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YEH: Well, let me answer that first because I did also want to comment briefly
<br />on the issue of what the Planning Commission should be doing or has the ability to do.
<br />Basically, the Planning Commission rule says that when that 35-day period is missed, the
<br />application shall be forwarded to the Planning Commission for its consideration, meaning that
<br />the Planning Commission can issue the permit today. Okay? And that’s what we’re asking this
<br />body to do, to do what should have been done, basically, a year and a half ago. You can require
<br />conditions to avoid issues with respect to environmental issues that you may be concerned about,
<br />such as making sure that the septic system meets Department of Health’s standards, those kinds
<br />of things which I think are generally standard conditions anyway.
<br />See, our concern is this: We are here before you today. You have the authority to issue this
<br />permit that should have been done a year and a half ago. The Sullivans want to get this thing
<br />done. For them to now go back, hire the survey, get it certified, submit, leave this back in the
<br />hands of the Planning Commission, he may determine it’s a Major, they have to come back
<br />before you, we could be here three or four months later. There could be other people coming in
<br />intervening. I mean, I don’t know, and I don’t have a crystal ball. I’d like to think that it would
<br />be a simple process. But given what the Sullivans have been through so far, we want this to
<br />finish up today. They spent, and it’s not smoke and mirrors. Because I think if you consult with
<br />Mr. Torigoe and ask him what were the legal standards that should have been applied back at this
<br />time, whether due process considerations that the Sullivans had been essentially deprived of from
<br />either a substantive or procedural due process standpoint -. I have to beg to differ, there is not a
<br />smoke and mirrors thing. It has something to do with basic procedural rights that the Sullivans
<br />were entitled to be able to rely on, in which they did rely on a year and a half ago.
<br />And so we’re here having to argue this stuff, but the fact remains is they should have been
<br />determined to be complete and given their permit. Because there really was no reason not to,
<br />aside from setting conditions to assure that these environmental issues don’t get adversely
<br />affected. That’s why we’re here today, not to go back again and go through the same process
<br />and maybe end up here before you again. And meanwhile, where are the Sullivans at in terms of
<br />what they wanted to do a year and a half ago? That’s a basic practical, as well as a legal,
<br />problem. So, and I don’t know whether you wanted to say something.
<br />SULLIVAN: I do. Do you have time?
<br />WATANABE: Sure.
<br />SULLIVAN: I’d like to say something. I’d like to, like you said, humanize it a little bit,
<br />give you kind of an idea of what we went through. Okay? We bought the property in 2004.
<br />And when we purchased the property, we knew, because we did our due diligence, that DLNR
<br />was not doing shoreline surveys nor were the Planning Department doing any sort of shoreline
<br />surveys. They had a topo map, same map you’ve been looking at with a black line drawn in ink,
<br />and anything inside of that could not be built on. There was, since 1998 no building permits
<br />were given inside that line, until they decided to do this high tide survey that they allowed.
<br />When we found out that they allowed the high tide survey, we had it done. Mr. Larry Brown and
<br />the Independent Hawaii surveyors came out to do it. Mr. Brown, as Kathy Duman was going to
<br />tell you, said “Oh, good, there’s no water anywhere. There’s no water accessing your property.
<br />We don’t have to worry about it.” Do you not think as a group of intelligent people, that if you
<br />were doing a survey and there was water anywhere near that property, that Larry Brown would
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