Posts: 31
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Joined: Jun 2008
Aloha Kakou,
I just received notification that the Puna CDP will be coming before the County Council's Planning Committee with Angel Pilago as Chairman on July 1 at the County Council Chambers in the Ben Franklin Bldg in Hilo.
Chris Yuen has made amendments to the Puna CDP that I don't agree with but all of you should read the proposed amendments to the Puna CDP and decide for yourself.
At issue is his amendment to lessen the downzoning of Puna, eliminate sewer treatment plants for Puna and continue to allow septic and cesspool systems which would threaten the ground water resources in the future, remove the need for grubbing and grading approval by Hawaiians in favor of the Cultural Resources Commission made up of museum curators, architects and those concerned with preserving historic buildings.
This commission is a political appointment by the mayor and made up of people primarily concerned about preserving old buildings with alphabets after their names.
Attached you will find the link to the recommended amendments and the Puna CDP. Please read and give your mana'o on this as we will need to go before the County Council to give testimony on this issue on July 1.
http://records.co.hawaii.hi.us/weblink/D...x?id=45111
Malama aina e malama i ke kai,
Kale Gumapac
Candidate for Puna Makai Council District 5
www.Kale4Puna.com
Posts: 4,533
Threads: 241
Joined: Jan 2006
quote:
Originally posted by Kale4Puna...
Chris Yuen has made amendments to the Puna CDP that I don't agree with but all of you should read the proposed amendments to the Puna CDP and decide for yourself.
At issue is his amendment to lessen the downzoning of Puna, eliminate sewer treatment plants for Puna and continue to allow septic and cesspool systems which would threaten the ground water resources in the future, remove the need for grubbing and grading approval by Hawaiians in favor of the Cultural Resources Commission made up of museum curators, architects and those concerned with preserving historic buildings...
Do I understand this correctly? Or am i reading this backwards? Yuen doesnt want sewer treatment plants? Is against grubbing and grading approval?
More his style seems like lessening the downzoning but the other two dont... Someone help me out here !
Catherine Dumond
Blue Water Project Management
808 965-9261
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Posts: 31
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Aloha Catherine,
In his Chris Yuen said,
"This proposal in the CDP would significantly increase the cost of building a home in these areas because the owner could not use a cesspool or a typical septic system which has aholding tank and a leach field The owner would need some type ofcsonetainlefdmini treatment plant It is very unlikely that a centralized wastewater treatment system will be developed in this area and this type ofsystem is also very costly. The necessity of such requirements to protect drinking water is questionable.
Current DOH rules do not allow new cesspools and septic systems within a 1000' radius of wells used for public drinking water DWS has several wells however dating from before these DOH rules which are surrounded by homes on cesspools such as awell near Gilbert Carvalho Park in Hilo The water in these wells is regularly tested and has not shown any microbial contamination.
It is possible to create a similar aquifer protection area that would protect the source ofwater for the current DWS wells between the Ainaloa subdivision and Pahoa and more wells that might be drilled in this general area without causing problems for homebuilders on DHHL land"
The Planning Director therefore recommends amending 2.3.3.d to read as follows:
By agency agreements and control of zoning and building permits ensure that a corridor of the Puna watershed at least two miles wide
including the Wao Kele O Puna forest area and State lands mauka of Highway 130 between the Ainaloa subdivision and Pahoa is protected from uses that might contaminate groundwater All reference to sewer treatment plants were removed.
Grubbing and Grading issue....
Section213dshould be deleted as an action item since review of grading and grubbing permit applications by the State Historic Preservation Division is already required and additional review by the recently approved by County of Hawaii Cultural Resource Commission will result in excessive delays in granting grading and grubbing permit approvals. This is likely to be viewed as over-regulation by a significant number of people
resulting in a decline in voluntary compliance So, its business as usual.
This is a long answer to your question.
Malama aina e malama i ke kai,
Kale Gumapac
Candidate for Puna Makai Council District 5
www.Kale4Puna.com
Posts: 1,779
Threads: 73
Joined: Aug 2006
Mahalo Kale,
Look forward to seeing you there.
Yeah, Planning Director is sure to start messing with PCDP (long-anticipated).
Sanitation: it is in fact not necessary to have cess pools, septic tanks, or centralized sewer treatment facilities.
What our family did is a dry toilet and a greywater absorption bed -- all DOH approved (our greywater was, though, the first DOH approved and building-permitted residential greywater system in the entire state -- approved in 2005 after initial application in 2002. We fought and fought and fought for 3 years, and got it. Now, we have a continuous flow of people coming to see ours so as to imitate it and then simply go in with the same plan and it is easily approved.
Grading and Grubbing: Your put down regarding the County of Hawaii Cultural Resource Commission ("a political appointment by the mayor and made up of people primarily concerned about preserving old buildings with alphabets after their names") was not very informative nor convincing; and the idea of "approval by Hawaiians" is quite unexplained, leaving too much for the imagination and too little for serious consideration.
In a representative democracy based upon equality, assigning different parts of the community different rights and responsibilities is a delicate matter.
Native gathering rights is about gathering for cultural practitioners -- a continuation of cultural practices that directly benefits kanaka maoli and indirectly benefits us all. This is not difficult to understand and is not an affront to principles of equality.
It is much harder for me to draw that same parallel with the same conclusions for 'Hawaiians' broad ranging regulation of all grubbing and grading. Now, any kind of disturbance at sites of special cultural significance is another matter and (to my understanding) not what is being discussed here -- but whether or not the County of Hawaii Cultural Resource Commission is up to that task remains, for me, an open question. For example, if that Commission is not functioning well, should the changes be made there?
James Weatherford, Ph.D.
15-1888 Hialoa
Hawaiian Paradise Park
