The Ka'u Community Development Plan was approved yesterday by the Hawai'i County Council. A Community Development Plan is a document that attempts to express the vision of the community as to planned development and conservation. Our CDP has one provision that is unprecedented in Hawaii as far as I know - a stipulation that strongly dis-encourages building within 1/4 mile of the shoreline. It is, understandably, not a popular idea among prospective real estate developers, but most people in Ka'u love it. The almost entirely undeveloped shoreline of Ka'u truly is our common pride and joy; something that everyone in the district can glory in whether they are from an old Ka'u family or newly arrived, whether young or old, rich or poor.
When the Community Development Plan process started in 2008 my daughter was seven years old, a second grader, still learning to read. Now she's doing trigonometry and driving. How crazy is that? I'm not complaining, mind you. I've gotten used to government stuff taking a decade or two. Those hours of attending meetings after a long days work, the minor psychic trauma incurred from being yelled at during contentious decisions or when people had perfectly legitimate concerns but no other venue to express them, the stacks of reading material - all of that was a privilege and an honor, as is always the case in getting to be a very small part of representative democracy.
I am super-proud of our County for sticking up for it and for us. A lot of time we grumble about the corruption and inefficiency of government but sometimes it can be a wonderful, hopeful thing. Not perfect, usually infuriating, but overall, a very good thing.
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