Yoshimoto, Yagong said to be teetering
Sunday, February 4, 2007 at 09:28PM Main Street Pahoa Association President Rob Tucker said Council members Dominic Yagong and J Yoshimoto could still be swayed to vote against the storage center rezoning ordinances at Wednesday's Council meeting. Both voted for them on first reading, but Yagong only after a long, tortured explanation essentially saying he supports whatever Puna Councilwoman Emily Naeole wants in her district, and Yoshimoto without comment.
But Tucker said on Punaweb that he met with both councilmen last week and came away thinking neither is convinced that granting the zone change is good planning. And he does a nice job framing the decision facing them.
Tucker's calling on people opposed to the rezoning to call Yagong and Yoshimoto in an effort to change their minds, since it can't be comforting for them to support a general plan change for a fellow Council member who can't get a single constituent to speak in favor of it. I've written here before about the scant support shown for this project. It will be interesting to see if any new testimony shows up Wednesday.
Check out Tucker on Punaweb. He's got the info.
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Reader Comments (7)
"we are uncertain whether or not we will have video-conferencing on 6-7 Feb in Keauhou. We do have it scheduled for the meetings later in February. We have had long discussions regarding Bills 220 and 221 and most feel we can move ahead to a final decision. The testimony we've heard already has been extensive and very little new info was offered on either side of the issue at the last Council meeting. The applicant and the Planning Director have indicated they are prepared for a final vote and I see no reason to delay. If a motion surfaces on Wednesday asking for a postponement, we will consider it.
Thanks for your recommendation."
No other response yet from the other Council members. At least they say they are working on getting the video set up for Kona meetings.
I can hardly believe that I am reading a post about the Gardner property which seems to just make simple sense. I know that the most common response to the issue is to cry baby about waiting until the CDP process is done, but that could be a year or more away. What about people who need storage right now?
And at the risk of sounding like an echo chamber, I have just one other question. If re-zoning 3.3 acres is wrong, how the heck is re-zoning 19.5 acres right? And to top it all off, they were all going to use the same ingress and egress to Hwy 130 anyway. It seems to me like something else is afoot in this issue.
I still wonder how they come up with the idea that they have to have access to Hwy 130 at the worst possible location in the first place. We need to re-think things out, but that means both properties are in question for sure. I think that we need to push on the State and DHHL to open up the back of these lots and bring a new roadway out at Kahakai - perhaps at the proposed Kahakai modern roundabout.
If the Gardner property is wrong, then the Pahoa Municiple project is much more wrong, so what is really going on. Ag land is Ag land, and I want to see much more development for keeping people in Puna at home or as close to it as possible. Why don't we demand a new enterprise zone out in the middle of the unused portion of State land between HPP and Hawaiian Shores. That would work well with the concept of an OTEC East further makai in the same area where no Ag activity is presently being done anyway.
There are a lot of things to fix in Puna and to be making such a huge deal out of this property seems a waste of time. Worried about future owners? Why not settle this issue by calling for a rigid and tight Special Use Permit and require a back entrance. I sure don't want to see Fire Trucks, Police cars, School Busses, and many drivers going to do their paperwork with the County all entering and leaving the Pahoa Municiple Project onto and off of Hwy 130 only a few hundred feet from the already terrible corner at Road A where we enter the Malama Shopping Center.
I think that we need to look again before building on a large cave and opening an entrance onto Hwy 130 at the worst possible location. What's up with that idea anyway. If we can rezone 19.5 acres of Ag land there, why can't we find a location in Volcano Zone 2 in the vast State holdings between the subdivisions? And then there is the 140 acres of Ag land that the County already owns above Pahoa town itself. This whole thing seems confusing to me.
By the way, weren't these bills introduced by Gary Safarik in the first place. No body seemed to complain when Gary introduced the Bills in the back then.
Well let me just sit back now, and wait for the storm to rage on because of my comments, now that I have broken my silence on the whole matter.
Mahalo,
KD
Secondly, this particular applicant did not commit any crime at all. If this Council approves his application and goes through with the rezoning, that would be the "crime", as it is not conforming with the General Plan. Period.
This is not about the applicant, this is about the guidelines dictated in the General Plan. If you don't like the General Plan, we need to change it. Not approve applications that are clearly not part of the General Plan.
We won't even bring up that waiting until the community is finished with the Puna Development Plan is the prudent thing to do. That is obvious.
The problem here is the rezoning will go against the General Plan which will open the door to litigation unless the Mayor vetos the rezoning. Period. That is the problem, not the applicant.
It�s great to hear from you, and your ideas are right on the money. The State has Ag lots that run about a mile along side of highway #130 from Kahakai to DHHL [Hilo bound] many seem to be not occupied and slicing off 60 feet or so is a great idea. Having a road running along the back of these Ag lots to Kahakai is a great answer. Many types of business and Civic projects could be built having access from that street only. The re-zoning of these lots would then go from a bad idea to a great idea. Having entrance for emergency fire and police only that would share the same entry to highway #130.
With a roundabout at the intersection of Kahakai and highway #130 and opening up the now closed section of Kahakai makes all the sense in the world. I�m sure that the Puna Community Development Plan would even agree with this and welcome it with open arms.
KD you are so right about the State having so much land around Pahoa that could be put to good use without causing mass confusion for the future of our community. Re-zoning of this parcel is just wrong to do it as it stands. Adding any �legal� access to highway #130 other than emergency is just short of criminal at this time. It only takes �one� car to have a major crash killing it�s driver and passengers. Who would be willing to stand up and take the blame for that.
The Lack