2009-07-01 THI JOHNS - Laserfiche WebLink

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business and how it applies in this case. And the first issue I think is that, we understand the land is ranked B, it’s Important Ag Land and it’s prime. Those are three different separate agronomic distinctions about the value of agricultural land. There are not a lot of B lands on the Big Island but there are some on the Hamakua coast. Those land use classifications or those soil classifications are not necessarily the best way to predict the best use of agriculture or to show where agriculture is going to happen. Agriculture happens on all kinds of lands in many places for a variety of reasons. So I wanted to spell right off the notion that Hawaii Johns is any kind of threat to regional agriculture. It’s a one-acre really, aside from his house site, a one-acre area of land that he’s using for this business. But what the, if you look at what’s going on around the outside of this property in the Kalopa area and really on the Hamakua coast in general, the predominant agricultural use of agricultural land is either pasture or forestry. And this one-acre lot is probably not a likely forestry place, commercial forestry operation. So if you use the cattle as a reasonable opportunity, as a reasonable measure, what’s an acceptable ag use on these properties, it’s certainly what most of the neighbors do. The land in question is worth about half a cow over 18 months. There’s, you could produce about a half a cow if you fed it and sold it. That’s the kind of agricultural production that’s at risk in this kind of a conversation. So I just want to put that half a cow up against the kind of businesses that his neighbors have not complained about and for which he hires 10 people total. So I think that from an agricultural perspective, this is really not a threat to the bigger issue about ag sustainability. There’s some statement in the recommendations that talk about this as being an island-wide business therefore should be, could be located anywhere. First off, Hawaii Johns really serves the Puna to North Kona service area, and has been doing that for a decade or so; and they’re about in the middle of that. That’s, it’s in their backyard. It allows them to keep and maintain a close eye on their equipment, and that they are, so I don’t know that there’s anywhere on the island they could go. They have been looking for some time. And this has been an on-going conversation about finding locations for industrial use. The location of existing zoned industrial property available today on the MLS today, if you go and look at it, is predominantly in the Hilo area. There’s some up in Kaumana, there’s some lease land out here in the industrial area. But it’s a long distance from where they currently run their business. The available industrial land on the Hamakua coast is essentially in the places where the mills used to operate – Haina, Paauilo, actually not in Paauilo, Hakalau, Ookala. So, and in our looking at each one of those circumstances, there really is not available land. Right now, when we got the citation, Mr. Cummings had been servicing the Hamakua Energy, still is, Hamakua Energy Partners. So they actually took some of the toilets that are now coming back. Understand that this is a low time in the economy so a lot of the construction material is coming back, the things that have been out on construction jobs. So he has now got a surplus of these things that have really been out for the most part; and he put them in, in Haina. That’s an okay short-term place. It has got no fencing, it got no observation, and no clarity about the future of the land. It’s actually in 4 EXHIBIT A