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PIPAN: Aloha,my name is John Pipan. I live just outside of Honoka`a. Also today joining us is Aaron Baribeau, the property manager for the Wards. The Wards are with Aaron as well. They are here to basically answer any questions Commission may have for them directly. Aloha, Chair Vitousek, Planning Commissioners. Thank you for your service to your community, dedication to this process. Thank you to the Planning Department staff, Deputy Director Darrow. We really appreciate the favorable recommendations and respectfully request your consideration to forward a favorable recommendation to the County Council. First and foremost, I want to address the testimony of Ms. Funakoshi characterizing our call as bullying or bribing. The Funakoshis were requesting a concession from the applicants in form of the fence and the stop sign and convex mirror, and this is above and beyond any county conditions or requirements and comes with that an expense. So my discussion was simply to request her support in exchange for a commitment for her requested improvements. So in general, I struggle with social anxiety, I always have, and the community relation aspects are particularly difficult for me, and I'm learning through this process to communicate myself better and not as frequently put my foot in my own mouth.. So apologize to Ms. Funakoshi for any uncomfortability resulting from our talks. I apologized to her on that call and multiple times since then. So I didn't intend for it to come off as bullying. I'don't want her to compromise her morals or principles, and I promise to strive to do better in my communications. So onto the applications at hand, the intent of these applications is to provide additional housing options for Kona, which is in very high demand. You couple that with a limited supply, and you get the drastic increases in housing costs we've been seeing in the past couple decades. So the proposed development would help the situation,`creating six additional lots. While that's a small fraction of what would be required to affect prices, it's a step in the right direction. This parcel is designated for urban use by the General Plan and the Kona CDP, and the proposed state land use boundary amendment would bring the state designation into conformance with the character of the area and the county community plans. So the parcel is surrounded by developed properties,and in that respect it's a perfect candidate for infill, which is supported by the Kona CDP. And fair share contributions from the developers would contribute to county parks,police, fire, solid waste facilities, and road and traffic infrastructure. So the contention that we are just asking for favors and not giving back to the community is kind of unfounded. People have to live somewhere. If this isn't the good place, then where is that? If the answer is no growth, period, for the island, we'll see more of the same and increases in property taxes and pricing locals out of the housing market." So that's said, there have been some concerns raised by the community members, and they fall into humane categories—the preservation of farmland, water quality impacts, archaeological sites. I'll address preservation of farmland first. The proposed rezoning still permits farming, and conditions of the state land use boundary amendment protect surrounding agricultural uses. So this parcel is not classified as Important Ag Land and has a Land Study Bureau soils rating of E,which is the lowest. You couple that with steep, steeper slopes found on this parcel, and you get an increased chance of erosion and sedimentation from agricultural pursuits on a property like this. And this feeds right into the potential water quality impacts. 5 DRAFT