The 91直播 County Council chambers rang out with criticisms Tuesday as a committee meeting meant to consider a long-term planning document devolved into accusations, lawsuits and conspiracy theories.
These heated arguments monopolized the Policy Committee on Planning, Land Use and Economic Development’s deliberations over Bill 66, which adopts the 91直播 County General Plan 2045. After hearing from a long procession of roughly two dozen testifiers — both in support and opposition — the committee voted unanimously to postpone its decision on the bill until its May 4 meeting.
The General Plan is a 20-year comprehensive policy document guiding land use, growth, public services and transportation on the island. Its current edition was adopted in 2005 and has come to the end of its functional lifespan, prompting the Planning Department to submit a 310-page revision to the County Council in March of last year.
This lengthy update is typically referred to as the “2045 Plan” — a byproduct of years of public hearings, meetings and exhaustive public comment periods, with thousands of comments collected about the draft document and its associated maps. The 2045 Plan calls for climate change adaptation, strives for net-zero carbon emissions, and focuses growth in urban centers in order to protect rural, agricultural land. It also contains stricter land use controls, provisions for increasing mass transit, and requirements for renewable energy adoption.
However, the plan’s slow and steady progress was turned on its head last month when Puna Councilwoman Ashley Kierkiewicz sent her fellow council members a 71-page proposal that would abridge the significantly longer and more detailed plan submitted by the Planning Department. In a letter sent by Kierkiewicz to the council two weeks later on March 19 attempting to justify the changes, she argued the objectives of her “2026 Plan” are the same as the document it seeks to replace.
“The 2026 Plan maintains the core intent of the 2045 Draft,” she wrote, accusing the longer plan of being a “catch-all for every worthy goal the county might pursue,” creating a long list of expectations that are impossible to live up to.
“When too much is placed into a General Plan, the document begins to overpromise, and the county is left to underdeliver,” she wrote. “If every concept is treated as a priority, nothing is.”
Pushback to the changes has been substantial. Planning Director Jeff Darrow described it as a “complete rewrite” ignoring the input from more than 100 community meetings.
Former Planning Director Chris Yuen wrote in a Tribune-Herald op-ed on April 5 that Kierkiewicz’s revision discards “years of effort,” asserting that “way too much was taken out.”
Yuen testified at the committee meeting Tuesday via Zoom and took issue with the abbreviated plan’s lack of maps and land use provisions.
“My specific criticisms of the 2026 Plan are that it downgrades the role of the General Plan maps and implies, and in fact it states, that they’re not binding on zoning decisions — the primary and most important function of the General Plan maps,” he said.
He also expressed concern about its reduction of zoning categories from 14 to just four.
“There is absolutely no way that this provides good guidance for land use with just four categories. It just simply can’t be done,” he said. “It doesn’t differentiate between where you have resort or commercial, single-family, multi-family, industrial zoning.”
Other testifiers opposing the 2026 Plan claimed it is the product of a rushed, nontransparent process that has “received almost no public attention or publicity” in violation of 91直播’s “Sunshine Law” — a regulation requiring government bodies to conduct their business in public.
This sentiment was shared by Mountain View resident Aaron Zeeman, who testified in-person at the meeting.
“My position is simple: When the operating General Plan has been materially altered, and when there are serious questions about whether the public and reviewing bodies have been given a fair chance to evaluate those changes, the responsible action is not to rush the vote,” Zeeman said.
Earlier that day Zeeman, with the help of a process server, brought a lawsuit to the Office of Corporation Counsel — the county’s department of legal advisers — naming the County Council as defendant and asking the Circuit Court for a preliminary injunction to stop the council’s vote on Bill 66 “until the legality of the underlying General Plan process can be heard and decided.”
“This matter is now before the court,” he told the council. “Corporation Counsel has been served.”
Kailua-Kona resident Janice Palma-Glennie testified via Zoom and claimed the 2026 Plan “insults community process and responsible leadership.”
“It is in-fact a dangerous nonplan that throws the baby out with the bathwater,” Palma-Glennie said.
“A General Plan is the county’s guiding legal land use document,” she said. “Yet, we have a small band of well-meaning but poorly informed activists who have become partners in undermining decades of positive community effort and successes achieved by thousands of people who have stood up for better proactive land use planning like the ordinances in General Plan 2045.”
She then directed her condemnation toward the 2026 Plan’s author.
“Ms. Kierkiewicz does no one a favor by introducing dangerous and democracy-stifling sleight of hand legislation to gut and replace that plan,” she said. “This effort seems designed to bamboozle those who believe that their ‘don’t tread on me’ philosophy is good for anyone but big bucks special interests, particularly the real estate and development industries. (She) would have us believe that locking us into the sprawl, traffic, decimation of shorelines and culture that thousands of residents have been fighting to emancipate themselves from is somehow freedom. Again, freedom from whom?”
There were testifiers in support of the 2026 Plan, like Hilo resident Donna Grabow.
“The GP 2045 was an attempt to reset society by removing private property rights, controlled travel and health, and citizens would be subjected to new fees, regulations and fines, basically treated like probationary criminals … the 2026 (Plan) doesn’t have this,” Grabow said. “The backbone of GP 2045 is a … new world order of connectivity or Big Brother monitoring with cameras to maintain control over citizens.”
When testimonies finally wrapped up, Kierkiewicz attempted to justify her proposal.
“I thought long and hard about my time on the council and everything that the county is trying to do, and being really just realistic about what we can afford and the county’s capacity … and our inability to just do things,” she said. “And it really had me questioning what’s appropriate within our General Plan, and I was on a quest to trim the fat.”
She pushed back on claims from testifiers like Zeeman who claimed her plan lacked public input.
“I don’t want anybody to think that the community feedback that was provided over the last decade was disregarded,” she said. “I’d like to think that the 2026 Plan is the distillation of the community’s best ideas, and it is articulated in a way that is simple, is clear, is concise and is enforceable. You know, some folks have commented, ‘Oh my God, it’s only 72 pages.’ You know what? It doesn’t make it any less serious.”
Email Stefan Verbano at stefan.verbano@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
