By David Corrigan and Stephanie Salazar

HAMAKUA COAST, Hawaii: Last week, Peter Serafin reported on only one focus of the Hamakua Community Development Plan – small village revitalization – using the town of Honomu as an example…

This week, we have an update on the CDP progress, courtesy the Hawaii County Planning Department.

The CDP Team has been hard at work on a booklet of “Proposed Strategies Under Consideration”. Within the next few weeks, the strategies will be reviewed by the Steering Committee and then discussed at the upcoming Steering Committee Meeting on November 1st.

The booklet will be ready for public review by mid-November, but we can tell you some of the things it will include:

– An effort to designate the Old Mamalahoa Highway as a new Heritage Corridor

– To preserve the sacredness of Waipi’o Valley as a natural, cultural, and scenic resource. The strategy will consider seeking an official Wahi Pana status for the Valley at either the County, State, or Federal level.

– To reinforce the Regional “Flavor” and Hamakua identity of local agricultural products and entrepreneurial endeavors through promotion.

– To preserve prime agricultural lands with directed growth towards existing population areas and using Important Agricultural Lands (IAL) designation incentives.

– To strengthen the School-Community Relationship

– And to implement watershed “management measures” through conservation plans

The next Steering Committee Meeting will be held on Tuesday, November 1, 2011, 5:00-7:30 pm at North Hawaii Education & Resource Center.

Another note to pass along, this one about the annual Hamakua Alive festival that was scheduled to be held on Saturday, October 29, at Pa’auhau Plantation… according to the festival’s official Facebook page, the event has been cancelled ths year.

This is video from last year’s event.

Fans and followers of the festival’s Facebook page expressed disappointment in the sudden news. A reason for the cancellation has not been published.