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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2009-11-20 TPARKERSCHOOL LEEWARD PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAIÒI HEARING TRANSCRIPT NOVEMBER 20, 2009 PARKER SCHOOL (USE 05-001) A regularly advertised hearing on the application of was called to order at 9:44 a.m. in the Waikoloa Beach Marriott Hotel, AliÒi III Room, 69-275 Waikoloa Drive, Waikoloa, HawaiÒi, with Chairman Rodney Watanabe presiding. PRESENT: Rodney Watanabe Brandi Beaudet Lani Bowman Fdq`kchmdFheehm Frederic Housel Wayne Iokepa Aq`mcnmFnmy`kdy , Deputy Corporation Counsel L`qf`qdsL`rtm`f`+CdotsxOk`mmhmfChqdbsnq Norman Hayashi, Planning Program Manager Phyllis Fujimoto, Staff Planner Jeff Darrow, Staff Planner  Maija Cottle, Staff Planner QnmSghdk+Sq`eehbChuhrhnm+Cdo`qsldmsneOtakhbVnqjr JhDlkdq+DmfhmddqhmfChuhrhnm+Cdo`qsldmsneOtakhbVnqjr And approximately 20 people from the public in attendance APPLICANT: PARKER SCHOOL (USE 05-001) Amendment to Use Permit No. 05-001 to allow the expansion of the Parker School complex to 14.32 acres situated within the Agricultural 1-acre (A-1a) and Single-Family Residential 7,500 square feet (RS-7.5) zoned district. The amendment is to allow the expansion of the school facilities which would include the construction of a new gymnasium, athletic fields, a new middle school complex and educational use of an existing warehouse structure. The property is located between KapiÒolani Street and Waikoloa Stream, Waimea, South Kohala, HawaiÒi, TMK: 6-5-4:25, 26, 28 and 63. WATANABE: Our first agenda item is Parker School. The applicant is Parker School and itÓs Use Permit 05-001. However Î Maija, thank you Î but we have a number of issues here. I believe, Geri, you probably want to explain that you need to recuse yourself? GIFFIN: Mr. Chairman, did you want me to do that right now? WATANABE: I think, yeah, if we can get all of this handled right off the bat, then it would be nice. EXHIBIT A 1 GIFFIN: Fine. I was just waiting for you to introduce the agenda item. WATANABE: Yeah, okay. I did introduce Parker School. But before we get into the crux of the matter, maybe we can talk about the potential conflicts of interest and explain all those things. And as I understand, you plan to recuse yourself GIFFIN: Upon the request of our corporation counsel, I, Geraldine Giffin, do here by recuse myself from participating in this agenda item. I should say that I do this with much regret; however, I am bowing to the recommendation of our corporation counsel. WATANABE: Okay. And because HawaiÒi is such a small community, and Waimea in particular is such a small community, IÓm sure thereÓs potential for some misunderstandings. And with that, IÓm going to ask Mr. Beaudet to explain the process he has gone through to determine whether he would need to recuse himself or not. And with that, Mr. Beaudet? BEAUDET: Good morning. For those of you who may not be aware I am an employee of Parker Ranch under the company title of Parker Ranch, Inc. The applicant, Parker School, is a benefactor of Parker School Trust of which is a beneficiary of the Parker Ranch Foundation Trust. So through inquiry itÓs been determined that there isnÓt -. WATANABE: Conflict of interest? BEAUDET: There isnÓt a conflict of interest for me to sit on thi therefore I -. WATANABE: Choose to participate. BEAUDET: Yeah. WATANABE: Okay. ItÓs my understanding, Mr. Gonzalez, that you also took a close look at this and you have an opinion on that? GONZALEZ: Yes. And it was my recommendation to Commissioner Beaudet that there was no apparent conflict of interest; so if he wanted to participate on Item No. 1, he could. WATANABE: Okay. With that then Î we have a number of other Commissioners here Î for the record, is there anyone who feels otherwise? If you feel otherwise, please voice your opinion now. No? So we are all good with this then? WeÓve taken care of the potential conflict of interest on that? Okay, very good then. Before I forget, because, you know, this agenda item may potentially prove to be a controversial one in spite of the fact that the expansion of the school is included within the CDP, and so I want to remind you audience at this point in time that we will be taking public testimony; however, I would, the Commission would very much appreciate it if your testimony would be limited to three minutes, that you organize your thoughts. And please donÓt be overly redundant. I think the Commission can fully appreciate probably the two major concerns in this issue, one of which is traffic, IÓm sure, and the other which is education, yeah? So with that in mind, think about it as we proceed through this and go EXHIBIT A 2 through the background material, etc. And we will be calling you up a little later on for you to provide your testimony. With that, Maija, I guess you are going to provide the background material? COTTLE: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think our screen just went d to get that up. We got here about an hour ago and turned it on early, so I think it went into a sleep mode. Okay. The subject property, actually I should say properties, are located in Waimea town, and they are shown on the slide surrounded by a black line. And just to orient the Commissioners, Lindsey Road runs in a kind of northwest-southeast direction here. We have Mmalahoa Highway on the bottom of the slide, and Kawaihae Road. And then Road and HkÒula Road make up a loop near the school. The property is located in this area. ThereÓs actually one large parcel, a smaller parcel over here, and then two smaller residential lots that are the proposed areas of the Use Permit. The properties are currently zoned Agricultural-1 acre, and the two smaller lots off of PuÒuk Road are zoned Single-Family Residential. This is a General Plan LUPAG Map that shows the entire requested area in the Medium Density Urban designation. You can see the Low Density Urban designation is the lighter yellow to the north, and Waimea Park is shown in green thatÓs designated Open. So the applicant, Parker School, is requesting to amend their Use Permit 05-01. This was permitted in 2005; it was for an elementary school. And they are now requesting to expand their school complex onto one of the existing lots, as well as the adjacent properties to develop those properties as shown on their master plan. They also would like to allow Waimea Community Education, which is a non-profit group, to use all of the Parker School facilities. And lastly, th want to remove the 90-student enrollment cap on the existing ele current Use Permit. This is a master plan that the applicant submitted. It shows th surrounding by a dotted line. This is the current elementary school structure here and the parking lot is about half the size currently, maybe even a little less. The current Use Permit expansion request is shown in a dashed line; it runs along Waikoloa Stream up to KapiÒolani Road, includes an existing warehouse that they want to use for school purposes, and then it runs below four properties that are zoned Agricultural on KapiÒolani Road, back up to KapiÒolani over to PuÒuk Street, includes this one Residential lot, as well as this Residential lot. And you can see their existing school campus that includes the high school and middle school off of Lindsey Road near Kawaihae here. The Planning Department is recommending approval of the Use Permit amendment request with the conditions that we provided. And I do also have several photographs of the roadways in the area. I can either show them now or as we get into discussion; if you would like me to pull up a particular photo, I can do that. EXHIBIT A 3 WATANABE: Any particular preference, fellow Commissioners? Mr. Housel? HOUSEL: Either way, yeah. WATANABE: Well, why donÓt you proceed Î either way is fine with us. COTTLE: Okay. WATANABE: IÓm sure weÓre going to head on back to those throughout the morning. COTTLE: Okay, this is a view of KapiÒolani Road looking west towards Waimea Park; so this would be Lindsey Road, and KapiÒolani Road here, and the current elementary school is further back away from the Lindsey Road intersection. This is a view of KapiÒolani Road looking east; so from here Lindsey Road would be towards the bottom of the slide on the right side, and then the existing elementary school driveway is right about here. This is a view of PuÒuk Road looking north towards KapiÒolani Road; Parker School currently has one driveway right about here just off the slide near the car, and then this is KapiÒolani Road kind of in the middle of the slide. This is a view of one of the Parker School driveways on PuÒuk Road; you can see some of the exiting school structures in the back here, and there is a gate across one of the driveways. And then this is the other driveway off of PuÒuk Road. This is the current student drop-off and pick-up area on Lindsey Road; so here the drop-off and pick-up is on the left hand side of the slide, you can see the existing school structure, and there is a crosswalk here that leads to Waimea Park over on the right side of the slide, and you can see the Mmalahoa- Lindsey Road intersection at the very back of the slide here, you can see the stop lights. And thi is the Lindsey Road-Kawaihae intersection; so you have Kawaihae running across the middle of the slide, and Lindsey Road, and then the school drop-off area would be just off the slide where you see the red laser pointer here. This is a view of the walkway between Waikoloa Stream and the neighboring property, and you can see the elementary school in the background; so this walkway leads from the existing high school and middle school to then this is a view in the opposite direction looking as if you were walking from the elementary school to the existing middle, high school. And then another view. And then lastly, this is a view of Kawaihae Road near Waimea Park; so this is the north side of Kawaihae Road, and we included a condition in there for a bus stop and it would be in this general location. And an aerial view of the site, or a portion of the site, I should say; I included this slide to show the intersection in case questions come up about the Lindsey-Kawaihae intersection and the KapiÒolani Road-Lindsey Road intersection. WATANABE: ThatÓs it? Very good, Maija. COTTLE: IÓm just going to go back to the master plan. WATANABE: Time for questions, if any? COTTLE: Yeah. WATANABE: Mr. Housel. EXHIBIT A 4 HOUSEL: Yeah, Maija, thereÓs an area that doesnÓt appear to be part of the school that is right in the center there in the gray area. Are those residential units? COTTLE: ThatÓs actually one residential lot. HOUSEL: One lot. COTTLE: Yes. HOUSEL: So there is one home there? COTTLE: I believe there is one home. HOUSEL: Okay. How is access to that property? Where does the access come from? COTTLE: Access to the property is off of PuÒuk Road. HOUSEL: Okay. So the lower lot is an open lot? COTTLE: IÓm sorry, which lot are you referring to? HOUSEL: The gray area, just, thatÓs it, right there. COTTLE: Right here? HOUSEL: Right. COTTLE: This is one lot not owned by Parker School. HOUSEL: Right. So there is nothing, no structure there? COTTLE: I think there is one house here. HOUSEL: Oh, there is a house there. COTTLE: Yes. HOUSEL: And is the access from the same way? COTTLE: Yes, from PuÒuk Road. HOUSEL: Okay. So there is no access to that property crossing Parker School? COTTLE: No. EXHIBIT A 5 HOUSEL: Okay, thank you. COTTLE: YouÓre welcome. WATANABE: Ms. Bowman, you had a question? COTTLE: IÓm sorry, Mr. Housel, was your first question that you asked me how many lots were in this area? HOUSEL: Well, the whole area there. COTTLE: Okay. LetÓs see, there are five lots between this Parker School lot and KapiÒolani Road, and I believe most, if not all, have homes on t HOUSEL: Okay. And access is all from that single, looks like a street coming through? COTTLE: From PuÒuk Road, yes. HOUSEL: Okay, thank you. COTTLE: YouÓre welcome. WATANABE: Ms. Bowman. BOWMAN: Maija, could you go back to the aerial photograph? COTTLE: Sure. BOWMAN: And, where are we, so KapiÒolani Road runs -. Can you show where? COTTLE: KapiÒolani Road runs here, and then this is PuÒuk Road. So the existing elementary school that was built in, it was actually completed in 2007, is not on this aerial photo because itÓs an old photo; but itÓs in this area right here. BOWMAN: Okay, I see. And the existing school is the brown structures, all that. COTTLE: Right, this is the existing high school and middle schoo BOWMAN: Okay. I thought it showed more on the other side of Kap on the other side of KapiÒolani there is the Mormon church, right? COTTLE: Yes. EXHIBIT A 6 BOWMAN: And then, is that the -. So you donÓt have that. I was just trying to see that. COTTLE: Yeah, I donÓt have a good aerial of that because there w over that area. So I zoomed in on what was available. BOWMAN: So basically on the other side of KapiÒolani there is the Mormon church. Any other kind of big usage? COTTLE: Let me go back to the -. You can kind of see that a little bit on this. This is KapiÒolani Road here; you can see a little bit of the Mormon church and their parking lot here. There is also a pretty recent subdivision called Waimea Parkside of, I think about, I think 20 to 30 homes. PUBLIC: Forty. COTTLE: Forty, IÓm sorry, 40 homes in this area here. And then the other lots along here are mostly residential-agricultural. BOWMAN: And do you know those lots -. Are they lots or are they homes? IÓm not familiar with that -. COTTLE: You mean the Waimea Parkside area? BOWMAN: Yes. COTTLE: There are a few homes developed. I would say there are probably ten to twelve homes already developed on this site. BOWMAN: Okay, thank you. PUBLIC: Four homes. COTTLE: Four homes. I stand corrected. WATANABE: Any further questions of staff? Good job. Thank you. Why donÓt we call up, well, yeah, why donÓt we call up Mr. Melrose, then. Okay. May I swear you in, gentlemen? Raise your right hand, please. