2008-05-22 TLELAH - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

caught in this moratorium that has been going on for a couple of years, which they have extended asking for moratorium on any change of zone applications in North and South Kona until the adoption of the Kona Community Development Plan; and I believe that’s where those sit. But there haven’t been any that have been denied. I think the issue raised by Commissioner Iwashita is an interesting one, regarding the special permit as opposed to the change of zone applications. And one of the things that’s happened up in Kaloko -, and you may recall that there are two Council resolutions that address this is the desire to preserve the forest.Basically, there is a condition that if the applicant is willing to accept conditions regarding setbacks and preservations of 80 percent of the forest, that the Council is recommending, has two resolutions, or recommended for approval change of zones and subsequent subdivision with the premise that they would be preserving 80 percent of the forest. Currently, any subdivided property there is in the Agricultural District, and it can be used for agricultural purposes, which means you can cut down the forest and plant corn or tomatoes or whatever crop that you think you’d like to do, or you can simply denude the property, if you want to; not that, you know, anybody is particularly anxious to do that. Although, there have been properties in the lower ridges of Kaloko where people have put in roping arenas and things of that sort. And I think that’s the impetus for the Council to take action. I think Commissioner Domingo could probably speak to that; I think he was on the Council at that time. The advantage of a special permit in the Agricultural District is such that you can craft conditions as in this case that controls the types of activity that can or cannot take place on the property, as opposed to changing the zone, which would open up the property to an entire new set of conditions. And in this case I think the conditions are very clear. They limit the -, and the agreements that the applicant has made with his neighbors. There is no additional dwelling being proposed. Although, Commissioner Siracusa, to address your concern about the language, at the time that the application was written, the music therapy building was not under construction; so that was the new construction that was going to take place. But in regard to this application, they are requesting no additional building. And in fact, the agreement with Dr. Juvik is that a significant portion of the deck will be removed to limit the uses. And I think the surrounding property owners are concerned with quiet enjoyment of their property; we are concerned with that as well. And I think that the agreements reached are fair and enforceable, and hopefully address the concerns of the neighbors and also the Commission. In regard to the traffic improvements, this has been kind of a sore point for a quite some time because anytime you apply for an application, the statement is made that it’s a dangerous intersection, and there are needs to be addressed and funds have been raised. Unfortunately, my discussions with the Department of Public Works is that it’s not a priority; and that’s not to say that it’s safe, but that there are so many other priorities in Kona that they are looking at. They really have not moved forward on this. And I think Ki Emler probably accurately stated that this project is not on any pending list. And it’s an issue, I think, that needs to be addressed, and it hasn’t been addressed. A number of rezonings that were passed by the Council over the last – I would say – over two years ago now actually had a stipulation that granted the change of zone but restricted subdivision for two years, so that the intersection could be improved. And that two years period is now passed. So those subdivisions can now take place. So that’s an issue, continuing issue, I think, that needs to be addressed. EXHIBIT A 9