two thousand and fifteen please come back to come in to order my name is diane couch and the chairman of the committee before we get started let's make sure everybody turns off all their cell phones and noise making devices morning and we have our committee secretary powell in march and so it's been copying away today and yesterday and a few other days so good morning pauline we have the district offices out there we'll get to them members we have two items on the agenda today piece eleven lanai community plan update and p c twelve composting as a permitted use in agricultural district members they were going to we're getting ready to do testimony and we have the video conferencing we've received a memo and have been asked to start using the video conferencing be before around the beginning of the year so i figured we'd give it a shot in the committees now it's nothing new we've we're at council and we have it in or actually well so that's what we're going to be using and we're about ready to start public testimony for individuals testifying in the chamber please sign up at a desk outside in the chamber door if testifying from a remote testimony site please sign up with the district office staff testimony will be limited to the items listed on the addition pursuant to the rules of the council each testifier will be allowed to testify for up to three minutes pri them at this time we have enough testifiers that we're only going to do three minutes provide them so we'll be using the clock system it will go for two minutes and thirty seconds green thirty seconds on yellow and then when it turns red please wrap up your comments ok and also when testifying please state your name and any organization you may be representing members without objection hernandez yes and you guys not hearing us mr gilman went way over his time we've asked him to to end his remarks is there an issue with you guys not hearing us over there listen no it might be if it starts giving feedback echoing then you can't but keep an eye on the clock and after three minutes we have to have the folks wrap up their comments  thank you molokai a office anybody there waiting to testify there's still a year on reading to get by great thank you we'll get back to you at the end of this testimony period members we have five p will sign up to testify here so we'll start with jacob connor followed by ryan jackson ok so no discussions have been had with any landowners at this point yet ok well thank you for being here and showing your support thank you thank you members any further questions your support p c twelve i'm just like my business partner express it would open up so much more opportunity for launch our company in realizing our vision for the island to be self sustaining we're going to have so many landfill that be a when we can have an operation where we're being responsible and giving back to the community i think is a win and ultimately if we have a retail product that would spur on where we'd have a retail compost product that could be affordable in west mali that would spur on more growth of food crops so that we'd have more food for our people but i think it's also another win so i'm in support of p c twelve it opened up the possibilities for gentlemen for being here you have you folks have you been approached or gone out into the comedia see that there is a need for this yes we put together a pretty sizeable business plan we've looked at  competitors primarily it's going to be illegal dumping so that's a huge issue so ultimately you'd like to save time save gas or fuel made the air cleaner so we've talked to a t i know that we are really in the you know we're facing a threat of the spread of the fire and and the transportation of crme ways across this island from east to west is you know quite concerning for me do you plan on just keeping your business regional in the sense of just keeping it within your district do you plan to try to receive the greenways from other districts so the business plan speaks specifically for west side so our invasion from the tunnel  next testifiers bobby pat no followed by jerry r morning my name is bobby pat knowledge and i'm here today speaking for myself compost is very personal issue for me and my family my family is not family farm we're up on  and by the way we are dedicated and we pay market value on our home site we grow all our getting balls and we spend a lot of time making compost at our house probably at least one hours a week we a small site and we don't have enough green waste all the time at our place to make the compost that we need for our vegetables so we frequently go  so i have to find other ways to get what i need from my compost so i i really need to have this go through as an allowed activity on eggplant we need a place up in cooler where we can go and get what we need i hope that this doesn't become too complicated it's to me it's very simple just get composting at it as an all out activity and then you know sure why this bill would help you since composting is allowed in you're allowed to accept greenways from somebody else you just can't sell your compost to anybody oh well as i understand it composting is listed isn't listed as an allowed activity so there's lots of times when i can't make enough compost for us and it would be great if i could go get it from somewhere else and so that's mainly it and i you know i don't want to to have get it from some place stand polluted basically with fire and or something else that answer your question a little bit i know you can how all of this bill help you in your situation it would make it any questions so you next to testify is gretchen i'm sorry jerry ross followed by gretchen loser in my soaring should be licensing i think lot chairman coach and members of the planning committee i submitted the full written testimony so you've got all the gory details there so i'll just try to hit a few salient points in the next three minutes i name is jerry ross i'm with farms an organic farm  and and i'm also representing and speaking on behalf of the agricultural working group who is fully supportive of p c twelve the issue of compost local food production sustainability is absolutely paramount to our island community and in order to get there we need to have compost as an allowable activity on agricultural land so for example if i wanted to lease twenty acres from the egg park for compost operation i would not be allowed to and yet that's a really deal place to make compost the benefits of high quality compost as exemplified on our farm are multifold you make amazing soil use way less fertilizer some of you might have seen me in here testifying with huge kahlo plants we use one thirtieth of the recommended rates of fertilizer and we grow great food using now our soil has the ability to hold an amazing amount of water our erosion rates have decreased by ninety five percent according to the natural resources conservation service and like bobbie we spend a lot of time making compost and every week  because we use a lot of compost we produce sixty yards of wood chips on our farm we grow trees specifically to use them as it would ship source because of some of the issues that bobby talked about you never know what you get when you get a truck pulling up to your farm from somewhere else with a load of wood chips in it could have weed seeds could have fire ants could have all kinds of critters in it so we grow a lot of our own we collect twenty five tons of food waste a year my next stop after the council chambers here is over to a couple the commercial kitchens and restaurants that we work with and we collect the food waste from that so the local implications are profound i think we can produce a lot of our own food a lot of our own compost local food waste local green waste and if you want to even use the rock powder which is considered a waste by the emraan quarries which we do add that to your compost then you really get a supercharged product that really makes your plants jump out of the ground we counted a landfill let's see so now the county's part of the aloha plus challenge to double local food production by twenty thirty we're not going to do that by bringing in more bags of fertilizer from the mainland we will do that by allowing people to produce a lot more compost here locally and close the circle using waste as a resource to grow a lot more of our own food thank you thank you members any questions the testifier mr guzman and then m mark thanks whether you guys for going to research some of the requirements are limitations that may or may not be imposed by the department of health or the e p a or department of agriculture one of my questions would be is there a size for strict or it all twenty acres as you mentioned it's quite large for compost and then you you put in the factor of nuisance you know is it going to be a nuisance is it going to be a health hazard you know these are questions that are in my mind i think that it's composting i agree with you it's or too numerous and one area you know think density you know a lot of these composting commercial farming going on in one specific area are is that going to be hazardous i don't know so that's the question i have have you done any research on we've done quite a bit of research i work with people who are the compost gurus and consultants for the company that handles all the food waste in organic waste from the city of san francisco so we're a fair bit smaller than that so i don't see us becoming something that overflowing with health issues there's a lot of research that's been done on the mainland to develop  safe ways to compost not only green waste but also food waste and so we wouldn't be rediscovering the wheel we would like to work with the department of health to try to come up with regulations that keep the community safe but also allow us to work with food waste in a safe manner right now some of those regulations are a little bit intimidating as a start up company like we saw or a here with the young men were talking about that although they're talking about strictly green waste but there's a very unique and interesting convergence that we're starting to see now the farmers union is working with c tar the department of agriculture and the department of health to come up with a pilot project here on maui to look at food waste green waste for compost the comprehensive economic development strategy session that i attended as a an organic farmer but it was mostly people from h cns and the farm bureau and we went through that whole process for a couple hours at the