2009-10-02 TJLUM - Laserfiche WebLink

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The applicant is requesting a special permit to legitimize to the establishment of an educational hobby garden and play facility for children, the community and visitors on 1 acre of land which is called Hobby Garden Hawaii. The facility consists of exhibits of model trains, boats, airplanes, cars and trucks. There are model scenes that the applicant has created: one of the old sugar plantation, one of a Hawaiian village with a smoking volcano; and there are other scenes such as the Eiffel tower, pyramids, etc. There is a train that winds around on a small track that moves approximately one mile per hour with some seating for children. There’s a 4-foot deep pond that’s about 50 feet in diameter which has catfish, tilapia and koi within. There’s approximately 500 to 1,000 fish in there. Guests can actually catch the fish with barbless hooks and put them back in. There’s an area for parties and barbeques, a 6-hole miniature golf area, as well as instruction classes on model building. The objective of the request is to create an educational and play facility for children in the community and visitors, to learn about model, landscaping, engineering and hobbies. th This is the applicant’s site plan. This is half of the property. The 12 Avenue is on the left side of the map. This is the recently changed parking area so that there’s no parking directly th accessible from 12 Avenue. So he has reassigned the parking area. There are existing structures. One is the existing dwelling. There have been some additions to that. This is a portion of the train track in this particular area. There’s a covered area here where the models are underneath. This is an extension of the property. Again, the structures are located in this area. We have the train track that continues on, as well as the existing pond and barbeque and party area. th Here are some site photos of the property. This is on 12 Avenue looking towards Hilo. The actual property is right in this location. This is looking head on. You have the existing dwelling with the additions. You have the covered area and the little train track area. The applicant has put in some handicapped parking. This is one of the model scenes that he has done of the Hawaiian Village with the smoking volcano. He has also got little trains that run around the scenes. These are additional scenes in the area.I believe this is the empire state building. And, again, we got little train tracks and other scenes as the train goes around. This is a photo of the little train with the seating for the children. And, again, they had mentioned that this travels about one mile per hour. In the background you can see the existing pond. The pond is fenced off; and you’ll see little fishing poles that guests can catch some of the existing fish. This is the barbeque play area that’s located in the rear of the property, and photo of these little existing miniature golf areas with small little holes for the kids to play golf. The Planning Director is recommending denial. And the main primary reason of this is that the request is not compliant with the General Plan, the Puna Community Development Plan and the Hawaiian Paradise Park Master Plan. This is the General Plan that was adopted in 2005. Basically the location of the application is identified with the little black outline here. We have, the entire subdivision is mainly Rural. We do have some what are called Medium Density nodes which are identified in orange, and one Industrial node which is identified in gray. The application is located near the Industrial node but it’s quite a distance from it. This node here is 2 EXHIBIT B