2007-01-05 tginger - Laserfiche WebLink

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IWASHITA: Thank you, Mr. Chair. I agree that a TIAR will be helpful for us to evaluate this matter and that should be, in this particular case it just seems to me because of the already challenging situations that occur there on a regular basis that that’s something that we should consider requiring before proceeding with this particular application. GRAHAM: Thank you. If that’s all, I’ll call the applicant forward. Thank you. I believe I have one person signed up for public testimony. So when I swear in the applicant now if anyone who’s going to give public testimony will stand in place, and I’ll ask you to raise your hand too to do it all together. Okay, so would you all please raise your right hand. And do you swear or affirm to tell the truth on this matter now before the Hawaii County Planning Commission? TESTIFIERS: Yes, I do. GRAHAM: All right, thank you. At this point we’ll take a presentation from the applicant and have questions, and thereafter we’ll take public testimony. LIM: Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Members of the Commission. Steven Lim with Carlsmith at PO Box 686 in Hilo. To my left is Mr. Jon Gomes who’s the manager of the applicant, Ginger Patch DP, LLC. We’d also like to thank and acknowledge the presence of the Shiroma family and the Miyashiro family seated to the rear of the room who are some of the, the Shiroma family is the owner of the property and the Miyashiro family are adjoining property owners. As you’ve seen from some of the materials that we submitted, the neighboring property owners who would be the Kouchi family located right in the notch there of the project and the Miyashiro family to the north expressed some concerns over screening the potential commercial uses from the residential uses that they’ve had for years. And so the applicant and those families have agreed to construct a 6-foot high stone wall/rock wall buffer along the northern property boundary. And so we’ve received approval from them to represent that they have no problems with the application. We have not received any other comments on the application from the other surrounding owners. We’ve reviewed the background report and recommendation by the Planning Department and the conditions proposed for approval; and we have no objections to those. I think the issue on this project has always been the traffic issue at that Kekela Street intersection. As you were going through your discussion I was talking to Mr. Gomes and I think we understand the issue. We would like the rezoning to proceed in an expeditious fashion to go forward to the County Council. I think as you can see from our project proposal there the Prince Kuhio Mall side entrance along Kekela Street is the one that would generate the left-turn movements potentially towards Puainako, towards the Mall. I think that that’s what’s happening, I know that that’s what happening already from the existing residents out there. I think in our discussions we believe that, well, one thing that hasn’t happened is we have had no objections, no comments about the entrance to the project along Puainako Street. It would basically be as you’re coming from the mall towards the project, it will be a right-turn in and a right-turn out only. We think that the project entrance at that site would be designed such that EXHIBIT B 7