Contact the Land Use Commission

__Write to the Land Use Commission

Written testimony to the Land Use Commission is very important. Any member of the public can submit written testimony. If you are at all motivated, please write a letter. It can help. It will help. It does help! Letters are best written in your own words, but we've supplied some 'talking points' below to help get you started.

The State of Hawai'i, Land Use Commission has scheduled October 20th as the first day for the hearings concerning Hoʻopili. The hearings will continue on Friday, October 21st. There are additional meetings scheduled for November & December. It is likely that these meetings will be continuations of the Ho'opili hearings, but the Land Use Commission may meet regarding other matters on those days. We will not know until agenda are released, which usually happens about a week before the scheduled date(s) of the meeting(s). Check the LUC Calendar for the latest information.

Written testimony may be submitted by mail, by email, or by fax prior to any hearing or may be submitted in person at the time of the hearing. Hearings are open to the public and anyone is allowed to speak on any agenda topic. If you bring written testimony to a hearing you should bring an original and 15 copies. There will be a sign-up sheet at the hearing for those who wish to give oral testimony. Your oral testimony may be limited to only a few minutes if there are many others who also want to speak that day.

Be sure to include your name and address on all correspondence. Your phone number and email address are optional. Early in your letter, be sure to mention "Hoʻopili" or "Docket No. A06-771".

You can contact the Land Use Commission via any of the following:

by email: LUC@dbedt.hawaii.gov

by postal mail:
Land Use Commission
Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism
State of Hawaii
P.O. Box 2359
Honolulu HI 96804-2359

by fax:
(808) 587-3827

website:
http://hawaii.gov/luc/

office location:
Room 406
235 S. Beretania Street
Honolulu HI 96804-2359

telephone:
(808) 587-3822

Talking Points

The following are talking points which any member of the public wishing to present testimony against the reclassification of valuable agricultural land to ‘urban’ for the Ho’opili Subdivision. You need not cover all of these points. Pick the ones that you feel you will be able to discuss most clearly and effectively in your own words. There is no length limit for written testimony, which can be submitted either in person at the LUC hearing on June 30th, or by mail before or briefly afterward. However, for any live testimony you want to present at the hearing itself (and everyone wishing to do so will be allowed time) we are urging you to limit yourself to 2 minutes of your strongest points. This will keep the LUC commissioners from getting irritated with those of us
who are opposing this Docket A06-771, as they have with the developer in the past.

At the bottom of this document you will find a ‘header template’ you are welcome to use for your written testimony. Sorry if it sounds like your old English teacher in high school coming back to haunt you! Bring a brief list of bullet points with you to speak from if you can as speaking from the heart is often more effective than reading from a printed page.

The 1,555 acres of farmland that Horton wants to cover with 12,000 houses is the highest producing farmland in the state; some say the highest producing in the world. Most places in the world can grow one crop a year because of their winters. Clouds and rain in Waimanalo limit that area to growing only two crops a year; Central O’ahu can grow three. But the sunny lowlands of Ewa can produce four. This land is actually equivalent to over 6,000 acres of good farmland in its food growing capacity.
The Ewa farms have warm air, plentiful sunshine, sufficient clean water, prime A and B soils, an optimum Ph level of 6.5, good drainage, no rot or mildew associated with rainy areas, very few pests, and they are close to markets.
The following are examples based upon State Department of Agriculture data from 2005 and 2007 that illustrate the importance of this particular agricultural land and why we cannot afford to lose it.
- Of the various forms of green beans consumed in Hawaii, a little over 50% was grown in Hawaii and almost 50% of that came from the farmland in question.
- Of the pumpkin and Kabocha squash consumed in Hawaii, 70% were grown in Hawaii and almost 80% came from this farmland.
- Of the honeydew melon consumed in Hawaii, 35% was grown in Hawaii and an astonishing 98% came from this particular farmland.
- Of the sweet corn consumed in Hawaii, almost 75% was grown in Hawaii, and over 75% of that came from this particular farmland.
We import 85% of the food we eat. It is estimated that we have only a week of food on the island at any point in time. A tsunami, hurricane, earthquake on the west coast of North or South America, an epidemic, spiking oil prices, war -- any major calamity -- could leave us without food. We may possibly need this land for our survival.
Our food security is also threatened by the escalating price of oil due to the depletion of existing major oil fields, the difficulty of exploiting the remaining oil, competition between nations for dwindling supplies, possible geopolitical problems (unstable governments, terrorism, etc.), to name a few. Imported food will get disproportionately more expensive in the coming years, compared to inflation on the mainland because so much of our food is imported using oil. We cannot afford to lose any more of our capacity to feed ourselves and coming generations, no less to lose the most productive 1,500 acres of land in the state.

Climate change is an established fact, despite well-funded and regionally successful disinformation campaigns mounted by the fossil fuel industries. One of the known consequences of climate change is less food security because of:
- Changing patterns of rainfall; longer deeper droughts mixed with stronger downpours of rain, not typically what farming requires
- Increased problems with crop diseases and pests as previously minor pests take advantage of new climatic conditions and previously unknown pests species change their range
- Flowering and fruiting are both dependent upon climatic conditions that plants evolved with. As climate changes many staple food species may become less productive or unproductive locally and globally.

Japan captured Manchuria and got into World War II because they needed farmland. They had covered so much of their own flat farmland with houses that they could not feed their own people.
Once land is covered over with houses, it can never be used for farming again. When it is gone, it is gone. We can’t eat houses.
In 2007, there were food riots in thirty different countries. The 2011 unrest in the Arab world, called the ‘Arab Spring’, is commonly attributed to a spike in the price of food. Arab populations tolerated oppressive governments for many decades until food security became a critical issue.
Lettuce and broccoli lose all of their nutrients in eight days. Other fresh foods also quickly lose their nutrition when stored for long times even in cold transport. Local food can be picked closer to full ripeness than container loads of food from across oceans. Local food is far more nutritious than imported food.
People are becoming much more farm and fresh-food conscious. Farmer’s markets are the fastest growing segment of the American food distribution system. The supply of local food at Oahu’s many farmers markets will severely decline if this project is allowed to cover so much of our best farmland.
Oahu’s people need food security. With all the insecurity in the world at the present time, the awareness of the issue of food security is much higher than at any time in the past. The nuclear fallout from the meltdown of Japan’s Fukushima power plant creates big questions about imported food.
The rich, prime farmland in ‘Ewa is actually clay. Clay soil is perfect for growing food, but is notorious for cracking concrete foundations, since it swells and contracts with cycles of alternating wet and dry. D.R. Horton intends to put 12,000 homes on the land. To do so, it will remove and cart away the richest and highest producing farmland in the state, and replace it with coral before building houses upon it.
The land that D.R. Horton has said it will leave in agriculture is comprised of gullies, gulches and hillocks. These lands are not easy to farm commercially. The flat lands are the best for farming. But the sloping lands are more difficult to build upon so that’s where the houses would go. So the developer’s claim that they are leaving much of the original land for farming is a deception.

A template for written testimony:

Land Use Commission
PO Box 2359
Honolulu, HI 96804-2359
Date

Full Name
Address
City, State & Zipcode

IN OPPOSITION TO: Ho‘opili Development (Docket No. A06-771)

Dear Commissioners:

Your preamble…

Discussion of your points…

Summary and closing…

Salutation,

Full Name
(Title and organization if you have one, which may enhance your standing or credibility)