At the start of today’s Planning Commission hearing, the Commission’s Chair mentioned that the South Kohala Community Development Plan supports Parker School and that the issue in the matter of the School’s proposed amendment to its Use Permit boils down to “education” versus “traffic”. Well that is a far cry from how I would portray the CDP within the context of the Parker School Use Permit amendment application. But who can really blame any misstatement about the Plan given that it has been a year since the Plan passed as a county law and yet no CDP Action Committee. Today, you see, is the SKCDP’s first birthday.

According to some in Puna, the repeated delays in setting up the Action Committees has been at the request of our elite and well-connected land-owner developers. Not an unreasonable assumption.

Then again perhaps there was hope that all CDP Action Committees would follow in the footsteps of the first Action Committee to be appointed – the Kona CDP Action Committee . That Action Committee is headed by Ken Melrose, a knowledge person – who chaired the Kona CDP steering committee. Yet Mr. Melrose is someone who is generally considered to represent the developer constituency first and foremost before the greater community (former and perhaps current member of the Leeward Planning Council). Hence the concern that this Kona committee will not provide a well rounded view of development issues.

Recently the Directors of the Waimea Community Association voted in support of the CDP, by committing to use the CDP for our decision-making framework. We (I am a member of this Board) plan to send our Mayor a letter concerning his delinquency in appointing this Board.

Last we heard, the list of members proposed by the Planning Department’s candidate selection team has been sitting on the Mayor’s desk gathering dust. A slap in the face to our South Kohala residents.

Too bad this Administration cannot see the benefits of these Action Committees and work with them for the welfare of our Districts and the County as a whole. I can only surmise that the Developer Establishment has managed to pin Mayor Billy “to the mat” along with the South Kohala CDP list. So dear Billy – we need to help you find a little more spine. Remember how there was such a rush to fill the seats on the Leeward Planning Commission? One appointee from Waimea even explained to the County Council that the Administration was in such a rush to get her on board that she did not have time to inform Pete Hoffmann, the Councilman from this District, that she was to be nominated by the Mayor. Can you imagine if there were the same sort of urgency expressed about this CDP citizen board?

At this point what else could be going on? There is always the possibility that the notion of a diverse group has gotten lost in translation, and we must settle for a more Development oriented crew. I don’t mean this to sound negative about any developer per se (and I have myself developed land), but the whole point of this Community Planning process is to obtain a balance of knowledge – from those versed in environmental matters to socio-cultural matters to economic matters – to agricultural matters-- and so on. A collaborative and wholistic approach.

Well, Happy Birthday SKCDP! [Actually now that I post this blog .... it is One Year and 13 minutes old!]

Here are the comments of Councilmember Pete Hoffmann:

THE FORGOTTEN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PLAN

It’s been a year now since the South Kohala community celebrated with considerable pride the completion of their Community Development Plan and its approval by the County Council, the fourth such plan approval by the Council in 2008. The Waikoloa, Waimea and Kawaihae communities worked hard for more than two years on this effort and produced an outstanding document that reflected the expectations and plans for a diversified section of the Big Island. For the first time in years, local organizations and groups were focused on a vibrant and cooperative spirit, and appeared ready to tackle a whole host of topics for the benefit of all the people in the South Kohala District. All awaited the approval of the Action Committee in order to begin actual work.

South Kohala residents anticipated fairly rapid approval for their Action Committee. Sufficient applications were presented and a cross-section of the community seemed to be represented. They waited as Puna residents received Council approval for their committee. They waited as Kona and North Kohala residents began work with their committees. They remained patient, understanding that since the South Kohala CDP was the fourth to be approved, probably they would be fourth in line. They are still waiting!!! Even by Hawaii County standards, this movement can only be termed ‘glacial’.

It is hard to fathom what the problem might be. Questions to the Planning Department indicate that the list of nominees for the Action Committee have been sent to the Mayor’s office long ago. To the best of anyone’s knowledge, no one in the community has been contacted regarding this delay, and as Council Representative, I have not received any word regarding this holdup either. If there is something the South Kohala community didn’t do properly, I would have expected someone would have informed us by now. We’ll certainly do our best to correct whatever deficiencies exist in order to facilitate this process. If the Mayor or other administration officials have questions, we’ll try and respond. Whatever the difficulty, one year is more than sufficient time to move forward on this critical planning effort.

Most residents in this district have a reasonable understanding by now of the how the CDP process operates. No one has overblown ideas of what can be accomplished. South Kohala worked diligently to have practical and rational

objectives as the basis of their plan. Their expectations are not idealistic. I don’t believe it is asking too much for an explanation to the South Kohala residents regarding this issue and, if problems do exist, we can address them cooperatively. The Mayor made implementation of the various CDPs a well-publicized topic during his campaign and continues to espouse support for the Ka’u CDP in its initial stages of development. I suggest that the Mayor demonstrate let someone know if outstanding questions regarding the Action Committee nominees exist. If not, let’s move out. The residents here have waited long enough.