House Committee on Water, Land and Ocean Resources (WLO) - chair: Ito, vice chair: Har

Monday, February 9, 2009, Conference Room 420

Testifier: Jacqueline Parnell, President, LWV of Hawaii

Click here to view HB980

Dear Representative Ito and Members of the Committee: This bill has the admirable objective of greatly improving our state parks and ocean recreation systems by catching up on long-deferred maintenance. It is also attractive because it would be self-financing at a time when monies are scarce. However, we have some concerns about promoting some parks as tourist-designation areas, and particularly about the process that led to these determinations. First we would like to address the process issue. The League of Women Voters has consistently fought for public participation and governmental transparency in decision making. This bill has appeared out of nowhere and, as far as we can determine, with little input from the affected communities, certainly not Ka iwi. The plan for charging admission to the Mokap`u Trail has not been brought to the attention of either the Waimanalo or Hawai Kai neighborhood Boards. Second is the specific case of Ka iwi. The citizens of the area, supported by residents of the rest of Oahu, have been fighting to keep this area as undeveloped open space for 30 some years. We were all rejoicing from the news that the Governor had proposed rezoning the area adjacent to the park from Urban back to Conservation when this new proposal was announced. User fees for the Mokapu`u trail would result in commercialization of the very area we are determined to keep “country.” We are not even sure that this would be legal, given that federal transportation funds were used to purchase the area as open space to be enjoyed by all. We respectfully request that action on the bill be deferred until there has been ample consultation with all the communities affected by enacting service fees for park use. Thank you for this opportunity to testify. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2/10/09 Dear Representative Ito and Members of the Committee: We are sending this letter as a follow-up to our testimony at yesterday’s hearing on House Bill 980. We would like to clarify that we are not opposed to this legislation. As noted, this bill has the admirable objective of greatly improving our state parks and ocean recreation systems by catching up on long-deferred maintenance. It is also attractive because it would be self-financing at a time when monies are scarce. Our concerns are about promoting some parks as tourist-designation areas, and particularly about the process that leads to these determinations. The League of Women Voters has consistently fought for public participation and governmental transparency in decision-making. It is really important that DLNR gets input from affected communities. We used Ka iwi as an example to make the point that the plan for charging admission to the Makap`u Trail had not been brought to the attention of either the Waimanalo or Hawaii Kai neighborhood Boards. We have been assured that the Board of Land and Natural Resources has no intention of imposing admittance fees to any of the state parks until there has been ample consultation with all the communities involved. On that basis we will enthusiastically support the bill. Thank you for this opportunity to expand on our testimony.