At the May 29 meeting of the County Council's General Plan Committee, some 18 people testified in favor of retaining Maalaea's urban growth boundary (UGB) as shown in the draft Maui Island Plan, and excluding development in the old, ill-conceived Project District 12. Sixteen of them graciously relinquished their three minutes and agreed to submit written testimony to save the committee's time. But testify they did.
A lone developer argued that his proposed development should be included within Maalaea's UGB. He was one person - out of a total of 30 testifiers - who spoke for three minutes out of more than three hours of public testimony.
In the report on this meeting (The Maui News, May 30), the 18 people who spoke out against his development got one column inch. The lone developer got 5 - count 'em - 5 column inches, way out of proportion to his time or his message.
What a spin. This must set a new world's record for slanted reporting. The Maui News has become so slanted on this issue that it's a wonder the pencils don't roll right off the desks.
Rob Riebling
Maalaea
