Thursday, November 07, 2013

Defend O'ahu: Land Use Commission

This is a letter I sent to the Land Use Commission. They are meeting tomorrow to discuss Turtle Bay's bid to turn the North Shore into another Waikiki.

The italicized part is a form letter form the Defend O'ahu Coalition. You can visit the site and send the same form letter and add some of your own concerns.

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Aloha Members of the Land Use Commission,

I wish I could be there in person to make this presentation but I am unable to get off work. I have lived in Hau'ula nearly all my life. I attended Hau'ula Elementary from pre-school through the 6th grade and I graduated from Kahuku High & Intermediate. I have no plans on moving out of this beautiful area of O'ahu.

I have watched this fight between outside investors and the local community for far too long. This NEW investor/land developer to our community has no interest in the people that live here. This is probably the ugliest thing about capitalism and free enterprise. I would ask that you, the Land Use Commission, stand up for the citizens who do not have the money and time to lobby the government to do its bidding. It makes me sad that people want to turn such a beautiful portion of our island to an urban jungle similar to Waikiki. I love Waikiki because I have such a beautiful country to come home to - Hau'ula.

Mayor Caldwell supports all the businesses, including Hawaii Reserves Inc and BYU-Hawaii, in their efforts to urbanize this beautiful part of the island. I ask you to put a stop to this. We have the pleasure of having a year round growing season. We should be preserving the Ag land for the purpose of raising agriculture. Why are we shipping in food when we can feed the people right here, using the lands that are marked for agriculture. There are so many towers coming up in the Kakaako area and new homes in Kapolei, why are we going to do the same to the North Shore?

I also write to request that the Land Use Commission issue an order to show cause to the developer at Turtle Bay Resort and return the 236 acres of resort property classified to Urban District in 1986 to its original classification due to decades of inaction by the developer. The developer has failed to comply with representations, conditions and commitments made to the LUC, and therefore the property should revert back to the Agricultural District until and unless the developer comes forward with a new boundary reclassification petition for its newly proposed use.

As you know, Turtle Bay Resort developers originally presented their timeline in 1986 and promised the state and our community that they would be finished with the project by 1996.  This never happened.  Numerous developers have since failed to comply with representations and instead perpetuated a tradition of land speculation on the rural property.

Since the filing of Defend Oahu Coalition's original motion in 2008, the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled that the developer at Turtle Bay Resort be required to prepare a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) due to a change in conditions since the original development proposal.  The Court's ruling supports reversion of this parcel.

According to their new SEIS submitted in August 2013, the most recent developer has indicated that it now intends to proceed with a project that is completely different from that which was proposed to and approved by the LUC in 1986.

Please issue an order to show cause and move this process on to the next step.  Residents of the North Shore and Ko'olauloa deserve a chance to give testimony on a project that could severely impact their quality of life.

Thank you for your time and consideration-

1 comment:

evotia said...

I really need to do more research on this and the whole Envision Laie proposal. My knowledge is sadly based on everyones FB posts so its hard to decipher what is actually being proposed. Thank you .. again.. for bringing these issues forward for us mainland transplants who want a better understanding of what's taking place in our home.