2004-09-16 TMORTARA - Laserfiche WebLink

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property is located, sorry, by this red dot and is located along the Hawaii Belt Highway. This would be in the Volcano direction and that would be in the Keaau direction. The property is approximately one mile east of the solid waste transfer station in Volcano. The Applicant intends to construct an art studio on this 39,000 square foot property. We did receive a request for intervention from the, one of the adjoining property owners, and I believe that was this property here, and they are Mr. and Mrs. Clement. The Clements were not present at the Contested Case Hearing that the Hearing Officer had conducted; and hell also go into the details of that. With that, unless there are any questions from the Commission, Id like to turn the mike over to our Hearings Officer, Mr. Yeh. GALDONES:Commissioners, are there any question of Norman? SIRACUSA:I had a question. GALDONES:CommissionerSiracusa? SIRACUSA:Thankyou.Thereportstatesthatthevegetationisamixofnative and non-native species, primarily ohia and staghorn. Im wondering what else, primarily, assuming that there are other species. HAYASHI:Well, basically, thats the vegetation of the area. If youre familiar with the Volcano area, that area is in basically of ohia trees as well as the staghorns. There are also some pili grass in the surrounding area. GALDONES:Any further questions of Norman, Commissioners? If not, Norman? YEH:Yes, good morning, Commissioners. My name is Thomas Yeh, and I was Hearings Officer appointed to conduct the Contested Case Hearing in this matter. I dont really have anything to add except I think youve seen the recommendations and the recommended decision for this particular application. One of the things that was a little bit disconcerting, however, was that, you know, we had this request for Contested Case Hearing and despite several attempts to notify the Intervenors, the Clements, about both pre-hearing conferences, pre-hearing deadlines, as well as the Contested Case Hearing, they essentially did not participate. And, so, the quandary that I had as the Hearings Officer was whether or not to move forward with the hearing anyway, take evidences as necessary and submit this recommended decision to the Board or to go back to the Commission which would likely result in some additional timeframes and perhaps another, perhaps, belated request to conduct a Contested Case Hearing. So given that, that was the situation, we decided to move forward; and here we are today. But from a cost standpoint, you know, it may be something for the Planning Commission to consider, that if someone makes a request for Contested Case Hearing and doesnt appear and essentially doesnt participate, there are some costs involved. So its just 2