2004-05-28 TNAKAKURA - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

YUEN:Good morning Mr. Chairman, Members of the Commission, and the other parties here. I’ll be just making a brief statement as the Planning Director. First on procedure on what we’re doing today, the Commission is holding the contested case hearing as a body. At the end of hearing the evidence presented by the parties here, the Commission will make a motion either to grant or deny the use permit application. The motion would say, if the motion is to grant, the motion would say based on the evidence and the exhibits presented the Commission moves to adopt the recommendation of the Planning Director, that the, and approve the use permit for the property. If, on the other hand, the Commission would like to deny the use permit, the motion would be to deny, and then the motion should also state reasons that are based upon the criteria in a use permit. And, in either case, we would then have a more formal findings of fact, conclusions of law, decision and order prepared. If it was favorable to the use permit, the Department would do that with basically the same things that are in the recommendation, but put in the more formal kind of paragraph by paragraph findings; and then the Commission would adopt that at a subsequent meeting, the formal decision and order. That would be the procedure that the Commission would follow here. As far as the merits of this, we, based upon what we’ve heard this morning, the Department stands by its prior recommendation that the use permit should be granted. There are set criteria for granting a use permit; and the applicant has clearly demonstrated that they meet these criteria. The property is zoned light industrial. Then it goes on, the Zoning Code goes on to say that a crematorium can be allowed in a light industrial area, but with this additional level of scrutiny called a use permit. And a crematorium like certain other uses gets a further review by the Planning Commission to see if certain things are met. Among them, and the most important, really, the burdening of public agencies to provide services and the potential for adverse effects upon surrounding properties. On the most obvious level, the potential adverse effects on surrounding properties from a crematorium would be air quality, would be air emissions, first, and the handling of bodies second. The applicant has done a very good job in dealing with both of these issues in their exhibits. They have shown that there are air quality standards that apply, that the emissions from their facility would be much less than any commonly found and commonly accepted businesses that you might find in a light industrial area. And this is not just a matter of County regulation, this is a matter of State and Federal regulation for air quality. On the question of the handling of bodies, they’ve explained that all would take place within a screened area, within a warehouse area; and so this would not affect the surrounding properties or the neighboring properties. Now to turn to the issue raised by the intervenors, the question of their family’s beliefs and their family’s objection to the burning of bodies on site, the law gives a way that Native Hawaiian cultural practices are incorporated in our land use process. This is 20