2022-07-07 Windward Exh E (Item 4 Yamada & Sons PL-SPP-2022-000012)

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YAMADA: Oh yeah, sorry, from Hilo. ARAI: Again, thank you very much. Thank you for the very thorough presentation and thank you Director Kern for the favorable recommendation. We apologize for the flurry of communications the between the department and the applicant. The time since our last regularly scheduled meeting back in June was a well-served. It gave us the opportunity to work with the community, to work with the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands to really understand the concerns, address their issues, and hopefully find common ground where both the applicant and community can mutually benefit from the proposed request. As we sit here today, this has been a 3-year journey by the applicant. It started with the preparation of archaeological studies, cultural impact assessment reports, developing an environmental report that was accepted by the State. Going before the State Land Board to secure a land license for the 37.882-acre project site and culminating with the filing of this Special Permit application that you have before you today. Each and every step along the way, adjustments were made to the overall project. It originally started with a vision of maybe an excess of fifty (50) acres and due to findings and considerations it was reduced. It just one of many such adjustments that were made throughout the entire process. So, yes it has been a long, but a fruitful journey and I say fruitful because again it culminates with the letter that you received dated June 27. Where discussions with the Keaukaha-Pana`ewa Farmers Association and the Department of Hawaiian Homelands. We offer the proposed amendments to the various conditions that we were very appreciative of coming from the Planning Director. We hope that like the association and like DHHL that the commission finds these conditions acceptable and warrant a favorable recommendation from all of you. I would like to speak briefly about Condition No. 5 which speaks to the use or the restriction on the use of rock hauling equipment by the applicant to transport material from the proposed quarry site to their processing facilities located just off of Ho`olaulima Road. As structured the condition does not take away any authority from the Department of Environmental Management (DEM) who has made the request that the use of equipment be limited to street legal vehicles only. We simply ask that the condition as proposed by the applicant be accepted in order to provide flexibilities that should circumstances change over the twenty (20) year life of the land license. That the applicant and discussions with the Department of Environmental Management can make decisions on its own. Because as currently worded from the Planning Director any changes or any additional considerations must go through the same amendment process with a final decision by the State Land Use Commission. And that is just in our minds an unwarranted exercise especially when the final call will still remain with the Department of Environmental Management. A case in point is that between the project site and the applicant's processing facilities located just before the County's transfer station. The roads are very wide, and it was improved as such in order to accommodate the large truck haulers that currently navigate through along that alignment and been doing for probably 30 years. At least 30 years with no incidents of any public safety concerns. We understand why the Department of Environmental Management made that statement and if it is still required by Environmental Management the applicant has no choice but to comply. But 6 EXHIBIT E