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth now before the Planning Commission? APPLICANTS: Yes, I do. WATANABE: Thank you. Mr. Melrose, I guess you are going to lead off. You know the drill Î name and address for the record. And for each of the applicants the same will hold true before you provide your testimony. So IÓll turn it over to you. EXHIBIT A 7 MELROSE: Okay, thank you. Good morning. COMMISSIONERS: Good morning. MELROSE: My name is Jeff Melrose. My address, 1405 Wainuenue in Hilo. IÓm a planning consultant whoÓs been working with Parker School through their master planning process and then through the permitting process to follow. What I would like to do this morning is getting into a conversation about the application and the permits, but IÓd like to start by letting Carl Sturges, the headmaster of the school, kind of address this conversation from the school perspective before we get into the details of kind of the land use issues. And John Ray who is a member of the board, both a neighbor and a parent, and actively involved in this process will provide some comments as we get through this. So let me just start by letting Carl talk a little bit about the school so you get the context of what this is and what kind of an organization and where their request is coming from. STURGES: Hello, IÓm Carl Sturges. IÓm the headmaster of Parker School. My address is 65-1221 Lailai Place in Waimea. And IÓve been Headmaster of Parker School now for eight years. Parker School began in 1976 as a community school. It currently has a student population of 251 in grades K through 12. About 60 to 70 percent of those students come from Waimea, with the balance coming from nearby communities and a gallant few who travel north from Kona. We have about 25 percent of our student who either carpool or ride the bus and we are, as you can tell from our map, smacked at the middle of Waimea, and we take that responsibility seriously. We think that because of the opportunities presented by our recent acquisition of the pasture land you see there from the Parker School Trust Corporation, we have the opportunity to provide improvements for our own students and also to continue to fulfill our role within the townÓs center. One of the more important aspects, I think actually, of this Use Permit application is our commitment to be part of the Waimea Trails and Greenways project, which would run along the south side of our property, and we are committed to providing a right- of-way to be arranged with the Waimea Trails and Greenways, which would run along the north side of the stream. And this is also, I think itÓs good for the town but itÓs also good for Parker School because it provides our students with a walkway into the school and doesnÓt involve going out on the major streets, and this would then connect up with the Waimea Trails and Greenways throughout the Waimea area. We also fill responsibility to be stewards of the stream. And I think itÓs a riparian classroom for our students, and so we see that as a real advantage to be bordered to the south by the stream. These are difficult economic times for Parker School as with the rest of the country. Our student body comes from families who are generally of modest means. We dropped the population in the school the last couple of years; two years ago we had 300 students; last year we had 275; this year we have 250. Almost 50 percent of our students are on financial aid. WeÓd receive a modest stipend from the Parker School Trust Corporation of whom year, and all of that money goes toward financial aid for our students. Despite the fact that we are going through difficult times we do have a clear sense of our own mission, and that is to provide a quality education for kids who live in the north end of the Big Island. And we are committed to maintaining a rigorous academic environment despite the fact that we are under pressure from the market. WeÓd rather get smaller than change w EXHIBIT A 8 accepted the drop in enrollment. However, we also believe that things are not going to stay way forever, that over the course of the next five, ten, 15 years we think the economy will recover, and we think that the north end of this island will again begin to grow. And part of our goal here is to ensure that we are in the position to be prepared for that expansion of students and population into our town and surrounding towns. There are really three goals that enliven this particular project. And one of them I want to mention at the beginning is to work in partnership with the Waimea Community Education Program; they currently use our buildings for evening classes, adult education classes, community classes, and we are pursuing this Use Permit in conjunction with them, and we would continue to make our facilities available to their primarily adult education classes. Secondly, we would like to improve the quality of our academic program for ou of our facilities. We have some significant facilities lacks; we lack resource centers, we lack a gymnasium, we lack a variety of items that would immediately improve the quality of the education of our students. Finally, we feel that we need to be prepared for growth, and that a modest growth beyond our current population will eventually occur. Those students are going to be moving to Waimea and we feel that some of them would do well at Parker School. So the third wing of our proposal involves an eventual expansion of the student body made possible by an expansion of the facilities. Currently we are able to handle with what we have right now 350 students. We currently have 251 students, so we have a quite bit of wiggle room. But what would happen if we were granted this Use Permit, immediately there are some things we would do. For instance, if you see the house on PuÒuk Street thatÓs right in the middle of the campus there, thatÓs currently zoned Residential, itÓs on the east side of PuÒuk Street. That house, we would like to turn into a lower school resource center and that process could begin almost, you know, almost immediately. It would not be a major refit, but we are not able to do it without the Use Permit. WeÓd like to improve the quality of our playing fields, which also are part of the Use Permit area. The warehouse is a great space potentially for art classrooms, and we would like to look at remodeling that building sometime in the near future. More importantly, however, I think you have to understand the co will expand. We are a small school, we have a limited endowment hard to raise the $1,200,000 to build our lower school a couple of years ago. And for us to build the two main items that are part of this master plan, first the gymnasium which is closer to the stream, and then the middle school buildings, those are $5,000,000 ~ $6,000,000 projects probably, and for us to raise that kind of money, thatÓs going to take some time and a quite bit of effort. And in order to be able to begin the process of raising the money to build those buildings, I will need to be able to go to donors and say, yes, I have approval from the Planning Commission to use the land. And so the Use Permit is really necessary before I can begin to fundraise because significant donors, one of the first things they are going to ask is, do you have access to the land, or are you able to do this if I were to give you the money. So the other issue here is, or one of the reasons we are getting a long-term view of the whole process is that in order to raise funds to build these buildings I would have to do that. IÓm not able to generate funds from my current tuition for future buildings. We offer quite a modest tuition charge in the scheme of things because we do think that the school ought to be available to a wide range of North HawaiÒiÓs children. And so I canÓt add those kinds of funds over and above. EXHIBIT A 9 We would like to maintain our niche in the community. We think that there is room for a small academically rigorous school that provides students with an opportunity that they would otherwise not have. If we were not there, or if we were not to expand, those students would still be in Waimea, and thatÓs a point that I want to stress. As much as weÓd like it, people are not going to move to the Big Island specifically to put their children into Parker School. If they were not going to Parker School, they would be going to several other local schools in the area, and they are still in the town. We think that by planning ahead ten or 15 years we will have the ability to have an infrastructure available and educational opportunity available for those students. That would improve the quality of all education. If their students are not pressing the numbers of the local public school, the local public school would be better. And so we think that we have a role to play, and we hope that you will accept our far like to see ourselves moving to in the course of the next 15 years. WATANABE: Fellow Commissioners, do we have any questions of Mr. Sturges? BOWMAN: I do. WATANABE: Yes, Ms. Bowman. BOWMAN: IÓm sorry I didnÓt hear in the beginning; did you say 60 to 70 percent of your students are from Waimea? STURGES: ThatÓs correct. BOWMAN: Okay. And the other question, prior to acquiring the new land, did you look at any other alternative sites? STURGES: Several years ago we did discuss with the Parker School Trust Corporation what grant of land they were going to give us, and there was some discussion of relocating the entire campus out to a series of acres of opposite the Waimea Airport, and that plan was discarded as being unworkable and did not provide the advantages that in-town location did for Parker School. And thatÓs the only alternative that IÓm aware of that -. BOWMAN: And the advantages of being in town were? STURGES: The advantages of being in town were that more of our children could walk to school. We wanted to continue to use the old campus. The original building was built in 1917, and along served as town headquarters. Frankly thatÓs the first thing my alumni asked me is, are you taking care of the building; thatÓs an important part of Parker School for us. And the desire to maintain the existing campus was a real strong element in all of that, that we wanted the high school to continue to occupy the existing buildings rather than build new buildings, and then the in-town location was preferable. BOWMAN: Thank you. Two more questions. Do you know about what percentage of your students come from the HonokaÒa way, Waikoloa, Kohala? About. EXHIBIT A 10 STURGES: About, well, I mean obviously the other 30 to 40 percent come from those areas. We draw specifically from Waikoloa, thatÓs the second largest area, and they take the Waikoloa Hele-On Bus all this entirely. We draw a dozen students from North Kohala and a slightly smaller number from the Hmkua Coast, mostly HonokaÒa. BOWMAN: Okay. And one more question, and it may have been in there. Your adult, they use -. Do you know approximately how many people they serve a year with the adult education? STURGES: The last couple of years itÓs about 1,000 people total. Understand it, that Waimea Community Education is not run by Parker School; I mean i that we share facilities with. BOWMAN: I understand. Thank you. WATANABE: Any further -? Mr. Housel. HOUSEL: I want to clarify something you just said. YouÓre saying 60 percent, or approximately 60 percent of the students do live in Waimea? STURGES: Correct. HOUSEL: Are those within walking distance of the school? STURGES: Not all the students are within walking distance, no. HOUSEL: Okay. I believe I read in your master plan that the number of students living in Waimea was 25 percent. Is there a difference there? MELROSE: You read that in the master plan or in the application? You are talking about in the application. HOUSEL: Right, right. MELROSE: The 60 to 70 percent comes from a survey done in the last six months of all of elementary, middle school and high school. And thatÓs why the range 60 to 70 because itÓs different in the elementary school than itÓs in the high school. ItÓs a little lower in the high school; more travel to the school. Most of the elementary school students are at the high end Î 75 percent. And I did that really by zip code, you know, what zip code do they -. So how far away they live is a question. We have a survey of how many people actually walk to school; thatÓs intermittent obviously in the weather in Waimea, but I think itÓs probably in the ten to 15 students on a regular basis walk into school. And some are a little bit further out and they get dropped off or they carpool. HOUSEL: So youÓd estimate 15 percent are within walking distance? EXHIBIT A 11 MELROSE: I think thatÓs probably not inappropriate, yes. STURGES: Yeah, that sounds reasonable. HOUSEL: Okay. Do you -? STURGES: I mean there are often disagreements about that. But I live a mile from the school, which I consider it to be within walking distance. My daughter who is a junior, however, does not consider it to be within walking distance, so, I mean -. MELROSE: And you know, just as a, weÓll get into this in a minute, but the school is working with PATH, Peoples Advocacy for Trails Hawaii, and theyÓve done a really, they do excellent work relative to looking at what safe school initiatives are in terms of, and theyÓve looked both Waikoloa and Waimea Elementary and Waimea Middle Sch partner with them and is going to be working together with them to work on a safety issue of getting people to walk. It isnÓt really a matter of distance like Carl, you know, kids are going to have a different perception than you do. But a lot of it has to do with what parents think is safe and whether or not they would allow their kids to do this even on a nice day. And we think the Trails and Greenways project is going to be one of those things that will allow more people to do that, if they are close to that roadway. But making the streets generally safe, crossing safe, sidewalk safe, those things are all part of what will ramp that HOUSEL: Okay. So I guess, to be clear Î I want to understand this Î so youÓd estimate that 15 percent of the students of the school do live within one mile of the school and potentially could walk to school, but obviously less, lower percentage of those actually do walk, is that correct? STURGES: ThatÓs correct. HOUSEL: Okay. Does the school use any bus system? STURGES: Well, we are very fortunate in having Hele-On Bus that comes up from Kona, Hele-On Bus that comes up from Waikoloa, one that comes down from North Kohala, as well as we also have an in-town shuttle, and that bus system, you know, meets our needs, actually meets the needs of HPA, you know, as well to the degree that we have not felt the need to, you know, provide bussing for our students beyond that. HOUSEL: Has the school considered, especially in some of the outlying areas, HonokaÒa or maybe further north, maybe small busses which would be able to pick up students, bring them to the campus? STURGES: We considered it. We focused more on helping to arrange carpooling because youÓre talking, I mean, you know, HonokaÒa youÓre talking three or four kids who are probably within close enough distance to one another to, you know, to take the same car in. Like I say, I mean, fortunately Hele-On help us serve the areas of the greatest concentration of our EXHIBIT A 12 students, and within the town the shuttle system pretty much serves, you know, the entire town; so we havenÓt felt the need for that, and I havenÓt had any dema HOUSEL: Do you have a rough estimate of what percentage of cars do carpool versus single students being dropped off? MELROSE: Yeah, the number right now, just remember, in the exist there is actually a condition that requires the school to have a carpooling program. So they have that and they work with both in the admissions process and on an annual basis to connect parents. The actual number of people who carpool has reduced over the last three years as the mass transit system is increased. And remember we really didnÓt have a mass transit system that worked at all three years ago, four years ago. So I think right now thereÓre 39 students who get off the bus every morning at the bus stop. That may be low; thatÓs the count that we had in a survey. And that the number of people who say they carpool on a regular basis was, I think there were ten families who carpooled, currently from both Waikoloa and North Kohala particularly. So thatÓs the numbers we have today, and itÓs a continual effort to encourage that. And like I say, mass transit runs right by it and people have adapted to it very well, both the shuttle and the long-runs. HOUSEL: Okay. So just rough numbers, about 40 use the bus and you said ten families use the carpool and maybe two to three students per car Î thatÓs approximately a third of what the total enrollment is, is that accurate? MELROSE: When I did the calculation, I came up with 25 percent of people walk or ride the mass transit in the current population. HOUSEL: Okay, so 25 percent. MELROSE: Right. HOUSEL: Okay, thank you very much. WATANABE: Any further questions? BOWMAN: I have -. WATANABE: Ms. Bowman. BOWMAN: One more quick -. Sorry but I just want to really clarify this. I live in North Kohala, so I do understand that, you know, our students do think that cuts down, and probably Waikoloa and Kona. But if 60 to 70 percent of your students are from Waimea and you have a shuttle within Waimea, do you know Î and I donÓt know if this was -? MELROSE: ItÓs a County shuttle, right. EXHIBIT A 13 BOWMAN: ItÓs a County shuttle. Do you know about how many of your students use that shuttle? MELROSE: Yeah, thatÓs what I was saying. There are -. Actually what I was going to get -. BOWMAN: Besides the Hele-On, just the Waimea -. MELROSE: