HILO, Oct. 21 >> If the people who are professionally planning for this State have anything to say about it, the view of Diamond Head will remain unmarred by any more high-rise apartments.

And leading the list of State and County officials who are empowered or dedicated to planning Hawaii’s Statewide development — including the preservation of Diamond Head — is the Director of the State Planning Office, Frank Lombardi.

Yesterday, in this city where the disaster of a tidal wave tossed the work of men around like matchsticks, delegates to the 1961 Conference of State and County Planning Commissions and Directors adopted a resolution to protect Diamond Head from further high-rise construction.

“We believe that every person who calls Hawaii home has an interest in preserving the symbol that means home to him … trustees of a beloved landmark that belongs to all Hawaii,” the resolution said.

“The construction of high-rise buildings will deface Diamond Head’s unique and magnificent profile and substitute in its place a solidified mixture of one part cement, two parts sand, and three parts rock — a mixture found the world over,” the resolution said.

Delegates from Kauai introduced the resolution which did not pass without challenge.

Oahu’s Planning Commission abstained from voting on the resolution, using as reason the fact that the commission has already approved further Diamond Head apartment zoning. …

Maui delegates, with no stake in the game, also abstained from voting.

They gave as reason the fact that the Kauai resolution did not define what was meant by the term “high-rise.”

Masao Nagasako, speaking for Maui, said that the conference … had no jurisdiction to meddle in an affair which concerns Oahu.

Lombardi, nevertheless, sealed the issue when he unequivocally came out for a Diamond Head profile unobstructed by more towering apartments.

“Diamond Head,” he said, “is of Statewide importance. The objective of this resolution is of concern to this body, and I am for it.”