Yukimura: Thank you very much. Mr. Jung: You are very welcome. Committee Chair Chock: Thank you. Next speaker, please. LEELA HENDERSON: Aloha and thank you for allowing me to speak here today. My name is Leela Henderson and I am thirteen (13) years old. I was born at the Wilcox Hospital and I live on Powerhouse Road in Wainiha Valley. I am concerned about the General Plan, especially about continued development and growth in tourism. I am here today to share my personal experience regarding the current situation on the North Shore. Over the last thirteen (13) years, I have witnessed the population of visitors grow more and more. Now it is at a point that it is negatively affecting my daily life. Currently, I am unable to go to my favorite beaches of Ke`e and Makua whenever I want to, due to no available parking spaces after/around 7:30 a.m. The parking lots are over flowing with visitor cars. There are cars parked illegally all along the highway and even in the highway often. I used to have my home school biology class down there at 9:30 a.m., but I am no longer able to do that because of no parking. When I am able to go to Makua or Ke`e to snorkel, I see a lot of visitors abusing the environment there due to lack of education using toxic sun screen and bug spray, walking on the reef, and harassing the monk seals. The only signs I see to inform visitors are small, sometimes just handmade and hardly visible. In regards to infrastructure, the roads on the North Shore are in terrible condition. Many sections of the highway from Hanalei to K6`e are riddled with big potholes. Some of the areas are cracking and crumbling into the sea creating a scary and dangerous situation. We experience regular traffic jams of cars backed up all the way from Hanalei Bridge to Hanalei School. All of my lessons are in Kilauea and Kapa'a and we have to add more travel time for dealing with traffic. We have to time all of our doctor appointments, orthodontist appointments, and town days early in PUBLIC HEARING 12 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 the morning to miss traffic, which means we have to miss school, too. Afternoon appointments would take too long because of traffic and make my mom miss work. This is a difficult way to function and causes a lot of stress. Perhaps the most important question for me personally is "Will I even be able to live here in five (5) years?" There are no affordable housing on the North Shore and I do not want to live with my parents forever. We need affordable housing on the North Shore, not more hotels and vacation rentals. I ask that the plan be updated to address these serious issues that are going to directly affect my generation. I want to see these problems addressed and practical solutions detailed in the new General Plan. Thank you very much. Committee Chair Chock: Thank you very much. Councilmember Yukimura: Ms. Henderson? Can you tell me, what was your first name again? Ms. Henderson: Leela Henderson. Councilmember Yukimura: Leela, did you say how old you are? Ms. Henderson: Thirteen (13). Councilmember Yukimura: Thank you very much. Committee Chair Chock: Before the next speaker comes up, I would like to make a request. It is a practice that we have at the Council and I think what it does is it helps to keep the decorum. There is a way that we can acknowledge speakers rather than clapping, with the signs of the hands that will send the message to us in terms of how you agree with it without actually possibly intimidating others in the process, maybe a varying perspective. So, if we could practice that, I would appreciate that in this process. Mahalo. SHARON PRATER: Aloha kakou. My name is Sharon Prater and I have lived in Wainiha Valley for over forty (40) years. This current plan must be fixed. I feel this is a plan of destruction of our most sacred and fragile island. This island of Kaua`i is revered throughout Polynesia and beyond, much mana and mana o. How can you Planners and Councilmembers not see the future with this plan would be filled with thousands of gas-polluting cars, infrastructure overwhelmed, traffic beyond, increased crime, land and water crisis, aquafers depleted, and health problems, partly due to extreme pesticides being used on the genetically modified organism (GMO) crops. These things affect the entire island. With this plan, there will be more and more hotels, subdivisions, condos for the rich, and greedy developers who do not care about our home. This kind of development and overbearing tourism is not progress. We want quality of life. "Over tourism is what happens when too PUBLIC HEARING 13 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 many visitors crowd into a place, ruining everyday experiences for local residents as well as for the tourists themselves," Denby Fawcett Honolulu Civil Beat. Many visitors are very disappointed with the heavy traffic and much overcrowded beaches. We can barely take care of what we have, our rivers and oceans are polluted, our reefs are dying, there are poisons in the air, and poison on our land. I want these things addressed before we invite more people onto the island. I want a healthy environment now and for my mo opuna. What about "Ua mau ke ea o ka aina i ka pono, forever the life of the land is to be perpetuated in balance." The Hawaiian people with their culture cared for this land and its people for thousands of years and it was pono, in balance. Kaua`i is out of balance right now. My heart aches to see the traffic backed up from Hanalei Bridge to Hanalei School. Sometimes it takes over forty-five (45) minutes from Hanalei Town up the hill to Princeville, mostly tourists leaving the beaches. There is no parking at Big Save or Foodland. We cannot even go to the beaches after 7:30 a.m. or 8:00 a.m. in the morning. What about the caring capacity of our islands that we love. You need to do your jobs of protecting Kaua`i and its local people. Put a cap on rental cars. That will automatically limit the amount of visitors to a reasonable amount. Do not allow forty percent (40%) more flights, this is crazy. We do not want to become another overcrowded Maui or O`ahu. Let us join together to help make a plan that is pono and a model for the world. Let us listen to the Hawaiian voices of old... Committee Chair Chock: Thank you very much. Ms. Prater: ...and the young ones that are coming up. Mahalo. Committee Chair Chock: Mahalo. Next, please. GABRIELA TAYLOR: I am Gabriela Taylor and you heard me testify before. I have been working on the General Plan for the last couple of years because I love Kaua`i so much and I see that some problems have to be solved. Okay, today I am testifying about land use, but in doing so, I find that land use is interrelated with growth management, affordable housing, food security, and climate change. There is no way to talk separately about each of these. Now, I looked at the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance (CZO) directives for agriculture and I am only going to read one, but I have given you in your copies the other ones that are pertinent to this: "Article 8-8.3 Purpose. Number 1, to limit, retard, and control subdivision of agriculture land that will destroy agricultural stability and potential." I mean this is a serious thing. I think that the General Plan needs to pay attention to this. Okay, so on with my testimony. You can read the other ones. Problem number one with the draft General Plan, food security is ignored and land use changes due to up-zoning are not sustainable. Four (4) agricultural parcels were up zoned by the Planning Commission recently. Hokua Place, ninety-seven (97) acres, was up-zoned from ag to neighborhood general, which would allow seven hundred eighty (780) dwellings to be PUBLIC HEARING 14 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 built behind Kapa'a Middle School, in the heart of an already traffic-congested corridor. This blatantly ignores the CZO directives, essentially, to keep agriculture in agriculture. We need agriculture lands for growing food for local consumption, not export crops or seed farms. Please keep Kaua`i, Kauai. Our rural lifestyle is being eroded with crowded beaches, trails, and unbearable traffic jams that will only increase if the draft General Plan is not amended. Please ninety-seven (97) acres behind Kapa'a Middle School zoned agriculture. Problem two with the draft General Plan: growth management and climate change storms are ignored. If developers for Hokua Place follow the County law that mandates thirty percent (30%) of dwellings to be affordable, it leaves almost five hundred fifty (550) dwellings that locals cannot afford. Furthermore, it encourages mainlanders who can afford the four hundred thousand dollars ($400,000) upward to nine hundred thousand dollars ($900,000) to move to Kaua`i. Runaway subdivisions need to be harnessed in by the County unless they are truly one hundred percent (100%) affordable and for locals only. Committee Chair Chock: Thank you, Ms. Taylor. Ms. Taylor: There is more on the next page. Please read it. Committee Chair Chock: We do have your written testimony. Thank you. Next, please. DEBRA NAPOLIS JOHNSTON: Good morning. I am a little nervous. I am here with my mother, Henrietta Napolis, and my sister, Donna Friend. I am here for my nephew, Greg Silva. From an early age, Greg had been in foster homes and in and out of jail. He eventually ended up in the prison system, but on November 21, 2016, we received a call from the Warden at the Kaua`i Community Correctional Center (KCCC) and he told us that Greg had passed away that morning and that he had ingested a large amount of methamphetamine (meth). We could not believe it. We could not figure out what happened. We did not have any answers, they did not tell us anything, except that they would be in touch with us. For the next few weeks, we just went through the motion of planning Greg's funeral and calling the detectives to ask for answers and we never got any answers. I am here today to ask for your help. Our family wants to know what happened. We will not go away. We want to find out what happened. I know we are not alone because I know that there has been three (3) other suicides in prison since July 2017. That is all I have to say, but thank you for this opportunity. Committee Chair Chock: Thank you. We will follow up separately, outside of the plan. Thank you. Ms. Johnston: Thank you. PUBLIC HEARING 15 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 Committee Chair Chock: Next speaker, please. ANNE WALTON: Good morning, Councilmembers. For the record, my name is Anne Walton. I have provided already a significant amount of testimony and input into the General Plan, so I will only speak to one (1) subject today and that is the growth framework for the General Plan. Although the need to address growth is mentioned, labeled, and examined throughout the plan, there is no overall framework or blueprint for how the County intends to address growth now or into the future. Without the blueprint, this appears to be a plan with many confusing messages and contradictory approaches to how growth, development, and future land use is addressed. Correspondently, the policies, goals, and objectives of the General Plan are not aligned within a single framework. The County needs to show leadership and develop a clear compass reading on growth management and controls and provide a blueprint for moving forward. As you know, growth management is a land use planning model designed to regulate the location, timing, and/or rate of community growth. Growth management tools can also be used to directly or indirectly limit the amount of growth that can take place, however the system we have been using at both the State and County level has been primarily reactive with the timing and location of development largely driven by developers. As long as we have ordinance power at the County-level, we can control growth, rezoning, and take development priorities away from the private sector, which has been serving as the primary force in establishing the rules of the development game for far too long on Kaua`i. The tail has been waging the dog and that is evident by at least four (4) examples in the General Plan. In recent decades, many local governments have increased their control over private development activities, imposing limits on the amount or spread of development including slowing and/or stopping growth. At the same time, they have shifted the burden of financing development-related infrastructure to the private sector. In doing so they have made the paradigm shift from a reactive to a proactive position and managing and controlling growth, placing public interests over those of private property rights. Laws and ordinances enacted at the federal, state, and local levels of government to regulate development and control growth have been tested in the courts creating a large body of case law that continues to evolve and support public interest over private development. My recommendation is to develop a growth management and a controlled blueprint for Kaua`i and the General Plan. You already have all the techniques, tools, plans, and activities for growth management and controls. Under the guidance of this blueprint align the application of your tool chest and apply it consistently under a singular framework. This will allow the County to function proactively in regards to the type and amount of growth that it wants to achieve by 2035 directing and guiding public investment while controlling private development. There are hundreds of models of practice for managing and controlling growth. I have cited six (6) examples here, which I will not go into for the purposes of brevity, but this is a small sampling of communities that were once in similar position to where we are today. They paused, took inventory, and in some cases implemented temporary moratorium... PUBLIC HEARING 16 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 Committee Chair Chock: Thank you, Ms. Walton. Ms. Walton: Thank you. Committee Chair Chock: Next speaker, please. SUSAN STAYTON: Good morning. My name is Susan Stayton. I am a resident of Kaua`i for thirty (30) years. I have been a real estate agent, I have been the Energy Coordinator for the County of Kaua`i, served on the Kaua`i Island Utility Cooperative (KIUC) Board of Directors, I have been a Professor at Kaua`i Community College (KCC), and I have been a private business owner. I have a lot of interest in the General Plan and that it addresses the issues and concerns of the people of Kaua`i. I do not know whether you keep up on international news, but this last summer in Barcelona, Spain, San Sebastian, Spain, Venice, Italy, Rome, Italy, and Dubrovnik, Croatia, there were large demonstrations by local residents. The demonstrations were against tourism. The reason was that the people of those cities were fed up with tourism crowding them out and causing rising rents, traffic jams, destruction of sacred places, pollution, and crowded parks. If this sounds familiar, it is because it is happening here on Kaua`i. If you think that the people of Kaua`i will not rise up against visitors when this continues to happen, you are dreaming. We are getting fed up with the same results on our island. The Kaua`i General Plan is the place to address these issues. No more business as usual for development. We want a plan that addresses our needs, not those of outside corporations. We want the General Plan to be put in place with consideration for the wishes of the residents with the communities able to have a say in what development takes place in their area. You have the opportunity to make this happen. You will be held accountable. Committee Chair Chock: Thank you, Susan. Councilmember Yukimura: Mr. Chair? Committee Chair Chock: Yes, Councilmember Yukimura. Councilmember Yukimura: I just want to ask that if you did not submit written testimony, could you hand the copy to our staff or send us a follow-up E-mail? Thank you. NED DANA: Good morning, Committee Chair Chock and Councilmembers. My name is Ned Dana. I have lived here for twenty-nine (29) years. I moved from San Francisco bay area, so I have some experience with overcrowding and roads and I wanted to say that the first speaker talked about roads...I think it was the first Earth Day, I was in high school; it would have been 1970. Highway 280 was the new road, almost no traffic on it. It seemed like just a wondrous thing to those PUBLIC HEARING 17 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 of us who were in the area, but he warned...you know this is not going to be very longed live, in fact, what is going to happen is there will be more buildings, more growth, and it will be worse than ever with this new road. Well, it is exactly what happened, of course, for anyone that has been back there recently, and it is pretty awful. More roads is not a solution. It just leads to more mess. I know that is a thing that you have been working on. That said, and I have submitted testimony at the last meeting, but my concern is that Kaua`i is like so many other places being sold out to the "money at interests," in favor or over the interest of the local population. Most of you grew up here and you value the island, like I do, I am sure. It is changing and it is going to change more. We are going to be like O`ahu and Maui. This is not a good idea. If we do not catch it now, we are going to lose it. Twenty (20) years of things keep going the way they are going, it is over. Already if you read in the newspaper, people are really angry. People that used to have aloha here. There are a lot of people and maybe there are mostly trolls that are sprouting that, but there is a growing upset, like Susan was saying. People are going to start rising up about this. Climate change. Climate change is real. I do not know if you are all tuned into that or not, but it is very real. It is happening. It affects everything. As Naomi Klein said, "This changes everything." Tourism