Impossible, Planning Dept wants to Cut Down Banyan

[Carey]

Devany, Sorry, I guess I just picture you at Noels "White Picnic" (my bad!)

The part of the new Pohoiki park I think was well done is the beach side walk. Much like the new walk around Moku'ola (Coconut Island), the county did work to make the walk accessible without making it industrial, with nice curves, showering areas and such.

ETA:Was looking for something else & just found the link to the plan developed by "EnVision Downtown Hilo 2025". This may give some a greater understanding & appreciation for the amount of community hours & work that are put into developing these master plans, and possibly motivate some of the the people here to become involved in the early stages of these plans. This also may show that the county is actually working with the community on these projects:
http://www.hawaii-county.com/edh2025/cv/...0Final.pdf

This is just one of the community plans that has been worked by the community.
Here is the link for the final draft of the 2005 plan (which addresses improvement of Reeds Bay)
http://www.hawaii-county.com/la/gp/GP200...5-2007.pdf

and the county link to the past general plans & some of the development work on the 2005 plan:
http://www.hawaii-county.com/la/gp/toc.html

[missydog1]

quote:

---

I really wonder where all of these people are when the time to comment is best during the draft stages of any proposal

---

well Carey, understand or not, people are living life and not everyone enjoys meetings or meeting format.

I went to one of my community planning meetings. First it is in a school cafeteria under fluorescent lights and on benches, at dinner time. Then the people quarreled over procedural rules. Then there was a little spat where the people who were running it made it clear they were in the habit of running things a certain way and weren't very welcoming to new voices even though they gave lip service. Then ... oh I forget, my eyes had glazed over and I had joined the group out in the fresh air that was disgusted with the meeting.

And there weren't even any County people there. Then the planning meeting for my area was at night and I would have had to drive to Honoka'a. The one meeting in my area was on a night I'd already committed to being elsewhere.

And I don't even have a family to raise and a job ...

quote:

---

appreciation for the amount of community hours & work that are put into developing these master plans

---

if only so many of the hours weren't back and forth between people who love to pick at things.

As long as planning procedures are done on the model where only certain kinds of personalities can enjoy being part of the process, there will be those "annoying" people who hope that common sense will prevail and the right thing will be done -- and when decisions finally come out of the process that seem crazy, they are going to FINALLY have something to sink their teeth into and say "hell no, what an idiotic idea."

[mella l]

Kathy I'm with you. When you find these meetings back in the last sentence on the last page of an advertiser that is bad enough. But to sit for hours on a bench I'd be part of the dazed over crowd. The lack of county personnel and the timing of meetings is always a wonder. Just a pony show to meet a quota of public meetings, I don't know one wonders?

Dory

The real reason the banyan was on the chopping block was because it is non-native, since a native tree of this size and importance would never be cut down. Current County policy devalues non-native species. Other non-native trees in the park will be cut down, according the County News, “replacing some existing trees with shoreline-appropriate native tree species”, evidence of the native species supremacism that led to the proposed destruction of the banyan.

Having been to a bunch of local meetings here in NO CA in the past year I have come away with the same feeling. The invasive species group at times approach the fundamentalism of Peta on their particular area of interest and subject matter. It seems the extremists of all sides and on all subjects are in the news and spot light these day.

What was almost put over on the public here was a mental/criminal drug rehab (level III) facility. Not a bad idea and an unfortunate necessity for society here and nationally andcurrently. Oh we of the two casinos and a third on the way could even throw in a few gambling addictions to round out the numbers. Well it wasn't the facility, but the backroom finagling and set up and then the location (county person's family owns the land???), putting it right in the middle of a residential area. Yep meetings are listed on the second to last page of the paper, or the last page of the advertiser here, hoping no one will blink an eye about it all.

Somewhere in the past 10 years perhaps, we have lost the ability to come to a consensus, wonder about that a lot. From the playground ground zero to the powers that be. Shame shame on us all.

mella l

Paris London New York PUNA