No, the shuttle is part of the Hele-On bus transit system. BOWMAN: Okay. STURGES: IÓm not sure I can differentiate exactly how many use the shuttle versus the Hele-On; we didnÓt ask our question in that way in our surve BOWMAN: Okay, because what IÓm meaning by the Hele-On is the one from Kohala, Waikoloa, Kona, HonokaÒa. STURGES: Right, we understand. BOWMAN: So is there an in-town shuttle that goes up and down subdivisions and things? STURGES: Yes. I mean what it does is it goes up and down Mmalahoa and then Kawaihae. BOWMAN: IÓm sorry? STURGES: It goes up and down Mmalahoa and Kawaihae highway; I mean it doesnÓt go off the highway but itÓs an artery through the town, so -. BOWMAN: Right. And you donÓt know what percentage of your -. STURGES: Maybe a dozen students Î something like that, but I donÓt have an exact number. BOWMAN: Okay, thank you. HOUSEL: Just to clarify also. The school basically is funded by Parker School Trust. So is there any tuition that -? STURGES: No, let me clarify that. We receive, this past budget year I have almost $4,000,000 budget. Eighty percent of our income is received from tuition, of that we received $137,000 from the Parker School Trust Corporation. That helped to fund our financial aid program. Our, you know, our funding from other sources is much greater. And the scheme of things is not a large amount but itÓs very handy. EXHIBIT A 14 HOUSEL: Are there any incentives the school offers to encourage parents to carpool or use, you know, mass transit? STURGES: We do not offer any financial incentives there or other kinds of incentives to do it. HOUSEL: Would you consider that? STURGES: We could, yeah, I mean I would be very much in favor of getting people to do it, so, yes, I donÓt, we would certainly consider it. HOUSEL: Okay, thank you. WATANABE: DoesnÓt look like we have any further questions. So I guess itÓs Mr. RayÓs turn? MELROSE: No, IÓm going to, what IÓd like to do is just kind of start to talk a little bit about the conditions, touch on a couple of more issues, talk about the individual conditions, and that will give John a chance to actually talk about some of those things as well when we are done with that. So I just want to start with a comment that, you know, the lands that we are operating with Î there are a few circumstances in which you get exactly what you want Î but in this case we have the lands that we were provided initially by the Parker Ranch; they were owned by Parker Ranch prior. And I want to just draw your attention back to the property that Maija was talking about in the middle Î this piece right here. This is a kuleana; the family who owns that has owned this property since sometime near the Mhele. So their family is, the title is bust up by the family, s thereÓre still multiple heirs. All conversations about including it is a logical one; you want to think, oh, gee, why donÓt you get that property and use that for the school. The truth is itÓs in a Hawaiian family and the school respects that, to build a relationship with that. But it is kind of, itÓs a rock stuck right in the middle of the overall campus floor, and limits certain amount of circulation options and opportunities the school might have. But thatÓs simply the way it is and we live with that This property is, there was an old Òauwai here that you saw in the archaeological material, and this area here was actually identified as a kÒele or a poÒalima, a place where the chiefs were, or their food was produced and tended by the community over the years; itÓs actually named Kamakahonu. ItÓs a -. And LCA and several the others probably associated with that period of time in life in early HawaiÒi; so thatÓs part of what the school stewards there. The piece of the Òauwai is very clear along the edge but not, nothing is going to be done with that. But in any event, well, not only is that one of the key pieces, obviously itÓs relationship with this core intersection that has really been a problem for the community. Certainly, the school is not unaware of traffic issues in this community at all. We live with that every single day. The school has probably less than 25 percent of the total student population within a half mile, maybe EXHIBIT A 15 two miles, maybe a mile, I mean, Waimea School, Waimea Elementary School, a couple of other schools, HPA; so we are just a small piece of this early morning rush, a lot of parents coming to school, delivering people, both public and private, multiple charter schools as well. So our access into this back area really is depended on the capacity to be able to use KapiÒolani. Our perception or observations are that piece of KapiÒolani is where the particular issues are, on the first portion of KapiÒolani to the entrance into the school, and that there is very little kind of general, around-the-town creation of traffic; itÓs just very concentrated in that area. When we did the master plan, we really focused on kind of -. ItÓs a very conceptual master plan; we didnÓt get into the details of buildings because we were ways away from that and knowing what budgets are in that kind of work, itÓs really a matter of placing the larger stones in the mixed, whether, what belongs where. And so that the two big pieces are really a gymnasium or athletic facility, which the school lacks today as ability to, a class related, physical education classroom, and a middle school that will allow them to create a pocket for that. So where those two pieces went is a key in our master plan. Originally, we had actually identified the gym up here because it allowed the penetration, tried to keep the penetration of the public out of the, because we expect that to be used publicly and be shared as part of, with the community under some terms. But the PuÒuk Street people particularly and some of these neighbors felt that might be more noisy and more of a problem, so we relocated it back to the inside of the campus, and still wish to put the middle school there. And as one of the things Carl was referring to in terms of things we would start with right off the bat, one of the things we know we would start with as we began this process is the landscaping necessary to put a buffer around the outsides of these neighbors, and weÓve been in communication with most of these, with these neighbors for some time. But that would be one of the first things the school would do is start to plant the trees even if we donÓt build the gym for, or the school for a bunch of years. We want to make sure that that buffer is in place and that landscape is in place. So what IÓd like to do is just -. We have reviewed the specific recommendations. ThereÓre a couple that weÓd like to discuss with the Commission just to get some clarity and perhaps an amendment. The first issue we want to talk about is Condition No. 6. Six is the time frame condition and it says that we will have constructed the gymnasium in a five-year period, and both the gymnasium and the athletic fields have purposes in five, and that the middle school would come in a ten-year period. We are just real aware at this point in time that that would, we can guarantee you that we would be back for an extension before that period in time. Simply their ability to raise the $5,000,000 ~ $6,000,000 that will take to put together the gymnasium would take some time to initiate, let alone to construct. So our request on that particular condition is that we amend it to a ten- and a 15-year period in time. We will begin on pieces of that; but the way itÓs written, it says that we have to construct by the end of five and ten years, and we know that that -. WATANABE: Would you like to take these individually and we address them individually, Mr. Melrose? MELROSE: ThatÓs up to you. I think there are about four of them. You can tell me which way youÓd like to do, or I can just run them through quickly and you can come back at them. EXHIBIT A 16 WATANABE: Okay. We did have a brief conversation before this about the potential for an extension. And let me share this with you: For the nearly five years now that IÓve been on the Planning Commission, historically five years is a standard that we have gone with. IÓm aware of only one other instance Î I believe you were the representative in that Î that was a Volcano area, where we had a longer period; but other than that IÓm not aware of any others that weÓve provided more than five years. And part of the reasoning for this is, you know, time changes everything, Mr. Melrose, I think you will agree with that; today we are looking ahead five years and we may think the traffic issues are this and three years from now they may be significantly more or significantly less Î no one can foresee the future. I will remind you that the Planning Director would have an equal period to administratively extend that five-year period, so in essence you are talking about a ten-year period. And given the our past preference for five-year period, in fairness to the general public I think that that might be out of question at this point. Hopefully, the economy will recover within a ten-year period and you will be able to build that gym because the total Use Permit extends far beyond the five-year period. And I think No. 6 is in direct reference to only Phase 1, which includes the gym. Am I correct? MELROSE: Yes, but then it puts ten years into the middle school, which is the -. WATANABE: Yeah, for the, and again, the ten years potentially, t administrative extension, could become 20 years. ItÓs a significant amount of time and very difficult for, I think, any individual to predict what the consequences may be. And with that, I for one would have some reluctance. Of course, we also have Ms. Masunaga here who could share her thoughts on that. Margaret? MASUNAGA: In terms of the time frame, I think, you know, you are right; itÓs kind of hard to predict. I donÓt know if Mr. Hayashi has a comment on that? HAYASHI: WeÓll let Maija respond to that, if itÓs okay with you, Margaret. MASUNAGA: Okay, thank you. COTTLE: As the Chairman mentioned, we normally, the Planning Department only allows five years, and then the applicant will have to come in for an administrative extension. In this case we allowed a little bit more time based upon what was proposed in their application. So we would be okay with moving all construction to a ten-year period, but beyond that -. (After a brief discussion with Mr. Hayashi,) okay, IÓm sorry, we would prefer to leave it as is because they can come in through administrative time extension and request more time that way. WATANABE: Okay, thank you. Like I said, Mr. Melrose, you do have five years for Phase 1 and potentially ten with an administrative extension. IÓm sure the Department will be fair with you, if per chance this Use Permit is approved, they are not going to pull the rug out from under you after five years. MELROSE: Yes. No, I understand that issue -. EXHIBIT A 17 WATANABE: Especially understanding the economic situation we are all saddled with your -. MELROSE: Appreciate the policy, and we can live with whatever you decide in this regard. The issue, one of those trigger thoughts for us is that the word is actually Ðconstruct.Ñ I mean, and IÓm not sure at what point that place, I mean, a building permit is pulled, does that mean a plan approval has been granted, at what point, or does that mean that youÓve got the grass growing and the trees around the outside of it, and using the word ÐconstructÑ is maybe a point of clarification for us now to know what that really means. COTTLE: Yeah, itÓs actually Ðconstruction shall be completed.Ñ MELROSE: Completed. COTTLE: Completed. So that would be certificate of occupancy. MELROSE: Okay. Perhaps they will throw themselves on the mercy of the Commission at one time in the future. WATANABE: Well, again, I believe that is in reference to the ten middle school. And like I had mentioned earlier -. You are still on Condition 6, right? MELROSE: Yes. WATANABE: And it reads, ÐConstruction of the middle school, elementary school addition, and related improvements shall be completed within ten (10) years from the effective date of the amended permit,Ñ and with an administrative extension, like I pointed out earlier, you know, conceivably it could reach 20 years -. MELROSE: That could go to 20, thatÓs right, cause it is a multiple of the existing term. WATANABE: Yeah, yeah, and so again, your initial time frame is really five, which administratively could reach, extend towards ten years. And again, the County has been historically quite fair in this, you know; we donÓt pull the rug out from under you, once weÓve given you the blessing -. MELROSE: ThatÓs fine. That will work with us. Thank you. Thank you for that conversation and that clarification. ThatÓs very helpful. Appreciate it. The next condition -. BOWMAN: Excuse me. May I -? Is it appropriate to ask a question about this condition? WATANABE: Sure. EXHIBIT A 18 BOWMAN: I am just curious. And it may deal with the bypass road. I donÓt know why but -. Why the gym fist and why not the elementary, I mean the school part? What is -? Maybe it was there, but I -. STURGES: Well, our supposition is that the gym will be built first because it represents the facility we donÓt have, whereas the middle school would only be necessary, if weÓve achieved the point where we needed, you know; we did not have the facilities to increase enrollment and we donÓt project that happening for a number of years. WATANABE: If you recall, Ms. Bowman, Mr. Sturges testified that enrollment actually has gone down -. BOWMAN: Right, right, I understand. WATANABE: Because of the tuitions, etc. So they are probably pretty right on on that projection. BOWMAN: Okay, thank you. MELROSE: Okay, the next -. WATANABE: Yes, go ahead. MELROSE: Okay, thanks. I just want a clarification of a conditi Public Works is asking for, and we emphasize the issue, is this elimination of the drop-off in front of the school. There is a dedicated drop-off lane thatÓs been in front of Kahilu Hall for a long, long period of time Î maybe even before the school was there; thatÓs been a community facility for a long time. And that, as the condition is written, we are fine with it. The issue is really what is the, what triggers that elimination of the pick-up and drop-off because what that really does is itÓs going to spread some of this traffic around. ItÓs a very logical place to drop off students today. The issue of backing up into the traffic way is a real concern for the school, and can be managed; at this point it happens infrequently but we wouldnÓt suggest that it doesnÓt happen. And so, to the extend that we can work with Public, with Traffic on that, maybe with Ron Thiel, we can address some of that issue; weÓve been in conversation with him, so we can deal with that later when Ron talks. WATANABE: I suspect that this will be a point of contention. Mr. Emler -. Fortunately, we have Mr. Emler here from the Public Works Department. COTTLE: Mr. Chairman, we also have Ron Thiel from the Traffic Division as well. WATANABE: Oh, IÓm sorry, we have two representatives from Public Works. So I think it might be better to have them address that issue as opposed to -. MELROSE: All I really wanted to do at this moment was raise it so that we could address it later on when you are, if you want to bring them up -. EXHIBIT A 19 WATANABE: Okay, okay, very well. MELROSE: ThatÓs fine. That was my intention. The next issue, itÓs the second No. 12, otherwise known as 13 Î the Hele-On bus stop. The school is do this. The one concern is really, how do you cap that? What conversation with Mass Transit some time. TheyÓve done an island-wide review of bus stops, some hundred or so places in which they intend to construct bus stops. Waimea, this particular stop at the Waimea Park, is a priority for them; it will be in their first ten. They are already budgeted to build it and to have