where's the "development"?

[JerryCarr]

For the Village Center concept to work, there has to be a coordinated approach that involves appropriate zoning and investors willing to take the risk to build something or put a business in an existing building. Zoning changes in Puna can be a politically charged mess. To get zoning changes, one must deal with the Windward Planning Commission, the County Planning Department, and/or the County Council. All of those entities have processes for input from citizens, which is appropriate. Where it gets tricky is the level of importance given to various types of input. In some cases, neighbors have understandably objected to the negative impact of proposed projects from their point of view. (It's easy to yell "NIMBY," but harder to separate NIMBY from really damaging impacts.) In other cases, I have seen at least one fairly transparent effort to stifle business competition succeed via this zoning change citizen input process. Not all input from interested parties is treated equally.

This is the point where cogent political leadership and a bit of vision come into the picture. Having a County Council representative who understands this process and has the political vision to facilitate the right zoning changes is of paramount importance if the Village Center concept is ever going to get off the pages of the PCDP and into the subdivisions of Puna. The CDP Action Committee, well-intentioned as it is, can't do it. Only better political leadership will fix this, and I don't see it coming from Fred Blas.