is not compatible with climate change. You are going to notice bigger storms happening, et cetera...I mean people flying around in jets, spilling things into the atmosphere is not consistent with watching out for climate change. On Kaua`i, we are so dependent on tourism. We cannot let ourselves get caught in this trap otherwise we will have another Hurricane Iniki or a worse storm. It will total the economy again. We have to develop other ways of making it. We are so dependent on imported food and that is a very real simple thing. If we have a huge storm, which not only wrecks not only Kaua`i, but say O`ahu, and all the shipping is down, the boats are not coming, as everyone been afraid of, it is not toilet paper that we are going to worry about, it is food. We do not grow much food here — big problem. Committee Chair Chock: Thank you, Mr. Dana. Mr. Dana: Okay. I think you got the point. We have to act and we have to act now, carefully. Thank you very much. RUPERT ROWE: Aloha kakahiaka kanaka and to the Council and to our legal team, and the people in this audience. My concerns towards the General Plan, I believe, it is a plan that should have been taken cared of twenty (20) years down the road, correcting all the problems that we had with the five (5) plans. I believe that the past Planning Directors should come and testify in front of you why did their General Plan not work, because many of these Planning Directors are employed by the corporation. You know who you are out there. Secondly, I want to discuss about title in Hawai`i. A warrant deed is a corporate title, let us get that straight. Secondly, the Royal Patent in the (inaudible) title are sovereign titles of PUBLIC HEARING 18 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 land. Let us move on, again. I represent the heiau down in Po`ipu. I believe there is no drainage plan, but a lot of hot air coming out from the Planning Department. If there is a drainage plan, I ask this Council to have them present it to you folks without a problem, okay? Moving on again. Our Kalepa rubbish dump—is that on Hawaiian homelands? You folks should look at it because the Native Hawaiian does not have the opportunity to stay on these lands. You folks use them as rubbish dumps throughout Hawai`i. On every island, the rubbish dumps are placed on Hawaiian homelands and the native persons are denied access to this land. There is a waiting list that is just a hot air. We know as kanaka what is happening out there. Moving on. Our burials, it is considered second to you people of this island when you go and dig up a grave. Time is limited for me. I hope I cracked the shell of the egg so that these Planning Directors, all of them, every single one should testify in front of the Council without hesitation. They sit in the back with a smile on their face—that is nonsense. Aloha. Committee Chair Chock: Mahalo. JESSICA FU: Aloha pumehana kdkou. `O wau no `O Jessica Fu. No Hanalei, Halele a, Kaua`i mai au. I feel that I wish I had more time because I would do an oli for you about our island, but we are not going to go there. As Hawaiians, we have the obligation to challenge each other's thinking and to really go beyond the boundary. I just want to express my support in everything that Dr. Mehana Vaughn said. I am a student of hers and I worked a lot with the testimony that she submitted. I, too, support the positive things in this General Plan and I thank you folks for all your work and for all the considerations that you have made, but after hearing our first two (2) speakers and the young people who have spoken today, I have to stand up in opposition for the resort zoning of Princeville Phase II for many reasons. I do not want you to think that I am a naive young Hawaiian and I do not see the value of tourism or the importance that tourism and resorts provide for our community. I do not want you to think that I missed the point that that other person who spoke earlier about development of Princeville has and that people who have lots of money who want to develop our islands can give us sustainable solutions— I do not want you to think I am opposed to that either. I do want to challenge the General Plan, in a way, that marks our benchmarks and our growth...those benchmarks of growth in our community...and I am looking and supporting other ways of marking growth. I know that affordable housing is a big issue and I support all plans to go towards affordable housing. As a person who has grown here and my child is being raised here, we want houses with yards that we can grow food. We do not want temporary rentals and condominiums that rich people give us that we can rent for a spot of time. We do not want that. We want families to live on land, grow food in our communities, and not have Resort zoning be given to people with money to give them the upper hand so that it makes it even harder for us to get land, that is one. I want to see other benchmarks made, mind you, I want to bring up one place of importance that is deep in my heart: Wowoni, Nihoku Kilauea Point. Long time ago, PUBLIC HEARING 19 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 people fought the protest to develop those houses, up scaled luxury homes, why? For sea birds that are not here to give you their opinion. Those sea birds are important. Another resort next to those sea birds is bad for all of it, so for all the reasons I am supporting taking off that zoning. I have only thirty (30) more seconds, but I can give you more...please reach out to people like me. Reach out to the kids that came earlier. We want to help. Committee Chair Chock: Do you have a written testimony too? Ms. Fu: Yes, we do. Committee Chair Chock: Please submit them. Mahalo. FELICIA COWDEN: Aloha. I am Felicia Cowden and I turned in a testimony that is bound. I am also with earlier speaker Debbie Johnston and her mother and sister, both of whom lost their family member Greg Silva. That is a specific example of a larger issue of our social equity and our community here and so with all due respect to the Planning Department and having attended many of the meetings on the General Plan update, the people who are incarcerated and their families who suffer around them are not typically the people who come and testify. I go regularly to court with people typically what I consider political...not yet prisoners, but political defendants. I am in there and I am able to see who all comes in. It is mostly Hawaiian, probably about seventy percent (70%) Hawaiian. In this document that I gave you is elements in here to show the statistics. You will see that in KCCC, there are four (4) violent felons in there and there are one hundred fifty-one (151) people in there. There are a number of people who simply cannot afford bail. What I see on a normal basis is that we basically incarcerate the poor and the political people; people that do not have their lives together or maybe they might have a drug problem, something like that. The family that I came with, they have had seven (7) people who are incarcerated. It ends up having a streamline down effect, it cycles down and affects the entire family—it is not just one. When we incarcerate these people...and I have another document in here that says, "About fifty-one thousand dollars ($51,000) to incarcerate somebody," and really when you look at the streamline of what it is, it is that they could not afford to get their rear lights fixed and they cannot get a house and they get arrested for sleeping in the parks, so this affects houseless, public and shared spaces. On the front page, I bothered to write down the goal numbers and the policy numbers. I have page numbers. I have legal experts who are willing to help update and come in and work when we are really focused on that of how we can protect our people. We have a historical trauma. When we see things like the land claim awards, I think we just heard Rupert and we might hear more, where it really is not legal to do a quiet title on Kuleana Lands if those people are not physically present, yet big landowners take over that land and that does generational crime and we take someone for the wrong size net and do generational crime again and incarcerate the person who has not stolen anything from anybody. It is really out of PUBLIC HEARING 20 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 balanced. The veterans are completely left out of this. I did a name search and came out with one (1) piece on veterans. I have a lot to say, but please look at this and I want to work with you later and we really need to take care of our kanaka maoli and everyone. Committee Chair Chock: Thank you, Felicia. KEOHOKUI KAUIHANA: Aloha, my name is Keohokui Kauihana. I am a noble with the Lawful Hawaiian Government. I am here to remind you that the kanaka maoli is not recognized in the State of Hawaii. I understand there is a couple of kanaka up there, too. I support a Hawaiian government because we need to make Hawaiian Kingdom citizens again and only a government can do that. The importance about a citizen is that they own the `aina. Okay, you heard a long list of your citizens, but if they were Hawaiian citizens, they would listen to Hawaiian law and that is what you folks up there have, which is a choice to start implementing Hawaiian law. If you have any trouble with that, just remind yourselves that the kanaka maoli is not represented in the State of Hawaii. That is why I try hard to bring Hawaiian law back and that is why I am talking to you because I think that would help you in solving all of your problems. You can start with that resolution that I gave to you. I heard you are working on it. There is one thing I want you to put in it: "Hawaiian Kingdom constitution was reinstated March 13, 1999." Please put that in there. It has a lot of power to it. Mahalo. Committee Chair Chock: Mahalo. Next speaker, please. BLU DUX: Aloha, it is a pleasure to be here. I feel an urgency in what I have to say; otherwise, I would not be in this environment. It is interesting to see you folks in the living flesh. Thank you very much all of you for coming down and representing. My name is Blu and I am a resident of the westside, born and raised in Hawaii. I am here to speak on behalf of my incarcerated relatives and the other inmates at KCCC. They are the most disenfranchised population on Kaua`i and as of yet, they do not have a voice in the General Plan update. As far as social equity is concerned, they should and must be reflected in this General Plan. There is an overcrowding situation KCCC that could have been addressed in 2012, under a plan called the "Justice Reinvestment Program," which by 2015 would have saved the State twenty-six million five hundred thousand dollars ($26,500,000.00) and drawn down the prison population by one thousand one hundred (1,100). It went south and there were perhaps nine to ten (9-10) inmates stuffed into a 15x30 cell at KCCC. Kauai continues to ship inmates off island to Halawa prison where a portion of that population is exported to a private prison facility in Eloy, Arizona. One-fourth of the prison population in Hawai`i is in Eloy. Six hundred seventy (670) of them are Hawaiian. I have five (5) nieces and nephews, half Hawaiian, who became lords of the State in the early 1990s. Under the supervision of Child Protective Services, they were all farmed out to foster families, which has become the pipeline to prison PUBLIC HEARING 21 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 express. This proved true in their situation and since then they have been tangled up in the web of the justice system. Two-and-a-half decades later, they are still trapped in it. As part Hawaiians, it appears that their justice is more representative of a colonial model than that, that is available to the rest of us. Betrayals by their public defenders, harsher sentences, abuses morally and physically in jail, and arbitrary use of solitary confinement are just some of the things that they have to experience. Two (2) nephews are presently in Arizona. A niece is pending sentencing in Maui. The other two (2) are on patrol, a different form of jail. The two (2) males have spent most of their adult life in prison for nonviolent offenses and as I look at it now, the two (2) of them have no future available to them and the State policy appears to be, "to throw the key away." This scenario is repeated over and over again. I am asking you on the Council to consider the plight of the incarcerated by providing them with restorative justice and remedial rehabilitation. These are our the sons and daughters of Hawai`i. These are our families. They are not subhuman to be stuffed in overcrowded cells, shipped around like furniture and wasting away an inhuman environments that damage their futures. Thank you. Committee Chair Chock: Thank you very much. KEN TAYLOR: Good morning, Council. My name is Ken Taylor. Before you move forward with this plan, I think you should do a cost analysis. At buildout, this plan could cost the taxpayers of Kaua`i anywhere from four hundred and sixty dollars ($460) to eight hundred and ninety-six dollars ($896) per year in new taxes. Most of the people of Kaua`i, myself included, cannot afford this kind of increase in our taxes. It is only prudent and good business to understand what the cost of moving forward will be. No developer would move forward with a project without knowing the cost benefit of the project and neither should we. It would be a shame for the community to wake up in 2035 to face a public notice, "Due to recent budget cuts, the rising cost of electricity, gas, oil, and wages, plus the current state of the economy, the lights at the end of the tunnel have been turned off. Have a nice day, your County Council." Second of all, I talk about traffic. This document was a planning document that was done almost forty-five (45) years ago. In the document, there is a map that shows what should be done in a way of traffic activities and development. Since none of that has been done, I am saying we cannot ignore the carrying capacity of the various transportation system infrastructure for forty-five (45) years while development moves full speed ahead then expect a band-aide approach to solve or satisfy the congestion problems of today and tomorrow. There should be no new development projects over ten (10) units approved until we can solve our long range traffic congestion problems. I say band-aide approach and we are talking about the Multimodal. That bus will sit in congestion just as well as the cars will. I think it is really imperative and it goes on a little further and you can read it all, but I think there is one comment that I would like to read...well...I cannot find it. I strongly believe that based on the information above, there should not be any PUBLIC HEARING 22 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 new development projects over ten (10) units until we have solved the long range traffic congestion problem. Thank you. Committee Chair Chock: Thank you very much. KATHY VALIER: Good morning, Council. My name is Kathy Valier and I live in Wainiha. I was born and raised on O`ahu in the 1950s, so I got to see the things that happened there and so I do agree with the previous speakers who have pointed out that you can build more roads and they will all get jammed-up. I agree with Mehana Blake that the policies, as I have read them and looked at them carefully in the General Plan, are very excellent policies, but I do agree also with her that...and I think she put it more eloquently than I can, that we need to really look carefully at how we can enact those. I also think that something that people have not acknowledged, but is true is that a lot of them...there are different opposing things to each issue to make tough decisions in, I understand that. One of the things I have not heard spoken of before is sustainability. The term is used numerous times throughout the document and it is not defined in the glossary. As I gathered the use of the word "sustainability" is "sustainable development," but people on an island especially should understand that that is a contradiction of terms and true sustainability relies on something that can be continued over the long-term. I did submit testimony, so you can read through that. I am concerned about the low numbers that have been used for predicting or forecasting the growth on the island. It seems that the growth that we have had just in the last two (2) years is what they are predicting for the next twenty (20) years and it seems that we already hit the number of average daily visitors that are supposedly going to lease the sustainable tourism report, said would be the cap that we can afford to have on the island or that we can with our current infrastructure. I was also amazed, reading through the policies that we only have twenty percent (20%) of the funding available for the transportation projects that need to be done on the island, so that is a big concern for me. I do not see how we can sustain growth with that kind of infrastructure constraint. Also, another concern for me is the three thousand seven hundred (3,700) units that were already permitted. I do not know how...it is sort of like having an outstanding check in a checking account for those of you who balance checkbooks, where how do you plan for growth when you have this forty-one percent (41%) potential increase, you do not know what is going to happen with it when we are already at the limit of our visitor capacity right now? I think that is basically the main part of it. Committee Chair Chock: Mahalo. Thank you. Before the next speaker comes up, we are about our twentieth (20th) speaker mark, so if you have numbers twenty (20) through forty (40), please make your way up to the front. If you are not clear about where you are in it, our staff is standing up here and we can doublecheck for you and make sure you are in the que. Next speaker, please. PUBLIC HEARING 23 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 