chosen a design of the facility, which is basically they are buying a package, this kind of a clear glass package with some domes over the top of it. Whatever the Mass Transit wants to do, the school is more than willing both to bring labor to it and to help construct it. Our concern is what we know about that now is that there is about, Tom Brown said that they are about $5,600 package; heÓs bought a bunch of them together so he can put them together. And the school has said for quite some time theyÓll give $5,000 or whatever to go purchase it. Now if the, there are other issues associated with the bus stop: ADA issues, paving on either side of those issues, there may be design questions that the community raises about that particular design and they want to make it look different. And I think the schoolÓs concern is just wanting to bind that commitment in a way that is clear to us going in that we donÓt just end up doing whatever whatever, okay? So our suggestion is that, you know, we are willing to, weÓve offered $5,000 that we do that formally, but the conversation with Tom Brown is they are already buying them, and if thatÓs what it cost and we need to pay for it, weÓll do that Î thatÓs not the issue. And theyÓll come willingly to help build them Î thatÓs not the issue, either. The issue of location, markings, all the ADA offsite kinds of things are all part of it, and we are just a little afraid of having to turn that into a $40,000 task for really what is a community bus stop. But if they could paint it red and white and make it look know, go, what, cowboys or whatever it is, thatÓs diff-. Huh? The bulls, yeah. But I donÓt think thatÓs what the community wants, either, so -. But they are ver an unequivocal yes to the issue, but weÓd like to be able to put some binds around the outside of that. So, yeah, 16 is really an issue that I think is going to, youÓll hear a fair amount of comment from other people about. The concern is that this parking lot, which is now about, you know, itÓs a small area today, that intersection comes out right onto their, this turn on Lindsey and the end of Kawaihae Road. And what the Police Department had asked for was out a circulation pattern that would bring that traffic back to PuÒuk Road and/or back to KapiÒolani in some way so that there could be an in-and-out through the campus. The school has a real concern about that from a couple of perspectives, and maybe I should just let Carl talk to that because it is a real both community and educational issue t STURGES: Yeah, my primary concern is the safety of my students, and running a road for drop-off and pick-up through the middle of the campus really gives me a cold chill. I mean th IÓve got everybody from kindergarteners through 12 graders, you know, moving through the campus and not always being aware the fact there would be cars; it kind of goes against all the literature IÓve read about, you know, creating open campuses and that sort of thing. But itÓs just primarily a safety issue that makes me very concerned. The other issue is that as a strategy, as a EXHIBIT A 20 policy, the school has wanted not to put school traffic on PuÒuk Street because of concerns for the quality of life of the people who live on PuÒuk; theyÓve been good neighbors to us and we want to be good neighbors to them and not turn PuÒuk into an entrance and an exit thoroughfare. So those would be our concerns about that particular condition. MELROSE: The other option in the condition is that it run along this area right here, which is a very small amount of space between the rear riparian edge and the corner of that kuleana,; so there is just not a lot of space. And even if it was a one-way cycle, as itÓs written, itÓs triggered by the need to expand the parking lot. And if they decide not, I mean, one way to avoid it because of, for an educational purpose, just not to expand the parking lot, but it would also -. There is really no reason, very unlikely that they build a parking lot of this scale; but if they put five more stalls, this condition would kick in, so -. One, we want to make sure we stan beside the PuÒuk neighbors in this issue; we donÓt see that as, we wouldnÓt do that at this point, the school is not seeing that as a solution. The other option coming around this backside is rea compromised by the size of the distance there, yeah, and with trails and greenways coming in right along this sideways as well, so -. WATANABE: Not to mention the stream in the, yeah -. MELROSE: Yeah. So I think that is the -. You see the floodplain comes in on this property right there, right, so thatÓs the FIRM boundary on the floodplain; so youÓd have to run it through the floodplain Î not impossible but just difficult. So I would rather, perhaps there is a way to limit the amount of area in the parking lot, to parking, but we would -. We just let you know that thatÓs where we are coming from in that, and if it was a matter of having the condition, we just wouldnÓt expand the parking lot in any way because itÓs a, itÓll end up compromising both the school and the neighborhood, and weÓre not going to, we just wouldnÓt choose to do that. Yeah, and the parking lot is not necessary for this expansion. So if thatÓs what it does is caps it, then so be it, but I understand where the condition is coming from. WATANABE: Just for clarification, the parking lot you are referring to right now is currently in existence? MELROSE: Yes. There is about -. WATANABE: And for the foreseeable future you do not anticipate an expansion of that just yet, right? STURGES: Right. ThatÓs correct. WATANABE: Okay. STURGES: Yeah, the only reason itÓs on there as a part of the master plan was on the supposition that, you know, maybe if you need to handle a larger crowd in the theater or something. ItÓs not factored into the parking lots we need for the new buildings. EXHIBIT A 21 MELROSE: Keep in mind that, you know, this, what doesnÓt park on campus its way out elsewhere, and that, you know, and the problem is that you are going to get it on t side of the park. There are other areas that happen, particularly at events, you know, the community uses the theater, there are a variety of those kinds of things. So the degree to which we could create a series of locations on campus for parking is a good thing, but it kind of binds here at this moment. So I, we are willing to, you know, do something. I just, it would be unfortunate not to be able to put a couple of stalls in that, if you are trying to solve problems and get people off the street; but if it triggers this option of having to put a whole road through, itÓll keep us from accommodating -. WATANABE: I understand. I understand, especially with the relocation of the gym to that end of the property. MELROSE: Right. WATANABE: And I understand why you relocated the gym to that end MELROSE: Right. Thank you. WATANABE: Okay. MELROSE: So I believe those are the issues that we had to address in this process. And we, you know, we are being asked to put a sidewalk and lighting along this side of the street thatÓs triggered by the first of those buildings; thatÓs an acceptable thing to us. We realize that. ThatÓs a little, itÓs a tricky one. See how close this house is to the corner? I mean thatÓs way inside the setbacks. But itÓs an old house and the road Î probably precede the roads Î and these hedges both, not exactly sure, subject to a survey, but they seem to come and go from private to public property and they are big, thick, heavy hedges. So this little intersection, this little turn here, is compromised both by the existence of that home on the corner and the thickness of the hedge, which is an issue for the neighborhood and we share that. So maybe by clearing that up at sometime with a sidewalk, you know, that might help; we see the benefit of doing that. Yeah, thatÓs one of the issues the community have raised and we certainly share. HOUSEL: Mr. Chair? WATANABE: Yes, Mr. Housel. HOUSEL: Mr. Melrose, I had a question. One of the conditions is Condition 9a, which discusses the improvements to KapiÒolani -. MELROSE: Again, thatÓs -. HOUSEL: To the middle school. Which building is the middle school? MELROSE: Middle school is there. EXHIBIT A 22 HOUSEL: Right there, okay. MELROSE: So what they are saying is -. This is the entrance thatÓs there today into the elementary school; so we are just coming back along, thatÓs about there, thatÓs the sidewalk improvement, walking improvements, lights as required. HOUSEL: Okay, now, is there another entrance to where the warehouse is right now? MELROSE: Yeah, it comes off of KapiÒolani right there. HOUSEL: Okay. Is that -? It looks like a wider-than-usual roadway. Is that a parking area there? MELROSE: You know, itÓs a really warehouse, or a loading dock, so itÓs elevated for loading and unloading; it was built by the military so thereÓs a lot of, you know, heavy stuff that came in and went from there, and there is access in and off of b STURGES: But we donÓt want to use that as a parking lot and/or access to the school. All I need is access for my maintenance vehicles to use the warehouse. MELROSE: And then the access will be internal this way, right? STURGES: Yeah, thatÓs why there is a sidewalk out to there. HOUSEL: Okay. Now you are planning, in your plan you plan to convert the warehouse to classrooms? STURGES: A portion of it. A portion would make a great studio or space. HOUSEL: And where will parking be for that building? STURGES: It will be in the main parking lot. HOUSEL: In which parking lot? STURGES: It will be in the main parking lot over by the middle school. HOUSEL: Okay. So there is not any parking intended adjacent to the warehouse? STURGES: No, sir. HOUSEL: Okay. MELROSE: I think itÓs likely to say that there will -. The schoolÓs use would not necessarily generate that need. There may be others that -. But the parking is not intended to go on KapiÒolani Street. ItÓll end up back behind here. EXHIBIT A 23 HOUSEL: So the primary traffic flow to the school, to the classrooms, wi go no further down KapiÒolani than the middle school? STURGES: ThatÓs correct. MELROSE: Right. And I think you are right. There is a, we do probably, you know, expect a small increase depending on what kind of activities go there. But in the past they did have an art program, they had a kiln there; itÓs a great place to do that kind of, you know, get- dirty kind of art back there. But we actually had to stop it be use. So the ability to invest in that building is -. ItÓs actually over 50 years, a historic site, so itÓs, you know, weÓve got to do the whole thing on it because itÓs over 50 years old and itÓs a remnant of the military presence in town. So there is a bit of But we would -. Its largest use is really the maintenance function at the school; it is the back of the house for the school and will remain that way. HOUSEL: Okay, thank you very much. WATANABE: Any further questions? Mr. Melrose, about how long more with your presentation? IÓm not trying to rush you. MELROSE: We are done. We are -. WATANABE: Mr. Ray has not addressed yet. MELROSE: Yes, excuse me, IÓm sorry, I was done. Yes, so what IÓd like to do is just kind of turn this over to John who is on the board of the school. RAY: Yeah, and IÓll make my comments very brief. WATANABE: I wasnÓt trying to rush you. I was just looking for a convenient place to create a break because weÓve gone for about an hour and a half, and typically the attention span falls apart after about an hour and a half. RAY: No, four or five minutes, so -. WATANABE: So name and address, please. RAY: My name is John Ray and my address is 65-1278 Lailai Road in Waimea. Thank you, Chairman and Commission Members. IÓm a recent board member of Parker School but a longtime neighbor resident. I moved to the neighborhood about 35 years ago, actually the same year Parker School was built. So IÓve lived in that neighborhood, you know, pretty much my entire adult life. IÓm a regular daily walker in the neighborhood, what we call the Loop; I walk from my house down Lindsey Road, up KapiÒolani, up HkÒula and back to my house. So IÓm very familiar as a pedestrian walking in that neighborhood pretty much everyday. My oldest daughter taught at Parker School. My youngest daughter attended and graduated from Parker. I EXHIBIT A 24 built, owned and operated the Paniolo Country Inn Restaurant next to the school. I operated that for many years, built the restaurant in 1992. IÓve previously served on the County Council. I was a prior chair of the South Kohala Traffic Safety Committee and the Waimea Community Association, and I currently serve on the State Commission on Transportation. So IÓm extremely familiar with the school, the neighborhood, the community and planning and transportation issues in the area. And most importantly, though, IÓm speaking as a neighbor I think who, like I say, IÓve lived there most of my adult life, and I hope to live and die at some point in that neighborhood Î hopefully not too soon. The key points Î and Carl and Jeff have covered a lot of this Î that I want to just briefly touch on is that this school, Parker School, will only grow, if the commu thing IÓd like to point out, which you may or may not be aware of, probably not as acutely as we are, is that there is no public high school in the South Kohala District and there is no planned public high school in the South Kohala District. So we are somewhat unique in that area. And private schools play a particularly vital role in our community and in the District. And if you think about it, without a high school you have very limited public facilities in terms of gyms, auditoriums, playing fields, that kind of thing, which pretty much other communities have; when you look at North Kohala, when you look at Kohala, the school facilities they have, the parks, the swimming pools, all those things that most communities are supplied by public high school, we donÓt have in Waimea and in the District. Parker is already a very important community school. They have a community theater and an auditorium. The Waimea Community Association meets quite often in the school auditorium. And hopefully in the future, if we are allowed to grow, weÓll be able to provide a gym, additional playing fields and more facilities including greater community education opportunities. So if there is a need and a demand that Parker School can provide, you know, IÓd like to make the very strong argument that what better location than in the middle of town. We have great accessibility in terms of walking, biking, mass transit, a close commute for a large majority of the population, including being adjacent to the planned trails and greenways system. And we are also close to the projected growth areas in Waimea Î both our neighborhood and pretty much across the street and the Parker Ranch future developments. ThatÓs the greatest density of housing projected in the community. So we are very well served to the proximity to serve those communities. You know, the rural nature of this area is somewhat of an anomaly. And I guess itÓs, you know, easy for me to say; I donÓt live right there. But I did live, and my community or my street was similarly rural when I moved there 35 years ago. We used to keep horses across the street. My daughters used to ride horse shows at Paniolo Park in HPA. And itÓs changed pretty dramatically in terms of the housing in the neighborhood. This area which happens to be right in the heart, right in the center of town, is also the most open and rural neighborhood within Waimea. So itÓs somewhat of an anomaly, and IÓm not unsympathetic to that. But if you think about modern planning concepts where I think everybody is focused on promoting more livable communities, this really is the area, from a planning standpoint, that we should be promoting more growth and more density right in our urban core. So I think in that context