City Bill 3 violates Hawaii Constitution, Creates Highway To Hell Death Trap
John Bond Kanehili Cultural Hui
West Oahu residents does it take you an hour and a half each way?
Get ready for 2 ½ hours or MORE. It’s coming, thanks to your City Council and Bill 3. http://www.hoopilitraffic.com
The Honolulu City Council believes cars from 53,000 homes will fit into one lane. And now they are preparing to approve urban zoning for 12,000 additional homes at Ho’opili. Around Easter in April Oahu drivers got a taste of the horrific disaster that is coming to West Oahu. This will become a future environmental disaster that could lead to many deaths because there is NO WAY OUT.
Included some very useful graphics to make this testimony fairly
simple to follow:
Most of it comes from the Important Agricultural Lands
workshops from Phase I. The workshops intentionally prevented attendees from
reviewing very obvious IAL lands such as Hoopili. Important issues such as Food
Security were also not allowed to be a consideration. It is very important to realize that even with a strong pro developer bias and DDP’s attempt to stack the deck towards the decisions the workshop was structured to deliver, the attendees arrived at a final analysis which concluded that an arbitrary urban boundary was NOT an important criteria in making an Important Agricultural Land decision.
The important IAL criteria was the OBVIOUS:
1. Currently used for
agricultural production
2. Soil Qualities and
Growing Conditions
3. Sufficient quantities
of water.
4. With or near support
infrastructure.
The intent of Bill 3 to take this highly important agricultural land
forever out of ag production will be absolutely the worst decision ever made by
the Honolulu City Council and haunt those who vote for it.
It should be defered until the land is IAL
mapped as per the Constitution.
1964 Oahu General Plan – designated Ag-1 and in
production
2003 Oahu General Plan – designated Ag-1 and in production
2012 Oahu General Plan
– designated Ag-1 and in production
The City DPP will soon
stage three public hearings on the Oahu Important Agricultural Lands
Mapping Project which will be a PR attempt to explain
why they are acting in behalf of land developers rather than the Hawaii State
Constitution Article XI, Section 3.
Nothing
in Chapters 205 or Act 183 says State Law "Prevents" IAL Mapping Ho’opili totally qualifies under ALL
criteria as IAL. 35-40% of local produce comes from Ho’opili. All past stated
political and legislative goals and agendas have been for “greater agricultural
self-sufficiency and less dependence on imported foods.”
Previously we have learned that HART
Rail contractor Parsons Brinkerhoff graded West Oahu Ewa Plain rail right of
way lands, in US Natural Resource Conservation Service Farmland Impact
Conversion Rating Form (NRCS-CPA-106), as being SUB PAR
and LOW AG VALUE, while five agricultural experts rated the same lands using
NRCS-CPA-106 as nearly twice as high and meeting the Important Ag Land
standard.
The purpose
of the IAL Study is supposed to be to fulfill a constitutional mandate to identify ALL of the City’s candidate lands for IAL designation.
City DPP:
“State law does not allow land identified for urban use by the State or county to be
designated as IAL.” – FALSE! This is purely a City political
determination for land sprawl development schemes and not the intent of the
State Constitution or HRS 205.
Despite City DPP trying
to steer IAL workshop attendees the consensus was that
any politically set boundary was NOT of primary importance to identify IAL.
City Council Reso and
Agricultural Liaison Show Intent- But Thwarted By DPP
Be it resolved by the Council of the
City and County of Honolulu that the City’s Agricultural Liaison is urged to expedite the identification and mapping of important
agricultural lands and ensure that the IAL maps support and protect farming by
stabilizing the agriculture land base.
Honolulu
City Council Reso 12-23 states "lands to
be mapped even if in an Urban Boundary." The City DPP had
testified during the committee hearing that Urban Growth Boundaries can be modified if
IAL are identified.
The
intent of the Constitution supersedes ALL administrative boundaries. Now City
DPP is told to intentionally deceive the public in their IAL meetings where major IAL decisions of interest to the community are already
made and pre-determined.
Hoopili
would have been mapped had the mapping taken place in 1978 or in 2012 when the
City Council passed CCR 12-23, CD-1, FD-1, or when Laura Thielen issued her
City Ag Liaison Report which clearly stated the process and the mandate to
follow the Hawaii State Constitution.