PAUL MARSHALL: Aloha, I am Paul Marshall. Thank you for this hearing. Thank you for moving it over here. I was glad to hear that there will be more hearings on the General Plan and I am willing to comment on the organization of those. I understand that for organizational purposes wanting to group those by topics, but I was thinking that an alternate way to do it...it might be too late at this point...is to group by goals and actually take a more holistic view of all of the topics that need to be considered to achieve the goals in the plan. I am actually going to kind of riff on that for a minute and look at goal number 2 and that includes the call for...basically, it recognizes that an acknowledgement and adherence to the principles of the ahupua'a system would be beneficial for the natural resources conservation and overall health of the island. I can see that that would actually address a number of the issues that we are looking at, for example, water. Clearly, in the ahupua a system, the water stays in the streams and of course everybody needs water, so again we can look to the conservation principles—how do we use less water overall? We can look to examples of places that had to do that, like California during the drought. The local governments simply passed ordinances that limited water use with strict penalties, so that can be done. We could address housing and food self- sufficiency by adhering to the ahupua a system because people were allowed to live on the land and grow food. A simple approach like that could solve a lot of problems. I would like to actually suggest a new piece of the plan, because from what I am researching and gathering and seeing and the conversations that I am having, it actually seems like it might be wise for us to create a contingency plan for the eventual restoration of the Hawaiian Nation. An essential part of that could be to begin to restore the konohiki system of land management. Thank you. Committee Chair Chock: Mahalo. Members, because we are not live, we do not have to take a caption break, but I know eventually you will need a break, so if we can take turns on that as well, I appreciate that. We will continue the testimony. Mahalo. BILL BOOTH: Hi, my name is Bill Booth and I live in Kahiliwai. I just want to give you a little bit of an idea, I came here to Kaua`i in 1959. My mother was a widow and I came with her. She brought all of us here because she wanted to see Hanalei, she wanted to see where South Pacific had been done. I do not think I am so different from most of the people that are in this auditorium today, I really do not. I came here because it was beautiful. It was absolutely that the ecstatic of nature was just overpowering. It seems to me, I am going to play"Devil's Advocate" for a second. I think most of the people that come here today are telling you what they are suggesting about the General Plan, but the fact of the matter is the advocacy for growth here on Kaua`i, most of those people have jobs, they cannot come here today. They have to be fundamentally in a place where they can do their dollars, earn their dollars. The point I am trying to say is that growth is inevitable. I came from a southern California coastal town and I watched it over the last fifty (50) or sixty (60) years and this implacable growth, everything kept happening, you cannot suppress PUBLIC HEARING 24 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 people that have babies. You cannot tell tourists not to come to your town if it is providing the preponderance of the economy. You cannot stop that. So, what do you do about it? I am not sure. I can only say for myself that I am not a fatalist, I know that there are things that the Council can do and you will do them. You will have to because there are stakeholders out there that want changes. The point that I am trying to make is that it is inevitable that there is going to have change here on Kaua`i, this is a beautiful island. For myself, I probably will not stay here forever because I already see what is happening as far as the changes and I have the flexibility to go some place else. That is what most people do. If they do not like what is happening, they are going to move off island. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. Committee Chair Chock: Thank you. Next speaker, please. AGNUS MARTI-KINI: Aloha kakahiaka. Thank you for listening to us today. I have heard some awesome testimony, so I am not going to go there. I would like to go in this direction. I would like to hold all of you who are sitting up there accountable for what will happen in the future of my mo opuna, my keiki, and my ohana. I am Agnus Keaulani Marti-Kini and I reside in Anahola. I am a farmer. I am kupuna. I am an author. I wear a lot of hats, but let us get to the point here. Let me ask you something. If you were making a future plan to, let me just say, go to Mars—would you not want the most efficient global positioning system (GPS), the most accurate route mapped out so you do not miss your destination, and the most beneficial and comfortable plan you could make for your crew so that they actually survive their journey and land on Mars and not the Moon? We may not be planning to go to Mars here on Kaua`i, but we should be making a future plan that has accurate, updated, mathematical calculations, and a plan that is not, and I repeat, not just a repeat of the prior County General Plan. We need an efficient future plan that will assure us, Kaua`i residents, that we will be able to get to the future without too many unexpected problems. How do we do this? I am asking you, how do you do this? We make sure our plan is an "A+" plan and not a "C-" plan. A plan that will stand the test of future time. We cannot get an "A+" General Plan by cramming to finish because of someone's deadline. You must put the time in to make it perfect, because if you do not, guess what? You will have very unhappy future Kaua`i voters, super unhappy moms and dads who will have to sit with their screaming unhappy kids in traffic, and our young families will be making plans to leave Kaua`i because of all the unplanned, uncontrolled development. Think about it. If you do not control development and keep Kaua`i green-looking and attractive, the tourists will not come. We are not called "The Garden Isle" for nothing. Mahalo. Committee Chair Chock: Mahalo. Next, please. KATHERINE MUZIK: Good morning. I am Katherine Muzik. I am here representing water, especially life in the sea. As corals are dying here and PUBLIC HEARING 25 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 around the world, I have been studying our watersheds and struggling to find solutions to the problems of the pollution in the sea. I thank you, Committee Chair Chock and others, for calling this meeting to order, and I especially thank the students of Kanuikapono, Mr. Fu, Leela, and the kids who are here today. I also gave up work and you did, coming this morning. I agree entirely that we have reached carrying capacity on this island and the other speakers are already eloquent, so I think we should cap tourism and I would also ask to limit purchase of land on this island to people that are actually living here. I will address a different issue, which is the military presence on this island. I think that the threat from North Korea is drastic and we should reduce the military presence here. We should reduce the fact that we are a target. I think we should switch out the six (6) dangerous off spray helicopters, which are called "widow makers." With the replacement of those six (6) off spray helicopters and all of their artillery and weaponry, we can replace all of the cesspools and septic tanks on this island for free. The last is environmental damage. I also want to thank Felicia for having great radio programs. One of the mentions yesterday on her show was that the first colonizers came here over one thousand years ago and as a coral reef biologist, I would say that the first colonizers were the corals. One of the species that I have named is four thousand years old and the military is destroying them with live bombs. I only would like to say that in the plan, we have to consider the people, but especially the life in the sea and we have to fix these problems. Thank you. Committee Chair Chock: Thank you. LAURIE QUARTON: I am Laurie Quarton. Thank you for having us here today and listening to what we have to say. Before I read my testimony, I want to briefly thank the young people who have come today. Some of us met with some young people before today and told them about the General Plan, encouraged them, told them that they would be listened to if they came, and the opinion that we received back was, "Why bother? No one will listen and it will not make a difference." So, I really want to commend them for coming. It takes a lot of courage to come and speak here, but it takes even more courage to speak when you do not think it will do any good. All of you are just so welcome to be here that we thank the Council for inviting all of us and I would like to remind you that the next step beyond inviting us is to really listen to what is said and make it work and make it part of what you are doing. Thank you again for having this meeting and now I am going to read a testimony. This is about the General Plan, overall: through the process of organizing the community to more effectively engage in the General Plan update process, we have discovered that on Kaua`i there is a significant amount of community leadership, technical expertise, traditional knowledge, and just plain willingness from the community to roll up their sleeves, really learn about and tackle the challenges Kaua`i is facing. Additionally, much like what the Planning Department has done, we have looked to other communities and discovered that none of our challenges we are facing today here are unique. Only the setting makes us different. PUBLIC HEARING 26 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 We have come to realize there are some pretty good models of practice out there worth consideration in terms of their application to Kaua`I, and this is not even to mention the cultural models that were here long before any of the models we think we are using now. Most of all, we have learned that the real success stories are a result of collaborations between the community and its government. Instead of just continuing to have this conversation about collaboration as we have for the last two (2) years, we believe we have a team of skilled and knowledgeable volunteers that are willing to make a significant commitment to ensuring this happens. Specifically we are proposing to assemble expertise from around the island using representatives from each district and take the current draft of the General Plan and spend the next two (2) to three (3) months building a model of sustainability for Kauai. The intention is to build off of the accomplishments of the General Plan to-date and take it to the next step to ensure that we have absolute clarity about what we want to achieve, also known as (aka) specific outcomes, by 2035 in regards to the future land use and the ten (10) sectors of the plan. We will work to ensuring all activities are targeted and streamlined and move us towards achieving articulated outcomes and objectives." There is more to this and it is in your file, so please read it. Thank you. Committee Chair Chock: Thank you, Laurie. SANDY HERNDON: Good morning and mahalo Council for allowing us this opportunity. These ideas in there are for a film that I am putting forth actually come from another community member, Carl Imparato, and so I would ask that you understand that there are many of us who have these concerns that are not able to be present as one of the earlier speakers mentioned. Did I say that my name is Sandra Herndon? No, sorry, it is. The first issue is growth management. The problem is that the proposed General Plan contains no policies, no targets, and no actions directed at limiting tourism and tourism growth to desirable, manageable, sustainable levels. The solution possibly is that the General Plan adopt a policy that tourism-related development on Kaua`i must be limited to a level that does not exceed Kaua`i's infrastructure capacity, does not threaten Kaua`i's rural character, and does not degrade residents quality of life. The County government will therefore use all measures at its disposal to discourage any increase in the average daily visitor census beyond its current 2017 level. The General Plan must also include a set of actions aimed at achieving this tourism growth management policy goal. This actually impacts Sectors 20 and 21. The community self-determination impacts Sector number 7. The proposed General Plan undermines the rights of individual communities to have the primary say over future development of those communities. Solution. The General Plan should explicitly adopt the policies that none of the General Plan solution place space land use designations for communities should be considered to be anything more than a preliminary discussion proposal unless and until consulting with soliciting input from community organizations at the earliest possible time... Committee Chair Chock: Thank you. PUBLIC HEARING 27 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 Ms. Herndon: I see that the red light is on. I thank you for listening. I will go ahead and submit the rest of this to you. Thank you. Committee Chair Chock: Thank you. SHARON GOODWIN: Good morning, Committee Chair and Councilmembers. I am Sharon Goodwin from Wailua Homestead. This thing is so tall. I am here to stand for the water and usually I sit down after this, but I think I am going to have to stand for the water for the full three (3) minutes. Mahalo. I heard it said that you want to hear some hard facts, not a lot of real emotional stuff. Well, here is a hard fact, North Fork, Wailua, Blue Hole, one hundred percent (100%) diverted water is not addressed in the draft General Plan and I think it should be. Water from Wai`ale`ale, by nature's hand, would flow through Wailua Nui a Ho ano and out the river mouth to sustain our Wailua ecosystem, that does not happen for many days; hard fact. What are the impacts of these manmade diversions? There are environmental impacts; ecosystems' impacts; human health and welfare impacts; cultural impacts; and value systems' impacts, such as spiritual, social, and ethical values. I am just going to take one of those human health and welfare impacts and expand on that one. First, there is violation of the constitutionally protected public trust rights of Hawaiians and residents. Then there is the loss of connectivity of water and mana from the summit pool to the ocean. There are helpful, soulful, and spiritually effects. They are the loss of cultural and religious practices and there is the loss of gathering rights for Native Hawaiians, which we all recognize as the heart of Adam Asquith's lawsuit. Then there are subsistence livelihood losses, folks who cannot get water to their taro to i, for example. Tourism loss; loss of natural beauty and on and on. Water recreation loss. Fishery loss. The rise and the cost of our water. We should investigate that. Loss of agriculture. Cultural heritage loss. Loss of domestic water. We need to examine all of this. Please help us. It is your job as public trust guiders and upholders to help us. Committee Chair Chock: Thank you, Sharon. FERN HOLLAND: Aloha. Thank you. For the record, my name is Fern Anuenue Holland and I am from Kapahi. I would like to start by saying how well written, thoughtful, and heartfelt so much of the plan is and start by acknowledging that there is so much good intention outlined in this plan and how grateful I am for the years of public outreach and effort by so many to get to this point. My biggest concern remains the resort designation makai of Princeville Airport and the expansions of resorts in this area and throughout Kaua`i. I would like to see the resort designation across Princeville Airport removed from the plan. There are some areas where workable framework must be included to expand on the important issues related to growth, the public trust, and other important areas like infrastructure. We must create real and feasible actions that can be taken to ensure PUBLIC HEARING 28 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 that the principles and goals are able to be reached. We need to add more around water access and rights and how we are going to fix existing violations and restore watershed in-line with the public trust. The principles are outlined, we just need to dig deeper here. I, too, would specifically like to see the diversion of the North Fork of Wailua River addressed in the plan. I will send additional details in suggesting amendments in the coming week and I hope that you also consider pushing for them. I feel that we need an implementation plan for many of these goals and accountability included in this plan to really ensure that the hard work, extensive community engagement, and efforts to continue to go into this are taken seriously and abided by. Let us give the wonderful principles and goals that we set out more teeth and ensure that the plan meets the community needs by establishing a structure to do so. I thank you for the time that you have taken to hear us and work with the community and Planning Commission to ensure the best plan for Kaua`i. Mahalo. Councilmember Yukimura: Committee Chair? Committee Chair Chock: Yes. Councilmember Yukimura:. Fern, thank you for coming. In your follow-up, can you explain your statement, "More ground water access and rights." Ms. Holland: No more addressing water rights and access, like addressing the public trust issues associated with water, diversions, et cetera. Councilmember Yukimura: When you do your follow-up, can you send that in? Ms. Holland: Yes. Councilmember Yukimura: Thank you. Committee Chair Chock: Mahalo. Next. STEVE