Parker School fits into that extremely well. And as a neighbor, if I lived across the street, IÓd be a lot happier about the school going in in terms of, you know, the uses there than I would be at other EXHIBIT A 25 potentially greater uses. And itÓs been, you know, IÓve been very involved in discussions of other uses, which would be m uch greater in density potential uses on that side of the school So you know, I think traffic is the main issue and absolutely traffic is a problem. But we are right in the center of town, and I think somehow we all need to accommodate it. A lot of the commuter traffic comes up by my street right up Lailai and goes down HkÒula and comes down Lindsey both to service Parker School and the HPA middle and lower school just to accommodate the turning movements. But in spite of, you know, all these problems, I think, I know there is some progress, and I just want to point out a few things. Regionally the Saddle Road project is growing like gangbusters and when itÓs complete, or even today, itÓs going to have a dramatic effect on cross-island traffic and the traffic coming through Waimea. The Parker Ranch connector road will be complete in a matter of months, which will provide another key linkage. The Mmalahoa improvements that the County has planned, I believe, will start early next year, which will improve traffic flow in town. Waimea Elementary and Middle School made a dramatic, or made some changes that are dramatic effect on improving traffic flow through town in terms of addressing their drop-off and pick-up and taking that off the highway, which was basically on Mmalahoa Highway Î basically it was the school parking lot for the last 50 or 60 years. And the Trails and Greenways Project which Jeff and Carl have talked about is going to make a significant addition in terms of the ability of people to walk and bike around town. The school has designated staggered-hours, which is a big help in staggering traffic. And a couple of other things that are going on regionally I want to point out is the County is planning a new regional park, which is going to be sort of off their connector road adjacent to the Parker Ranch headquarters. When that regional park is going to be built, and you know, I donÓt know when but IÓm confident that it will be, that will take a lot of pressure off of the one existing park, which is right in this neighborhood. And HawaiÒi Preparatory Academy has a long range plan to relocate the lower and middle school to their upper campus; the timing is very uncertain, but weÓre not going to be growing quickly either, and IÓm confident that in the next five to ten years, fifteen years, that school will be relocated to the upper campus, which will have a dramatic positive effect on school traffic within this area. So I just wanted to point some of those things out, you know, from a regional context, from a neighborhood context. And thank you very much for your consideration and hopefully you can figure out a way to support this obligation to help the school grow with the community. Thank you. WATANABE: Fellow Commissioners, do we have any questions of Mr. Ray? Seeing none, then this might be a convenient point to take a quick break. LetÓs take about ten minutes, and then we can reconvene and have Public Works address some of your concerns, and take testimony from the public. So weÓll stand in recess for about ten minutes. RECESSEDThe Chair called a recess at 11:05 a.m. RECONVENED The meeting reconvened at 11:21 a.m. EXHIBIT A 26 WATANABE: Will the Planning Commission meeting please come back i have concluded the applicantÓs presentation, and there were a number of questions they addressed during the presentation with regard to the conditions set forth. And so IÓd like to call on two representatives from Public Works whose input helped construct those conditions. That would be Mr. Ron Thiel and Kiran Emler. Would both of you come up, please, so that we can address some of these issues that were brought up by the applicat or the applicantÓs representative? Maybe we can address these in the order of the conditions. So I believe the first one was Condition No. 12, and as Mr. Melrose pointed out, the second No. 12. This is in regard to, ÐA Hele-On bus stop shelter shall be provided by the applicant È.Ñ I believe his major concern there was not agreeing to a blank check, not that he is opposed to any contribution. So IÓm wondering if there is any way either of you could address that and make some suggestions. THIEL: IÓm Ron Thiel, the chief of the Traffic Division, and have been working with -. WATANABE: Would you speak into the mike, please, Mr. Thiel? THIEL: IÓm Ron Thiel, chief of the Traffic Division, and am very familiar with this application. WeÓve gone to quite a few meetings and discussions on it. As far as this bus shelter goes, this is something that they are working out with Tom Brown. And I think what they are really trying to say is that they are in agreement with supplying or financing this shelter but any other requirements that might come up, ADA requirements, crosswalk requirements, location, things like that, they are asking to be separated from. One of the issues that IÓm involved in on this location is once we locate a bus stop in that area, weÓre going to have to look at another crosswalk, or potential crosswalk across Kawaihae Road, and so that makes it a little more difficult, more things to deal with, and I think thatÓs whaare getting to; they know that and are saying, you know, this could get a little more involved. So I think they are just trying to get their commitment relating the shelter structure it WATANABE: Then in your opinion, is it reasonable to limit it to the construction of the bus stop shelter and not, say, leave it so open-ended that it may extend to the crosswalk and ADA improvements, etc.? THIEL: Well, yes, because I think thatÓs what Tom Brown is going to have to be dealing with. WATANABE: Yeah, and so you would tend to agree that, to an extent that the County would have to be responsible for at least a portion of the public benefit and not just lay the entire bill on Parker School? THIEL: Yes, because we have to look at the entire facility, not just a bus stop for the school; we are having to look at crossing the road, a crosswalk thing, issues like that, which is more involved than what theyÓre, I think, should be responsible for. WATANABE: Okay. Fellow Commissioners, do we have any questions regarding that particular condition? Then -. Yes. EXHIBIT A 27 HOUSEL: I have one, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Thiel, is that Hele-On stop, or shelter there, is that already planned by Tom Brown, or is that a new ad THIEL: My understanding is itÓs already planned by Tom Brown, and right now the bus is stopping at the gate that goes through the park over to the school; so there is an active operation right now but there is no shelter constructed there. And my understanding is he is looking at that shelter construction now. HOUSEL: Okay. WATANABE: Mr. Hayashi, may I ask you to take that into consideration and review the wording in -. Oh, yes, Maija, I guess you have a response already. Very good. COTTLE: The recommendation from Tom Brown was that they provide a bus stop shelter -. WATANABE: Period. COTTLE: Not anything beyond that. And so that is why the condition calls for a bus stop shelter. WATANABE: Okay, so for the record we are not asking for anything further than that. COTTLE: ThatÓs correct. BOWMAN: I have a question. WATANABE: Yes. BOWMAN: I believe the applicant said that the shelter would cost about $5,600. Could -? COTTLE: ThatÓs correct. The quote that Tom Brown communicated to me was that they range between $5,000 and $6,000. BOWMAN: So could the condition read, you know, $5,000 for the construction of Î because the applicant did ask for $5,000 Î rather than a shelter? WATANABE: I would caution against it because thatÓs a quote today. IÓm not exactly sure when the bus stop will be built, and if itÓs built three ye higher. Given the fact that there is a concession in that the allotable impact to Parker School is only the construction of the shelter, I would tend to think thatÓs pretty fair in the way itÓs worded. We may box ourselves in, if we say, you know, restrict ourselves to $5,500 and next week find out that itÓs going to cost $7,000. EXHIBIT A 28 BOWMAN: I think my concern is that that shelter is not just for Parker School children, and itÓs only on the north side. DoesnÓt the bus go both ways? And if you are going to build a crosswalk, donÓt you have bus stops on both sides? COTTLE: The County Mass Transit Agency may have plans for a bus sides; IÓm not aware of that but the recommendation made by Mr. Brown was that Parker School provide a bus shelter on the north side. BOWMAN: Okay, so the bus shelter -. COTTLE: Yes. BOWMAN: Okay, thank you. WATANABE: Our counsel has indicated that if, if it were truly open-ended, it would have included additional wording that says Ða bus stop shelter and other improvements.Ñ But as itÓs worded now itÓs quite specific to a bus stop shelter, so -. BOWMAN: But it does -. WATANABE: Potentially weÓve eliminated for the record any confusion. BOWMAN: Okay, my question is bus stop shelter; so are there requirements for a bus stop shelter, or could they build their own little shelter, or is it a pre-made shelter that the oth bus stops have? I mean I know it may sound minor but thereÓs, it just says Ðbus stop shelter.Ñ WATANABE: Ms. Bowman, it goes on to say Ðmeeting with the approval of the County Mass Transit Agency and Department of Public Works.Ñ So -. BOWMAN: Okay, IÓm sorry, Ðmeeting È.Ñ Okay. WATANABE: I think thatÓs pretty specific. BOWMAN: Okay, thank you. WATANABE: I guess IÓm having difficulty with that word Ðspecific.Ñ Okay, having addressed that, I believe thereÓs Condition No. 16 also, which is ÐPrior to expansion of the Lindsey Road parking lotÑ Î and for the record again this is an existing parking lot Î Ðthe applicant shall provide an internal road connecting the Lindsey Road parking lot to KapiÒolani Road, either through PuÒuk Road or through the KapiÒolani Road parking lot.Ñ And I believe both of you were present when Mr. Sturges provided his testimony saying it kind of goes against the grain of safety for the students, you know, having a public road intersecting the school ground. Would any of you care to address that? I think Mr. Melrose also indicated that it may be beneficial to all concerned, if they were allowed to provide obviously it seems from the site plan that thereÓs only a limited amount of parking that could be added there. I donÓt know which one of you would care to address that. EXHIBIT A 29 THIEL: Ron Thiel -. WATANABE: Mr. Thiel, yes. THIEL: I will address that the best I can. From what I noticed when I looked at the area, it makes a lot of sense just to leave that existing parking lot alone; donÓt expand it, donÓt make a connection to interior PuÒuk Road, and just leave it status quo. There is enough parking that they are providing and the other parking lot they could handle all their activity. And by leaving that existing parking lot alone we donÓt add any more traffic on Lindsey Road. So I would suggest just deleting that. And -. WATANABE: Deleting No. 16? THIEL: Just deleting any reference to making the connection to that residential road. WATANABE: Any -? Ms. -. BOWMAN: Just a clarification. So deleting the expansion in totality that -. THIEL: Of that existing parking lot off of Lindsey Road. BOWMAN: Okay. WATANABE: So delete the entire No. 16, right, is your suggestion? THIEL: Yes. WATANABE: Okay. Any further questions on that? BOWMAN: Can I clarify -? WATANABE: Yes. BOWMAN: IÓm sorry to be so inapt. So by deleting that, what we are saying is that the parking will not be expanded, correct? THIEL: No -. BOWMAN: Oh, okay, so the parking lot can still be expanded, but there wonÓt be that requirement. THIEL: No, I would suggest you make a new condition and prohibit the expansion of the parking lot. EXHIBIT A 30 BOWMAN: Thank you for the clarification. WATANABE: Okay. So not deleting but prohibit expansion. Okay - BOWMAN: I have another question. WATANABE: Yes. BOWMAN: Sorry. Very quickly. So the present number of stalls, do you know what they are now? WATANABE: I do not know. Maija, I hate to put you on the spot on this, but off the top of your head do you have an idea? BOWMAN: ThatÓs okay. Just approximately it would double, about double the size of the parking lot, right? WATANABE: I beg your pardon? BOWMAN: IÓm just trying to see where the expansion, where the present parking lot is versus the expansion. COTTLE: I think we might have an existing aerial photograph of the current parking lot. So you can see it here, and their proposal is to expand it out in this direction. BOWMAN: What building is that? COTTLE: IÓm not certain what the building is used for, but they are proposing to relocate it over here in order to expand the parking lot here. WATANABE: As I understood it, though, the expansion, or potential expansion was kind of limited, not double the size, right? COTTLE: I think it called for about 200 -. WATANABE: Oh, maybe IÓm wrong then. COTTLE: A little over 200 parking spaces -. WATANABE: Additional? COTTLE: Two hundred total. WATANABE: So not 200 additional. COTTLE: No. EXHIBIT A 31 WATANABE: Yeah, I thought he mentioned like ten or whatever, a much smaller number. Mr. Melrose -. MELROSE: As drawn -. WATANABE: Why donÓt you come up to the table, please. Well, even as drawn, we realize that thatÓs probably not, you know, set in stone. So maybe you can give us a general flavor for what size expansion the school is considering, if it should require an expansion in the future. MELROSE: As Î just so you got the sense of scale Î as drawn there are 100 stalls in that location; as exists today in present there are under 40, I believe, stalls. So I think what like to have the flexibility to do is to expand just a, put another 20 stalls in Î I was pulling this off of the top of my head. And the only reason we do it is to be able to provide additional parking so it doesnÓt flow in other places, and provide the service to the -. WATANABE: Off-street parking. MELROSE: Off-street parking, which is a logical thing to do. Just a technical question: This area that you are talking about putting the limitation on is not in the Use Permit area; itÓs in a commercially zoned area that was, does not require a Use Permit. So I just ask that as a technical question to put the limitation Î I understand for the circulation question because it affected, it went out into the other portions of this Î but technically itÓs in a commercial zone and not in the Use Permit, so whatÓs the -. WATANABE: WeÓll have staff address that because I -. MELROSE: I just want you to address it, so itÓs clear to us how that piece plays out. But I think, understand that weÓre going to leave it that way. We think thereÓs some benefit for the general population to put a little bit more in it, but -. WATANABE: So the potential flexibility is only if the need arise no particular need. MELROSE: Right. There is no plan for it right now. WATANABE: Okay. So we are clear on that. Mr. Housel. HOUSEL: I had a question for Mr. Melrose, if you can. Do some of the students drive to school? MELROSE: I think the -. STURGES: Yes. EXHIBIT A 32 MELROSE: Yes. HOUSEL: They do? MELROSE: Yeah, that -. I threw my voice pretty good, huh? HOUSEL: Is that a small number or is it -? WhatÓs the real intent for this parking lot? MELROSE: The intent for the parking lot is to provide overflow support for events, but IÓm not throwing my voice. STURGES: In terms of whatÓs being done right now, I have maybe ten seniors who park there and maybe five juniors, so thatÓs about 15-student cars that would use that lot everyday. Some of my teachers also park there. HOUSEL: Teachers do also. STURGES: