2004-06-04 TBRITTAIN - Laserfiche WebLink

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LUKENS:Yes, I do. FUJIKAWA:State your name and your address. LUKENS:Clark Lukens, 1911 Kalanianaole Avenue, Hilo. FUJIKAWA:Okay. You have something to testify? LUKENS:Yeah. I guess I’ll start by reading the letter I sent in reply to Jay Benson’s letter, my letter in response to the letter Jay Benson sent me telling me that they were going to go ahead with this meeting. You may or may not have a copy of this, I’m not sure. Just, “Thank you for your letter last week updating us on the current construction status of your bed and breakfast. We’re sorry this process of renting your B&B has been so challenging and expensive. It’s unfortunate that my attempt to break the ice at your yard a few months ago didn’t work out better. But when you informed me that you were consulting your attorney about suing me and the fact that you both were set to planting 100-foot timber bamboo along our common property line to eventually block our view of the ocean, it left me with the impression that we are better off letting the Planning Commission handle our dispute. As far as meeting conditions set forth by the Planning Commission, we feel we must take exception to your attempt to satisfy Condition H. The trellis,” at the time there was a trellis put up over there which has subsequently been removed, “The trellis you put up to cover the patio area does not solve our problem. First, the trellis does not obscure the hot tub from our condo units and, more importantly, it does nothing to address our chief concern of all the noise emanating from this patio area. The noise from this area has always been our primary complaint. It’s a problem we felt can only be addressed by the construction of a permanent roofing structure as you agreed to at the Planning Commission meeting last year. Without this permanent roof structure, we are right back where we started. If we were to peacefully co-exist as neighbors, it’s imperative that we resolve this noise issue. This is at the very heart of our concerns. We look forward to having better relationships in the future and hope this roofing structure problem can be adequately resolved.” Let’s see, if I can find all my paperwork. And on Jeff Darrow’s response to these, he actually says in here that Condition H does nothing to deter the noise that’s coming up and affecting the condominium units. And, again, while there was some inappropriate behavior emanating from the hot tub and stuff, but always the problem for us was the noise because our building is almost like a sounding board up against the back of this. So while the noise that comes from that area comes straight up and while they did remove the hot tub, now they’ve replaced it with a large barbecue grill and a bunch of lawn chairs and stuff. So we’re right back where we started from. Again, our problem is the noise that’s coming from this bed and breakfast and, again, this doesn’t address the problem. Without the permanent roofing structure, which I thought we’d agreed upon, we no longer have any relief from the noise that’s coming from there. And, again, that’s always, if you read, go back further to the signed affidavits that all the neighbors sent in, you’ll see that every single one of them stressed that the major problem 6