BACKINOFF: Aloha and mahalo for listening to us. My name is Steve Backinoff. I first visited the island in the late 1980s and I loved the island, the outdoors, the beaches, the mountains, and the people and the communities. I was blessed to be able to make three (3) phone calls and get three (3) job offers and be able to move here and buy a house in Kilauea in 1994. My job was a home health physical therapist, so I travelled from Kekaha to Ha`ena daily visiting kupuna in their homes and learning the history of the island and seeing every nook and cranny of the island. I still love the island and I always will, but what I have seen as a lot of loss since I have been here in my community of Kilauea where I lived for over twenty (20) years, I saw the village aspect of the community getting kind of plowed under, the history of the town being loss. When they said they were going to PUBLIC HEARING 29 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 put up four hundred (400) houses on the plateau, we had four hundred (400) or five hundred (500) people show up at the gym, which started a planning process, which people worked really hard on. I have seen nothing of those plans come to fruition, even the very simple things like a bike trail from Kilauea Town to get to Kalihiwai. It has been twenty-five (25) years, I think we can build a bike trail across that plateau. We have built a great bike path in Kapa`a, which is being used well. One of my big issues is access. We were losing waterfall access. In Kilauea, we loss the access to the Kilauea Falls because corporation was able to call it a stream instead of a river. Kilauea Stream is a river and should not be owned by private people. That land under that river is owned by private people. That should be a park, in fact. Hundreds and hundreds of people have loved that place. Local men that I played basketball with say, "I played in there when I was a kid and now I cannot go there anymore." This is all over the island. Soon I hear that the State might keep us from going to Kalalau Trail without permits, that we cannot wake up in the morning and go to the end of the road and go for a hike to Hanakapi`ai. I have answers to a lot of other questions, like traffic problems, what is wrong with our schools, and lots of people have lots of facts, but what I wanted to say with my few minutes is, that as a cheerleader, do we have the will to fight against corporate, outside government, military control of our island or are we going to make this island be what we want it to be and a healthy place where we can live? Thank you. Committee Chair Chock: Thank you, Steve. CHARLES HEPA KAPULE: Aloha kanaka. Committee Chair Chock: Aloha. Mr. Kapule: Aloha rid kanaka ma'anei. `O wau `O Kamuela Hepa, ko`u papa `o Samuel Hepa, kona mama o Kanui Hepa, kona mama `O Wai (inaudible) ko olau Kai`o Kapule, kona papa `O Simeona Kai`o Kapule me kona papa nui `O Simon Kai`o Kapula. `O ke keiki o ke Kuini `O Debra Kapule me kona papa hanohano Kamuali`i. Aloha guys. I just read you my mo oku auhau. In 1839, Declaration of Rights recognizes three (3) classes of people having vested rights: mo'i, king; ali i, chiefs; and maka aina, native tenants, one-third undivided interests in the millions acres of Hawai`i otherwise known as the (inaudible) interests. Basically, I am here today not asking for any permission or anything, I am here to tell the people and to warn the people and the public that the State of Hawai`i and the Kingdom of Hawai`i is in effect and it always has been. It has been a lie to everybody and there has been brainwashing. I am here to wash people's brains. All the issues that are happening here on Kaua`i is all hewa and is all illegal. The roads and the bypasses and all that are all illegal. There are families who own all these lands and they are called the Royal Patents, meaning policy Papapala Sila Nui; they have it. They are the rightful owners and the blood heirs to the thrown of the people and the families that own these lands. Nothing can be built or nothing can be pushed forward from PUBLIC HEARING 30 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 now to twenty (20) years or whatever the year is, but by going and sitting on the table with the families that own the land. I am going to say this, too, right here. Maui Circuit Court Judge has taken judicial notice that the Kingdom of Hawai`i still exists and the State of Hawai`i lacks subject matter jurisdiction. The State and the County has no jurisdiction or any land issues or land titles, including the County, and the branch underneath the County well known as our favorite Kaua`i Police Department (KPD). Their professionalism is, "We pledge to provide superior level of service and to take responsibilities for our actions and our decisions." I do not see any actions and decisions being played for and to be doing for what happened in Ha`ena illegally and in Wailua. Where is the professionalism in that? Where is the responsibility? These individuals are doing everything illegal and working under fake identities, including...expect for under you folks...I thought you were the boss? But thank you for your time...it is yellow, oh, I have more time. Committee Chair Chock: Thirty (30) seconds. Mr. Kapule: Thank you folks so much. Like I said, I am here to not ask for any permission for anything, but that what I am saying is true, that "the Kingdom of Hawai`i still exist by five (5) Supreme Court Judges," that ruled it. Thank you so much for time. Aloha. Committee Chair Chock: Mahalo. COLLIN DANA: Aloha and thank you. My name is Collin Dana. I grew up on the west side, south side. I remember in Kalaheo when I used to go to Waimea, I had to cross the highway every day to get to the bus stop and it was rare that I had to wait for more than twenty (20) to thirty (30) seconds for there to be a clearing to get across the road. Now, if you look at Kalaheo, it looks like the east side. The traffic is everywhere; it is getting bad. We have to be serious about keeping the people off the island. I am putting it bluntly because that is the truth. There are a lot of people who are going to say, "We cannot tell people what they cannot do," but yes, we can—you can. That is the job of government, which is to protect the people and the resources and the environment that cannot protect themselves from those who have the money, the power, and the will to do whatever they feel like. That is your job to be in the middle and to make it work for everyone. A lot has been said up here about the water and a lot of things that I will not go into directly because it has been said, but there is a word that has not been said and that word is gentrification and that is happening on Kaua`i in a big way. We need to take a stand to say that the people of Kaua`i come first and these rich people who want to come and own four (4) lots just so they can come and hang out whenever it is convenient for them—you know what, that is nice, but that is not our priority. Our priority is the people of Kaua`i. We need to be looking after them. Now, as a farmer and when I hear rain, like that rain we had just a little bit ago, my heart lifts because that is water; that is life that is going to keep us going. We cannot be building developments and then taking water PUBLIC HEARING 31 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 because there is no water in the ahupua a that we are building, taking water from another ahupua a to feed that development. That should be kapu. That should not be happening on the island of Kaua`i. That is like what they do in California, they steal the Colorado River. That is not Kauai-style and we need to cut that out. I see that my time is almost up and I am going to leave you with one other thing and it has been mentioned before: There is an issue with affordable housing and an issue with farm land. These two (2) issues need to be put together. We need to have people on the land, working the land, and not living in boxes stacked on top of each other. When I see that, to me, that looks like a confined animal feeding operation. People need to be living on the land. Aloha. MARK PERRIELLO: Good morning. My name is Mark Perriello. I am the President at the Kaua`i Chamber of Commerce. I want to thank you all for your time this morning and I want to thank everyone who had a hand in developing this General Plan update. A lot of work went into this. I am here today to represent our members at the Chamber. We have about four hundred and fifty (450) businesses that are members of the Chamber, about six hundred and fifty (650) individuals all together. There are people who many of them grew up here, they live here, they work here, and they are raising families here. Ultimately, they want the same thing that most folks here on the island want. They want this to be a great place to live. They want it to be a great place to work and raise a family. That includes so many of the things that we heard today about having things like clean water, clean air, green space, and to keep the Garden Island as beautiful as it has always been. With that said, I think we agree with the premise of the General Plan that growth is inevitable, so how are we going to handle that growth becomes very, very important and very critical. We really have one question as a business community is, is this plan achievable? It is a very ambitious plan. It sets out a lot of goals, housing and transportation, and all the sectors that are outlined within the plan. But there are a lot of things that cause us to question whether it is and I think by the plan's own emission, even admits that we might not have the capital...when we look at transportation, there is three point one billion dollars ($3,000,000,000)worth of roads and infrastructure that needs to be put in place, but just a fraction of that money is going to be available. When we look at things like political will. Is there the political will to actually achieve this plan? I think that is going to be a very important question in the future. Then when I think about our businesses and the business community, the people that are needed to actually build the roads, build the houses; are they here? How do we find them? How do we build that skilled labor force is very important as well. I can tell you from my business members, they cannot find enough employees to do these jobs whether it is skilled labor or labor in general. I think the question becomes, again, is it achievable; how do we get from where we are now to where we want to be in a way that is thoughtful, strategic, and keeps in place all of the things that we value here on Kaua`i. Thank you for your time today and good luck. Committee Chair Chock: Thank you, Mark. PUBLIC HEARING 32 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 ANNETTE ODA: Good morning, everyone. I am so excited because here you have a wealth of community input and resources. This is what you need to tap into, everywhere across the island. My name is Annette Oda and I am a longtime resident, as many of you know. I look at this as Kaua`i's bleeding and inflammation. We have a problem here. There is an urgency. Some of the symptoms are many that were already mentioned such as carrying capacity to the limit maxed out, traffic, water, which is limited and depleting. When you thing about it, Mount Wai`ale`ale used to be the wettest spot in the world and now it has been diminished to barely one hundred (100) or two hundred (200) inches of rain, which means that our water tables are also depleting and "no water" is equal to "no life." I want to continue to live on Kaua`i. Land use, limited lands...there is an imbalance. Limited resources depleting; sewer problem; rising tides; drug problem—this is all part of it. The social problems and so forth and then the list goes on and the list includes suicides. Remember that. I propose solutions such as, to stop the bleeding, what do you do? Do you wait until you get some paramedic or whatever? Do you take care of it immediately? We have to stop the bleeding. How do you do that? Number one, moratorium. It is necessary at this time that we call a moratorium on all development because you have to take care of the problems now. It is an urgency. We have been putting it off too long—no good. Apply temporary solutions—a temporary band-aide approach—great, but in the meantime such as traffic, which is a very alarming problem to me—why not build a main vain from the North Shore, Hanalei and through now what is now called and has been used before during Iniki, the Powerhouse Road all the way to the tunnel of trees?Wow. Then what about the other towns in between? Well, form vains down to those towns, so anybody such as emergency vehicles...especially...this is crucial, build that in case of emergency, something hangs up on the highway over there by Hanalei or Kilauea, it takes the vain that goes up to the main and then the artery is the Powerhouse Road goes up through there and joins and gets to the destination they need. Committee Chair Chock: Thank you, Annette. Mahalo. Ms. Oda: One more thing. One word. I mean, one statement. Prevent future bleeding and inflammation on Kauai and I will follow-up with an E-mail. Committee Chair Chock: Thank you. Ms. Oda: Thank you. HAYLEY K. HAM YOUNG-GIORGIO: Aloha Councilmembers. I really appreciate your time to hear all of us today. My name is Hayley Kamalamalama Ham Young-Giorgio. I come from Ha`ena. I am here today for several reasons, but I would like to focus on...I want to ask you to please remove the resort land use PUBLIC HEARING 33 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 designation on the Princeville plateau from the North Shore maps in the 2020 General Plan. It is my kuelana to keep my home vibrant. I am all for progress and solution, however there is so much going on, on the North Shore right now—it is radical. I serve on the board of the Hanalei to Ha`ena Community Association along with the Hui Maka aina o Makana. Commonly we deal with issues that are focused on the visitor industry. Allowing this designation of development on top of current designations only puts greater strain on our infrastructure and our resources. Again, please remove the resort land use designation on the Princeville plateau from the North Shore maps in this 2020 General Plan. Mahalo for your time. Committee Chair Chock: Mahalo. Next, please. JEAN SOUZA: Good morning. I am Jean Souza. Today, I want to make three (3) points: One, I am hopeful that this County Council will be able to make the meaningful changes to the draft General Plan that better aligns the policies, goals, activities, data analysis, and land use designations with the public and community benefits focus; two, there is an approach long used in natural resources management that has applicability to our General Planning, it is known as "limits of acceptable change" rather than "carrying capacity;" three, please do not abdicate to others or diminish the significance of the General Plan land use designations. Yes, development projects do need to go to other government agencies at the County and State levels for approval; however, as a former State Planner and as a student of the Planning Commission, I believe the General Plan is the most appropriate process and document to address desirability and appropriateness, interrelationships between sectors, island wide, regional, and comprehensive impacts, solutions, and mitigation measures. Thank you. Councilmember Yukimura: Jean? Committee Chair? Committee Chair Chock: Go ahead, Councilmember Yukimura. Councilmember Yukimura: Could you submit how we would apply limits of acceptable change to the General Plan and also can you restate your last point or reword it, if you want to? Ms. Souza: I believe one of the main components of the General Plan is the land use designations and I have heard in other venues and here today that there are other processes that the State and County have that these development projects need to go through, these resorts, big housing projects, commercial development, and all of that. I am saying that do not abdicate to other government agencies what your role is and what the General Plan's role is in addressing whether a land use is appropriate, desirable, what the interrelationships are to the different sectors, what the impacts are comprehensively, and coming up PUBLIC HEARING 34 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 with solution and mitigation measures so that problems can be avoided now rather than later. Committee Chair Chock: Thank you. Councilmember Yukimura: Thank you. Ms. Souza: Thank you. Committee Chair Chock: Next speaker, please. ANNE THURSTON: Good morning. I, too, want to thank you very sincerely for allowing this chance to speak to you this morning. I know it would have been easier to rubberstamp a plan and you care enough to stand with us in listening to us. I want to give you an update on our petition campaign. Today, we collected nearly one thousand two hundred (1,200) signatures in support of the objective of working with you as a community to develop practical solutions. We have a petition online and offline. It is not intended to be legally binding and we are aware that some of the names are duplicated and some addresses are missing. However, we offer it to you in the sincere belief that it represents the heartfelt goodwill of the people in support of collaborative work on the plan. Our petition initiative is still ongoing. Thank you. Committee Chair Chock, I will give this to you. Committee Chair Chock: You can leave it with staff there and they can make sure that it gets to us. