2008-04-04 TMIRANDA - Laserfiche WebLink

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RHO: Did you have a specific one to this issue? WATANABE: I might have one. Mr. Miranda, it’s my understanding, I may be wrong cause I’m not an expert in this area, it’s my understanding that when you connect to the State Highway you need to have a permit. I don’t believe you ever obtained the permit to do that, yeah. And I think while you may have addressed what you feel the inspector communicated to you as potential hazards, yeah, you still haven’t addressed the permit. Yeah? And I think that’s really the larger part, well, it’s part of the issue from a technical basis. The other thing is if you will recall, yeah, the State had real concerns about your trucks, you know, slower accelerating vehicles entering the highway where there’s a 55 mile per hour speed limit. We went through that the first time, go around, yeah. And, you know, in fact they had indicated that they would prefer channelization which would mean deceleration, right turn lanes, acceleration right-turn lanes and a left-turn pocket, yeah. All of that is huge sums of money for the scale of your project. And so to some degree even this Commission is being sort of chastised for, shall we say, not paying as close attention to that, yeah. Cause within the response the State provided they said, you know, it seems like the Commission is just looking at the number of vehicles as opposed to their acceleration rate, yeah. And so, but from a technical standpoint I do believe you still need to get a permit. Irregardless if you made the improvements or not -. You have any response? MIRANDA: I’ll work with the State Department and get whatever permit that they require. WATANABE: Mr. Rho, you have some follow-up? RHO: Yeah. Going back to that letter on September 17, 2004, which is the last letter of this packet, I was actually surprised to get this packet. We just got this within the week. And I was surprised because I didn’t realize, maybe I didn’t read all the documents as they came forward because this has been an on-going issue for the Commission for the last couple of months anyway, right? I was surprised to learn that you were in violation; and this letter was generated because you were in violation. So on page 2 on the corrective action, No. 3, it asks that you apply for a special permit. So from the get-go you were in violation. You come to the Commission and you get approval of that special permit; and now we’re back again because you’re in violation. Do you have a response to that? I’m not talking about the specifics. I’m just talking about the general trend, I guess I want to call it a trend where you’re in violation, the Commission comes, you come before the Commission, the Commission approves and you’re in violation again. And for the traffic thing or the driveway thing, you have been in violation, I don’t know, for at least four years. But is there a pattern that we’re seeing, or I’m seeing? MIRANDA: You know, I was surprised to get this letter from the State Department Highways also, just like you. Okay? The road that I’m using now was an existing road for I don’t know how many years. But ever since that highway was made back I believe in 1966, right after I graduated from high school, it had an easement for Parker Ranch to get into that area; and they used that to haul cattle in and out of there. I believe from 1966 is when that highway was put in. Prior to that the highway to Waimea was the old Mamalahoa Highway. EXHIBIT A 7