KAPA’A — Here’s a question for the 14 candidates for Kaua’i County Council: Do you really want this job? An idea of the kinds of pulling in all directions a public servant is subject to when difficult decisions are at
KAPA’A — Here’s a question for the 14 candidates for Kaua’i County
Council:
Do you really want this job?
An idea of the kinds of pulling
in all directions a public servant is subject to when difficult decisions are
at hand came last night at a council Planning Committee public hearing on the
county’s General Plan.
The plan, now in a draft stage, is the county’s
mid-range planning document, designed to steer the island’s growth for the next
20 years.
At Kapa’a Neighborhood Center, the council committee heard
diverse, sometimes conflicting opinions from the 22 speakers among 30 citizens
in attendance:
l Pass the plan and allow continued citizen participation to
mold it through implementation.
l Send the flawed paperwork back to the
county Planning Commission and Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) for as long as
it takes, until they make it a true voice of the people.
l Make changes to
the plan to prohibit commercial uses in agriculture and open areas, to allow
for an expanded public transportation system, and to lower daily visitor
projections because island residents want slower growth than has been
occurring.
l Keep the visitor projection at the high state estimate (to
around 30,500 visitors a day by the year 2020, versus the 17,000-19,000 of
today) to allow for development of roads, airports, sewers, parks and water
systems to handle growth and current needs.
l Don’t try to fool the public
into thinking the council has any plans other than to approve the document
shortly after the election.
l Development will destroy the island and
largely does little to benefit residents.
l Development per se is not a bad
thing. It’s where the development takes place that can be bad.
l More
coordination is necessary between what the county wants and what the state
needs to provide.
l The plan needs consensus if residents are to embrace
it.
l If we wait for consensus, nothing will get done.
l The final
draft is a developers’ plan.
l The final draft is a people’s plan.
You
get the picture.
There is one more public hearing in an outlying community,
at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 1 at the Waimea Neighborhood Center, before the plan returns
to the council level for more discussion Nov. 8.
At 6 p.m. November 1,
county Planning Department officials will be on hand to answer citizens’
questions about the plan.
Last night, several CAC members testified,
including LaFrance Kapaka Arboleda, the only Kauaian who was on the CAC for
both the 1984 and 1999 General Plan update processes. “So I take full
responsibility,” she said.
Arboleda said people are being thrown off by the
Planning Commission’s decision to go with state Department of Business,
Economic Development & Tourism visitor projections indicating the island’s
average daily visitor count by 2020 will be 30,000, and calling for a range of
28,000 to 32,000 for planning purposes.
She the higher figure (the CAC
recommend a projected average daily visitor count between 24,000 and 28,000 by
2020) means there will be an increase in the need for infrastructure such as
roads.
Councilman Ron Kouchi responded that an amendment is being prepared
by the council to reduce that average daily visitor count back to the
CAC-recommended level.
Arboleda said nine of the 30 CAC members are Native
Hawaiians, a good mix, and that this time around, figures inserted into the
General Plan are critical to the island and its future.
“So we are
literally counting the toilets” and planning for infrastructure that is already
way overdue, she said.
Amy Awtrey, another CAC member, said the plan can be
a global model for good planning. It lays a solid foundation for wise land-use
management for the future, she said.
The environment needs to be protected,
but jobs need to be created at the same time, she added, noting, “Development
per se is not bad.”
Sometimes, the places developed are what’s bad.
Beaches need to be kept free from development, and there are water resources in
Kapahi where she lives that need protection and aren’t being protected, Awtrey
continued.
Creative planning solutions are necessary, she
said.
Staff writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at 245-3681 (ext.
224) and pcurtis@pulitzer.net
