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we currently have a practice. And it is the vision of a medical clinic. That is his primary vision.
<br />But in meeting the needs of the community, there is a lot of land -- so Sidney will present the rest
<br />of it. Thank you.
<br />FUKE: Thank you very much.
<br />WOODWARD: Do we have any questions for Ms. Matsuura? Okay, Sidney.
<br />FUKE: Okay, thank you very much. I think that Commissioner Domingo had raised some very
<br />interesting and important questions that we’d like to address later on during the course of the
<br />presentation. As Wendy had indicated, well, first of all, we’d like to acknowledge the presence
<br />of one of visionaries of this application; and that’s Dr. Peter Matsuura, Wendy’s husband, who is
<br />doing his duty again in Iraq, you know, his third tour. Before going on, however, like we
<br />apologize for the untimeliness, perhaps, of your and the rest of the Commissioners receiving this
<br />very voluminous gift, you know, from the Planning Department. But we appreciate the
<br />cooperation and the professional way that the application has been handled by the Planning
<br />Department. I reviewed the background report and the recommendation and I thought it was
<br />done very, very professionally. We do have some recommended changes to some of the
<br />conditions which after the presentation I’d like to share and discuss it with both the Planning
<br />Department as well as the Planning Commissioners.
<br />If Dr. Matsuura were here, as Wendy had indicated, he probably would have expressed his vision
<br />much more eloquently than Wendy and I combined could have done it. But perhaps like, you
<br />know, Dr. Matsuura like maybe in part because of his profession as a doctor, in part as a
<br />humanitarian, and in part because of his upbringing, in part as a member of this Hilo community,
<br />he felt compelled, I guess, at certain point in time to address the community needs, particularly
<br />in the health care end. Maybe it was from his office everyday at Ka Waena Lapa‘au looking
<br />across the street, or daily like as he goes up back and forth to the Hilo Medical Center, there’s
<br />this large track of land that just sits vacant and he’s kind of wondering like what do you do with
<br />that kind of parcel, you know, and particularly since you have lot of the surrounding area, lot of
<br />medically- related uses, whether it’s the Ka Waena Lapa‘au complex or all of the medically-
<br />related facilities on the makai side of Puuhonu Street. So this is a natural area, it’s very close to
<br />the hospital, it’s close to evolving medically-related facilities, it has good roadway systems in
<br />that area. So then the question becomes how do you get 10 or 15 acres, you know, like directly
<br />across Ka Waena Lapa‘au, and all that stuff, to do or to fulfill his dream? It’s kind of hard
<br />because this is all part of a 171-acre area that was previously tagged as University Terrace.
<br />And so the only way you can get it is you’ve got to get the whole property. And so, you know,
<br />here you have like basically a physician and he’s not a developer, he’s a physician, he’s driven
<br />by the desire to do something for the community, like a medical campus, he now must try to find
<br />the means to acquire the land, secure the required entitlements, the funding, and then ultimately
<br />develop the project. For any seasoned developer, this would have been a very, very tough and
<br />monumental task. And it’s almost like a, it’s for a nondeveloper anyway, you know, it would be
<br />almost like David and Goliath. But ironically, you know, Peter does have a brother named
<br />David, but this is really like Peter versus Goliath, I mean, you know-. And so what Dr. Matsuura
<br />or Peter did was that he then formed a hui. As like Wendy had explained, all family members,
<br />you know, just trying to see like, get together and let’s collectively do something for the
<br />community.
<br />And so to answer your question, Commissioner Domingo, in March of 2009 they acquired the
<br />property. And then they retained a bunch of local professionals. Scott Fleming is here with
<br />Fleming and Associates. He was primarily responsible for doing the overall concept master plan.
<br />He retained Engineering Partners to help with the engineering component. I was retained. And
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