2009-02-19 TMINSON - Laserfiche WebLink

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WOODWARD: You know, this is one of these conditions that I really sympathize with these people. And in dealing with government and any government agency, you can’t win the game, if they keep changing the rules; and that’s what they’ve done. You know, there was not any prohibition to their driveway when it was put in originally; it was approved. And now they are trying to add another ten-foot easement that they don’t know if they are even going to ever use. So I’d say, you know, when you are dealing with a government agency and you are tying to win the game, you can’t win the game, if the rules keep changing. WATANABE: Okay, thank you. W. MINSON: Thank you. WATANABE: Ms. Bowman. BOWMAN: Just a question. I thought I heard you say that you have more than ample parking for the zoning. W. MINSON: We have, the project was designed to rezone, given enough parking, because we got plan approvals based on the figures, we’ve talked with, like, Deanne, at Planning, that’s 400 square feet per parking stall; we have 84 stalls, three ADA, three loading, etc. that’s been in the plan approval already. What I’m saying is if we originally designed this for ML occupancy, 30,000 square feet would mean we would only have to have 30 parking stalls, so we could actually have more building. The whole building was designed to be here today. And then we did not find out about Conditions G and H until after we’ve applied for a zone change request. We were never approached at any time in the history of this project that we were going to get surprised. We were kind of blind-sighted by this. That’s why I’m saying we tried our best to accommodate Kona rules, the government rules and the County rules, and prepared for this, and everything was fine. That’s why -. WATANABE: Okay. You have any follow-up? W. MINSON: Does that answer your question? BOWMAN: Well, a little bit. With the new MCX zoning, the new one that you are applying for, what I asked is if those 30 stalls, those mauka stalls are taken out, will you still have enough to meet the requirements for the new zoning? W. MINSON: Well, that, for us that’s kind of choking the chicken to try to get more businesses. And if I was a businessman to come in and rent this facility, and the 30 parking stalls would disappear -. Because parking is such a major issue in Kona, and we all know – probably Hilo has a same problem – parking is a premium, and just to forfeit that prime-time real estate on the exposure side of the building, that would convince all the upper shops into another parking nightmare like we experienced on Starbucks on Henry Street. It was just so frustrating getting in and out of that parking lot, that it was disappointing. So maybe Jamba Juice left for that reason; that’s what I heard, I’m not sure. But for us to lose prime real estate in exposure like that, that’s devastating to the project. EXHIBIT A 7