04-22-2012, 05:43 PM
Hawaii’s Volcano Circus were given a cease and desist order on April 5, 2012 by the County of Hawaii Planning Department.
A public hearing is set before the Planning Commission at 10 a.m. on Thursday, May 3, at the Aupuni Center. Ellis urges supporters to attend wearing green.
Building our Futures Sustainably
By Roger Harris
What would you say to a house built using locally harvested strawberry guava, recycled windows, Hawaii-grown and treated bamboo, and plaster made of red mud from Molokai? If grassroots community groups on the Big Island such as the Hawaii Sustainable Community Alliance (HSCA) get their wish, alternative building codes that allow such building materials may be the next green wave to caress our shores.
Graham Ellis, Chairperson of HSCA, said that there are currently no planning vehicles at the County of Hawaii level that allow owners/builders to use substitute materials, procedures and alternatives (to the Uniform Building Code). At present, there are simply very few options to using unconventional materials in conventional ways.
One choice is that individuals and organizations can make application for a Special Use Permit (SUP) to the nine-member Planning Commission, whose rulings are then administered by the Planning Department.
Yet, being granted a SUP is not a carte blanche, get-out-jail-free card as some are finding out.
Despite public endorsement by Governor Abercrombie, Senator Akaka and Lieutenant Governor Schatz, Seaview Performing Arts Center for Education (SPACE) and Hawaii’s Volcano Circus were given a cease and desist order on April 5, 2012 by the County of Hawaii Planning Department.
This edict covered all activities, including the well-attended SPACE Farmer’s Market, the HICCUP circus and the Hawaii Academy of Arts and Sciences (HAAS) satellite school held on their property in Kalapana Seaview Estates on the Puna Coast.
However, the community is not folding up their tents and leaving town. A public hearing is set before the Planning Commission at 10 a.m. on Thursday, May 3, at the Aupuni Center. Ellis urges supporters to attend wearing green.
On a broader stage, Ellis and HSCA believe their ideals amply support the vision of the Hawaii 2050 Sustainability Plan in several ways. In short, if sustainable building habitats are allowed by law, housing becomes more affordable in the rural areas that comprise a majority of the Big Island, costs of construction and maintenance are reduced, local jobs are created and the waste-line to our already bulging landfills is cinched. Also, traffic on our overburdened roads is decreased, food is truly grown locally (no more “local” equals within 250 miles), and these eco-villages have a lower overall carbon footprint.
Perhaps in such a village, neighbors would learn each other’s names, watch out for other’s homes and pets, check in on the elderly or young, settle disputes internally and peacefully and barter or give without expecting anything in return. Living off the grid would become the norm, not an extreme due to necessity or remoteness. Smart Meters would be smartest when not even used. Individual political, philosophical and spiritual differences would meld and strengthen, not wrestle and fume. Ecological beliefs would link the community and sustain the long-term health of the members as well as that of the island.
One example of a sustainable community is La’akea, formed in 2006 in Puna, where members learn permaculture and grow their relationships by sharing non-violent communication techniques and the healing and creative arts.
Utopian? Pie-in-the-sky? Playwright Henry Miller wrote that, “The age we live in is the age which suits us.” Why not let sustainability suit us beginning right now?
For more info:
http://hawaiisustainablecommunity.org/20...ls-designs
www.hawaiicounty.gov/lb-countycode/
www.buildinggreentv.com/keywords/straw-bales/1030
http://inhabitat.com/the-box-office-recy...rovidence/
http://bigislandweekly.com/news/big-isla...en-30.html
A public hearing is set before the Planning Commission at 10 a.m. on Thursday, May 3, at the Aupuni Center. Ellis urges supporters to attend wearing green.
Building our Futures Sustainably
By Roger Harris
What would you say to a house built using locally harvested strawberry guava, recycled windows, Hawaii-grown and treated bamboo, and plaster made of red mud from Molokai? If grassroots community groups on the Big Island such as the Hawaii Sustainable Community Alliance (HSCA) get their wish, alternative building codes that allow such building materials may be the next green wave to caress our shores.
Graham Ellis, Chairperson of HSCA, said that there are currently no planning vehicles at the County of Hawaii level that allow owners/builders to use substitute materials, procedures and alternatives (to the Uniform Building Code). At present, there are simply very few options to using unconventional materials in conventional ways.
One choice is that individuals and organizations can make application for a Special Use Permit (SUP) to the nine-member Planning Commission, whose rulings are then administered by the Planning Department.
Yet, being granted a SUP is not a carte blanche, get-out-jail-free card as some are finding out.
Despite public endorsement by Governor Abercrombie, Senator Akaka and Lieutenant Governor Schatz, Seaview Performing Arts Center for Education (SPACE) and Hawaii’s Volcano Circus were given a cease and desist order on April 5, 2012 by the County of Hawaii Planning Department.
This edict covered all activities, including the well-attended SPACE Farmer’s Market, the HICCUP circus and the Hawaii Academy of Arts and Sciences (HAAS) satellite school held on their property in Kalapana Seaview Estates on the Puna Coast.
However, the community is not folding up their tents and leaving town. A public hearing is set before the Planning Commission at 10 a.m. on Thursday, May 3, at the Aupuni Center. Ellis urges supporters to attend wearing green.
On a broader stage, Ellis and HSCA believe their ideals amply support the vision of the Hawaii 2050 Sustainability Plan in several ways. In short, if sustainable building habitats are allowed by law, housing becomes more affordable in the rural areas that comprise a majority of the Big Island, costs of construction and maintenance are reduced, local jobs are created and the waste-line to our already bulging landfills is cinched. Also, traffic on our overburdened roads is decreased, food is truly grown locally (no more “local” equals within 250 miles), and these eco-villages have a lower overall carbon footprint.
Perhaps in such a village, neighbors would learn each other’s names, watch out for other’s homes and pets, check in on the elderly or young, settle disputes internally and peacefully and barter or give without expecting anything in return. Living off the grid would become the norm, not an extreme due to necessity or remoteness. Smart Meters would be smartest when not even used. Individual political, philosophical and spiritual differences would meld and strengthen, not wrestle and fume. Ecological beliefs would link the community and sustain the long-term health of the members as well as that of the island.
One example of a sustainable community is La’akea, formed in 2006 in Puna, where members learn permaculture and grow their relationships by sharing non-violent communication techniques and the healing and creative arts.
Utopian? Pie-in-the-sky? Playwright Henry Miller wrote that, “The age we live in is the age which suits us.” Why not let sustainability suit us beginning right now?
For more info:
http://hawaiisustainablecommunity.org/20...ls-designs
www.hawaiicounty.gov/lb-countycode/
www.buildinggreentv.com/keywords/straw-bales/1030
http://inhabitat.com/the-box-office-recy...rovidence/
http://bigislandweekly.com/news/big-isla...en-30.html