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on the left is on the north side of the intersection, and then the view on the right is on the south
<br /> side of the intersection.
<br /> The planning director is recommending denial of the application for the following reasons: The
<br /> request will be contrary to state law, state land use law, the General Plan and Community
<br /> Development Plan, which all seek to preserve agricultural land for agricultural uses, such as
<br /> forestry, farming and ranching. The property is classified as Important Agricultural Land by the
<br /> county General Plan, which is the highest classification of agricultural land in the county because
<br /> of its potential for sustained high agricultural yields. The property is in the Kona Coffee Belt
<br /> and has an eight-acre farm on the 20-acre CPR unit. The planning director is concerned that
<br /> agriculture will no longer be the primary use of the CPR unit, and the event venue will become
<br /> the primary use since it is likely the income generated by the event venue will exceed the income
<br /> generated by the coffee farm. Two other reasons for the denial recommendation are the adverse
<br /> effects on surrounding property owners, which would include a substantial increase in traffic and
<br /> in noise, especially with events occurring up to 10:00 p.m. daily; construction and operation of
<br /> the event venue with a maximum of 250 to 500 visitors per week would substantially change
<br /> the agricultural character of the land and its present use. And the last reason for the
<br /> recommendation, the private one-lane access road is substandard with narrow pavement width,
<br /> unmaintained grass shoulders, blind curves and hills, areas where flooding occurs, and therefore
<br /> cannot accommodate an increase in traffic. The access road does not meet the fire code for fire
<br /> truck access due to steep grades over 15 percent in some sections and road pavement width of
<br /> less than 20 feet. The intersection of the access road with the highway is also substandard, and
<br /> DPW, Department of Public Works, recommended improvements be made.
<br /> These are four additional photos of Waiono Ranch Road that provide examples of the inadequate
<br /> sight distance and substandard nature of the road. The photo on the top left shows inadequate
<br /> sight distance due to hills, blind hills. The photo on the bottom right [sic - left] is an example of
<br /> inadequate sight distance due to blind curves in the road. And then the photo on the top right is
<br /> an example of both a blind curve and a blind hill combined. And photo on the bottom right is an
<br /> example of lack of drainage structures, which leads to water across the road. And you can see in
<br /> all four of these photos the unmaintained grass shoulders.
<br /> So that concludes the presentation part that I have to offer you. I do want to name off all of the
<br /> public testimony, the written public testimony, we've received and provided to the Planning
<br /> Commission since the commission received the original director's recommendation report. We
<br /> received testimony from Phil and Kelly Johnson, Steve and Audrey Grossman, Wendy Mitchell,
<br /> Brittany Horn, Allison Naito, Ann Ferguson, Ally Brown, Kyle and Ka`iulani Thornton, Beth
<br /> Balik, Lyla Mah, Danielle Burnside, Amelia Antonucci-Fisher, Aesha Shapiro, Sally Rice, Riley
<br /> Smith and Britt Craven, Sara Moore, Pamela Parker, Sarah Gehman, and lastly, a letter from the
<br /> applicant's representative, Zendo Kern, dated September 18'', which responded to the planning
<br /> director's recommendation, as well as a revised event venue floor plan. And I apologize that I
<br /> wasn't, I didn't have time to put the revised event venue floor plan in the presentation, but I do
<br /> have that available, if the commission would like to look at it once the applicant speaks about the
<br /> revision.
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<br /> EXHIBIT A
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