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+--- Thread: TODAY!!! Urgent-Statewide Rally to Repeal the PLDC (/showthread.php?tid=10810)
TODAY!!! Urgent-Statewide Rally to Repeal the PLDC - liskir - 10-08-2012
"TODAY!!! Urgent - Statewide Rally to Repeal the PLDC - Oct. 8th, (main 2-4pm or longer) Hawai'i Needs You to Show Up!#8207;
10/8 - Hawai'i -Wide Day of Action: REPEAL ACT 55/Public Land Development Corporation
**Please WEAR RED to demonstrate solidarity
Show your support at a Repeal the PLDC rally near you, or start your own! - Mon. Oct. 8th (main: 2-4pm)
*Hawaii Island East - at DLNR Building for Hilo
*Hawaii Island West - Highway by Mormon Temple (& proposed: Honokohua Harbor
*Hawaii Island North - Kapa'au - *3-4:30 - on the lawn in front of the Sr. Center (behind the Kamehameha Statue)
*Waimea/Kamuela - 3-5pm in front of Foodland Parker Ranch Shopping Center
*Kauai - In the park in front of the County Council Building in Lihue
*Maui - County Building, 200 S. High St., Wailuku
*Oahu - Capitol Building, Downtown Honolulu
Four weeks before the general election we deserve to know where our candidates stand. We need to know that our representatives will be working to REPEAL ACT 55 when they get into office, and we deserve to know that before we vote. Please contact your legislators and candidates! (and send Letters to Editors!)
***What's Wrong With the PLDC?
The State Public Land Development Corporation, under the auspices of the Dept. of Land and Natural Resources:
The state Legislature has raided $620,000 from the Legacy Land Conservation Program to help fund the PLDC.
The PLDC can invest tax dollars in private, select companies that could go belly up and have taxpayers stuck with the bill plus any associated clean up costs.
Can call for bond funding of projects.
Exempts select, private companies from zoning, shoreline management, submerged land laws, cultural, land use, public access, environmental, county charter, community development plans, labor and building code laws.
Usurps seized/ceded lands "held in trust" for Hawaiians. A blank check for nearly 2 million acres.
Neighbor Islanders shut out of the process – Six day hearing notice, hearings in Honolulu.
Neighbors of projects are forced to pay for infrastructure costs associated with a project or the PLDC can take out a lien on your property.
Can sell public buildings. (Koch Brothers are drooling over this and the PLDC in general. (ask me..)
Fast tracks possible geothermal projects in Puna, Kona, Ka'u, and Maui, or other costly and toxic energy development.
5 member board decides on rules, projects, and their own salaries, and it takes 2/3 of the legislature to over-ride them.
Can build Disneyland or a geothermal facility next to your house and there's nothing you can do about it. (and make you pay for improvements to the property)
A toothless E.I.S. that has no to authority mitigate bad projects, and only has to "consult" with your islands' elected officials.
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Hawaii-Wide Day of Action Planned to Show Opposition to the State's Public Land Development Corporation
On Monday, October 8th citizens throughout the islands will be uniting in a day of action and solidarity to show opposition to the State of Hawaii's Public Land Development Corporation (the PLDC). The PLDC was created by the State legislature last year when Act 55 was signed into law creating a new funding arm of the Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR). Actions taken on this day will allow our voices to be heard and will demonstrate to our State elected officials and to the PLDC Board of Directors that there is broad, deep, and diverse opposition to the PLDC. The public's opposition is on so many levels -- from the PLDC's exempting itself from regulatory, planning, preservation, civil service, and competitive bidding requirements; to the shift in the DLNR's balance from a preservation and conservation role to one of development for money; to the incompatibility of contemplated development with low or inverse market demand; to the burdens this development places on local infrastructure; to the shutting out of our local communities by holding public meetings about proposed development only on O'ahu; to excluding our City / County governments from any requirements to involve them in the evaluation, planning, and regulatory processes; and to how the PLDC and its exemptions shows disregard and contempt toward our host culture (Kanaka Maoli and Kanaka Hawai'i) for the stewardship and public trust responsibility of Crown / "Ceded" Lands. We are being asked to abrogate our responsibilities to future generations of Hawaiians who must rely on us to properly steward these precious and fragile resources for them in the name of increased revenue.
