LIHU‘E — Residents have the option of filling out an online or paper survey to let the county open-space commission know which lands the county should seek to purchase or otherwise acquire, states a county press release. The annual survey
LIHU‘E — Residents have the option of filling out an online or paper survey to let the county open-space commission know which lands the county should seek to purchase or otherwise acquire, states a county press release.
The annual survey is available online at www.kauai.gov/openspacesurvey, at all state public libraries and county neighborhood centers, and at the county Planning Department in the Lihu‘e Civic Center Mo‘ikeha Building.
The survey will also be published in The Garden Island July 7 and July 25.
Ideas expressed in the survey will be taken into consideration and may be incorporated in the open-space commission’s annual recommendations to the County Council on which sites should be acquired using the county Public Access, Open Space and Natural Resources Preservation Fund.
The fund receives 0.5 percent of all county real-property taxes collected each year, and some of the funds were used to help acquire a beach-front parcel to expand Hanalei Black Pot Beach Park.
The deadline for all surveys is Aug. 15.
Completed surveys can be faxed to the Planning Department at 241-6699, dropped off or mailed to the County of Kaua‘i Planning Department, Open Space Commission, 4444 Rice St., Suite 473A, Lihu‘e, HI 96766.
Public testimony is also welcomed at the commission’s meetings, which are normally held on the second and fourth Thursday of each month in the Lihu‘e Civic Center Mo‘ikeha Building first-floor conference room.
Commissioners will discuss their 2010 recommendations throughout the summer, states the release.
To qualify for purchase or acquisition using the open-space fund, sites suggested must meet at least one of the following purposes:
— Outdoor recreation/education, including access to beaches and mountains;
— Preservation of historically- or culturally-important lands and sites;
— Protection of significant habitats or ecosystems, including buffer zones;
— Preservation of forests, beaches, coastal areas and agricultural lands;
— Protection of watershed lands to preserve water quality and water supply;
— Conservation of land in order to reduce erosion, floods, landslides and runoff;
— Improvement of public access to, and enjoyment of, public land;
— Acquisition of public access ways to public land and open space.
The open-space commission was created in 2003 by the County Council following an overwhelming vote by Kaua‘i residents to establish the Public Access, Open Space and Natural Resources Preservation Fund in the 2002 elections.
Last year, the County Council approved the use of $1.85 million from the open-space fund for the acquisition of a parcel on Hanalei Bay for the expansion of Black Pot Beach Park.
This allotment, plus $800,000 from the Legacy Lands Acquisition Fund recently released by Gov. Linda Lingle to the Kaua‘i Public Land Trust and $350,000 from the special trust fund for parks and playgrounds will go towards this purchase.
For more information or to request materials in an alternate format or an auxiliary aid in order to participate in the commission meetings, please contact the Planning Department at 241-4050 at least five days before a meeting.
See www.kauai.gov for meeting agendas and schedules.
