2011-02-03 TPEARLSExhibitA - Laserfiche WebLink

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COTTLE: I don’t know that there’s anybody here today from the action committee. One thing that,if the Director thinks it’s appropriate, we could suggest is maybe deferring the application and get input from the action committee on how they view this request. That’s an option. DOMINGO: I think that’s good. LEITHEAD TODD: That would be up to the Commission if they wanted to get the input from the action committee. I think we’ve been wrestling with the CDP all along. And I think the vision is to try and direct growth, and particularly retail and commercial growth, to specific village centers. The difficulty I think is that Puna is a very, very large area. And if you think about the fact that it’s larger than the island of Oahu -. Obviously when you’re making a plan you don’t necessarily have every possible scenario in mind when you make it. And I do take to Mr. Melrose’s comments about the fact that there is a long stretch between Mt. View and Volcano where nothing has been planned. So it may be appropriate to have the action committee weigh in. But on the other hand the Commission does have the authority at this point to weigh the information and make a judgment based on its evaluation of the application. And we’ve wrestled -. You know, I think the difficulty for some applicants has been, is that the Department has taken a more perhaps restrictive approach in terms of interpreting the CDP than I think a lot of people may have anticipated. So that most of our recommendations on special permits have been negative, which have not necessarily been reflective of the people who live in the areas surrounding the applications. As we have seen on the prior special permit, the actual residents of a particular subdivision, the residents in a particular area, had actually come forward and said that they preferred to get services now rather than wait for services to appear sometime in the future in the village centers. And so sometimes I think we all feel a little caught in between a rock and a hard place. KERN: Thank you, Madam Director. Commissioner Domingo. DOMINGO: Yeah, Mr. Chairman, you know, I would like to say exactly that the Community Development Plan is flawed, because essentially it’s supposed to be a representation of the people who live in the community. Unfortunately issues such as these were not addressed in the Community Development Plan with regards to considering and entertaining special permits. Because the plan can say you have this whole area for agricultural use, but the State law also says that you can, where there’s an unusual but reasonable use you can come in for a special permit. And that’s what these people are doing. So, you know, there are two ways that you can look at this application, and two very strong arguments as to what way you would want one to go. And that’s where I’m standing right now. I certainly would support later on a motion to defer this action so that the staff can really look at it. The staff should look at it. And I think if the community would like to key in on this, you know, there are ways that they can do it; and I think they should because this issue is important. It would be precedent setting, to me, in a way because what we’re entertaining now is a proposal that would contradict the Community Development Plan, not necessarily in a narrow sense but in a very broad sense. So I think this is something that we should look at. KERN: Very good. Thank you, Commissioner Domingo. MELROSE: Can I add just a thought to that process? KERN: Yes. 9 EXHIBIT A