Government Data, Maps All Shows
Ho’opili Is An
Important Agricultural Land
The State
of Hawaii for many decades in the Oahu General Plan identified Ewa Plantation
and Ho’opili as Agricultural Land and why to this very day the land is
classified as “AG-1.”
The State
of Hawaii ALISH map shows the Ho’opili area as PRIME AG (Agricultural Lands of
Importance to the State of Hawaii – ALISH)
The State
of Hawaii Land Study Bureau (LSB) map shows Ho’opili as top rated soils A &
B.
And here is WHY City
DPP is running this fraudulent land conversion scheme:
Section 4 (f) Federal Transportation
Projects: Farmland Protection Act
Minimize
impacts on farmland and maximize compatibility with state and local farmland
programs and policies. All projects that take
right-of-way in farmland, as defined by the regulation.
Farmland Protection Policy Act of 1981: 7 U.S.C. 4201-4209
1. Early coordination with the NRCS.
1. Early coordination with the NRCS.
2. Land evaluation and site assessment.
3. Determination of whether or not to proceed with
farmland conversion, based on severity of impacts and other environmental
considerations.
\
Bill 3 Is Anti Food Security And
Creates An Environmental Disaster Condition
Ho’opili
will create a SOCIAL INJUSTICE - ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER for H-1 Commuters and
is NOT “Smart Growth” Transit Oriented Development.
A quote from State of Hawaii DOT director Brennon Morioka from 2009: "Even under a best case scenario, which includes an optimistic rail transit operation, the H-1 freeway would operate at LOS E with the Ho`opili project. At LOS F, there is gridlock on the freeway." (LOS - level of service.)
A quote from State of Hawaii DOT director Brennon Morioka from 2009: "Even under a best case scenario, which includes an optimistic rail transit operation, the H-1 freeway would operate at LOS E with the Ho`opili project. At LOS F, there is gridlock on the freeway." (LOS - level of service.)
Important Historic
and Cultural Aspects Of Ewa Plain Lands Under FTA Review
Currently
the Federal Transit Administration has been notified by the HART Programmatic
Agreement manager that the entire Ewa Plain –HART Rail Area of Potential Effect
(APE) has four identified and unmitigated Traditional
Cultural Properties (TCP’s)
The land also has considerable major issues with mass iwi kupuna burials of hundred of thousands of native Hawaiians over 1000 years of Honouliuli habitation, many of whom died shortly after Western contact with diseases they had no immunity for, and also buried anti-aircraft explosive ordinance fired from Pearl Harbor gun batteries at retreating Japanese planes on December 7, 1941.
There is also a Federal level to this which are four identified Traditional Cultural Properties associated with the lands in Bill 3
Hawaiian artifacts were often found in the sugar cane fields after heavy rains or flooding. Iwi burials were commonly found in the coral sinkholes and caves around the plantation and were treated with due respect and avoidance.
Many credible sources say there are tens of thousands of burials because this area was a significant population center for approximately 1000 years which ended with the mass death of 95% of the population within a short span of time due to contact with Western diseases that the native Hawaiians had no natural resistance to.
Ewa Farm Land Conversion To Commercial Development Unconstitutional
Ewa Farmland Conversion Impact Rating
West Oahu Eco-Disaster: HART Rail Hitting Karst Water, Sea Caves And Polluting Ewa-Honoululi-Waipahu Wetlands
West Oahu's greatest natural apocalypse is unfolding, with hundreds
of 8 foot in diameter, 200 foot deep drill bores, the ancient karst water, sea caves and
wetlands are being fractured and polluted, then to be followed by
a major new asphalt and concrete city based around
three huge HART Rail Transit Oriented Developments.
The already fragile Ewa Plain ecosystem based on natural clean water will be destroyed.
of 8 foot in diameter, 200 foot deep drill bores, the ancient karst water, sea caves and
wetlands are being fractured and polluted, then to be followed by
a major new asphalt and concrete city based around
three huge HART Rail Transit Oriented Developments.
The already fragile Ewa Plain ecosystem based on natural clean water will be destroyed.
HART Rail Ewa Plain Route Drills Into Major 1000 Year Old Native Hawaiian Burial Grounds
By John Bond, Kanehili Cultural Hui