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Oh, we have a group. INANA LOWRY: Aloha, my name is Inana Lowry. LAILA WALDMAN: My name is Laila Waldman. Ms. Lowry: We are both Kanuikapono and we recently were made aware of this plan. We had no idea that this was even in effect, but reading over it briefing, we realized that affordable housing, because it has been a personal and direct issue for our lives, we are noticing that the affordability of the housing is not quite affordable for our families. Ms. Waldman: In 2020, I was made aware that I am going to be graduating and after college or whatever it is that I do, I plan to come back to Kaua`i. Growing up in a single parent household, I remember constantly moving and having to find somewhere to live. It was not always easy. Many people here face the same issue so when something is available, it is quickly taken. People with money often get the first picks leaving little opinions for single mothers like mine or even regular people with regular jobs. A year ago, my mom got a notice that we had to move due to renovation. We were given two (2) months to find somewhere to live. PUBLIC HEARING 35 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 With rent prices increasing, my mom could not find anything that she could afford. Everything on the market was taken or the price was just too high. It was a week until we had to move and we still had nothing. My mom started making arrangements as to where we would go. We were pretty much homeless for a week before we finally found something. Some people might not have been as lucky as we were. If it is already hard now, I can only imagine how hard the future might be. Ms. Lowry: It is getting harder and harder for us to imagine our future on the island comfortably living here. We know that it is not all in your control and we thank you for your time for letting us speak. Committee Chair Chock: Thank you. KARLEE SUKEHIRA: Aloha mai kakou `O Karlee Sukehira ko`u inoa. No Wailua ma ka moku puna mai au. Aia au ma ka papa uml. Hele au i k hula `o Kanuikapono ma Anahola. Aloha, I am Karlee Sukehira from Wailua. I am a tenth (10th) grader from Kanuikapono. I am here to address concerns that I have as kanaka maoli and a longtime resident of Kaua`i. "Pau ka wai oia puna wai ke pia`mai la kahu ahu a lepo." "The water is gone from that spring for only muddy foam rises." As kanaka maoli, our wai or water is a very special significance. In our culture, we are actually waiwai or wealthy to have water. Water is a God given gift which means Akua gave it to us trusting that we use it to the best of its capabilities and to help flourish his creations. We use water to nourish us, to feed our halo and other foods for cultural practices and most of all healing. In other words, water is a form of life. With that being said, water has become a major and very important issue, so I would like to start off by questioning you. Where does the water that we use for drinking and other resources come from? The Wai`ale`ale fresh water stream is not the water that is flowing through our pipes as it should be. The water that is flowing through my pipes, and I am sure yours as well, is filtered ditch water. Now, that may not sound so bad, right? But hold on, the stream is not flowing how it was created to flow. There is one big cement slab that cover the pohaku or rocks that the water is supposed to be flowing through. The cement creates a way for the water to go around it and into the ditches. From the ditches, the water then goes to the grove farms for them to filter it with chlorine and then sold and put into our pipes. Now, take a minute to think about that. Is that the process you want your drinking water to go through? Is that what we want our island to be known for? The island that takes our own water and diverts it just for money. The island that does it for the money and not the sake for our people or to better the environment. Along with the diversion situations, there are also companies that are taking our fresh water, bottling it up, and sending it elsewhere in the country. I was told that there is one specific company, the Kaua`i Springs, the owner or company that is committing illegal act. They are illegally taking our water and making money off of it. I was told that they are not getting prosecuted because there is a certain committee that refuses signing off on a document. The value of our water is being taken advantage of. Why do we have to pay for water if it is a PUBLIC HEARING 36 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 natural resource that is given? Why are we limited to resources? Diversion will continue for the next sixty-five (65) years. Water should not be owned or given to certain individuals neither shall it be limited. It is an open resource that was given, not bought. "Mai ho oni i ka wailana malie."Do not disturb the water that is tranquil. Let the peaceful enjoy the peace. Thank you for your time. Mahalo. Committee Chair Chock: Mahalo. CHLOE RAMOS: Aloha. `O wau `O Chloe Ramos. No kappa a ma ka moku Puna mai au. Hello, my name is Chloe Ramos and I live in Kapahi in the district of Puna. I am in the 2018 graduating class of Kanuikapono. I would just like to thank everyone. Thank you for listening to me and thank everyone for coming and giving their testimonies. I stand here today to voice the facts and my opinions. In listening, I hope to encourage you to review the General Plan. Here, I will list a few things I find presently absent from the draft General Plan and would love to see implemented in the revised plan: a clear policy on how to manage growth rates empower with infrastructure growth, data being accurate in regards to visitor numbers, which are incorrect creating inaccurate projection and impacts on infrastructure, traffic, crowding, and our quality of life. Objectives are broadly generalized, lacking a measurable indicator of each sectors aim, directions, and actions. A more desirable cultural context in relations to the water and land. More discussion on how to address and bring awareness to the root causes of houseless residents. More adequate amount of information of what affects traffic congestion, a less contradicting explanation of how agricultural lands are being turned over to developments not associated with agricultural purpose, a need of more significant mention of water access and water diversion. I am a student, resident, and future leader. This plan lacks too much depth as to what I support for the future development of my home. I encourage you to ask yourself why you were in this position. I look to you as my voice in the greater saying. I would just like to thank all my kumu and the Kauai Community Correlation and County Councilmember Mel Rapozo for encouraging me to come and speak today. Mahalo. Committee Chair Chock: Mahalo. KINOHIONANI NAINE: Aloha. `O wau `o Kinohionani Naihe. Aia au ma ka papa `eiwa. Hele au I ke kula `o Kanuikapono. I am Kinohi Naihe. I am a ninth (9th) grader at Kanuikapono Charter School. We are the next generation, the future leaders. This is our island and we will stand for what we believe in and fight for what is right. We are here not just for our school or for our ohana, but we are here for the future keiki of Kaua`i. I love my home. I grew up learning how to be pono and how to live with aloha. I am concerned about the County of Kaua`i General Plan, specifically the increase in Kaua`i's population. Between 1998 and 2016, there was a rapid increase in the population which rose from fifty-six thousand (56,000) people to seventy-two thousand (72,000) people in eighteen (18) years. The estimated PUBLIC HEARING 37 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 population for 2020 was seventy-four thousand (74,000) people. In 2016, we almost surpassed that amount of people. Our population is growing rapidly. Most of the numbers in the Kaua`i General Plan are incorrect and I feel that this plan is in dire need to be looked over and refined. It upsets me to learn that our little island, an outdated infrastructure, will continue to grow and bring additional stress to Kaua`i due to uncontrolled tourism and new residents arriving daily. We are not ready for this growth. I am scared to see my island home become as O`ahu as today. Kaua`i is a very peaceful and sacred place where us, as Hawaiians, practice our traditions and perpetuate our culture so that we can put it into the minds of our children and the future generations. With the population growth that we are facing today, there will be loss of lands that Hawaiians are currently owning today and less space for Hawaiians to live on. I am worried to ask the estimated number of Native Hawaiian people there will be in 2035. I have a question. When you think about Kaua`i in 2035, do you see it being like O`ahu with big buildings, long highways, and grid long traffic or do you see it being like how it is now? Not over developed with a semi-controlled tourism population? I understand that tourism is our main source of income in Hawai`i mainly because of its beauty and the fact that it is paradise. I also understand that the island of Kaua`i needs a lot of improvement, but if there was a way for us to limit the amount of people to come to our island, that would eliminate the overpopulation. In this plan, they talk a lot about things that could be done for Kaua`i, but it does not say a lot about protecting our culture and keeping it alive. We already loss it once and it was very hard to regain. With all the growth that is expected to happen, I think our culture and religion would be close to extinction if we do not do something about it soon. Another question: what are you, the people that represent our island doing to protect and perpetuate our culture? Do you send your keiki to Hawaiian-focused charter schools? Do you sit and even listen to your kupuna for what they would want for this island?Thank you so much for your time and I hope you consider to relook over this plan. Mahalo. Committee Chair Chock: Mahalo. Mahalo everyone for the aloha and respect in this proceedings. We are at our forty-nine (49) through seventy (70) number, so if you have those numbers on your form, please come up to the front so that we can get you in the que and we cannot skip a beat in terms of testimony. Please move forward. KAULA APANA: Aloha. My name is Kaula Apana. I live in Anahola and I am a freshman at Kanuikapono. I would like to do a chant for you folks today, entitled, "Ke Ku Mai Nei." `Ke ka mai nei kalale a i ka la`i. Pali ki`iki`ila kau mailuna. Nana I ka puka 'o Aolani. E puka maila i ka pa una a Kawelo. Wewelo ke aloha no ku a aina. Aina hob pulapula o ke Koolau. Lau e Kamana o (inaudible) Kamakani e ulu Mana o is e moani nei. Liana kou inoa o Anahola. Halehale ke aloha "pauloa."Mahalo. PUBLIC HEARING 38 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 Committee Chair Chock: Mahalo. Next. DANNY HASHIMOTO: Aloha kakahiaka. Mahalo Councilmembers for bringing us together. This is an important process. I am grateful to see everyone here, our "ohana. I am Danny Hashimoto, kanaka maoli from Wailua Homesteads. There is a lot of things to share, to talk about. I agree with many of my ohana members who just spoke about the wai. Water is life. Kawaiola. We need to be sure that we are holding up our kuleana, of course by law, it is in the Public Trust. In fact, since I am mentioning that term, you know we are in such a crisis situation here, not just on Kaua`i and our neighbor islands, but for the entire world. Everything we do particularly with this General Plan, it is all public trust, everything, every word in this document. While I recognized that it is regulatory, it should be held in highest regard and followed and of course there should be policies and the implementation; all of that is so critical for our wellbeing. As a kanaka maoli, as a citizen of the lawful Hawaiian government, I would like to see as the overview and ultimately the goal, to transition because I do not really see any other solution. In my short sixty-nine (69) years, I have seen a decline. There are a lot of things that we can say—we have paved paradise, we have poisoned paradise. There is a new documentary coming out, "Poisoning Paradise," I think everybody should take note of that. I used to be a relator developer, and I quit in 1980 for various reasons, but now I see you got so much...I agree with many of my friends here that we should stop or at least put into abeyance resort land use designation for Princeville Phase II and of course there are other projects. Ultimately, as part of the sovereignty and the sustainability, the General Plan talks about sustainability, we should be sure that we follow the definition to the "t." One of the key points for me that is close to my heart is the farming aspect, which of course is food, and the sustainability aspect which means that no pesticides. I already mentioned we have been poisoning paradise for a long time. I hike, I go out into nature a lot in my home turf. Agent Orange was sprayed not only in Vietnam where I happened to hang out for a little while, but even in my backyard at the Wailua Experience Station. I am out of time. I think you get my point. Mahalo. Committee Chair Chock: Mahalo. We had a request for a break. We have been going for almost two and a half(2.5) hours, so I would like to take at least one (1) more, since she is up here already and then we are going to take a ten (10) minute break. Those of you who are in line, thank you, just remember who is before you and after you, and then we will be safe to come back in ten (10) minutes after this. Please proceed. JUDY HAEPPNER: Aloha, Councilmembers. My name is Judy Haeppner. I have lived on Kaua`i and loved Kaua`i for the last thirty-six (36) years. Councilmember Yukimura: Excuse me, Judy, can you lower the microphone and get closer so we can hear you. PUBLIC HEARING 39 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 Ms. Haeppner: Is this better? Okay, I will do the best I can. As I said, I have lived here for the past thirty-six (36) years and I would like to offer some input into the plan. I am going to cover a couple of the different areas. One of them were honoring communities and their own planning processes. The General Plan broaches on localized issues that should be left within the purview of community plans and planning processes. The place typing of community centers does not reflect what was expressed from different communities over the past two (2) years. Future land use and zoning change recommendations outright contradict public testimony repeatedly given in at least three (3) communities. The rationale or sometimes the lack thereof does not support the recommendations in the plan. Another missing piece of this equation is that potential pipeline projects, i.e., the Kealia development, have not been fully accounted for when considering these proposed new developments. Recommendation. Listen to what communities have asked for in terms of future development by taking the recommendations pertaining to specific developments out of the General Plan. Let each land use development proposal be heard on its own merits and not buried within the General Plan, most specifically Princeville Phase II, Hokua Place, and Lima Ola developments and their adjacent community designations. Data and projections. Some of the most critical data sources and projections are inaccurate, incorrect, or missing. Case and point is the Average Daily Visitor Consensus (ADVC), which are critical factors in the discussion about how to manage growth. These numbers also have implications for all of the ten (10) sectors in the General Plan. How can we manage growth when as of today, we are already exceeding the 2020 growth projections as stated in the General Plan for residents and visitors?As these projections are multiplied forward to 2035, the discrepancies in the data become even greater. These population data points are also used in the General Plan as the basis for projecting out to 2035 our housing demands and growth requirements. Recommendation. Check and correct the data baselines corresponding projections. Thank you for your time. This will be submitted in writing to you because I did not. Committee Chair Chock: Thank you very much. At this time, we will be taking a ten (10) minute break and we will come back to continue. There being no objections, the Council recessed at 10:53 a.m. The meeting was called back to order at 11:03 a.m., and proceeded as follows: Committee Chair Chock: Okay. Welcome back everybody. We will continue our public testimony. Next speaker. KAE`E AH LOO: Aloha awakea kakou. Aloha Councilmembers. Aloha kakou. 0 wau ke kumu `O Kumu Kae e Ah Loo ko`u inoa. No Anahola mai wau. Noho wau ma ka aina ho'opulapula o Bay View ka inoa ko`u ■ ina. PUBLIC HEARING 40 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 Aia wau ma ka papa inoa Department of Hawaiian Homelands (DHHL) waitlist hekahi no ha aina mahi ai o Wailua. Mahalo wau is ouhou i ha ae ana i ka`u mau haumana e hele mai hai olelo is oukou keia la. E kala mai, olelo Hawaii wale no wau keia la pono oukou e a`o i ka olelo Hawaii e akamai. Ua hiki mai hekahi mau kanaka kaiaulu o Kauai Nei kaki po e coalition. E akamai ka u mau haumana e keia palapala no ka General Plan. Ua nui kou lakou hoihoi oia ua hewa na helu. Hemahema ha helu ana o na kanaka kipa mai ma muli o keia hemahema, hemahema ha palapala holo `oko a. Hopohopo na haumana no laila kono mai na kupuna e hele mai. No laila, ua hele mai no kupuna i ka`u papa. Wahi ana net kupuna pilikia ka wai. Hopohopo na kapuna i ka wai. Able holo pololei ka wai ma Waialeale a Kawaihini a hiki i Wailua. Able puka aku i laila. Ua kau la`i ia ho'okahi haneli pakeneka; ho'okahi haneli pakeneka o kela wai kaulai ia a lawe divert hoi e Kaua`i Island Utility Cooperative (KIUC) powerplant. Maupopo? 