Planning Commission 'Passes the Buck' on Wai`anae Plan to City Council
Community members testify at Planning Commission Hearing back in February
On May 16th, the City Planning Commission met to decide whether they should recommend the City Council to accept or deny the current version of the Waianae Sustainable Community Plan (WSCP) which includes the Purple Spot. They couldn’t come to any consensus and passed the plan on without any recommendation. Lame! This is the same body to whom we testified twice at Kapolei Hale--present on 5/16 were Beadie Dawson, Karen Holma, Andy Jamila, Rodney Kim, and Arthur Tolentino.
The main points of contention were 1) the park symbol that was mysteriously moved from Wai`anae to Nanakuli. Kathy Sokugawa of DPP (Dept. of Planning and Permitting) revealed that the original site for a regional park in Wai`anae has endangered species issues and was returned to DLNR, therefore it is state land and is ineligible for a regional park. She caught some heat for not making that information more readily available to the public. Everyone agreed the the regional park symbol should be removed from Nanakuli.
2) The language “No new landfills on the Wai`anae Coast”--Karen Holma said that such language is unfair and it should be removed. On the landfill issue, Rodney Kim reminded the room that they removed such language from the North Shore plan (even though they have been home to a landfill in the past as well) and felt it would be unfair to exempt Wai`anae from consideration in the hunt for the next landfill. Beadie Dawson pushed hard for every community taking care of their own `opala, essentially creating multiple smaller landfills on island with the intent of personalizing the incentive to produce less waste. There were unfortunately no takers on that proposal. Regardless of their position on this particular language, all members agreed that Waimanalo Gulch has “played out their opportunity” which hopefully means no more extensions!
3) the Purple Spot. On the industrial park, Beadie Dawson also came out in strong support for us, calling the proposal ‘spot zoning’ (which is illegal) and charging that Tropic Land had launched a “fraudulent campaign” in calling the parcel a “wasteland”. She cited her position as being based on “testimony and the vision statement” of the plan. In the end Dawson refused to budge, saying “They [Tropic Land] will be back in a year, saying the planning commission approved of their park and I don’t want to be a part of that. Ever.”
After 2 ½ hours of discussion the members were split so no motion was passed meaning that no changes (good or bad) were made, and the plan now moves on to the City Council. Multiple members of the CPC referenced public testimony and we should thus prepare to offer the same kind of input to the City Council. These folks are elected and are even more vulnerable to public opinion.
In the end, when they realized they couldn’t agree on a recommendation, Rodney Kim (board chair) said jokingly, “shall we jan ken po, flip a coin?” I was seeing red--so disrespectful! This should tell us all how seriously he takes his responsibility and how much he cares about the people of Wai`anae.
Dawson said with disappointment, “We are literally passing the buck.” Someone else commented, “I hope we don’t get fired.” And thus the meeting was adjourned.
Sign the petition against the further industrialization of Wai`anae farmland.
**********A funny sidenote: Andy Jamila asked if he could have parking under the building for future community meetings after he was stopped and questioned/scolded by some aunties in the Kapolei Hale parking lot.
