The Mayor’s moratorium This past week, Kaua‘i Mayor Bryan Baptiste released his plan for a moratorium on the subdivision of agricultural land. The goal is to halt the conversion of large tracts of farmland into suburban California-style “McMansions.” Even at
The Mayor’s moratorium
This past week, Kaua‘i Mayor Bryan Baptiste released his plan for a moratorium on the subdivision of agricultural land. The goal is to halt the conversion of large tracts of farmland into suburban California-style “McMansions.”
Even at this late stage, the mayor should be congratulated for seeing the crisis we face with the loss of prime agricultural land. Baptiste has been on the right side of some important issues during his tenure.
Public Access
In 2004, he fought for public access to Papa‘a Bay Beach against Peter Guber’s Mandalay Corp. The mayor lost, but has been consistent in supporting public beach access and has said, “The County is committed to taking the steps necessary to maintain public access to Papa‘a Beach for the people of Kaua‘i.”
Gated Communities
In 2005, the mayor took a stand against gated communities on Kaua‘i. He said, “I envision our island with integrated communities where people of various socioeconomic levels and cultures can live together without gates or barriers that hinder access. In this island paradise, communities should be welcoming and accessible to everyone.”
Coconut Coast Resorts
In 2006, Baptiste offered his view on the two Waipouli developments that would have destroyed what is left of Kaua‘i’s Coconut Coast, saying. “As presented, I don’t think the two proposed Waipouli developments are good for Kaua‘i”.
We support his current plan for a moratorium on agricultural subdivisions … But with three caveats:
1) Thirteen current applications for Agland subdivisions should not be exempted from the moratorium. These projects will have a big impact. The unfortunate fact is, much of the U.S. real estate investment market is crumbling. It is possible that the worst damage now coming to Kaua‘i. If projects aren’t permitted, they should not go forward.
2) We do need “Affordable” housing, but not on Agland. “Affordable” is often a code word for “Suburban Sprawl.” “Affordable Sprawl” is denser and will do even more damage to Agland than the upscale “McMansions”. Affordable housing for resident farmers could be excluded from the Agland moratorium under strictly controlled conditions, and should be built in towns on land zoned for residential use.
3) By definition, a moratorium is a deliberate temporary delay of a planned activity. It is not a ban. It is not permanent. The mayor needs to complete the next step and create a comprehensive plan that will preserve prime Agland for our food independence and preservation.
Additional moratoriums
There are too many of us burning things up. It is no accident that we face extinction as we reach peak oil consumption and record population levels.
We need a general moratorium – a time-out to cool off. But that needs to be coordinated with a change in direction. We must conceive and create a world economy that does not require growth in population or increasing consumption to be viable. Anything short of that will avoid a catastrophic collapse of our civilization.
Kaua‘i is a small planet unto itself surrounded by a blue ocean and sky. Like the world at large, we are at a crossroads. Baptiste is our mayor at a time we must begin living our lives as if there will be a tomorrow. Some suggestions for the mayor on things we should do on our way to the future:
Do not rely on
more suburban sprawl
America has been building suburban boxes and filling them up with “made in China” merchandise. The “big” problem with the U.S. economy is the meltdown of the suburban housing market. The housing lenders, builders and buyers are in a perfect storm of bad credit and bad financing. Yes, the problem will manifest itself later here than the Mainland, but we should resist “building out” Kaua‘i as the engine of our economy. Let’s have a moratorium on all residential suburban subdivisions tracts.
Do not rely on tourism
Given the direction of energy prices and ongoing failure of the mainland credit market, we can no longer rely on tourism as the mainstay to our economy. Too many Americans are worried about their monthly mortgage payment. The looming threat is empty vacation condos and resort suites. We don’t need to be building more. We need a moratorium on the visitor-timeshare-condos and those concrete warehouse “resorts” with big pools, like the Waipouli Beach Resort.
Do not rely on ethanol
from sugarcane
Creating an ethanol business may buy some time for Gay & Robinson (the last sugarcane operation on the island). For a short time it may preserve a way of life on the westside that combines some Hawaiian culture with the remains of the bankrupt sugar industry, but basically the ethanol plan is a boondoggle and cannot be characterized as a “green” industry or even a viable business.
Coal and sugarcane will have to be imported to Kaua‘i to sustain this operation. The ethanol Energy-Return-on-Energy-Invested is not good, and the resulting fuel will be at the expense of our topsoil and its runoff into the ocean. Reluctantly, I think we need a moratorium on the ethanol plant development. At all costs, we must avoid wasting our time and wasting the resources we will need to solve our problems. We must disinvest in operations that require fossil fuels and products manufactured faraway.
Rely on our town centers
In a place like Kaua‘i, the quality of our lives is better when we not in our cars. To drive less we need to live near our town centers. New real estate investments should be made on existing lots, in our existing towns. Let’s make Kaua‘i towns worth living in.
There is a need to distribute office work, now done in Lihu‘e, to our outlying towns. Let people work near or where they live. Retail shopping should be similarly distributed to reduce those trips that burn a gallon of gasoline to get a gallon of milk.
Rely on each other
We can do business with each other. Trade and service between Kaua‘i residents is the best business. It builds wealth from what we have here on the island – and that wealth stays here. Overall, a local restaurant, using local produce is a better business for Kaua‘i than a Mainland franchise shipping processed food.
Bartering systems can bolster a local economy. Here on Kaua‘i, there have been some efforts over the years. Recently a new Web site /kauaiabundance.com) began offering an abundance bulletin-board to enable giving away and trading homegrown produce.
Local currencies are even more powerful. One of the best known is the currency of Ithaca, New York – the Ithaca HOUR (worth about $10 and redeemable for an hour’s work). The world’s largest local currency loan was been made by the Ithaca system.
Visit www.ithacahours.com for more.
We need more efforts like these that support the economic independence of Kaua‘i.
Rely on new
agricultural opportunities
Kaua‘i Coffee is already the largest coffee estate in America and popular in Japan. We need to reinvent our economy based on additional agricultural opportunities. Some are beginning to grow cacao, bamboo, noni, awe, macadamia nuts and other cash crops that have a worldwide appeal and can be branded as from Kaua‘i.
In order so save our westside agricultural economy, Gay & Robinson might better grow hemp than sugarcane. Hemp is among one of the most productive and useful plants known. With hemp we can produce paper, clothes, textiles, building materials, food, medicine, paint, detergent, varnish, oil, ink, and fuel. Note: hemp oil is a more efficient bio-fuel than ethanol.
Hemp can be grown in most locations and climates with only moderate water and fertilizer requirements. Where hemp is grown, it has become a valuable and environmentally friendly crop with a growth cycle of only 120 days. Farmers have reported excellent hemp growth on land that had been cultivated steadily for a hundred years.
• Juan Wilson is an architect/planner living on Kaua‘i in the Hanapepe Valley. Visit www.IslandBreath.org for more about this and related subjects.