0 ka lilo kalawa'a ho`okahi pakeneka uila. Ho okahi pakeneka electricity. Mai ka wai pau loa? Auwe. Able °oukou ka pilikia maupopo makou na ke aupuni Hawaii i aia lakou i kela hemahema. Aka ma hope lilo kela wai i wai auwai. Hele loa i kekahi ho'oponopono wai. A Laila, i kou `oukou hale oia ka wai a oukou e inu mai nei mai kou paipu mai keia wai ho'ohana hou. Lepo. Oia ha wai inu ana. Oia ke kumu mai i na po e. Oia ka mo olelo o na kupuna. Pono oukou `the. A`ole hele ka wai mai Wailua, mai Waialeale a puka aku i Wailua he ditch water wale no. Auwai oia ke kumu lepo. Pilikia ka o'opu, ha `o opu akepa. Able ke hiki hoi i kona home. A'ohe wai apau hake is kona ala e hoi ai i kona home. Able hiki ka `o opu ke hoi i kona hale. Ina malama ia ka welt ha shearwater a malama pa `oe ka `alio holokai ho`i ka seal. Pehea hela 'o opu? He ai kena. He kanaka he ia mauli hoi oia. Mahalo wau is Mel Rapozo. Ua kipa mai oia is makou ma ke hula i nehinei. Halawai oia me na haumana. Nana no e hoike mai o he kuleana kou `oukou kuleana, hou Planning Commission kuleana, kou ke aupuni o Hawaii kuleana. `Oko a maupopo na keiki keia manawa. No laila, e hele mau mai makou e kipa is °oukou kipa aku i ka Planning Commission, e kipa aku ke aupuni. Mahalo wau is `oukou i keia watt, e ■ ina haumana, e wala au me `oukou. Ea la maika'i. ETHAN RAMOS: Aloha mai kakou. `O wau `o Ethan Ramos. Noho au ma Kapahi o maka moku Puna mai au. My name is Ethan Ramos. I am from Kanuikapono Charter School and I am in the eleventh (11th) grade. I just want to speak on behalf of all the people of Kauai and I want to thank you for listening to everyone here and for taking your own time out of your day and for everyone who took their time to come here and speak up. I just want to thank all you folks for that. Mahalo. I just want to speak about one topic and that is sort of like the general topic of this entire plan that supposedly is going to set the future for the next sixty-five (65) years. One thing that I want to talk about that is important to me and is important to all of us in our lives is the wai, the water. Without water we cannot live and that is really important. There are places in the world now that have no water where people are still living; they live in poverty and they suffer daily. I just want you to think about them because we are so blessed to able to live on this island of Kaua`i PUBLIC HEARING 41 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 that has lots of water sources. One thing that I really want to talk about is again the water and how it is being diverted from its natural state to flow into a ditch that we drink, so we drink the ditch water. I think it is not pono. It is not pono to the Hawaiian people and to the land that we leave it that way and we do not focus on that. Whenever we hear it, it sort of just skimmers out of our mind. I really want to inform everyone here about that and I am pretty sure all you folks know that and I have heard that today. Mahalo for that. The water that is being diverted should just be flowing naturally to where the people can use it for their food, homes, lives, and their families. Another thing I want to talk about is the population density and growth on Kaua`i. I moved here in 2010 and ever since then I am pretty sure that the population has gotten...there has been a lot more people living here, a lot more tourists coming and visiting daily. On average, I think it is twenty-six thousand (26,000), I am not sure, but in the future it is supposed to be forty-six thousand (46,000) people visiting daily and that is going to bring big problems to our island because we do not have the capacity for that many people and cars. Aloha and thank you for your time. Committee Chair Chock: Thank you, Mr. Ramos. Next speaker. TIM KALLAI: Aloha, I am Tim Kallai. Mahalo, Council for being here. I guess what I would like to speak about are a few things, but most important is about procedure. First and foremost, I commend you, Council, for taking the time in process of this as a procedure to open this up to us, the community, the `ohana of Kaua`i to respond to what may be our reservations or fears about the initial onset of the plan as it was proposed to us and as it has been moving forward. I truly wish to take this time to thank you, thank the attorneys as well, just for being here and for doing what we feel is correct and that is representing our voice as our representatives for the island of Kaua`i and for listening. There have been a lot of good testimony and some great testimony that has been presented to us. I want to thank also the haumana, the keiki of Kanuikapono for coming because they are our future. I think that we need to listen to what these young keiki have to say. I think sometimes there is some phenomenal and brilliant pieces of ike and just Mana o that they have to share with us. Sometimes I wish that they could possibly be there helping and guiding us as adults in this structure of ours that we have set because once again, these kids sometimes look at things in a different perspective, in a newer fresher way, than some of us that have already been instilled in the process or procedures of how we work and our governmental things. Sometimes they look at things, once again, out of the box and give us that opportunity to really look at what is down home. With that in mind, too, something that resonates with me through this entire process of what I am hearing that I wish that we could still incorporate or instill within this process or procedure as we move forward; a term that I am going to use is "quality of life." Yes, we have an inevitably...there will be growth, it is just a process, but with that, we have to have quality of life first and foremost for the host culture, the kanaka maoli. They should be there at the top of this. Secondly, us, malihini that come here, and thirdly, those who wish to come and visit and PUBLIC HEARING 42 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 participate. Without that quality of life...if we move forward and there is no longer quality, we are going to have an issue or problem. Thank you once again for just taking the time out of your day, listening to us, and taking all things into consideration as we move forward. We look forward to future meetings with you as well. Mahalo nui. Committee Chair Chock: Members, before we continue, just a personal privilege, the students from Kanuikapono want to officially thank you with oli mahalo, I believe. Can we stand for that as they depart? (Hawaiian oli from Kanuikapono Charter School) Committee Chair Chock: Mahalo for that privilege, Members. Thank you for coming here. We will continue with the next speaker, Hope Kallai. HOPE KALLAI: Good morning. Thank you folks. How can I follow that? Oh my gosh. I wanted to talk about truth, justice in the Hawaiian way, but in three (3) minutes—cannot. I really want to hit on three (3) omissions from this plan. The first one is about water source. This summer, we had a tunnel collapse at Kapaia Tunnel going into the Waiahi surface water treatment plan that potentially affected the water delivery to fifteen thousand (15,000) people. That is not in this planning document. There is nothing that states that our dense urban area from Puhi to Kapa'a is dependent on surface water. In the General Plan, it only states ground water usage, ground water aquifer, sustainable yield of ground water, but surface water is not in there. If Lihu`e expansion is planned at forty-seven percent (47%), that growth is dependent on surface water. That is not in this book at all. How can we plan for the future for the next two (2) decades if we do not have our source water identified accurately and correctly? How can we gauge our development potential if we do not know what waters we are using? That massive exportation out of the Wailua ahupua'a of their water resources if going to have a severe impact to Wailua. It is now and it will in the future. The static well level in the ground water is dropping because of the massive exportation of the surface water. The water quality in Wailua River, how many kids have to get sick? How many kids have to be taken out of paddling because the water is too pilau down there because there are millions of gallons a day diverted out of that stream system? We cannot adequately plan for our future. I am really concerned about our access. I am grateful that Planning Director Dahilig mentioned the Ala Loa on KKCR yesterday, but it is not in this document. Window dressing is given to Na Ala Hele and open space as providing trails. Na Ala Hele has thirty (30) trail segments on this island, but what we are lacking is a cohesive system that connects these trail fragments. We have loss our lateral coastal access, our Ala Loa; in the past twenty (20) years it has been forgotten about and shuffled under the table. Also not in this plan...there is inadequate mention and consideration for the DHHL Wailua Plan, it is not even listed in the PUBLIC HEARING 43 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 Bibliography, Anahola is, Hanapepe is. We as a community have to consider that DHHL will develop Wailua in the next two (2) decades. Committee Chair Chock: Mahalo. Ms. Kallei: Thank you. Committee Chair Chock: Next. JUDY DALTON: Aloha, County Councilmembers. My name is Judy Dalton. I am continuing testimony from when I read this a couple of weeks ago. It is up to the County Council to bring honesty to the General Plan regarding discrepancies and the tourism growth rate. All of the information that we had provided was brought before the Planning Department and the Planning Commission many times earlier this year, but as the draft of the General Plan shows, the public's concerns were completely ignored, nor did the General Plan incorporate any of the public's recommendations for goals, policies, and concrete actions to slow the increase in tourism and mitigate the harmful impacts on Kaua`i's communities. Even if the low two percent (2%) average daily visitor census growth rate is used, Kaua`i will face serious problems. These need to be addressed, but the tourism related actions proposed in the current draft of the General Plan had no possibility of managing tourism growth and its wide range of negative impacts. The draft General Plan propose actions come down to one policy; keep all the new tourists' accommodations in the visitor designation areas. But the number of tourists' accommodations units that can be built under this policy would accommodate all the visitor count increased that would occur under the two percent (2%) annual growth rate. So the proposed actions would do nothing to prevent the forty-six percent (46%) increase in tourism. That could have a tremendous negative impacts on infrastructure, traffic, crowding on beaches and parks, our rural character, and our residents' quality of life. There are no other actions policies in the draft General Plan that had either the intent or the potential to limit the amount of average daily visitor census growth. It is up to the County Council to bring effective growth management policies and action to the General Plan. The General Plan should adopt the policies that tourism related development on Kaua`i must be limited to a desirable, manageable, sustainable level; a level that does not exceed Kaua`i's infrastructure with capacity, does not threaten Kaua`i's rural character, and does not degrade residents quality of life. County government must therefore use all measures, and this is just (inaudible), to discourage any increase in the average daily visitor census beyond its current 2016 level. At the current growth rate, Kaua`i will reach the General Plan's 2035 forecast sometime next year, not 2035. Committee Chair Chock: Mahalo, Judy. Ms. Dalton: Thank you. PUBLIC HEARING 44 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 JOSE BULATAO, JR.: Good morning. My name is Jose Bulatao, Jr., known as "Mr. B." Aloha, we are gathered here in this place to share our Mana o on the proposals that are before us regarding the range of possibilities as to how our future may be determined. As it may be well-expected, there will be conflicting ideas and reactions as to what is being recommended and/or proposed and this is our time to indicate the extent to which there may be support or rejection to what those proposals are. In that process, let us be mindful of the following; regardless of how each of us feels and thinks, we are in this together. We are indeed (inaudible) to being on a canoe and as such be willing to find ways in which we can establish the means by which we can coexist in spite of our differences of opinions. Surely, we are familiar with the options. We can fight over it until a winner emerges. We can compromise or negotiate. We can decide to explore the...having the use of options and come to some general consensus or we can ignore the matter and complain if things do not turn out the way that we prefer. That is why it is so important for us to be cognizant of that island mentality, if you will, because it denotes the reality of who we are and where we are in the middle of the most isolated spot on planet Earth. In the vastness of the Pacific Ocean, with limited finite resources with respect to land, air, and water. So in planning ahead, we need to be mindful of the demand factor upon these resources and I see that I am running out of time so I am going to cut short—with that being said, it is not as clear as crystal that it is essential that we adhere to the basic principles to malama aina. In other words, we better be careful that we keep the process (inaudible). Committee Chair Chock: Mahalo Mr. B. Next. ANNE FREDERICK: Good morning, Councilmembers. My name is Anne Frederick and I am a resident of Anahola. I am here on behalf of the Hawai`i Alliance for Progressive Action. We thank the Planning Department for its hard work and efforts to develop a General Plan to guide the County and its vision for the next ten (10) years. In particular, we recognize the challenges and balancing the need to increase our affordable housing, while also protecting Kaua`i's unique, rural character. However, as one compares the current draft of the General Plan, besides the various community groups testimony, it appears that certain key recommendations have yet to be meaningfully integrated. We respectfully request that the Council address the following key areas: one, address inaccurate visitor growth projections. Much of the planning for infrastructure and projected demand on our natural resources is based on unrealistic or inaccurate assumptions about visit or growth. Several of the prior testimonies on the draft have cited these inaccuracies in great detail. Two, managing growth. Some of the land use designations in the General Plan will further exacerbate overcrowding and the related stresses on our infrastructure and natural resources. Repeatedly, residents have expressed that certain places, especially those heavily traffic by visitors, simply are no longer accessible to them. Although the plan makes various references to limiting growth, it PUBLIC HEARING 45 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 lacks a clear framework upon which to deliver. The plan should outline a clear framework for targeting and managing growth. The targets for growth should be informed by a caring capacity study, accompanied by monitoring programs to ensure that the enforcement mechanisms are in place. Based on this framework, the County can explore incentive, disincentive programs, growth controls, and moratoriums. Growth should primarily be focused on addressing our affordable housing crisis. Rather than increasing the stock of resort development/luxury housing for out-of- state buyers. To that end, we support the community recommendations to remove the Princeville Phase II resort designation entirely; insert stronger language to enforce regulation on nonconforming TVRs; explore mechanisms for preserving affordable housing through rent regulation and caps on the percentage increase and the resale of affordable units; explore additional taxes to disincentive out-of-state buyer, and remove the Hokua Place from the plan and let it go through its own process. In addition, although the Public Trust is cited throughout the plan, the current and future impacts on water and land resources are not adequately accounted for. Stream diversions. Decreasing stream flows and current instream flow standards are listed as a concern for some communities, but no decisive action is recommended in the plan. The current diversion of one hundred percent (100%) base flow of streams such as the North Fork, Wailua River, which leaves these streams virtually dry below the diversion, is a breach of that trust. We request instream flow standard studies and restoring stream flows accordingly. Thank you for your time. Committee Chair Chock: Mahalo. NINA MONASEVITCH: Aloha. Nina Monasevitch. Thank you for this opportunity. I attended the County Council Meeting on September 6th and I saw the ninety minute presentation. I heard a lot of very well-researched information, saw plenty of fancy graphics and icons; however, there were several things missing that I think are critically important. The Planning team, with all due respect, are very bright, educated, and articulate people, but they are also very young, so I see a real lack of wisdom. I particularly see a lack of wisdom in the discussion in the matter of our marine ecosystem, which is in a catastrophic state of decline. Where is the wisdom, the experience, the respect of the host culture, and the ecological history of our island? The General Plan does not have actions that it will take to slow and reverse the tragic loss of our once pristine watersheds and oceans. Not making the marine environment a priority is a huge mistake. There is no way to balance growth if the General Plan does not first prioritize addressing the catastrophic natural environmental changes that are happening now and looming. The plan says, "How are visitors impacting parks and the roads?" What about the marine ecosystem impact? If we do not focus on making the marine ecosystem a priority, there will be no viable business to support the island, much less life on our island, let alone the planet. The marine ecosystem is literally our life support system, ecologically, culturally, and economically. Our oceans are in crisis. There are no more pristine waters here on Kaua`i. A few facts: over fishing—ninety percent (90%) of all large PUBLIC HEARING 46 