2010-06-04 T-MALOOF - Laserfiche WebLink

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something, yes, itÓs going to have to be solved. And my guess iitÓs going to take some civil rights action to solve it, because I donÓt think the County is going to be able to resolve it. ThatÓs just an opinion. But we need this, we needed it yesterday. And the traffic light, there is a quick fix. I donÓt know whether you got to see that but on the KeaÒau-Phoa Road quick fix list which the CAC received, Item No. 3, left-turn pocket acceleration lanes for Orchidland Drive; and therein lies the problem. It is that left turn out of Orchidland that is killing people, because you have no line of sight to on-coming traffic. And theyÓre working on it now, traffic light or no traffic light. So do not hold this up. This needs to move forward as quickly as possible. People are dying because they canÓt get the services they need. Thank you. WOODWARD: All right, thank you. Do we have any questions for Mr. Olson? Okay, seeing none, Mr. Tucker, youÓd be next. If you can give us your name and address and then begin. TUCKER: Yes, Commissioners. My name is Robert Tucker. I live in Pahoa Village, Box 644 Pahoa 96778. And IÓm here as President of Friends of PunaÓs Future. Our membership and our Board of Directors have authorized me to speak to this issue. And I also have background as having been the coordinator for the Land Use Working Group on the CDP as it proceeded for a couple of years. So I have some background on that. When this first appeared on my desk, it appeared in the form of a notice from the Planning Commission for a hearing on the subject. I glanced at it, I looked for things that affect, you know, that have meaning in Puna for us to pay attention to. And I looked at it. My immediate reaction was, Oh, God, hereÓs another development on the highway, commercialization on the highway, and the kind of sprawl we want to try and avoid. And weÓve been successful up to date. And I had to take some further look into this subject and get the paperwork on it to understand that there was more going on there than that. And that within our appreciation of the Puna Community Development Plan and within our appreciation of the village center theory of developing jobs and services for our neighborhoods, that any place we create these village centers or have intentions to create these village centers, there are going to be properties that are the edge of that intention and on the edge of some other intention. And in this case we have a property, a TMK, which is right on that moment. Whereas itÓs within the intention of a village center area and itÓs within the intention of not, preventing commercial sprawl on our highway and the traffic implication of driveways coming in and out of the highway. But I did and we did develop an appreciation for the fact that the applicant really did take a look at these intentions and these moments and, you know, on this property and its implications, and that they made more than a simple accommodation. They made an actually well thought-out plan and they had the intention of preserving the grove of trees at the highway, visually keeping that sprawl and distraction from the drivers on the highway. They moved their intentions for this special use permit to have the property mauka of the road, they had their driveways sufficiently distanced from the intersection we felt to be well within the intentions of the village center for Orchidland. And as I started to appreciate that and discussed it with our board, we said, well, you know, this isnÓt simply a knee-jerk reaction to, you know, as it might have appeared to be at first. Despite the fact that the TMK is on the highway we think that the applicants made enough thoughtful consideration of the implications of their proposal and the needs of the highway and the needs of the village center to have found that fine line that would be successful in that moment. 18 EXHIBIT A