{"id":196,"date":"2026-05-21T10:43:41","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T10:43:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movingtohawaiiguide.com\/?p=196"},"modified":"2026-05-21T10:43:41","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T10:43:41","slug":"general-plan-bill-advances-in-county-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movingtohawaiiguide.com\/?p=196","title":{"rendered":"General plan bill advances in County Council"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Hawaii County Council voted 6-3 on Wednesday in favor of passing a long-term public planning document that has garnered significant public outcry, at times described by council members as \u201cpersonal attacks,\u201d \u201cvilifying comments,\u201d \u201cconspiracy theories\u201d and \u201cAI psychosis.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Hawaii County Council voted 6-3 on Wednesday in favor of passing a long-term public planning document that has garnered significant public outcry, at times described by council members as \u201cpersonal attacks,\u201d \u201cvilifying comments,\u201d \u201cconspiracy theories\u201d and \u201cAI psychosis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Council members Dennis \u201cFresh\u201d Onishi, Ashley Kierkiewicz and Holeka Inaba all cast \u201cno\u201d votes.<\/p>\n

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These accusations have eclipsed discussions about Bill 66, which adopts the Hawaii County General Plan 2045. The plan is a 20-year comprehensive policy document guiding land use, growth, public services and transportation on the island. The current edition on the books was adopted in 2005 and has come to the end of its functional lifespan, prompting Planning Department officials to submit a 310-page revision to the County Council in March of last year.<\/p>\n

This exhaustive update \u2014 referred to informally as the \u201c2045 Plan\u201d \u2014 is the byproduct of years of public hearings and comment periods, formed with the input from dozens of meetings and thousands of comments submitted by the public.<\/p>\n

The 2045 Plan calls for climate change adaptation, sets goals for net-zero carbon emissions, and restricts growth to urban areas in order to protect rural, agricultural land. It calls for stricter land use rules, provisions for mass transit expansion, and mandates for adopting renewable energy technology.<\/p>\n

Available for public review for over a year, the plan was making steady progress until it was sidelined in early March when Kierkiewicz sent her fellow council members a 71-page proposal amending the significantly longer and more detailed plan penned by the Planning Department.<\/p>\n

Kierkiewicz submitted a letter to the council two weeks later on March 19 trying to justify the changes, where she claimed the objectives of her \u201c2026 Plan\u201d were the same as the document it essentially replaces.<\/p>\n

County officials, including past and present planning directors, pushed back on the alteration. Former Planning Director Chris Yuen criticized the 2026 Plan\u2019s removal of language relating to climate change \u2014 among other issues \u2014 and testified at Wednesday\u2019s meeting via Zoom in defense of the 2045 Plan in an attempt to set the record straight.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to talk about some of the positive features of this plan, and in particular, two aspects that have unfortunately been a little bit controversial, and that is sustainability and climate change,\u201d Yuen said. \u201cNeither one should be controversial. Sustainability is just a word to describe practices that enable us to live in harmony with the environment that sustains us. It\u2019s another word for the Hawaiian term, (which) would be malama aina.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arguing that climate change provisions would be indispensable to a planning document governing growth on the island for the next two decades, he reiterated that policymakers should be listening to scientists who\u2019ve been sounding the climate alarm for decades.<\/p>\n

\u201c(There) has already been a scientific consensus that man-made climate change is happening,\u201d Yuen said. \u201cThese predictions about increasing global temperatures, sea level rise, and extreme weather events have proven very accurate.\u201d <\/p>\n

Even so, some testifiers at Wednesday\u2019s meeting voiced stern opposition to the 2045 Plan\u2019s climate provisions. One of whom was Kailua-Kona resident Eugene Elmer, who echoed a common misconception among the plan\u2019s opponents that the document sought to abolish fossil fuels and reduce private property rights.<\/p>\n

Elmer directed his animosity toward the five council members who voted May 4 to approve Bill 66 during the Policy Committee on Planning, Land Use and Economic Development meeting.<\/p>\n

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\u201cTo the five council members who voted aye: Do you really think there won\u2019t be repercussions when you start turning people\u2019s land into conservation and telling them what they can and can\u2019t do with their property?\u201d he asked. \u201cWait till the local braddahs find out you guys like take their diesel work trucks. We will make sure they all find out, and your names will definitely be put on blast.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elmer then appeared to make thinly veiled threats against council members considering voting in favor of the 2045 Plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cForcing this bill through will create a level of resentment and hostility in this community that we haven\u2019t seen in a long time,\u201d he said. \u201cI am a peaceful person. But I know this island, and this will push some people past their breaking point. For the sake of peace and unity, please do not create that kind of division.\u201d<\/p>\n

South Kona resident Juhl Rayne had similarly hostile words for the five council members who helped pass the bill out of committee earlier this month.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know how you\u2019re going to sleep at night knowing that you\u2019re selling out to the elite 2021 UN agenda,\u201d Rayne said. \u201cThe only thing that I can figure \u2026 (about) how this could be is either you\u2019re being paid off by some corporation or entity, or you\u2019ve been completely brainwashed \u2026 or you\u2019re just completely innocent to the idea that that people can be bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ka\u2018u Councilwoman Michelle Galimba attempted to address Elmer\u2019s claim that the 2045 Plan would ban diesel trucks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a strong desire expressed and goals established towards getting away from fossil fuels,\u201d Galimba said about the plan. \u201cI drive a diesel truck, and I\u2019m happy to drive a diesel truck because I need it for certain jobs on the ranch, but I also understand that electrifying our public fleet would be a good thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said that as a rancher, she\u2019s not concerned that any of the plan\u2019s provisions would threaten her livelihood.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not afraid that this general plan is going to affect my ability to do what I need to do with my big \u2026 fossil-fuel-burning diesel truck,\u201d she said. \u201cI think a lot of people have gotten sort of hung up on particular words, particular policies, and see them as threatening.\u201d<\/p>\n

At its core, she said, the general plan would not endanger civil rights or restrict personal choice.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not a coercive document,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is a plan for all of us to go in a direction that I think the majority of people on this island want to go in, and I respect those who don\u2019t want to go in that direction, and I don\u2019t think that there is anything in here that will change or not allow you to burn all the fossil fuel that you want in your personal life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kona Councilwoman Rebecca Villegas expressed sympathy for some of public comments, but reiterated that there was nothing sinister about what the council was attempting to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly my heart breaks for some of the testifiers because I see and hear the concern and the fear and the belief systems that this is some kind of a conspiracy document related to a global world order and whatnot,\u201d Villegas said. \u201cOur intention sitting here as imperfect, humble public servants is not a grand scheme for global takeover, smart cities, weather change patterns, all those things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Billy Hull: Hawaii\u2019s ride to national men\u2019s volleyball title worth repeating<\/a><\/p>\n

Bill 66 will now head back to the full council for a second and final vote.<\/p>\n

Email Stefan Verbano at stefan.verbano@hawaiitribune-herald.com.\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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