Kauai derails fast-
By Anthony Sommer
track proposal
Star-BulletinLIHUE -- Kauai County planning officials retreated last night on a decision to "fast-track" the drafting of a new General Plan.
The County Planning Department scrapped a schedule -- announced by Mayor Maryanne Kusaka in a news release issued last week -- aimed at putting the new General Plan before the Planning Commission by February.
That would have bypassed the 36-member Citizens Advisory Committee, which has been working with Oahu-based consultant Plan Pacific for the past 21 months. The committee was named by the mayor to represent a wide variety of interests.
Cut out of the process was a series of public hearings to be conducted by the Citizens Advisory Committee this spring. The hearings were reinstated last night.
When the committee was told of the "fast-track" proposal at its Nov. 24 meeting, many of the group threatened to resign. When Kusaka's office then issued the press release confirming the committee would be bypassed, they became even angrier.
Last night was the committee's first meeting since Nov. 24, and it was announced that the old schedule calling for public hearings this spring had been reinstated.
Many Kauai residents in the audience were not easily quieted.
Last night's meeting was preceded by a demonstration by about 50 environmentalists and native Hawaiians calling for public hearings originally scheduled to be conducted. Many stayed for the meeting and continued to complain they were being "steamrolled" by the county and they were being ignored in the General Plan process.
Both groups are represented on the Citizens Advisory Committee but neither group believes it has a voice on the Planning Commission or the County Council, which must adopt a new General Plan.
