by Andrew Walden

Running to beat the election clock, Bob Jacobson and his followers are rushing to shut down Hawaiian Homelands before voters oust him from the County Council. After taking control of Puna’s mis-named “Community” Development Plan (CDP), they have used the CDP process to put forth a proposal to raise taxes while giving themselves jobs, grants, and even free internet service. Their CDP would confiscate the right to use property from thousands of Puna property owners without compensation.

It is unfashionable to believe these actions are the result of ideology, but the arrogant prologue to the Puna CDP should put all doubts to rest. In the CDP Prologue the authors speak of themselves as “teachers of generosity through compassionate deeds.” They state that: “A cosmic sense of purpose and belief, coupled with critical and creative thinking will help us….” Their goal? “…To address globalization, environmental changes, widespread poverty, and rapid human population growth. Existing political and economic models need to be re-conceptualized….” These are the same people who have worked to block expansion of Puna’s Hwy 130—the most dangerous in the state-- by demanding traffic circles instead of traffic lights.

Apparently the only population growth CDP directors really have in mind is that which is occurring in Puna. By choking off the supply of affordable housing, they can eliminate the last place in Hawaii where young local families can buy their own home and force more to move to the mainland.

The Puna CDP is next under consideration by the Council at an 8:30AM July 30 meeting in Hilo.

The CDPs were part of the County General Plan adopted when greens allied with the Hokuli`a “settlement” plaintiffs captured control of the County Council in 2005. Adopting the County General Plan was considered by some the crowning achievement of former Puna council Rep Gary Safarik’s short and ill-fated tenure as County Council Chair.

In early 2005, when Safarik rammed the General Plan through the council, the Hawai`i Free Press alone described the CDP process mandated by the General Plan as a “dictatorship of the activists”. The results have proven us right. CDPs were designed to undergo a years-long process of so-called community meetings designed to whittle out anybody who grows tired of listening to endless eco-babble. Purposefully tiresome CDP proceedings were designed to maximize the input of activists and minimize the input of normal people who actually have jobs and family commitments. The leaders of this process included a Bob Jacobson staffer, the operator of an “eco-living” consultancy, and others with similar ideologically and financially driven biases.

The leader of the so-called Friends of Puna’s Future Rob Tucker in an email to the staff of Councilwoman Emily Naeole explains his group is formed, “to do a full-court press on approval of the PCDP.” Tucker adds, “We are not here to be polite. We intend to see this pass.” Others tag his group as, “My-way-or-the-highway.org.”

Tucker is affiliated with Hawai`i Castleblock Builders and extensively promotes Castleblock homes on his CDP discussion website at: www.punaweb.org/MovingToPuna/HowToBuild.asp. Castleblock could benefit from any shifts in the home construction market away from discount kit homes sold by local lumber suppliers towards designs promoted by companies such as Castleblock. But not to worry, those who cannot afford a concrete home in the new Puna be able to legally live in a traditional grass hut under the proposed “Kanaka Building Code” outlined in Puna CDP section 2.1.2.d. This proposal, along with a separate proposal by Councilwoman Emily Naeole to allow residents to live in tents “with appropriate sanitary facilities” on their lots could negatively affect the property values of people who live in actual homes.

Hawaiians will be a target of the CDP’s demand that “DHHL (Hawaiian Homelands)… conform to PCDP goals and objectives….” If County Council were to amend this requirement into in the Hawai`i County General Plan, it would create a cause of action for litigation to determine whether Counties have the authority to regulate the federally-mandated DHHL. If DHHL falls under County zoning, the result would be a near-total and immediate shutdown of DHHL construction and a return to the days where only a few leases are awarded to Native Hawaiian beneficiaries every year. Representatives of the Hawai`i County Sierra Club have publicly proclaimed their intention to place DHHL under County zoning. DHHL is the state’s largest builder of affordable housing. Although their homes are only available to native Hawaiians under terms of the 1920 Hawaiian Homelands Act, the result would be less affordable housing for all and 1000s more people joining the exodus to the mainland. Puna councilwoman Emily Naeole is proposing 21 amendments to the CDP, one of which would designate the Hawaiian Homelands community at Maku`u as a county-zoned “village center.” This too could create a cause for action by the Sierra Club against Hawaiian Homelands.

