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As far as a Special Permit, there is criteria in the code that requires certain things to be
<br />demonstrated in order to, for the granting of a Special Permit, and that’s what the application was
<br />about. The legislature in recognizing that certain lands in the Agricultural District might not be best
<br />suited for agricultural activities and yet classified as such, and recognized that 49 percent of our
<br />state is in Agricultural District. We have an awful lot of land from barren lava to Class B soils that
<br />are all in the Ag District, okay? But recognizing that there are other uses that are reasonable, the
<br />Special Permit application process was established to identify those and to establish criteria for
<br />granting the permit. And that’s what the application addresses and that’s what the Planning
<br />Department has supported.
<br />There were some issues raised about real property taxes. The fact that whether or not there is a
<br />Special Permit or business occupying, is not a real property tax issue; there’s no form to be filled
<br />out by the applicant if you have a Special Permit. Was the County aware that the business was in
<br />place? Yes. They’ve been aware every since then. The County had no problem in identifying it
<br />when they file the notice of violation, because they went to the Department of Business and
<br />Economic Development and found the listing for the license. There is no secret that this business
<br />has been operating there. And there is no impact on real property taxes. So the applicants were not
<br />shirking the responsibility to pay their taxes. Their taxes are based on the use of the property, and
<br />that has never been hidden from anybody. They have their licenses and, as Mr. Gardner suggests,
<br />we do have, yes, in fact, Internal Revenue filings and we do pay our taxes.
<br />Ms. West raised four points – I would like to address those. The first thing was the issue of the
<br />applicant has a disregard for county regulations. I think I’ve addressed that, and believe that the
<br />applicant feels that what he has done is quite legal. And we have complied in every step of the way;
<br />when the County identified an issue, we responded. When they said, “no, you had to apply for a
<br />Special Permit,” we have applied for the Special Permit. Whether we agree or not, that’s not the
<br />issue. I do not think the applicant has shown a disregard. Second thing is Agricultural property is
<br />not approved. Well, that’s exactly why we have a Special Permit and that’s why we are here today
<br />to determine if this is a reasonable use of this property. The soil here is Class E – it’s very poor. He
<br />could put up warehouses like the egg farm did. But I’ll note that the Department of Water Supply
<br />already complained about the amount of water that the applicant was using on the site, and that
<br />water is used only for irrigation of the landscape buffer. If there was an agricultural use -. And I’ve
<br />looked at land in this area for quite some time for ag people, and I’ve asked Billy Bergin who is a
<br />state vet for many years, you know, “how many cows can you graze on an acre of land,” and he
<br />said, “no, no, how many acres of land to graze one cow.” This is not productive agricultural land.
<br />You can pave and put anything on it, and call it agriculture, but it is not well suited land. The
<br />ALISH systems, the Land Study Bureau system, which classified the soils, identified the soils as
<br />Very Poor, Class E. The third point is there are properly zoned areas in Kawaihae. There are
<br />properly zoned areas, but they are also very expensive. And this business has been operating on the
<br />property that the applicants bought for this business, for eleven years, and for them to have to
<br />relocate and essentially have two pieces of property, one to reside on and one to do the business on,
<br />is financially not feasible in certainly not today’s economy. I’d point out – Maija, could you go to
<br />the site plan, please – the area, there is a berm right along this area here, the majority of the activity
<br />of gate building occurs behind the berm and is absolutely invisible from the road. This area in front
<br />of the berm was to accommodate truck, trailer and back hoe that are accessory to the use. Now,
<br />those are private vehicles that, if this were a farm, he could have no problem, there is no problem
<br />parking; but because it’s also used in the business, we had to include this area in the Special Permit.
<br />So as far as visual impact, if this ranch business fence building is not here, he can still park his truck
<br />and trailer here, all right? So the use of the land would be the same; it’s just that he would have to
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