Recently, public meetings were held in every county for constituent input into the draft Administrative Rules for the PLDC. Hundreds of people turned out in each location to testify and share their mana'o, the vast majority of which was in disapproval of both the rules and of PLDC as an agency. It appears that the numbers of people are being under-reported to the PLDC Board of Directors, as well as testimony content being filtered. The creation of the PLDC, its proposed rules, and public opposition are now being given a public relations spin in the wake of this widespread disapproval. Governor Abercrombie called the public rejection of the PLDC, a “conspiratorial hysteria” (Honolulu Star Advertiser, September 13, 2012, A1), one day after that, Mililani Trask wrote that the uproar is the result of fears that are needlessly “hysterical.” (HSA, September 12, 2012). On September 14, Senator Malama Solomon (one of the sponsors of legislation creating the PLDC) informed the public that the Governor and the PLDC would be developing a strategic plan which clarifies the mission of the PLDC (Hawaii 24/7 http://www.hawaii247.com/2012/09/14/solomon-concerns-on-pldc-must-be-addressed/ ). The problem with all of these efforts is that public objection is primarily to the law known as Act 55 which created the PLDC. Remediation actions such as tweaking the administrative rules, creating a nice mission statement, or publishing an engaging strategic plan are seen as cosmetic bandages applied to fatally flawed legislation. These attempts at fixing what is wrong can easily be changed at any point in the future through non-legislative administrative processes, and still leave intact the underlying bad law.
To show our disapproval of Act 55 and the PLDC, events will be happening on this day throughout the islands. In East Hawaii a sign waving event is planned in Hilo at the DLNR offices at 19 Kawili Street from 2-4 pm. Solidarity actions in West Hawaii are also planned in Kailua-Kona along Queen Ka'ahumanu Highway from 2-4 pm, and in Kapa'au in North Hawaii from 3-4:30 on the lawn of the senior center behind the King Kamehameha Statue. Communities on Kauai, Maui and Oahu are also planning actions, and a facebook event page with a complete list of all actions and events can be found here https://www.facebook.com/events/530991313581731/. A story in Honolulu Weekly about the statewide day of action can be found here http://honoluluweekly.com/diary/2012/10/pldc-day/
We would also like to take this opportunity to show support and gratitude for our legislators who are acting with the best interests of the people and our future generations in mind. We are very proud of and thank our State Representative Faye Hanohano for initially opposing the creation of the PLDC, and for sponsoring legislation during the 2012 session to repeal Act 55. We also thank all members of our Hawai'i County Council, who have voted unanimously to approve a resolution asking the Governor and legislature to repeal Act 55 and abolish the PLDC, and the Kauai County Council for following suit, and for City/County of Honolulu and Maui County for initiating the resolution process.
Internet resources:
Our community petition on www.change.org to ask Governor Abercrombie and the legislature to repeal Act 55 and abolish the PLDC:http://preview.tinyurl.com/927n8vl Please sign and share with your email list.
Our public group on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/AbolishPLDCinHawaii/
Some video of the public testimony about draft administrative rules here: http://preview.tinyurl.com/9hnunvw There is much more video testimony on Youtube and on public access television stations / websites around the islands.
An example of why the public is so angry with Governor Abercrombie's attitude about "public", "crown" or "ceded" lands given to the PLDC. http://youtu.be/1gs-pKQHP7I
Please join us on Monday, October 8th and stand in unity with our brothers, sisters, aunties and uncles across the islands who rise up in opposition to this irresponsible law.
GENERAL DEFINITION OF ACT 55 / PLDC:
Act 55 established the PLDC or Public Lands Development Corporation. This entity has a 5 member board that seeks to develop the 1.8 million acres of crown lands that are supposed to be be held in trust by the State. In essence, this is a corporate driven land grab of Hawaii. The Act by-passes ALL COUNTY (aka community) OVERSIGHT.
If you haven't already, join our discussion group at: Abolish PLDC Hawai'i FB Page https://www.facebook.com/groups/422684244434073/?ref=ts
And please SIGN and SHARE the petition to repeal Act 55 / Abolish PLDC - This is IMPORTANT!
http://www.change.org/petitions/hawaii-governor-neil-abercrombie-hawaii-state-senate-representatives-repeal-act-55-hawaii-public-land-development-corporation-pldc#
Mahalo!"
"An idea whose time has come cannot be stopped" Dr. Ron Paul 2012