Supporters of two competing long-term public planning documents turned out in droves Monday at a 91直播 County Council committee meeting, some making claims that were later characterized by one council member as “conspiracy theories” and “AI psychosis.”
These accusations overtook a Policy Committee on Planning, Land Use and Economic Development meeting meant to discuss Bill 66, which adopts the 91直播 County General Plan 2045. After hearing testimony from more than two-dozen attendees both in support of and opposition to the bill, the committee voted 5-4 in favor of forwarding the legislation with a favorable recommendation to the full council.
Kohala Council-man James Hustace, Council Chair Holeka Inaba, Hilo Council-man Dennis “Fresh” Onishi and Puna Councilwoman Ashley Kierkiewicz all cast “no” votes.
General Plan 2045 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.
This exhaustive update — referred to informally as the “2045 Plan” — 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. 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.
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. 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 “2026 Plan” were the same as the documents it essentially replaces.
“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.”
County officials, including past and present planning directors, pushed back on the changes. 91直播 County Planning Director Jeff Darrow submitted written testimony for Monday’s meeting, which was attached to the bill as a “communication,” contending that the 2026 Plan went far beyond the scope of a simple amendment.
“I do not consider this as an amendment to the proposed Draft General Plan 2045, but a complete rewrite and consider it as a new draft plan,” Darrow wrote.
He cited a 91直播 County statute requiring that “county general plans and development plans shall be formulated with input from the state and county agencies as well as the general public.”
“This new draft plan did not receive input from either,” he wrote. “Up to just before the March 10 hearing, I did not see any public comments on this proposed new draft.”
Former Planning Director Chris Yuen has claimed that Kierkiewicz’s revision discards “years of effort,” asserting that “way too much was taken out.” Yuen gave oral and written testimony at Monday’s meeting responding to a common complaint made by General Plan 2045 opponents, who claim that the document would take away private property rights.
“What you can do on your property depends on county zoning and state land use law — not (on) the General Plan,” he wrote. “No one is cited for violating the General Plan. You can be cited for violating the zoning code, but that is true no matter what the plan says.”
Since then, other amendments have been proposed for Bill 66, including a handful from Hamakua Councilwoman Heather Kimball regarding the siting of data centers. The committee forwarded Bill 66 without amendments on Monday, saying it planned to use newly drafted legislation to add amendment provisions to the bill after its passage.
The majority of testifiers addressing the committee were in favor of the shorter, broader 2026 Plan. Among them was Josephine Keliipio, who claimed that Plan 2045’s language surrounding what she called the “evil climate change agenda” would spell ruin for the island. Kierkiewicz’s plan, according to Yuen, “removed all explicit mentions of climate change.”
“You are leading 91直播 County down a hell-hole by passing the General Plan 2045 that focuses on climate change agenda for the next 20 or 30 years,” Keliipio told council members. “Especially since we are witnessing all these disasters happening here in 91直播 and all over the U.S., which are obviously caused by engineered weather and not caused by climate change.”
She claimed the wildfires that tore across rural Georgia last month, burning tens of thousands of acres and destroying more than a hundred homes, were a man-made form of punishment meant to displace residents.
“Take note of our latest wildfire disaster over in Georgia state,” she said. “People were strongly in opposition of a data center coming to their county, and lo and behold, what happens? A huge wildfire breaks out, destroying people’s homes. That wildfire was not because of climate change. This is how they shuttle people — especially the most vulnerable people — into TODs (Transit-Oriented Developments) and 15-minute cities by releasing destruction into people’s lives.”
Keliipio attempted to draw parallels between the allegedly purposeful conflagrations in Georgia and recent disasters in 91直播, including the August 2023 Lahaina fire on Maui which resulted in at least 102 fatalities, and the historic flooding of Waialua on Oahu’s North Shore during the back-to-back Kona low storms in March.
“Think about it — a devastating wildfire in Lahaina, and a devastating flooding in Waialua, Oahu,” she said. “Valuable land just perfect for redevelopment, all in the name of climate change.”
Another attendee opposing Plan 2045 was Chris Hirose, who used his smartphone to play a sped-up AI-generated speech into the microphone when it came his turn to testify.
“I’m totally against the General Plan 2045 because it is based on the U.N. and World Economic Forum Agenda 2030,” the phone blared out. “While the ruling class fly around in private jets, they want the masses to be in open-air prisons called 15-minute smart cities. People will be fined if they go outside the boundaries of the smart cities.”
Hirose’s AI tirade justified its support for Plan 2026 by claiming that climate change initiatives are linked to globalist depopulation schemes.
“Climate change is a ruling class psychological operation that uses fear to imprison our minds, which in turn will imprison our bodies,” his phone said. “Even if CO2 warming is real, how is getting rid of agriculture areas going to save CO2, unless people starve to death?”
Once public testimonies wrapped up, Kona Councilwoman Rebecca Villegas attempted to address what she had just heard.
“Unfortunately, I see an epidemic of AI psychosis taking over and really affecting, unfortunately, a lot of people in our communities,” Villegas said. “And I see a direct correlation with the viewpoints, conspiracy theories, denials … (with) much of the false narrative coming at a national level — it’s quite an epidemic, actually.”
Toward the end of the meeting, the 2026 Plan’s author attempted to recast the litany of “conspiracy theories” as positive civic participation by the public.
“I really appreciate the opportunity to engage community at this level,” Kierkiewicz said. “It’s great to see so many folks coming out in support of (20)45, in support of 2026. I think this is what we all want is a community that is engaged with local government on a day to day basis.”
She took the opportunity to restate her objections to the 2045 Plan.
“It asks too much of our county,” she said. “And over the months that we have been convening committee … I’ve repeatedly asked the planning department, ‘how do we operationalize this plan?’ And the response is always, ‘well, the administration will do it.’ It doesn’t give me a lot of hope that what is contained in the document will actually materialize.”
Email Stefan Verbano at stefan.verbano@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
