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for the Commission as to what the overall plans of the County are, rather than saying that, it’s <br />not a condition of the permit. None of these things are proposed conditions of the permit itself. <br />DOMINGO: But that -. <br />WATANABE: Mr. Domingo, because of the time constraints, could we hold that <br />question? Because the Director would still be here and we can address that to a greater extent. <br />DOMINGO: Okay, okay. <br />WATANABE: Mr. Terry -. <br />THIEL: Thiel. <br />WATANABE: Thiel, excuse me. Would you please provide, take a seat here. Since he’s <br />a County employee I don’t need to swear him in, yeah? <br />TORIGOE: It’s up to you. <br />WOODWARD: Mr. Chairman? <br />WATANABE: Yes. <br />WOODWARD: If I might address Commissioner Domingo’s concern, one of the things in <br />the recommendation from Director Yuen, “Offsite parking is not required for this area in <br />Downtown Hilo. Patrons of the proposed project will utilize on-street parking in the area and the <br />parking areas located across Kamehameha Avenue at Mooheau Park. Additionally, the applicant <br />owns a private parking lot with space for over 80 vehicles for vendors and customers on a parcel <br />located across Mamo Street.” So I’d just like that for the record. <br />WATANABE: Okay, thank you. Maybe we can have you, and since you are a County <br />employee I’m not going to require you to be sworn in. Would you then provide your testimony <br />and enlighten us on the potential mitigating factors. <br />THIEL: My name is Ron Thiel. I’m the Chief of the Traffic Division for <br />Department of Public Works. I’ve been in communication with the owner, Keith Dela Cruz, for <br />several months looking at addressing the current traffic concerns that we have. And we are <br />looking at closing a portion of Mamo Street for 150 feet in length on Wednesdays and Saturdays; <br />and in doing that we’re going to be losing some parking spaces. And we are also looking at <br />trying to figure out how we can get additional parking in the area. So these are negotiations that <br />I’m working now with the owner. It has nothing to do with this SMA. But the Planning <br />Department thought that since we were doing this already it would be of interest to you to have <br />this information. <br />We don’t have any concrete plans at this point in time but I am proposing methods in which we <br />can eliminate the pedestrian-vehicular conflict in the area; and the best way to do that is to put in <br />a pedestrian signal with an all pedestrian, or a traffic signal with an all pedestrian crossing phase <br /> EXHIBIT B 4 <br /> <br /> <br />