Yes, sir. HOUSEL: Okay. Once the gymnasium is built, what Î and I believe itÓs going to have 400 seats, is that right? STURGES: At maximum, and thatÓs what, I mean that would be on the upper end of what we would be able to raise money for, but I have my doubts about that. But the proposal does say 400. HOUSEL: So if you have an event, you will need more parking, is that correct? STURGES: Well, but that parking would go off of the KapiÒolani parking lot. That parking lot is larger than it needs to be in terms of the number of required spaces; weÓve got plenty of room over there. So our intension is to put any increase in parking at KapiÒolani, I mean we are not particularly wedded to any expansion of the existing parking lot off of Lindsey. HOUSEL: Okay. STURGES: And itÓs, you know, if you would go there during an average school day, there are spots available; I mean itÓs not full currently. HOUSEL: Thank you very much. WATANABE: Okay. While we have you up there, well, you can answer this, Mr. Melrose. The depiction of the future parking lot, I believe thatÓs on KapiÒolani Road -. MELROSE: Yes. EXHIBIT A 33 WATANABE: That was intended basically for the gym, the future gym? MELROSE: Yeah, and the school on that side. WATANABE: ThatÓs designed for how many stalls? MELROSE: Under any circumstances we are going to have to build the stalls that are required under the Code. So the specific count which was drawn there was kind of a characteristic; it was a way to characterize it. I think there are probably in that same realm of 100 stalls in that picture. But under any circumstances we are going to need to meet the requirements of the Code in how many stalls are put there, and that the goal is to keep all of the parking on campus. WATANABE: Okay, thank you. Do we have -? Yes, Ms. Bowman. BOWMAN: I have one more question. Your parking lot presently on the weekends, is it locked? The present parking lot coming off of -. I mean, can the public utilize that? I know that there is a swap meet or sales, whatever you call it, open market, on the weekends, but IÓm just -. MELROSE: No, itÓs not locked, not locked. BOWMAN: You know, I think we forget that itÓs, this school is next to a very, very busy park that has multiple uses as far as traffic, too. So do some of the people that utilize the park park in that parking lot? MELROSE: Yes. Thank you. I just want to bring back the focus. I think the reason for the condition has to do with the coming and going in the peak hours, and the notion that if you put more parking stalls, that would somehow be more coming and going in a peak hour into the peak traffic. One of the conditions has to do with elimination of some turns in and out, and there are some striping along Lindsey Road that keep left turns coming into it, something thatÓs, you know, is existing, and they are trying to now say no left turns out. So the actual impact, how many stalls are there is less important than how safe the intersection is at the peak period in time. So the expansion of the parking lot isnÓt, you know, does serve these kinds of issues, but what would, I think the reason that they were playing with this had to do with the turning movement at the road, and I think thatÓs the key issue Î not how many stalls are there. WATANABE: Okay. BOWMAN: Okay, I just want to clarify. My point was not during the peak time but that it does offer less congestion along Lindsey Road because thatÓs very dangerous, too Î people back up; I mean thatÓs a traffic hazard in itself on off-peak hours, so -. MELROSE: Right. And when there are things in the theater, people will park across the street because that lot fills up. You can expand that a little bit, you get less of that on KapiÒolani on the Lindsey Road park frontage. EXHIBIT A 34 WATANABE: Well, okay, I think weÓve got the general gist of this, though. To be honest with you for the publicÓs benefit and those who have, you know, signed up to testify, IÓm hoping Î we are running rapidly out of time before lunch Î but IÓm hoping to be able to wrap this up, so we donÓt inconvenience you with an additional break. And with that in mind, if there are no objections, IÓd like to move on to Condition No. 17. And I believe Ki, Kiran, you will be the one to address this, ÐAll driveway connections to PuÒuk Road È conform to È Streets and Sidewalks È,Ñ etc. THIEL: That would be Ki Emler. WATANABE: Yeah, Kiran. EMLER: I guess this is on? Yeah. This is basically just the standard condition that quotes that they have to meet the County Code with regard to driveway approach construction. WATANABE: Yeah. Earlier, though, Mr. Melrose did allude to some -. It might be a little difficult because of the existing homes along that road. He didnÓt object to providing those improvements, as I recall. But can you share with us whether you foresee any problems there as far as the right-of-way easements, etc.? I think he alluded to some hedges, bush, whatever, on that road. EMLER: I think you are talking about the corner of Lindsey and KapiÒolani. WATANABE: Oh, okay, and -. EMLER: There is a hedge right there at that corner that seems to be a problem; it blocks sight distance for people making a right turn into KapiÒolani and for people walking the road. IÓm sure if they are on the south side of the road, they are going to be surprised by somebody coming around the corner because they canÓt see approaching traffic. WATANABE: Yeah, but you donÓt see any potential hang-ups there, though. ItÓs all doable to -. EMLER: Well, the hedge looks to me like it could be partially inside of the County right-of-way like Mr. Melrose said. That, I canÓt say there wonÓt be some issues with the property owner there, if they are very possessive about their hedge; but something will need to be worked out. WATANABE: Okay. And Department of Public Works is fine with this; I mean, you know, you stand by the applicant -. EMLER: Yes, we proposed the condition; we gave them two choices either with concrete sidewalk, curb and gutter, which are probably going to take more of the right-of- way and go up to the property line, or else put in a shoulder with an intermittent concrete berm, I mean asphalt berm to protect the pedestrians from traffic. That, because they could be running EXHIBIT A 35 into those kinds of problems, also there is a choice in whether that Î because the condition says for the shoulder improvement they will have to maintain it because I expect that a shoulder like that where youÓve got the drainage running at grade is going to be much more difficult to maintain and I donÓt want our Public Works Highway Maintenance guys having to maintain that, because I think it is going to be a problem, so IÓm saying maintain it as well Î otherwise you can build the concrete sidewalk, you know, above grade, curb, gutter the maintenance, that will take care of a maintenance problem; we will maintain that. WATANABE: Okay. Any further questions from the Commissioners on this? Okay, well, thank you for your input. Mr. Thiel. THIEL: I have one comment. May I make -? WATANABE: Yes. THIEL: About Item 14. WATANABE: Fourteen, okay. THIEL: Back on Item 11 it indicates that the applicant would be working with the Department of Public Works dealing with elimination of the parent pick-up and drop-off. And that is part of our traffic management plan that we are trying to implement here in the Traffic Division. And in Item 14 it definitely prohibits left-turn movements, and I would, that could cause us some problems. In the future if we redesign and re-stripe Lindsey Road, I think we can adequately and safely allow left-turn movements, and it would help us better in the parent pick- up and drop-off. So I would suggest on Item 14 that you, instead of making the restriction, you make it -. WATANABE: Meeting with the approval of? THIEL: Approval of the Department of Public Works. WATANABE: Okay. But let me -. THIEL: And I think Maija could probably come up with wordage on that. COTTLE: Mr. Chairman? WATANABE: Yes. COTTLE: Can I suggest changing it to, ÐWhen required by the Department of Public Works, the applicant shall install Òno-left-turnÓ sign(s) meetin WATANABE: When or if? COTTLE: When required. EXHIBIT A 36 WAT ANABE: When. COTTLE: That way it leaves it up to Public Works to require it at some point in the future if they feel the need or not require it at all. WATANABE: That sounds good. GONZALEZ: So you are seeking to strike, ÐPrior to the issuance of a Certificate of Occupancy for any new structures?Ñ COTTLE: Yes, and replace it with, ÐWhen required by the Department of Public Works.Ñ WATANABE: Oh, thank you for the clarification, Mr. Gonzalez -. COTTLE: Sorry about that. WATANABE: I was going to insert. So we strike that and the sentence will begin with, ÐWhen required by Public Works.Ñ BEAUDET: Based on what Mr. Thiel was saying, what I took from what he was saying was that there currently is a need for restricting left turns at that intersection into the parking lot, but given the improvements of a future design plan there may not be. So we need to -. Am I correct, Mr. Thiel? THIEL: Yes and no. Actually, there is confusion at that intersection, at that driveway intersection because of the existing striping, which I propose to correct and make it more, stripe it more appropriately, and in doing that we may not need at this point in time to restrict the left-turn movement. WATANABE: Okay, so what you are saying is if you re-stripe, potentially they would not at all need a Ðno left-turnÑ -. BEAUDET: Should we or shouldnÓt we have that restriction there now based on the current striping? WouldnÓt it make that intersection safer, if we restrict that action? THIEL: This is where I have a problem with restrictions: When you restrict certain movement, you cause another movement. And by restricting that movement you are going to cause people to go and do U-turns at the nearest location. And as U-turns sometimes become more detrimental than the actual restriction or the movement in the first place, and so I see by restricting the movement, it may make it even worse. And thatÓswhy I just want to have the opportunity after we address the whole thing of determining whether we need it or not. BEAUDET: So the Ðas requiredÑ language would suffice for now? EXHIBIT A 37 THIEL: That is correct. WATANABE: Okay, I believe we are pretty much settled on No. 14 then, yeah? And if there is anything left to potentially discuss, it might be No. 16. Yes, Mr. Housel. HOUSEL: As long as we are looking at the conditions, we probably should try to decide what to do about the two Ð12Ñ items. WATANABE: Oh, yeah, that, standard re-numbering, yeah. WeÓll address that when, I mean clarify that when we make the motions -. HOUSEL: Okay. WATANABE: But that would come during deliberation after public testimony. I do think, though, that we do have, to some extent, unresolved 16. Mr. Thiel suggested that we prohibit any further expansion of the existing Lindsey Road parking lot, and I would like feedback from the Commissioners if you feel that is sufficient or if -. There was another suggestion that maybe limiting the amount of the expansion. I think now everyone is in agreement that we wonÓt have any interior public roads within the school area, so thatÓs easy to strike out. Maija, do you have any recommendations in that -? COTTLE: We have a proposed condition to remove Condition 16 and replace it with, ÐExpansion of the existing parking lot on Lindsey Road shall be prohibited.Ñ WATANABE: Okay, prohibit expansion, then. Okay. Any further comments? We are all clear on that? So seeing none, I guess we are all clear on this. And thank you, both of you, for your input into this. It certainly has helped us with crafting the conditions. With that, you may be seated. And letÓs proceed Î I think we can Î letÓs try, letÓs at least try and give the public the benefit of the doubt and see if we can get through this. I have ten people from the public who wish to testify, who signed up to testify. So IÓll call you up in the order that you signed up. Again, before we begin testimony, let me remind you that in the interest of time please be concise, donÓt be repetitive, and contain yourself to three minutes. So may I call up Bertil Long, Patricia (sic) Sullivan and Linda Copman? Maybe I can call up one more: Shellie Note- Gressard. So weÓll go four-four-two. LetÓs see. Let me swear you in, please. Would you raise your right hand? Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth now before the Planning Commission? TESTIFIERS: Yes, I do. WATANABE: Thank you. So why donÓt we start from you, sir. Prior to, yeah, provide name and address -. SULLIVAN: Yes. My name is Patrick Sullivan Î I havenÓt had a se yet. And IÓm from Waimea. My address is P. O. Box 1198. Thank you for this opportunity to testify. IÓll be very quick. IÓve attended several meetings where the school representatives have, like today, expressed their commitment to the pathway. And to me it strikes me a little bit like the checks in the mail, and IÓll explain why. This documents fr EXHIBIT A 38 December of 2005, dealing with the original Use Permit that was issued and Î I wonÓt go through all the verbiage Î this says Ðhereby ordered that the Use Permit filed by Parker School,Ñ blah, blah, blah, Ðshall be hereby approved subject to the following conditions,Ñ and IÓll turn your attention to Condition No. 10, which clearly states, ÐThe applicant shall provide an easement on the subject property for the Waimea Trail.Ñ So when I hear rosy talk about future commitment, etc. and then I see that they have not complied with the Planning CommissionÓs expressed wishes, I can only be extremely doubtful that this will happen in the future, if it doesnÓt happen now. So I would like you members to kindly reflect upon which youÓd asked them to do and why they have not done it. And I think itÓs essential that youÓre going to require them to do this or you reject this permit. Thank you. WATANABE: Do we, fellow Commissioners, do we have any questions of -? Seeing none, thank you for your testimony. MaÓam? NOTE-GRESSARD: My name is Shellie Note-Gressard. I am the assistant head at Parker School. IÓm a parent of a seventh grader and a third grader at Parker School. I live at 65-1110 HkÒula Road, so IÓm also a neighbor. I have worked in Waimea at Waimea Middle School as the grade level counselor of Waimea Middle School for previous to working at Parker School. And today IÓm approaching you not as a Parker School employee, but as a neighbor and a parent and a community member. I am an AYSO coach. I have coached num middle school. I am very well aware of what the town of Waimea lacks in the way of facilities, what its traffic issues are and what it lacks in terms of education for our kids. And I donÓt speak only for Parker kids; I speak for the kids in my community. I have a great understanding of what we lack and how it impacts our kids. And when our kids donÓt have what they need in terms of education and spaces to play, safe spaces to play, that is to the detriment of our community in the long run; we are not providing them with what they need. And I have to say that I feel good about what Parker School is doing for my neighborhood and for my community, and not just the community of my students at Parker School. Being able to raise enrollment allows more of the kids in my community to get a great education. Being able to build the gym allows the safe place and safe playing field for the kids in my community to play. And those are the kids we have to look out for. IÓve lived in this community for five years. My husband has lived in this neighborhood for twelve years, and has worked in this town of Waimea for 19 years. We are here for the long hall. My daughter is in third grade; sheÓll be attending Parker as long as she can until she graduates. As far as traffic goes, the Loop, as Mr. Ray called it, is my loop; my children