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 species are gone. There are now only one percent (1%) of sharks left worldwide. They are a keystone species. The principles grazers of our reefs, green turtles, once numbered one hundred million worldwide. Their numbers are now three hundred thousand worldwide. Sea birds have declined by seventy percent (70%) since the 1950s, primarily from fisheries by catch. For every ten pounds of shrimp caught, three hundred to five hundred pounds of bycatch species are thrown overbroad. Coral reefs are critically endangered and are one of the most threatened ecosystems on the planet. There are four hundred dead zones. Slime is the future of our ocean if we do not change our ways now. Thank you. Committee Chair Chock: Mahalo. MATTHEW BERNABE: Matt Bernabe, for the record. I would like to ask you not to ratify this today or soon and put this back up to the public for a few reasons. When I do things in life, I always focus on my deficiencies and I prioritize them that way. For example, if I have a broken car and a broken roof, I do not fix half my car and fix half the roof, and then at a later date, fix the remainder to the car and the remainder of the roof. That is what I heard about balancing this. That irritates me and I will get to why. I agree we need the money to go into real property tax, and I agree we have a houseless crisis and we need to increase inventory; however, our solid waste cannot afford to absorb ten thousand homes, and let alone, the residents of those homes. Just on solid waste, which I heard a lot about water, which I agree as well and I have my own arguments of why I support the testifiers on that as well, but nobody is talking about the reality of solid waste. I am glad brother Rupert brought it up because I, for a completely reason of Hawaiian homelands, do not want it to move to Kalepa either. That is a primary center for our main watershed and the leaching will be greater with the amount of volume of rain it gets there versus where it is at currently. We can do a lot more to reduce that, but I just do not see it. In the plan, they took a few facts and they made it sound like we had the best solid waste, not only in the State, but in the world. It is basically not telling the truth by omission and we have serious problems in solid waste. If we start this construction now, we will be talking about this on every other agenda item from here to come. As far as the water goes, everybody is talking about specific things, like the North Fork diversion and whatnot, but the real issue that we should be talking about it is thanks to the County suing Kaua`i Springs, that affirmation at the Supreme Court has greater implications. The implication is this, is that if the State does not do their job or the private entity that has the water resource, like Grove Farm, if they are not doing their job, it is the County's responsibility as a subdivision of the State to fill that void and do the job. Giving them the control—like yesterday on the radio somebody was talking to Mike Dahilig and said their pumpkins did not grow, but their papayas did and they asked if there is chlorine in the water and the answer is, "We do not know what they are doing with those ditches." I will end with this, "He who controls the process, controls the outcome." The County needs to take control of the water processes and not just potable water, everything. PUBLIC HEARING 47 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 Committee Chair Chock: Thank you, Matt. Mr. Bernabe: Thank you. JENNIFER LUCK: Good morning. My name is Jennifer Luck and I am a resident of the North Shore. I wanted to start by just saying thank you to all of you for your time today and for listening to all of the members of the community that have come up here and testified. I wanted to thank the Planning Department staff as well for their hard work on this plan. I am here today to testify and respectfully urge you to remove the resort land use designation on the Princeville plateau from the North Shore maps in the General Plan 2020. This important area received resort designation in the last General Plan over thirty (30) years ago. Kaua`i has changed drastically over the past three decades. Addition resort have opened, hundreds of condos, timeshares, and vacation rentals have been built, all resulting in thousands more visitors to the island. The tourism industry is thriving and placing a tremendous amount of pressure on already stressed roads, highways, open spaces, culturally sensitive areas, trails, and beaches. Property values and taxes has skyrocketed forcing families with ancestral lands to sell and displacing longtime residents. Choosing to award the Princeville Phase II area with resort land use designation would open the door to possible future development of this area, adding to and further exacerbating the problems and challenges that come with an overcrowded island. Removing the designation will slow the tide of resort development and help restore the balance between the needs of our community and those of the visitor industry. I know you have heard a lot of testimony today and a lot of ideas and thoughts and input, but in my mind, this is a very concrete and straightforward way to restore that essential balance. You all know better than I do the needs of this community. You know that there are tremendous challenges ahead and this is one thing you can do to make a difference, you can do it easily and you can do it now. Please have courage and be brave and make the right decision. Thank you again for your time. Committee Chair Chock: Thank you. GREG CROWE: Good morning everyone here and online. Thank you for your care and efforts for a better Kaua`i. My name is Greg Crowe. I first moved here almost thirty (30) years ago and I lived on pretty much every part of the island. I also have some relevant work background, but I will skip most of that now due to the limited time. In the short time that is available today, I would like to point out an aspect of the General Plan draft that maybe legally deficient under State law and guidelines, in any case, is causing very high concern and a dissatisfaction for many residents on Kaua`i. I will get to some specific quotes from the State on that in a moment, but first, as context for what I say today, I have relevant backgrounds in housing and also in the analysis design of implication of highly complex systems that PUBLIC HEARING 48 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 also have to be highly functional. Kaua`i in the General Plan is certainly a complex system. I do not envy your job, but while this draft has many good ideas, it is not highly functional. That seems to be an unfortunate pattern that must change. The previous General Plan of 2000 did not work well. Just one example is affordable housing where, despite being stated as a top priority in the 2000 General Plan, we actually loss affordable housing and a major problem turned into a crisis due to a lack of effective planning and action. Regarding the deficiencies of the General Plan draft under the spirit and letter of the State's mandate for County General Plans, I will quote a couple of relatively short exerts from the State's website or the Hawai`i Office on Planning regarding the Hawaii State Planning Act. Under part two, Planning Coordination and Implementation, "The system implements the State plan through development of functional plans and County General Plans." It goes on and says, "County General Plans must include the following information and considerations," and lists seven (7) major bullet points, but here is the phrase I would like to call your attention, "contain implementation priorities and actions to carryout policies." In that same State website under the Office of Planning's role, they are eleven (11) bullets and I will call your attention to a couple of them: "Conducting strategic planning by a series of things and then formulating strategies and alternative courses of action in response to identified problems and opportunities." Just two (2) more excerpts from the State website under HRS 226-58 for those who would like to follow along on legal details. "County General Plans: further the County General Plan should, number 1, contain objectives to be achieved and policies to be pursued with respect to"...and they list a whole bunch of topics. "Number two, contain implementation priorities and actions to carryout policies and"...it continues on. I do not see the implementation, priorities, and actions to carryout policies in this General Plan. It cost more both financially and socially to ignore problems until they become crises and emergencies. There are many good ideas in this plan and upwards of five hundred possible actions, but it is dead on arrival without implementations, priorities, and action to carry out policies. Again, I am quoting from the State. Please make this General Plan unlike previous so it becomes a General Plan that will be a key step toward actually achieving at least the top priorities that better future for Kauai starts with having... Committee Chair Chock: Thank you, Greg. Mr. Greg: ...implications, priorities, and actions in the General Plan in doing it in a way that put residents first. Committee Chair Chock: Thank you. Mr. Greg: These hearings are an encouraging step in that direction. Thank you all. Committee Chair Chock: Thank you. PUBLIC HEARING 49 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 LANA SHEA: Aloha, everyone. Thank you for hearing all of our testimonies. It really does mean a lot because this community is what Kaua`i is all about and that is why I am here. I do not have all the facts and data, what I have is a heart and a young child and a love for this land. I know that some of these plans, the resort plan for that Princeville area, is just overflowing... Committee Chair Chock: Can you state your name as well, for the record? Ms. Shea: Lana Shea and I have lived in Ha`ena for twenty (20) years now, thank you. The plan, including that proposal for the development is favoring the elite and not taking into consideration the community, especially the Hawaiians and the Polynesian culture that really does favor grassroots, taking care of the 'Cana first. That is really the next thing that I want to address is that sustainability does mean no chemicals and no genetically modified organisms (GMO) and that needs to be one hundred percent (100%) addressed and banning styrofoam and plastic. If you want a sustainable Kaua`i, these things need to be a part of your plan, and development is obviously going to happen, but are you choosing to favor only the expensive, high dollar big money or do you care about the people? That is really what this is about. We have intelligence, we have the means; it is a matter of where we put that energy. I really appreciate you taking the time to hear our plea that you do favor the culture of the people rather than the culture of money. Thank you for your time. Committee Chair Chock: Thank you. MAHANA DUNN: Aloha, Councilmembers. Aloha, Kaua`i ohana. Thank you all so much for taking your time, yet again, for stand up for what is right. We, the people, love this island with all our hearts; otherwise, we would not be here on a Wednesday. We are not getting paid to be here. We are activists that love this island. We want sustainable META solutions. Everything we are talking about are really good ideas, but we need largescale answers here. We are the most remote island in the entire world. Anything can happen that can cut us off from supplies. We can be Puerto Rico—like that. A tsunami, war, and hurricanes, are very real things that can happen. We are dependent on resources from war-torn, oil from around the world...I was told and I would like for the energy department to say otherwise, I was told that our energy comes from imported jet fuel. Is that true? Is that not true? How do we get our lights and electricity? Everything we do—we are the future of Kaua`i. Everything we are doing right now is so important and that we make the right decisions, that we listen to the keiki that are scared coming up here speaking their truth. I have testified before, and I will continue to testify even if I am not here, there are many more to come after me. We stand on the shoulders of our ancestors and we are here to make a better island for us all. Please let us put people over profits. PUBLIC HEARING 50 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 Let us put the good of all over the greed of a few. The time is now. We have to make sustainable solutions. We all have ohanci, children, and elders. We have to make sure that this does not come to another O`ahu or another Maui. Go to these islands. I was just recently on O`ahu—oh my goodness. I first moved here...I do not know if I said my name, my name is Mahana Dunn and I first moved to Kaua`i in 1994. I love this island with all my heart and I know you do, too. That is why everyone is here right now. Please let us all work together to make sustainable solutions in food, in fuel, and water, protecting our resources, protecting our future and being the answer. We are the ones we have been waiting for. Aloha to you all. Committee Chair Chock: Thank you. EVAN PRICE: Good morning and thank you, Councilmembers, staff, and the Planning Department for all your hard work up to this point. In my opinion, balance is a key word here that sometimes gets ignored or it is difficult to achieve an appropriate balance as we try to allocate scarce resources. A scarce resource is water and it has been quoted many times and I will just read about twenty (20) seconds. "I wish to speak for a balanced approach in terms of sharing scarce resources such as water. Public trust ownership of rain water and streams has been quoted over and over as a reason for minimizing the diversion of public water to agriculture." But in my opinion, an important public trust maintenance value includes the desire of the public not to allow tourism to be the only income, but generating enterprise on our island. In other words, if we do not want tourism and tourists to run over our island, then we need to establish, as a public trust value, the diversion of water to agriculture as an important component to not allow Kaua`i to turn into Maui. A public trust resource requires leaders to balance the needs of all residents. Historically on Kauai, agriculture was the main income generating enterprise and then tourism slowly built up. If the Zika virus or another tragedy happens where tourism was stopped temporarily, the island would be economically devastated. To maintain agriculture, a public trust resource such as balancing the needs of agriculture to have an appropriate diversion of supply, is a critical resource. Thank you for balancing water as a public trust resource and I appreciate your efforts in that regards. Thank you. Committee Chair Chock: Thank you. Next. NADYA PENOFF: Good morning. It is a privilege to be here with this Council and all these people who care so much about Kauai. I hope you can hear me. So, in reading over the plan, I would like to address specifically Section 7. Councilmember Yukimura: Could you give your name? Ms. Penoff: Nadya Penoff. So when I first worked here in 1997, I found it very easy to go to public parks and public beaches, find a parking PUBLIC HEARING 51 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 space, and go for a swim. Now twenty (20) years later when I take my eight (8) year old granddaughter to these places, like when I went to Lydgate the last time, I could not find a parking place. The beach is crowded, the parking is crowded, Kealia parking is crowded, and what is happening is the increase in tourism, the increase in population is crowding our public parks. Now, when I looked at Section 7, under Parks and Recreation, there is nothing. We need new parks. We need parks to be enlarged. I think if we are going to be approving new housing and more tourists coming here, we also need to be increasing our park lands, not just for tourists, but for us who live here, as well. I would like to see somehow that a percentage of land be set aside in proportion to the new building that is being created. Does that make sense? Do you understand what I am saying? It is like if you are going to increase all these new houses, then you have to increase an equal proportion of park land for our people, and that is my point about the parks. I did not see new parks, increasing parks. I did not see anything about parks on this whole plan. That is my suggestion and thank you very much for listening to me. Committee Chair Chock: Thank you. ALICE PARKER: Alice Parker, Lihu`e resident and I spend a lot of time in Kilauea. First of all, let us not fulfill the adage...the best plans (inaudible) we have to make these plans work. They are not sufficient as they are written now. We do need infrastructure, we need to repair our crumbling infrastructure, and we have to keep this island, "Kaua`i." The other thing is we have to do something speaking of beautiful island. We do not need a mountain Kekaha out there. We need a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF), we have to recycle, and we have to mandate recycling. I live in United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) housing which is federal and I understand that the County cannot handle that. I do not see why not, it is on County land even though it is federally funded. We should be mandated to recycle and we have to keep this place so that it is for everybody. I mean, yes, tourists love it, but the natives are here and we have to remember the 'Cana and the malihini, I guess is, the original Hawaiians. A lot of work went into the plan and there are a lot of good ideas, but my neighbors say, "Yes, we heard this all before. There was a great plan and it all went down the pipes." Are we ever going to see anything? So yes, let us see progress from the report and let us make it stronger. I applaud the