2005-01-21 TLAURANCE - Laserfiche WebLink

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shoreline setback if you look at that it kind of goes along and now it jogs in from my house and goes back out again, or at least if you look at the last assessment. I realize theyre only good for a year, Im not trying to play lawyer. Im just saying the shoreline assessment got moved inland from my lot. I had no idea that was happening. I had already designed and paid an architect, Bill Weigang, a great architect whos here is town, to design the house for me, for my family. Wed already done all that work; and then when we submitted the application it came- he realized and they all realized, no, wait a minute the shoreline certification got moved inland on us. But at the time, I had already spent all the money to design the house. It wasnt a matter of- its sort of- Im not blaming anyone, but this was a big surprise. I had no idea because you saw- there are pools seaward of where we are, pools a lot closer than 5-foot to that wall. You walked by two of them this morning. So at, when we saw that we thought, anyway, it was a surprise. VITOUSEK:It mentioned that you could have reduced the size of your house and somehow adjusted the size of your house and put the pool in a different location. What, whats your-? LAURANCE:Well,Icouldhavepaidthearchitecttoredothewholehousebutthiscost a lot of money for the architect to do the house. I put a chunk- you know, he would, he would do it, hes in the business to do things, hes a nice fellow; and if I said no, I want to have the pool-. But then, not only would I have the expense but then the house would be smaller. And I really, although its a big house, Ive got- with 4 other, 4 families to come in that house, I wanted the house to have the room in it. So, and besides, I just at the time anyway, not understanding everything I understand now, I just, I just thought since everybody else had the pools out there and I was going to- it just seemed like everything was going to be okay. I, I could have made the house smaller but- it would have cost a ton of money, a ton. VITOUSEK:Okay. And so that, and so you understood then that you had to apply, in order to put the pool in that location, you had to apply for a shoreline setback variance, isnt that correct? LAURANCE:Yes. VITOUSEK:And you understand that the Planning Commission has the discretion with respect to whether to approve or deny the shoreline setback variance? LAURANCE:Absolutely. Thats why I came today to beg. VITOUSEK:And, and among the criteria are the, the question whether this is a reasonable use of the land. And I just wanted to have, you know, the Commission hear your statement in terms of whether you feel this is a- a swimming pool in that location is a reasonable use of land. LAURANCE:Rather than logic let me just talk from heart. I want my grandchildren to argue with my- with their parents- my daughters that they could come spend their summers with papa in Kona. Now they are other pools, public pools I could take them to. But having the ocean there to fish in and having the pool there and the things around us, I think will help me sort 22