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July 31, 2012 <br /> Hawaii County Council Planning Committee <br /> Opposition to Bill 168 <br /> Change of Zone Application (REZ 11-143) <br /> RS-10 to CV-10 Souza/Mulliken TMK 1-8-002:064 <br /> My name is Dru Casburn, I live in Hilo, and I thank you for the opportunity to speak in opposition to this <br /> proposed zone change. I have visited the Nichols Road neighborhood many times over the past 16 years. <br /> This opposition isn't about resisting change, it is about the preservation and safety of this older <br /> neighborhood. A quiet neighborhood , where I have witnessed residents, young and old, walking the <br /> narrow unimproved road to catch the bus, to get to school, or to go to Mountain View Town center; a <br /> neighborhood of families playing ball in their yards and of kids riding bikes. It is currently a road less <br /> travelled. It is a neighborhood with houses on both sides of a one lane broken up road, homeowners <br /> dependent on existing shoulders for parking their cars, few residents using carports or garages for cars <br /> as is typical on Hawaii Island. A very narrow unimproved country road demands that anyone driving <br /> through must proceed slowly and with caution. This has made for a safe and quiet neighborhood for <br /> decades and decades since the first home was built early in the last century. <br /> A commercial business which includes the servicing of Large Utility Vehicles for the Volvanoes National <br /> Park , as the applicant has testified this would be, should not be placed in the front yard of an existing <br /> residence. These Vehicles would have to turn onto Nichols Road at the very entrance to this established <br /> and historic neighborhood. If you haven't driven through, from Nichols to Pszyk, I would encourage you <br /> to do so, to judge for yourself what road improvements would be necessary and the cost involved of <br /> those improvements to get the road to the point where Large Utility Vehicles could safely navigate <br /> through the neighborhood on a regular basis, and in order to safely enter or exit Pszyk Road - as the <br /> applicant in previous testimony has recommended they do as a safer alternative to Nichols Rd . <br /> To allow this commercial business here would be disruptive to the lifestyle that the families in this <br /> neighborhood have experienced for generations. Thank you. <br /> Comm. No. S7.--(0• o <br /> Ref.To: PI PC. <br /> Ref. Date, Jilt 2 1 24312 <br />