and I run on that loop, we walk our dog on that loop. I donÓt detect any noticeable traffic from Parker School or Parker School events. The traffic in my neighborhood is local neighborhood traffic. What I see is that if we start restricting things from Parker School, that that will change. And my neighborhood is a neighborhood where everyone comes to walk. And I feel very comfortable about what Parker School is willing to do for my neighborhood and for the quality of life. As far as noise goes, I hear noise from the park, I hear noise from the Mormon church in the evenings when they have their softball games out there; thatÓs part of being in a community, thatÓs part of being in a town, and itÓs not awful noises, itÓs not a truck noise, itÓs not a freeway noise. I just wanted to say that. Thank you. EXHIBIT A 39 WATANABE: Okay. Do we have any questions? Seeing none, thank you for you testimony. Bertil Long? LONG: My name is Bertil Long. I live 65-1235 PuÒuk Road. And I represent all the residents on PuÒuk Road. We have submitted a three-page letter to the Commission, and actually, there is an addition to that that was also submitted with two additional residents on that th street. We just on the 16 of this month learned about the PuÒuk, making PuÒuk a connector road to the school. And we have basically participated in all the meetings that have taken place, and have not heard any suggestions of that previously. So we unthat perhaps the Police Department has suggested that thing, but it has never come up in any of the meetings that we have had. We are definitely concerned about something like that, and oppose having PuÒuk as a connector road; it would drastically alter our street. And IÓm a 25, IÓm sorry, 23-year resident of that street, and we, you know, most of us purchased homes as, in a rural setting and of course weÓd like to keep it as much as possible as we saw it. WeÓre also concerned about possible property value changes, if it would become a connector street. IÓm very positive and happy to hear the comments from previous speakers about not using PuÒuk as a connector street. So that sounds very good. We do have noticed an increase in traffic bec particularly live, and we have worked with the school to minimize that. And our concern is that PuÒuk is used as a drop-off and pick-up access to and from the school. We also donÓt really see how it would benefit the traffic, creating a PuÒuk connector street, or making it a connector street; people would still have to face the Lindsey-Kawaihae intersection. So we are very strongly opposing this. And let me just read the last paragraph of our letter: ÐShould the Planning Commission retain language in the land use permit regarding using PuÒuk as a connector road, we hereby give notice that we will take appropriate action to oppose it.Ñ Thank you. WATANABE: Okay. Do we have any -? Ms. Bowman. BOWMAN: I do. Thank you. You mentioned that youÓve seen an inc using your road to drop children off. LONG: Correct. BOWMAN: Is this since the Î IÓm not sure Î since the elementary? I mean, how long has this been going on? IÓm just curious. LONG: I think it has been going on -. IÓm not sure I can come up with the date; it has been an ongoing thing. And weÓve talked to Mr. Sturges from the school and the school has, I believe, tried to correct that, but itÓs still an issue. Just as an example our son exited our home yesterday and somebody actually couldnÓt wait for him to back up on the street and drove onto our lawn around his car to get to the end of the street, so -. I donÓt know who that person was, but -. BOWMAN: Okay. It would be interesting because I do believe they have staggered hours, and IÓm just trying to, you know, how can we minimize, how can we alleviate, or how can EXHIBIT A 40 the school alleviate that as far as the timing and, because I believe thereÓs still the drop-off in front of the school that all the school students are dropped off or supposed to be dropped off, not just the high school. LONG: Right. We do have what we consider heavy traffic between 7:30 and 8:00 on our street and 2:30 Î 3:00 both on PuÒuk and a little heavier on KapiÒolani. BOWMAN: Okay, thank you. LONG: Thank you. WATANABE: Any further questions? Thank you. Linda Copman? Yes. COPMAN: Yes, my name is Linda Copman. And I actually live on the corner of KapiÒolani and Spencer Road, and there is a hairpin turn at that corner, which is pretty fairly blind turn. And my daughter attended Parker School last year Î I had two daughters attend Parker School Î and she was a valedictorian of their eighth grade class last year. And this morning I asked her, ÐWhat do you think about Parker SchoolÓs pr expansion,Ñ and she said, ÐMom, if they build that gym with 400-person gym, youÓre going to bring a whole bunch of people into the neighborhood who are unfamiliar with this turn and someone is going to get hit.Ñ This is from a 14-year old who went to the school, and itÓs the honest truth. That road was never built to accommodate this kind of urban use. They want to build they want to build. And itÓs a facility thatÓs badly needed in our community of Waimea and the gym is going to be rented out most of the time. They have one team thatÓs going to practice in that gym Î their volleyball team, okay, 20 kids. ItÓs a 400-person facility. There are 250 kids at the school, okay? They want to build a gym thatÓs going to draw people from the entire community onto this road. And there is no shoulder, there is no sidewalk, there is hairpin turns, itÓs 15 miles an hour around that curve, and IÓm very concerned about the safety of the people who live on this block. I have no objection to what Parker School is trying to do. I, you know, I was a parent there. I have three children. I believe there is an opportunity here. I believe there is common ground that can be reached. Your recommendations regarding no-left-turn into the parking lot and your recommendation about the internal circulation did not come from the Department of Public Works. If you look at your application Î I took your public copy Î itÓs Exhibit 5; those recommendations came from the Police Department. And I donÓt see anybody here from the Police Department. The Police Department is concerned about the traffic on the road now. The residents who are not here -. Dr. Jade McGaff who lives on the corner of Lindsey Road and KapiÒolani Road, who is at the hospital delivering babies today, so she canÓt be here, she already cannot get in and out of her driveway. I was at a public meeting; she said she cannot get in and out of her driveway. There are 90 kids at the elementary school now. You are proposing with this application to increase that to a maximum of 350 kids. Three hundred and fifty kids. Maybe 100 of them are going to use carpooling and public transportation; we are going to have 250 cars turning onto KapiÒolani Road. Two hundred and fifty cars. Right now maybe we have 50. And you have people Î this kind of action is happening all the time Î people are walking on that road; itÓs just unacceptable. EXHIBIT A 41 We need to work together; we need the Police Department here, we need Public Works, we need people like Jade McGaff who is directly impacted by this, to sit down and come to a consensus. I heard Parker School say they are not going to have built this thing in five years, maybe ten years. Ten years. YouÓre giving them a carte blanche to do what they want to do for the next 20 years: why canÓt we take a couple more months and come to a consensus? Have all the neighbors work together. Maybe the gym needs to be a little bit smaller. Thelma Parker Gym accommodates 250 kids. This is a 400-person gym; itÓs going to recreational facility in our community located on a road that is maybe 14 feet wide. It just doesnÓt make sense. Good urban planning, we need to figure out internal circulation, where are these kids getting dropped off, where are they getting picked up, where is the parking going to be for this facility. How is this all going to work? Where is the Police Department? Why arenÓt they here? I really think we need to work on this. If we are approving a 20-year master plan, we need to have input from everybody. IÓd like to see the Police Department provide some input on the conditions that you folks are proposing to delete. They are not here. Jade McGaff is not here. Two hundred and fifty more cars on the road that I live on is very, very, very high impact on this road. If you want to see what you are proposing, I propose you go up there, take a site visit. Go there in the morning at 7:30, see what goes on there, see what the traffic is already with 90 kids before you approve 350 kids. Okay, so, I donÓt know how to say it any -. I think there is an area of common ground. I think everybody who is testifying here are all very, very reasonable people. We all want to see Parker School succeed. Our objections are not unreasonable at all. I think we can take a couple more months to work this out. Okay. Does anybody have any questions? WATANABE: Mr. Housel. HOUSEL: I had a question. Have you had discussions with Parker School about this? COPMAN: Yes. HOUSEL: And what has been their response to you? COPMAN: Okay. At the last South Kohala Traffic Safety Committee meeting, you know, we had asked Parker School to come back to respond to very specific traffic issues, and when they came back, you know, I testified and I looked at Carl and I looked at Jeff and said, you folks donÓt seem to have addressed Î Henry was there, the landowner, one of the landowners, the person who lives in the kuleana lot Î and I said, you folks donÓt seem to have addressed all of the issues here. We have not, we donÓt have concrete answers on where, if there is going to be internal circulation, which I think is a great idea; I totally concur with the Police Department on that recommendation because I think otherwise itÓs going to be a nightmare having all these people turning and then trying to get around that blind corner onto KapiÒolani. I think we need to come up with a better plan as a community Î one that doesnÓt impact PuÒuk but one that also doesnÓt condemn KapiÒolani and the people who live on KapiÒolani. ItÓs just absolutely unfair. So I looked at Carl and I looked at Jeff and said, ÐWhy donÓt you folks sit down with the community since we have 20 years to build this and never got an answer. I did not get a good answer to that. And I donÓt know what the rush is. IÓm very concerned that this is not maintaining their niche in the community. They are creating EXHIBIT A 42 ill-will where they could be building goodwill. And I really see an opportunity to get everybody together and to work through this. Like I said, we are very rea your concurrency bill thatÓs before you Î I work as a legislative assistant for Pete Hoffmann Î I wrote your concurrency legislation that you are about to consider. I really believe in sound planning, so -. Okay. HOUSEL: Thank you very much. COPMAN: YouÓre welcome. WATANABE: I guess there are no further questions. You all may be seated. So let me call up the next four individuals: Margaret Wille, Mike Price, Nadine Demaree and Leslie Hall. May I swear you in? Raise your right hand, please. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth now before the Planning Commission? TESTIFIERS: Yes. WATANABE: Okay, thank you. Well, Margaret, since I know you and I donÓt know the rest, weÓll start with you. Of course, you know the drill Î name and address. And I would remind you that we do have a three-minute time limit. And we do have your written testimony, so we did have an opportunity to read that, yeah? WILLE: Okay. I did want to separate out as co-chair of the Planning and Design Review Committee, and also then be able to take an extra minute just myself as a neighbor to the property, if thatÓs okay with you. WATANABE: Okay. WILLE: I just want to say in terms of -. WATANABE: Name -. WILLE: Margaret Wille. I live on Lihipali, which is just off this HkÒula and Opelo. WATANABE: Okay, thank you. WILLE: I am co-chair of the Planning and Design Review Committee, and I just wanted to quickly summarize what we, our conclusions on that, and just stress that the committee and all of the members and everyone that testified were very supportive of Parker School and of their educational efforts and of their contribution to the community. We did our, didnÓt see it as sort of education versus providing safe access stream; we saw really what was going on as looking at how this is done, not whether itÓs done or supporting education. And No. 1, the first suggestion was really there is inadequate information for us to make an evaluation. Their TA, or whatever it is, TIAR, does not include any, incorporate the impact from the gym or from the adult education, and in fact, whatÓs there is EXHIBIT A 43 based on when there was even a day of school was absent; so we feel that that should be done in real tim e. What they say is that they will carry this out in a way that it does not impact on the traffic situation, it does not materially detrimental to the public welfare, cause adverse impact. We would like to see linkage, and therefore, either say there is not adequate information and come back and work with the community first. The community made brilliant suggestions Î none of those are in here. But really itÓs not do you, for me, itÓs not do you build a shelter for the bus or do you, how do you exit or where do you locate it, but that they are required to do this in a way that does not materially increase the congestion at those locations. The people that came to the meetings kept saying these additional 90 already made it totally unsafe. This is just a map, and this is the key, the wo community is right where the school is located. So itÓs really that there should be in addition to Î I think itÓs your Condition No. 9, says, ÐPrior to issuance of a Certificate of OccupancyÑ for the buildings Î there should be one that says prior to any increase in the enrollment they should come back with a TIAR or plan approval showing what they say they are going to do, which is Î and we put this in the letter Î that they show that thereÓs not measurable increase in traffic congestion and safety of students and neighbors and users. So if you can just sort of rubberstamp this and, you know, they project the Saddle Road and the, you know, the Lalamilo, if this road were in and we can work this out, the Lalamilo connector road, iwork; but those arenÓt there and we have to exist under real conditions. All of the assumptions that this is based on, there is no assurance theyÓll happen. So in looking at it from our end, they have not established that there is no increase, and that there will not be an increase in traffic congestion and less safety. And we are just asking you that you put that condition in. I think we also put in that as part of, before any implementation that we agree with that no left-turn lane. I happened to be driving in there the other day, and there were students walking out to the road and there was a car coming right at me; I mean itÓs a very narrow area. There are a lot of things that need to be worked out. WeÓd love for you to say, please work these out with the community, come back in st a couple of months. They are incredible; if you read the summary from our October 21 meeting, I just, thereÓs brilliance in this community and everybody was very supportive. If not, we think that it should be incumbent on them to show that what they say will happen, will be based on real information. And so, there were a couple other suggestions not related to traffic, and you can read those in there such as the, right now the easement should be done Î that was in a 2005 condition that wasnÓt done. And I realize a lot of this is there is lack of trust, and I know you guys want to be really trusting and we all care; but certainly my experience, whether itÓs with the Parker Ranch connector road or others, if itÓs not there, it doesnÓt happen. And, you know, the buck stops with you Î you approved this, somebody is hurt Î itÓs very important. Okay, I just want to take a minute, separate myself out from those who were sort of summing up our committee and the need for that linkage between what they foresee and what they do in terms of improvements. And just as a neighbor, and I just want to say I, too, care about Parker School. I taught there. IÓve donated a lot to the school. And there is nothing negative, and we really want to be working with the school. But if you approve this as it is, itÓs not going to happen and there is not that same impetus whether, itÓs not just whether there is the bus or the shuttle bus, which I worked on and a lot of us worked on, and the school, or whether there is a shelter; itÓs putting all these things into work, itÓs decreasing the traffic EXHIBIT A 44 together. So again, I just want to stress I consider this application inadequate, that it should have been rejected for inadequate information, and there should be a proper, an appropriate traffic study based on real information. If you look under the DOE comments, they had criticism. If you look under the State DOT, they said this traffic study doesnÓt add up. ItÓs not just the public opinion, itÓs also a lot there. So our first choice would be, N guys, go work on this, youÓve got a lot of suggestions, letÓs have things in place. If you look at how you did the water requirements, they are really good; Conditions 1 through 6, itÓs really clear whatÓs done. Then you start getting into Ðand will work with so-and-so,Ñ Ðand will work with this.