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ISHIBASHI: My concern is traffic. You’re going to be so famous now with you selling this
<br />bread all over, the thing is going to expand, and now we’re going to have more traffic. So that’s
<br />another issue, you know.
<br />T. ROBESON: Well, again, the traffic, you know, the Police Department looked at it. I mean,
<br />they didn’t see an issue. There’s good visibility in both directions. You know, there’s a pretty
<br />good easy pull in and out.
<br />LEITHEAD TODD: Based on, you know, the size of their operation, it didn’t trigger the
<br />requirement for a TIAR, for a traffic impact analysis. Because they’re talking, they think, 30 to
<br />50 cars a day, you know, perhaps more depending on the traffic. But typically when you’re
<br />looking at traffic impacts you’re looking at whether they’re going to generate 50 trips within an
<br />hour, as opposed to 50 trips over the course of the day. And you’re usually looking at peak
<br />travel times. So the biggest areas of concern would be traffic early in the morning when people
<br />are headed to work and traffic when people are headed up. But, you know, I don’t think that that
<br />per se is as big an issue.
<br />The biggest issue for me was the CDP. And, frankly, you know, all plans, including the General
<br />Plan, have conflicting provisions. You know, on the one hand you’ll have language that says
<br />you want to have particular uses concentrated in a Village Center. On the other hand you have
<br />language in the CDP and the General Plan that talks about trying to enhance the viability of
<br />agriculture and the ability of farmers to sell their products and to produce value-added products
<br />from local agriculture. And you have similar types of language in the Puna CDP. And so
<br />sometimes the difficulty is you look at competing values. Whereas, something like this does fit
<br />some of those values because it is about economic diversity and providing opportunities; and it
<br />does also potentially enhance agricultural uses because they’re able to sell their products in that
<br />store.
<br />On the other hand you have a vision where they want to try and concentrate certain types of
<br />commercial activity in the village centers. And the difficulty that both my staff and I have every
<br />time one of these comes through is try to decide, you know, which one do we pay more attention
<br />to. Do we pay more attention to the village center in trying to push activity there, or to an
<br />application which as other types of merits to it in terms of the economic opportunities, in terms
<br />of supporting agriculture, and which one do you weigh as important? And it has been a very
<br />difficult balancing act on our part because you canhave an application that in other
<br />circumstances the Department might actually recommend because it’s a good proposal, it looks
<br />like it’s going to be well operated. But, you know, we’ve been erring on the side of trying to
<br />direct growth towards the village centers and, you know, that has presented some, some
<br />problems in terms of the applications.
<br />KERN: Thank you, Madam Director. Commissioner Domingo.
<br />DOMINGO: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I sympathize with you folks. You know, it’s apparent
<br />and clear to me that what you’re trying to do is a thing that is going to be beneficial to the
<br />community, and especially even to the farmers. Because the farmers would be able to bring their
<br />products in and process that, and prepare whatever they need, and people can go there, as you
<br />described with the lady who had that spice.
<br />Down in my area in the Hamakua Coast there’s one community kitchen in Paauilo. I don’t know
<br />if they’re still in operation. And there’s one in Honokaa, that’s a part of the old hospital which is
<br />now the North Hawai‘i Educational Resource Center. So adjacent to that is the kitchen, and it
<br />has been widely used. In fact, some years ago when I was on the County Council I had, you
<br />know, we had many interactions with people. And I know a lady here in Hilo who was
<br />interested in processing achiote oil, but there’s no way that she could have done it. So what
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