The Puna CDP far overreaches the boundaries of County Planning and zoning. The CDP calls for an increase on conveyance taxes and even demands a levy of income tax on sale of property in Puna—both of which require an act of the Legislature. But taxes are just the beginning of what would be taken. Puna lot owners’ property will be seized in several different ways:

• Creation of a so-called Biosphere Reserve Buffer Zone which will ban or restrict development near the so-called biosphere reserve (2.1.3.b)

• Down zoning of all Puna AG land (3.2.3.b)

• Amendment of the General Plan to restrict already zoned urban expansion (3.2.3.c)

• Change grading permit requirements, require historical and biological surveys before construction, (2.4.3.b/c) and require more expensive types of septic systems. (2.3.3.a/b) This will make some lots unbuildable and increase the cost of construction for all lots.

• Watershed Management Plan which could ban or restrict construction in any designated watershed. (2.3.3.c)

• Change Special Management Area (SMA--shoreline and near inland) regulations as if they were not stringent enough already. (2.3.3.e)

• Special zoning regulations for Kapoho most of which is already in the SMA. (2.4.3.f)

• Limit dwelling sizes on Ag lots and limit allowable building footprints – this resuscitates a failed proposal by Councilmember Bob Jacobson to restrict the size of home owners can build on their own property. (2.3.3.e)

Small private owners hold only about 4% of Hawai`i real estate with the rest in hands of government and large landholding trusts. Puna is one of the few places in Hawai`i with high levels of home ownership. In the 1980s about 25% of all Big Island households owned property in Puna either as an investment or as their own home. If the proposals in the Puna CDP are enacted thousands of people will lose their property without compensation and government will own even more of the land.

After raising real estate taxes, the CDP proposes that the County seize ownership of tax-delinquent properties instead of selling them at auction. (3.1.3.b.) This gives the County with both an excuse and an incentive to take property. If this policy were implemented, Puna would be littered with even more derelict structures--now owned by the county--some of which would likely become drug houses.

The CDP proposes a County, State or Private Trust to purchase fallow AG land “to create opportunities”. (3.2.3) The only “opportunities” this will create is for government bureaucrats to take control of more property. Collectivized agriculture is a theme of the entire Puna CDP. Agriculture outside the private sector is always a complete and total failure.

The result of all of these moves would be a sharp curtailment in construction in one of the few places where affordable housing is still available in Hawai`i.

Meanwhile, the CDP proposes that taxpayer dollars flow to create grants and jobs in the pet causes of the activists who controlled of the process. The CDP calls for:

• Creation of a fund to buy so-called “important” ag lands. (3.2.3.o)

• Development of AG Eco-Tourism Policy with new zoning so that activists with a fruit tree or two can support themselves by renting out otherwise illegal vacation rentals and bed-and breakfast rooms in residential areas to other activists from the mainland (3.2.3.h)

• Development of “job opportunities in renewable energy except indirect use geothermal” so that activists can pretend to be doing something about energy while continuing to block clean geothermal energy in Puna. (3.2.3.m)

• Boost the County Department of Environment budget to promote recycling, thus creating more so-called “jobs” and grants for otherwise unemployable activists. (3.4.3.f)

• Create Puna scholarship for organic farming so the activists can get free college tuition. (3.2.3.q)

Another proposal--to relocate the Pahoa and Kea`au transfer stations--merely seems stupid. But it actually has the effect of creating multi-million dollar contracts to let out thus giving the DEM influence over building contractors.

The Puna CDP also proposes to create new positions with influence over whether property owners are allowed to build:

• Establish County Historic Preservation Commission (2.1.3)

• Create nine member advisory committee for the Biosphere Reserve Buffer Zone to advise on whether you can build on your property or not. (2.2.2.a)

• Create commission to advocate implementation of Puna CDP (5.1.1)

If the Puna CDP were rejected outright, 5000 hours of work that the activists claim they spent in formulating their plan would go to waste. Since their plan would destroy the work product of 1000s of Puna property owners, it is difficult to see why justice should not be poetic.

Numbers in parenthesis locate items in the Puna CDP. Read entire proposal:
www.hcrc.info/community-planning/community-development-plans/puna