Unfair County Rules may kill windsurfing schools on Maui.

[actionsportsmaui]

Please use these updated email addresses when sending testimony.

• Executive director to the mayor Stan Zitnik Stan.Zitnik@co.maui.hi.us
• Public comments to Parks department parks.department@mauicounty.gov
• Tamara Horcajo, Maui County Parks Director, tamara.horcajo@co.maui.hi.us
• Zachary Helm, Deputy Director Parks, zachary.helm@co.maui.hi.us
• Mayor Charmaine Tavares, charmaine.tavares@co.maui.hi.us

[nealpar]

[hstwindsurfing]

Here are some numbers of what MC10-102 has taken away:
Eliminated 43 surfing permits.
Eliminated 45 kayak permits.
Eliminated 50 scuba permits.
Eliminated 9 windsurf permits.
Eliminated 15 kitesurf permits.
Eliminated 34 snorkel permits.

*In 2005 there were 277 permitted activities, In 2008 it was reduced to 97.
This is a 65% reduction.
Eliminated 18 surfing beaches from any Cora activity.
Eliminated 14 Kayak beaches.
Eliminated 8 Scuba beaches.
Eliminated 18 Windsurfing beaches.
Eliminated 18 and a half Kitesurfing beaches.
Eliminated 17 Snorkeling beaches.

There were no county imposed limits on number of instructors or group size. We have been self-regulating for 18 years. Kanaha has been called the model park because of the lack of user conflict.

[swchandler]

An interesting fact here is that county park property has been used by private businesses to profit. I'm not against these types of operations, just taking note of an important point. I doubt that the problems we're finding here would be a pertinent issue if associated with business activities conducted on private property.

[swchandler]

I don't know if eileen has ever been to Maui, but there are many shoreline properties on Maui that are private, as I've stayed at them. Now, it is my understanding that the beaches themselves are public and open to for use, the land immediately adjacent to the shoreline can be privately held.

Moreover, I also believe that beaches should be open to the public for use. Yet, even if shoreline properties are privately held on Hawaii, reasonable public access must be permitted. I'm not sure about the exact rules and requirements regarding public easements for access, I know they exist at some level and must be respected.

With regard to my earlier point, if a private sports business was to operate out of a private shoreline property, I don't think the county park folks could prevent or regulate it like they're now proposing at public beach parks.

[nealpar]

[hstwindsurfing]

First, all beaches are public in Hawaii even though the land adjacent may be private. The beach and water are governed by the state. The county governs the park and because we access the water thru the county parks we are subject to the county permit process.

Private land along the coast suitable for a business in wind sport instruction is not zoned for that purpose. To have an instructor(s) to your private home with shoreline access I think is not an issue. However our mayor is trying to put end to TVR’s

Regarding why? There was one operator on the other side of the island from Kanaha Beach Park that abused the privilege of operating a business in the park. He started the wheels in motion to greater restrict the operators. He has since sold out and moved on. However the county with their newly empowered park's director is over compensating for the one past violator. She is throwing the baby out with the bath water.

We as a group of operators have requested, at various times through this process, from the parks department information regarding complaints from the public so we could try to address any complaint directed at commerical activities but have yet to see any.

I also ask myself why they are doing this. Does the directive come from the mayor, I can’t say.

We were on the front page of the Sunday paper. The story was incomplete and not entirely factual. However the Parks director did ask for community input. You can email your comments, concerns to her at parks.dept@co.maui.hi.us

Specifically, the times (no Sundays, half day Saturday, no federal holidays, only two instructors per school {no way can the demand be met with only 2 instructors}).

Some thing could be said that in our visitor based economy, government should be embracing businesses like ours not creating hardship for their employees and owners.

Alan Cadiz

[tsokat]

Alan, has anyone ever complained that the larger operators were inhibiting them from starting a windsurfing instruction business? Because that is the only reason I can think of for the two instructor rule: to give new businesses a chance to break in. Perhaps it makes some sense with scuba and surfing, but that doesn't appear to make sense with windsuring instruction, however, since we are dealing with a very small pool of potential instructors.

[hstwindsurfing]

No the larger operators are not inhibiting them. The county placed a moratorium on permits several years ago. I was part of group to get the moratorium lifted. When Parks department took control of issuing permits they stop issuing until new park admin rules were completed. Formally Dept. of finance issued the permits.


Alan Cadiz

[actionsportsmaui]

Maui schools and instructors still need your support, you can still send emails to MauiCounty, before our public hearing in April and then Right up until June 30th deadline.

To see some more examples of email testimony in support of Maui windsurf Schools, check out the
Maui Watersports Forum,
http://216.70.100.159/forum/viewtopic.php?t=116