Laserfiche WebLink
Dorothy Walsh <br /> P.O. Box 90 <br /> Kealakekua, HI 96750 <br /> ' ~ i (SOS) 322-3005 <br /> Dear Roy Takemo[o, August 23, 2005 <br /> My name is Dorothy Walsh and 1 have been a resident in Kona for the past 17 years. My family and <br /> I live on a 2-acre agriculture [arm in Kainaliu where we grow plants and fruit trees. Our family is <br /> very concerned about the potential amendments to Chapter 25 of the zoning code, which specifically <br /> relates to agricultural tourism. <br /> Our neighbor is Joe and Deepa Alban who own Kona Joe Coffee. They advertise on television as well <br /> as in all the tourism publications, touting themselves as a "World Class Visitor Center." A year and <br /> a half ago, they built a huge structure under a permit as a coffee processing facility. Most of their <br /> structure is for the purpose of tourism and sales of coffee, chocolate, mugs, tee shirts, and other <br /> tourist related products. They operate their agricultural tourism facility without a special use permit <br /> and have visitors of 150 cars per day, including tour buses. Their "roadside stand° consists of a <br /> structure much greater than 1000 square feet. On several occasions [hey have had special events on <br /> their property. In addition, their advertisement signs on Mamalahoa Highway blatantly seek out <br /> other coffee farmers from which they can buy coffee. Dcesn't this bring up the question about <br /> agricultural tourism straying into the path of literally becoming a commercial operation? <br /> Our family has been adversely affected by the noise of their coffee processing which is 75 feet from <br /> our home, as well as numerous tourist traffic. Because they have no special use permit, they have <br /> had no reason to be concerned with noise levels or consideration of the neighbors. I want to make an <br /> appeal that as you consider Chapter 25 of the Hawaii County Code related to Agricultural Tourism, <br /> that you would be considerate of situations like ours where neighborhoods are adversely impacted. <br /> Please limit the number of annual visitors and have specific guidelines in which you would protect <br /> neighbors. I believe that the abatement of noise is a very important issue that needs to be addressed <br /> by those involved in agricultural tourism. If specific guidelines and parameters are established and <br /> indeed enforced, then problems will not arise like those we are dealing with on a daily basis. <br /> 1 understand that tourism is vital to our state's economic success, however I do believe that when <br /> tourism operations such as our neighbors are allowed to continue without standardized guidelines, <br /> our state is disregarding the numerous other agricultural neighbors that make Hawaii so wonderful. <br /> There are numerous Pandora's boxes that are presently opened and need to be dealt with. That <br /> means that some sort of enforcement of these parameters will need to be actually carried out. <br /> <br /> Thank you for your time and consideration in this matter, which is crucial to preserving our <br /> <br /> agricultural (ands. Please support agricultural farmers like ourselves who do not wish to participate <br /> in agricultural tourism. <br /> <br /> Sincerely yours, <br /> <br /> Dorothy Wa sh <br /> <br />