Make a Statement IAL meeting Haleiwa Tuesday/tomorrow
Inbox
| x |
|  Jan 16 (2 days ago) | | ||
Aloha,
Amazingly, the newspaper is really paying attention. Today, again, Christine Donnelly (B-2) wrote about last week’s IAL meeting and the upcoming one on Tuesday at 6:30 at Hale’iwa Elementary Cafeteria. Please, please come. And SPEAK!
The city is trying to use these meetings to say that the people agree with the city not including Ho’opili and Koa Ridge in their listing of Important Agricultural Lands, lands that will be kept in agriculture in perpetuity. We need to again protest that soundly!
Be aware that the city claims the law that the Legislature wrote forbids them from including lands that counties have slated for urbanization. There are two answers: 1) With full knowledge of that, City Council Resolution 23 (2012) directs them to include Ho’opili and Koa Ridge. 2) An even stronger argument is that the state Constitution over-rides all other laws. Section XI, 3 orders: The State shall conserve and protect agricultural lands, promote diversified agriculture, increase agricultural self-sufficiency and assure the availability of agriculturally suitable lands. The state must assure that there are suitable lands for self-sufficiency. That’s 100% sustainability. But Ho’opili is the last full-sun farmland on the island. Most things that grow there will not grow in the wetter, overcast uplands. We will never have the full spectrum of crops necessary to feed our million people if we give up the Ho’opili farmland.
Much more background material is found on farmland and traffic, under the poster below, if you are looking for things to say.
Future generations need YOU to be there on Tuesday! Please attend.
More background info for your talk:
Why is this so important to you personally? Over the last decade, almost every year, the temperature world-wide has increased. People don’t realize that there is also far less rain in many places around the world, and there is less water seeping down into aquifers. Projections are that many places will run completely out of water. Millions will die of thirst. High temperatures are already having a devastating effect on crops around the world. Places are drying up just as the Central Valley of California (America’s breadbasket) is beginning to do. Many scientists are saying that we will have mass starvation in the world in a few decades. The time is coming when there won’t be any food for us to import. Any food at all. We will need to produce our own. We currently import 90% of our food. The governor is pushing his plan to double food production back another ten years, from 2020 till 2030. He’s failed so far. He will fail again. We are headed in the wrong direction. The Ho’opili farmland right now produces 32% of the crops grown on O’ahu for the local market. Koa Ridge produces 13%. Together they produce 45%, almost half of what the island produces for local markets. We can’t afford to sacrifice these lands; we will need them for our survival in the future.
We also all need to clearly understand that Ho’opili is the last agricultural land in full sun on the island. Most of the crops that grow there will not grow in the higher elevations which frequently have cloud cover and rain. Anyone who tells you the opposite is flat-out lying. When that farmland is gone, we will never again be able to produce those crops for our million people.
There is also the problem of traffic. Honolulu is consistently ranked among the three worst situations in the United States. We currently have 70,000 more new homes zoned and ready to build in Central and Ewa. Even with planned new freeway lanes and a very successful rail, we will still have 30,000 people in Leeward and Central without any accommodation, who will need to get to work in the city each day, cramming onto already full roads, bringing traffic to a standstill. Our west-side people now spend between three and five hours a day in traffic. This will double. How can we do this to our people?
The state Dept. of Land and Natural Resources issued a report last year saying we will need only 25,000 new homes on O’ahu in the next twenty years. We already have 58,000 zoned on the West side alone, without Ho’opili. Ho’opili is not being built for locals, let alone the homeless. We don’t need the jobs; employment is at an all time high. There is, then, no reason to build Ho’opili beyond satisfying the greed of D.R. Horton, an out-of-state builder.
We believe that we have the backing to re-purchase the Ho’opili property at its original price and create a circumstance where Horton could walk away with all expenses covered and a profit.
The Ho’opili project first came before the state Land Use Commission. That commission was created to preserve farmland and open space, but the governor had appointed pro-development commissioners to fill eight of its nine seats. They voted to support the project. Then it came to the city where the mayor had been elected with $3.5 million in support from PRP. It whizzed through his Department of Planning and Permitting and through the Planning Commission. Then it came to the City Council where all members had received between 43% and 91% of their campaign support from entities that would profit directly from a Yes vote. Finally, the case has come before the City Ethics Commission which has gone through a year of restructuring. This is a difficult situations. Those who have appointed you have expectations. But they shouldn’t. This is an independent Ethics Commission that, like the City Council, is obligated to follow RCH 11.101-104, and “shall not use their official positions to secure or grant special consideration, treatment, advantage, privilege or exemption to themselves or any person beyond that which is available to every other person.”(104)
The people of Hawai’i, like the people across the nation, have lost faith in their government. In addressing Part One of this Argument, and deciding for the people, this Commission could do much to restore that faith. In closing, let me quote 11-101: “Elected and appointed officers and employees shall demonstrate by their example the highest standards of ethical conduct, to the end that the public may justifiably have trust and confidence in the integrity of government.”
A little background on IAL: The state Constitution of 1978 required the preservation of Important Agricultural Lands. Each island was supposed to designate its Important Agricultural Lands decades ago, so that those Important Agricultural Lands would be kept in ag in perpetuity. All islands stalled and stalled. About five years ago on O’ahu, pressure eventually began to mount to get the job done, but just at the same time the Ho’opili and Koa Ridge projects came on the scene. This caused problems for city council which had been bought by the developer community. They needed to somehow keep them off of the list. The Council decided to push for getting the lands designated, while excluding Ho’opili and Koa Ridge from consideration. Tom Berg was on the Council at the time, however, and, with Ann Kobayashi’s help, he and I got the Council to insert wording into their Resolution that instructed the Department of Planning and Permitting (DPP) to include both Ho’opili and Koa Ridge in their study, even though they were within the Urban Growth Boundary. This was Resolution 12-023 found at http://www4.honolulu.gov/
Today we have lands on this island that can produce the crops for all of our basic needs. If we have any concern for our children and grandchildren, we need to stand up and protect these lands for them. Let us not surrender our future to the greed of developers. Too much is at stake.
We need to speak up. We need you to stand with protest signs as people enter. To stand with them inside as the meeting goes on. And to go up to the mike and give them your mana’o.
Please pass this info on.
No comments:
Post a Comment