2007-04-05 TMAKAALA - Laserfiche WebLink

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passed this bill the last session. The effect of the bill is that to legitimize Ag Tourism without a special permit the County needs to pass an Ag Tourism ordinance. There was an Ag-Tourism Conference, I gave a talk at the conference a couple of months ago and discussed with the group, this is a group of mostly farmers who are interested in promoting agricultural tourism, the fact that they need to work on an ordinance to give an idea of what the issues would be, what the Department could support in an ordinance; and I know that they formed a committee to try to move this forward. Because at this point for people to do, there are certain things that you can do that are like Agricultural Tourism but we wouldn’t call it that. You can do those without a special permit. But for the typical kinds of things that people want to do like farm tours, selling specialty kinds of products, selling things outside of just processed goods that they prepare on their own farm, you’d have to come here for a special permit. So that’s where that stands. GRAHAM: Thank you. DOMINGO: Yeah. By speaking to some individuals I find that it’s an issue that’s very sensitive, especially to the farmers and those neighboring properties who may have to encounter more traffic or like for instance in this case buses, tour buses would be driving in, you know. And the question is how far do we take it when we consider these things. And I hope that as they consider drafting the ordinance, the suggested ordinance for the Planning Department to consider, I hope they would also include the participants. You know farming consists of a wide array of practices; and I think it should have all of those people involved in this particular discussion so that all concerns and all avenues of concern may be considered. GRAHAM: Any other questions for Jeff from the Planning Commissioners? I want to remind the people in attendance today that I don’t have anyone signed up at this point in time for public testimony. But if anybody wants to give public testimony on this item please go over and sign up, sign the slip, and leave it at the corner with Sharon. All right, at this point would the applicant or the applicant’s representative please come forward. Could you both raise your right hand so I can swear you in. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth today before the Hawaii County Planning Commission on this matter? TESTIFIERS: Yes, I do. GRAHAM: Thank you. This is your opportunity to explain to the Commission what you’re doing, your circumstances. And also either of you could start as you wish, but please start with your name and your address, and then go ahead with your testimony. Thank you. PATTON: Thank you. My name is Katherine A. Patton. My address, my home address is PO Box 1030, Kurtistown 96760. First thing I’d like to do is just thank the Planning Department for putting up with us for the last probably six months to a year and helping us get through everything, getting through the application process. It has really been appreciated. We started off, I’d like to if I could give just a second’s worth of history. We started off in the coffee business purely by accident and opened up a shop in Hilo in mind to make a better spot, you know, another spot for Hilo and for local folks. We have never been too much into tourism. It has really been more about the local community and what we can do to help and make it better for East Hawaii. We live up in Mt. View. We started this business because we wanted to help the local farmers. The local farmers are really good at farming but not necessarily good at marketing their product. So we got started. That’s how Hilo Coffee Mill actually got started. EXHIBIT B 5