08-25-2022 ACK LTR TO FAY SAKATA (PETITION_PL-CCH-2022-007_PL-SPP-2022-015)

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STEVEN AND FAY SAKATA 1617 Mele Manu Street Hilo, HI 96720 August 24, 2022 County of Hawaii Planning Department 101 Pauahi Street, Suite 3 Hilo,HI 96720 Re: Petition For Standing In A Contested Case Hearing Windward Planning Commission Public Hearing: September 1,2022,9:00 a.m. New Business Agenda Item No. 3 Application for Special Permit(PL-SPP-000015) Applicant: Randy Kunimoto Affected Property: 1625 Mele Manu Street, Hilo, TMK 3rd/2-5-061:058 Dear Planning Department and Windward Planning Commission: This letter is submitted in support of our August 24, 2022 Petition For Standing In A Contested Case Hearing and to provide further explanation of our clearly distinguishable interest in this matter from that of the general public. We have lived at the top of Mele Manu Street since 1996 when we built our home in what was then,and was for several years thereafter, a quiet,private, safe, low-traffic subdivision. After Randy purchased his lot just above ours and built his residence in 2005, he installed a tennis court and thereafter began to operate a compensated tennis lesson business which became a full-time enterprise. The negative impact of his commercial tennis operation upon us and our neighborhood was soon apparent,with a major increase in daily traffic driving up and down our street,often at high speeds,with tennis lessons and play occurring seven days a week,from 7:00 a.m.to after 9:00 p.m., and loud noise from the many players and the sounds of tennis activities reaching our home and the homes of other neighbors all day long and into the late evening. Two close-up aerial photos are attached. The first photo shows Randy's property,his tennis facility,his large parking area for his patrons,and two neighboring houses to the right. The second photo shows our house which is just below Randy's property. This photo also shows our driveway where it enters the cul de sac. Randy's patrons drive right in front of our driveway entrance when arriving and leaving his property. This often requires us to stop abruptly when leaving our driveway to avoid a collision,and multiple cars are often backed in the cul de sac waiting to drop off and pick up players during heavy tennis lesson traffic. Even though Randy's daily tennis activities and the increased traffic were having a huge, negative impact upon us and our neighborhood soon after he began operations 17 years ago, early on we were reluctant to complain and for quite some time we did not say anything to him, hoping