Planning Commission for all their hard work, but we need more. You folks, let us fix it. Thank you. Committee Chair Chock: Thank you. Next speaker, please. LOYA WHITMER: Aloha and mahalo nui loa for all that you do. It is fantastic, the work that you do and thank you everyone for coming. My name is Loya Whitmer and I live in Lihu`e. I think the number one thing that we should address is our keiki. There are so many mothers who are working and have little children. We need to have some money available from the State to give to people who PUBLIC HEARING 52 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 are willing to take the little keiki and teach them. Number two, I believe the State should be willing to give up some of their property for low-income housing and also maybe some of the wealthy people could give a piece of their property for low income housing. Number three, it is very important to protect our coral reefs, dolphins, turtles, and maybe what can be done...something...I do a lot of hiking and go to a lot of beaches and the availability of some of the paths that we have thread in the past are being cut off by rich people. Once a hiking path is there, we should have the availability to continue hiking those trails, is my opinion. Last, but not least, the eye of the Kanaloa is an ancient Hawaiian symbol brought out to bring peace and unity to the whole world. We need to instill that in the Kauaians; a peace amongst us. Thank you very much. Committee Chair Chock: Mahalo. KLAYTON KUBO: How is it going? Klayton Kubo, Waimea, Kauai. General Plan, right? This is what this Council Meeting is all about. How can affordable housing be four hundred ninety-nine thousand dollars ($499,000)? Maybe it is affordable for somebody that has "big bread," but most of the people that I know on this island already are just getting by. Infrastructure, yes, that is another thing that needs to be increased. I have some other things rolling in my head, but it has nothing to do with the General Plan, so I am not going there. Water, if we do not have good water...but the question is are we going to have enough for the years, decades, and centuries to come? That is another good question. If we keep polluting the air, the land, and the water, then most likely we will not get enough. The green light is still on, but that is all I have to say. Cut it short, good. Mahalo nui. Committee Chair Chock: Everyone, we have identified seven (7) more registered speakers. If you have not spoken yet and still want to, I would encourage you to find a staff member on the side here and get your purple paper in. Thank you. MARION MCHENRY: Aloha, Council. Thank you for taking the time to listen to community members, I really appreciate it. My name is Marion McHenry. I have lived on the North Shore for thirty (30) years; eighteen (18) years in Kilauea Town and twelve (12) years in Princeville. You have so many experts speaking on different subjects, I thought I would just give something that comes from my personal point of view. I recently retired after twenty-eight (28) years working at Princeville Resort and we know that the resorts do employ many people on the island. I would just like to say, being in a supervisor position for many of my last years there, it was always a struggle to fill all the needed positions for the different departments. I believe it continues to this day. I would like to say that even in recent trips to Lihu`e and Kapa`a, I noticed there is a lot of"Help Wanted" signs at many of the businesses, whether it is a shop or a pizza parlor in Kilauea, and we do not need any more big resorts. We need housing for the people that work in the resorts, housing that people who are engineers, waitresses, receptionists, and all the different jobs that...whether PUBLIC HEARING 53 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 you have a big expensive vacation home on Kaua`i, you need staff for that and we have all that now. What is starting to happen is homeless working on Kaua`i. This is very, very sad. We cannot have people who live here not have homes and struggle like the one girl from the school, the parents looking for a place to live for their kids, having to find a place to shower before work. We need affordable and assisted housing before we give planning for new resorts and expanded development. This has to be one of our number one priorities because we have people on Kaua`i to fill the jobs that are needed right now, but they do not have homes. At one time, many years ago, I was a single mom with three (3) little boys in Kilauea Town and I received HUD assistance for my rent. When my fortunes changed and I did not need that anymore, I was so happy that I knew another family was going to get that HUD assistance. Let us make sure that affordable housing goes on to another family in need and not to make more money for somebody. Thank you. Committee Chair Chock: Thank you. KANOE WOODWARD: Aloha, County Council. My name is Kanoe Woodward. I am here on behalf of my ipo, Makaiwa, and I am here for my son, Makalii. Our residence is in `Ele`ele, but my one hanau is from Wanini. I have lived on Kaua`i my entire life, all of twenty-nine (29) years, and the beginning part of my life, that is where I lived. Both my mother and father is from there. My grandparents and at the end of Wanini Road, I have iwi kupuna, my ancestors' bones are there. Let us keep this short because I know that a lot of people have done a lot of testimonies of their facts and studies and you folks know what is going on. I am just here on behalf of my family and I just wanted to say that I am here to ask you to please remove the land designation of the Princeville plateau from North Shore maps in the General Plan of 2020. Mahalo for your time. Committee Chair Chock: Mahalo. Next, please. BASIL SCOTT: My name is Basil Scott and I live in Wailua. I want to focus on growth. It disturbed me the way the plan addressed the growth. Essentially, it seemed to me that the plan was like, "There is really not much we can do about it. It is going to grow, so we have to take the extra people that are going to be here and jam them into higher density, urban areas, that way we keep it green." As many people have spoken, there is a problem with that thinking, "You know, there is only so much water, there is only so much beach, parks," and so on. At some point we have to address the problem of how we limit growth. I understand, and you folks probably even better, that that is a big and complicated thing because if we say, "A moratorium on housing; no more," then what happens to the people who work construction and all those jobs?That would have a bad economic impact. I understand that it is a difficult balancing act, but now is the time to begin changing from the growth that we have had, which is taking us continuingly upward and starting to maybe put the brakes on a little bit and slow that growth in a way that there is not a PUBLIC HEARING 54 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 disconnect and discontinuity so that the community and the jobs have a time and a chance to adapt to a pattern of life on the island that is more sustainable and starts to get to a point where the growth is much lower and closer to zero, maybe even zero. It seems to me that we have to do that and at some point in time, if we do not, Kaua`i will become Maui and it will be less desirable and that will end up limiting the growth and then we would have loss much. This is a hard topic and I do not think it was addressed, it was just assumed the growth will continue as it has in the past. It would require maybe some extra work or study and maybe the plan could be returned to the Planning Commission with a special focus on how do we manage the growth and use as a metric measures of quality of life so that we focus on maintaining the quality and addressing problems and limiting the growth, keeping those measures in mind. Thank you very much. Committee Chair Chock: Thank you, Basil. Next speaker. Ana. ANA MOHAMAD DESMARAIS: Aloha, Council. My name is Ana MoDes. This is proof that you listen to your community. There was one testifier that requested a space for all of us to fit and a microphone and poof, voila, it was done. I very much trust this body. I have gotten to know you and all of your passion and I believe in you and your work. I trust the General Plan in your hands. When I had spoken earlier about the fact that the General Plan is not the plan the people would approve of, was because in the Planning Commission, there was obstruction of justice by way of persuading in defensive corporate interests and specifically over the Princeville plateau. It was brought up twice for a vote. The first time that there was the actual persuasion happening by a Commissioner, it was a tie and the tie was broken by this persuasion. I would request for you all to revote on all of the measures that were voted on the Commission, if that is possible. Our natural resources are sacred and there are many warriors speaking on that and I do trust that true balance will be reached moving forward. My main concern at this moment is the visitor designation areas, in general. I feel that the economic disparity that we are experiencing is from the few profiting where I understand my suggestion for a County tax is a bit extensive with the American jurisprudence, but I am working through it and I will bring a concrete possibility on how to navigate that. I understand this is a radical suggestion, but it does speak on how many testifiers want the County to have more power over the State and it goes the same with the State on the Federal. The State has more power over the entire Nation, like when it comes to the State boundary, it is the State laws are regarded and we can work on something like that, along those lines with the County as well. I know you are under the hot lights and I really do appreciate you being here to listen to all of that. It is uncomfortable, I understand the feeling, and it just goes to show how you are willing to sacrifice in order to take the community into regard moving forward in this process. So the next time you see my face, there will be more concrete solutions on this County tax suggestion and I really do appreciate all your work. I really do trust that you will PUBLIC HEARING 55 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 listen to all of the testimony of the community, that we have come together to make this pono. Committee Chair Chock: Mahalo. MALIA CHUN: Aloha mai kakou. `O wau o Malia Chun. Keia ke one o ko u hanau. No ka moku o Kona a ka ahupua'a `o Waiawa. Speaking on from the west side of Kauai. Mahalo nui for your time, Councilmembers and for everybody here that had to take time off of work to come and share you mana o. I can see that a lot of time and effort has been put into the conceptual thought of the General Plan and it is clear what we are faced with: a small island with finite resources that we are currently failing to manage and a booming population of the rich and foreign that we have no control over. It is estimated that in the next three (3)years, our population is going to exceed one hundred thousand (100,000) residents; that is crazy. In my mana o the most pressing issues that we need to address now as we holomua are, number one, wai. I know you folks heard water time and time again. The returning of water to its rightful sources will be a solution to many problems. Mea'ai or food. Food security. Someone mentioned the devastation in Puerto Rico, that is us very easily. But growing farmers and creating opportunity for those who are invested in growing food for local consumption, this is (inaudible), this is an important thing. `Aina, land. Stop the development and desecration of sacred land and support community-based regulation of natural resource management. You have a great example in Ha`ena. The bottom line is that we need to strengthen this plan. We need a clearly, articulated implementation plan that meets the conceptual goals written in this document, something that our keiki and mo'opuna can firmly stand upon. If not, the General Plan will be conceptual fluff and this will just be another formality. Mahalo nui is 'oukou. Thank you Committee Chair Chock: Mahalo. Next speaker, please. JOSEPH DUNSMOOR: Aloha. I am Joseph Dunsmoor. I am a farmer, consultant, teacher on Kaua`i for the last twenty (20) years and what I wanted to share and who I am representing is agriculture and the sustainability of agriculture. What I would like to mention is to see our waste as a resource, because on Kaua`i the soils are very poor and very toxic in a lot of situations. Agriculture is very expensive because a lot of time it involves swapping dollars. You spend this much money for fertilizer and then you get this much money from your harvest. A lot of times you spend more money for fertilizer than you get back from your harvest. I did sustainability in South America years ago and one of the speakers said that, "Sustainability is a luxury of the first world and a necessity of the third world." I am not saying that Kauai is a third world, but it is an island. Islands need to be able to view their waste as a resource. I have been involved with the waste on Kaua`i for eighteen (18) years and we have been talking about it and talking about it, and talking about it, and everything still goes into the landfill. I would like to see that PUBLIC HEARING 56 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 changed. I am not sure if that got brought up in the County plan, but viewing waste all waste as a resource, is very important. Thank you. Committee Chair Chock: Mahalo. SHAYLYN KIMURA: Good morning. Aloha kakahiaka, my name is Shaylyn Kimura. I come to you today as an individual member of the County's Open Space Commission, as well as a board member for the Kilauea Neighborhood Association and the Secretary for `Aina Ho`okupu o Kilauea, which manages the community farm out in Kilauea. I have spoken to you before and have implored you to look at the importance of preserving open space on our island, particularly Section 7 in regards to parks or the lack of parks. I am very well-traveled, I have been all over the world. It amazes me how large cities and small cities have dedicated open space for residents and visitors alike to be able to enjoy, raise their families, unwind, and enjoy the natural beauty. Some of the struggles that we faced on Open Space is simply the process and I ask you to look at the General Plan, allow us an opportunity to do our jobs as Commissioners, to identify those spaces, including wahi pana and to be able to do our job and to acquire these spaces so that our residents, particularly can access the shorelines and the mountains. A good example of that was our parcel at Kepuhi Point and I for one can admit that the process is very flawed. As a result, we lost out on that parcel. That parcel was sold to a neighboring owner who put up a fence and the local fishermen who have been using that parcel for decades are now locked out. So the trail that they have to use to traverse their way to the shoreline is a treacherous one. I implore you once again to please address public parks and open spaces so that we can all enjoy them, but really more importantly, so that these spaces can be protected in perpetuity. Thank you. Committee Chair Chock: Mahalo. ELSIE GODBEY: I did not intend to speak. My name is Elsie Godbey. I did not intend to speak, that is why I am lost. I did read part of the General Plan very recently so that is why I am not really prepared, but one thing that concerned me very much—I am from Hanapepe—was the statement that was made that the State will not make any improvements in the Waimea ahupua'a of Hanapepe Road. I am really insulted about that because I think they have ruined that part of town more than anybody else. I do not want to go into the whole detail. I just want to know why the State and County cannot work together on places that we live. I mean, it does not make any sense. Another example would be the Kuhi`o Highway, just after Safeway, there is a one-lane sidewalk and you know how the traffic is in Kapa'a and there is this large multimodal sidewalk that is about as big as the car lane and then two lanes of Kuhi`o Highway. At one meeting I asked, "Why that bikeway was so wide and making our two lanes on Kuhi`o Highway"...they could be wider, but anyway the answer was that it is because the County owns it and I guess they can do whatever they want without any logic. Anyway, one more thing I wanted to say was PUBLIC HEARING 57 OCTOBER 4, 2017 BILL NO. 2666 all this talk about the watershed is very concerning that the Hanapepe River has the same problems as the North Fork. When the river had such a good water level and now it is almost dry. Another thing is when we were still in grade school, I heard the statement that the State owns the water and the land underneath is owned by either McBryde or...I do not remember, but I think that is unreasonable, too. Thank you. Committee Chair Chock: Thank you. Does that conclude our speakers? Great. Did everyone have a chance to testify? If not, this is your last chance as we take a break. If not, seeing no further speakers, I would like to thank everyone for their cooperation today. If you have any questions regarding the upcoming review and deliberation process, feel free to visit www.kauai.gov\council\GeneralPlanUpdate or call the Office of the County Clerk, Council Services Division at 241-4188. Now that the General Plan public hearing is concluded, we will move forward with the rest of the County Council Meeting agenda. For those who were here only for the General Plan item, we will now take a lunch recess and will be back to conduct the rest of our business for the County Council at 1:20 p.m. Thank you so much everyone. There being no one present to testify on this matter, the public hearing adjourned at 12:20 p.m. Respectfully submitted, 010 JADE. FOUNTAIN-TANIGAWA County Clerk :dmc