Ñ Anyway, our experience is that those things donÓt happen when itÓs in those vague states. Thank you very much. WATANABE: Thank you. Do we have any questions for Ms. Wille? O then I believe thereÓs Mike Price -. PRICE: Yes. WATANABE: Sir? Yeah, name and address, please, and then you may begin your testimony. PRICE: IÓm Mike Price. I reside at 68-1794 Auhili Loop in Waikoloa Vil itÓs in South Kohala District. IÓm representing the South Kohala Traffic Safety Committee, and you have some testimony that, you know, IÓm authorized to do thi I want to thank you for the opportunity to provide written testimony and this oral testimony for the committee. The committee opposes the application the way itÓs written based on the South Kohala Community Development Plan Ordinance 08-159. There are two provisions in there that are the law that state for Waimea: Waimea Policy No. 1 (sic) ÐResponsible GrowthÑ states, ÐAdequate infrastructure, including roads È shall be provided by public and/or private entities before any large-scale new residential or commercial projects can be considered for approval by the County.Ñ More than doubling the enrollment and the infrastructure at Parker School is a large-scale project for a town the size of Waimea. Now I left some of that provision out because I wanted you to understand it says Ðshall provide.Ñ Another policy, No. 5, ÐTimely Implementation of Needed Circulation and Transportation Improvements: The County È shall coordinate and work with the community and with state and federal agencies toward the timely construction of priority circulation È improvements, including pedestrian, bicycling and public transportation È in order to alleviate severe traffic congestion that is impacting Waimea È.Ñ Lack of public, state, county planning and funding for these envisioned regional and local traffic improvements, the history of it in Waimea is they donÓt happen. ThatÓs going to leave Parker School or the County to come up with the needed improvements to mitigate the impacts of this increase and the expansion. th We had a letter that you all have a copy of in the public file, that was dated September 11, there are four concerns that were brought up that the committee felt that Parker School had not really addressed in their application. Several of them have already been discussed. Sixty days later Parker School came back to address those concerns; we didnÓt get very good answers. On the bus stop they wanted to limit it to a $5,000 donation for materials, in other words the bus shed EXHIBIT A 45 when they buy it. That doesnÓt include labor, that doesnÓt include design engineering and all the process that goes into even putting a house up on this island. County has to do that, too. Parker School felt that the Department of Public Works and the HawaiÒi Police Department should allow Parker School to monitor and manage the current and future drop-off/pick-up process traffic without any elimination of activity on Lindsey Road. With the current enrollment, not the potential 550 that they are talking about, they have already demonstrated they are unable to deal with the illegal left-turns and other unsafe acts that our committee has to constantly deal with because of public complaints. There are students out there on L unsafe acts. I can understand why parents donÓt want their kids to walk to school; I wouldnÓt want mine out there. ItÓs a bad situation on those streets. The another point was that Parker School said that it would take them twelve months, a year, to work with PATH Î IÓm sure you understand who PATH is, people advocates for trails and greenways Î to develop a Safe Routes to School program. And I saw this in some of the other testimony. ThatÓs all fine and good, but during the meeting they felt that they had no obligation under the current ordinance to provide any funding for any needed sidewalks, crosswalks or anything; in other words, they are a small school, they have no responsibility, no obligation. That seems unacceptable under any kind of fair-share program thatÓs been talked about in this county. There are also their recommendations in their Traffic Impact Analysis Report, or the TIAR. Their traffic engineer apparently didnÓt read anything as far as the recent traffic work by Parsons Brinckerhoff who wrote the Waimea Traffic Circulation Plan or they didnÓt read the South Kohala Community Development Plan recommendations. They are advocating increased left- hand turns at Lindsey and Mmalahoa, increased left-hand turns at Lindsey and Kawaihae Road, and then a lot of the wording in there as far as recommendations is really ambiguous. With that information on the second meeting Î the first meeting there was a tentative consideration giving, you know, the community and the committee supports Parker School and what they are trying to do in the community in a big picture Î but with those types of answers and no real concrete commitment to meeting their obligation, the committee opposed. IÓll sum up. Our feeling is you should postpone this. Parker Ranch (sic) should provide concurrent fair-share bus shelter, whatever it takes Î I mean they are going to spend $6,000,000 on the gym Î and an alternate transportation plan including fair-share funding and definite timetable worked out with PATH Î the 600-foot muddy path on KapiÒolani Street is unacceptable. They should work with the County Planning, the Department of Public Works Engineering, and the Police Î the Police havenÓt been addressed here Î and the adjacent owners to develop an acceptable comprehensive design plan and timetable and the required fair-share funding for needed, concurrent traffic improvements for adjacent Lindsey Road, Lindsey- Kawaihae Road intersection and KapiÒolani Road. This is needed to not only protect their own students who will be walking out there but also the general public. There are just too many missing parts and details and not enough written commitment for you people to approve this. I mean the neighborhood is going to have to live with it. Thank y WATANABE: Do we have any questions for Mr. Price? Seeing none - EXHIBIT A 46 BOWMAN: I do. IÓm sorry. WATANABE: Yes. BOWMAN: You referred to already illegal left-hand turns. PRICE: Yeah, people are cutting across the median to -. People cut across the median, if they are coming down even on Kawaihae Road Î weÓve ha WeÓve had complaints about people on Lindsey Road cutting across the median and to the Parker School parking lot. So they are actually pulling in front of the traffic trying to go north on Lindsey. BOWMAN: Okay, thank you. WATANABE: Okay. MaÓam? DEMAREE: Yes, Hi, IÓm Nadine Demaree. My address is P. O. Box 44907, Kamuela, HawaiÒi. IÓm here representing my mother, Elaine Kurokawa. She lives on 65-1145 KapiÒolani Road. She is right next to the future middle school, okay. And we just got this plan, I would say maybe, when it was mailed out the last mailing. And we got to see the map and I sent it onto the family, and we were -. I mean I think my momÓs house is definitely one that is affected by the placement of the middle school. If you notice, all the buildings are on stream side except for that one and the existing warehouse that was there during the war. My mother has lived there since 1950. And when we moved in there, the whole place was like a pasture and there were still remnants of World War II still in there. So our memories are deep. We are concerned that the middle school being where it is will affect the view corridors, our security, the valuation and the tranquility of the home. I realize this is in urban situation and, yes, progress will go on; but we would like to have a say. And have to put the middle school there, maybe move it over further away from the property line, since a lot of the buildings on our property is already grandfathered; it was built so long ago, you know, itÓs right on the property line. If we could have a say in the type of landscaping that goes in, the type of borders, it will be very helpful. IÓve talked to the principal; Mr. Sturges is very cooperative. But again, this plan is 15 years down the line, we donÓt know whoÓs going to be there. And as far as my mom is concerned, she is now 89, the property will go onto the family, it was going to be ohana retreat; so I think the family would like to have a say even if itÓs 15 years down the line. We truly believe in education. We think, whatÓs happening at Parker School, IÓm very impressed, and we would like to see it succeed. But as the planning goes on, we would like to also be a part of it. Thank you. WATANABE: Thank you. Do we have any questions? Yes, Mr. Housel. HOUSEL: IÓd like to ask you a favor. Maija, do you have the pointer? Could you, using the pointer, show us exactly where your motherÓs house is? DEMAREE: ItÓs right there. Yes, exactly. EXHIBIT A 47 HOUSEL: ItÓs right there? Okay. And you say that -. DEMAREE: WeÓve already had some security issues and, you know, w vandalism, theft. ItÓs so close, if the middle school is there. YouÓre talking about pubescent kids, you know, we donÓt know what will occur. I mean this always, you know, you can only predict, but it will be nice to have some say in how things are HOUSEL: Sure. Is there now Î this drawing shows a border or a hedge there Î is there anything there now? DEMAREE: My mom has a low hedge and a fence. There is a fence there now, yeah. HOUSEL: There is a fence. DEMAREE: Yeah. And I think the way they are going to build the school, they always, you know, there are no windows. ItÓs, like the lower school, they would be really protected and they have a little courtyard so they can have, you know, a lot of protection from the weather. So the side thatÓs facing my momÓs house, it would probably be fairly quiet. But IÓm concerned about it being so close. I mean I think there is a 20 feet easement that they have to provide. HOUSEL: Are you concerned about the students, you know, making noise, or -? DEMAREE: Noise, yeah, noise, jumping the fence, get out of order, you know. We had a case once where -. My dadÓs garage is right up next to the fence and thereÓs two spaces and, you know, the kids would hang out in there. I know they have zero tolerance now but, you know, you never know. HOUSEL: Okay. Do you believe that the students would come into your yard? DEMAREE: Oh, they were. HOUSEL: They were. DEMAREE: Yes. HOUSEL: Does the school know about this? DEMAREE: Oh, this is, yes, but this is, that happened years ago. But there is also, thatÓs possibility that it can happen again. HOUSEL: Okay, but itÓs not necessarily an ongoing problem? DEMAREE: No, itÓs not at all, not at all. HOUSEL: Thank you very much. EXHIBIT A 48 DEMAREE: All right, thank you. WATANABE: Okay. Just for your information or reminder, Mr. Melrose did indicate that they wouldnÓt be able to do everything right away, but one of the main things they want to get started was the landscaping and -. DEMAREE: Landscaping, yes, and I would like to be part of it and I would like to see the landscape, you know, plans. WATANABE: Yeah, I think they will be, I hope they will be a good respect. DEMAREE: They are, they are, they are. IÓm just verifying it; thatÓs all that IÓm here for. WATANABE: Okay. DEMAREE: Yeah, then our concern and that they are aware that we exist. WATANABE: Okay, thank you. Any further questions? None? MaÓam? You must be Leslie Hall. L. HALL: Yes. My name is Leslie Hall. My address is 66-1528 PuÒuhuluhulu Road in Kamuela. IÓm the secretary of the South Kohala Traffic Safety Committee, IÓm on the Board of Directors for the Waimea Community Association, and IÓm a secretary for the Lalamilo Farm Lots Association. Today IÓm representing myself and my family. As a condition of this amended Use Permit, I would like to see Parker School commit to or be required to commit to substantial, concrete and quantifiable traffic safety improvements with a required timeline for completion, which is directly tied to impact at various stages of expansion. This will uphold the requirements in the South Kohala CDP ordinance, which so many in the community had input in crafting. I want to be very clear at this time that there is vast support fo the school in the community, and the expansion of the school, per se, is not opposed. IÓve not heard any other opinion on these two points. So I just want to be very clear that the community supports the school and is not opposed to the expansion. Well, the original discussions had a lot to do with the school and its benefits; those are not the items at issue here today. Also, I want to be very clear that in spite of the schoolÓs educational performance, contributions and community offerings, it cannot be denied that this expansion, as with any expansion, will impact the community. The planned future benefits discussed are widely supported; however, these benefits will be dramatically outweighed by the negative impact and certain reduction in public safety, if there are no mitigation requirements for the obvious increase in bike, pedestrian and auto traffic on streets and intersections that are already rated substandard level of service. The streets around the school were not designed to handle the current volume, not to mention the increase in volume. The issue that needs to be addressed is this: There continues to be no concrete tangible commitments or deadlines to implement increased safety solutions for all manner of traffic EXHIBIT A 49 impacts. Again, as a condition of this amended Use Permit, I would like to see Parker School commit to or be required to commit to substantial, concrete and improvements with a required timeline for completion, which is directly tied to impact at various stages of expansion. Thank you. WATANABE: Okay. Do we have any questions of Ms. Hall? Thank yo testimony. You may be seated. I have two other people who signed up to testify: Bradley Hall and Shelby Floyd. Oh, Shelby had to leave? Oh, okay. Then, oh, well, you can stay up there. I guess thatÓs your son, yeah? I guess we donÓt have to swear you in. Go ahead with your testimony. B. HALL: My name is Bradley Hall. I live in Waimea. I am eight years old and I am homeschooled. I think Parker School is a good school. I have friends that go there and they like it. If they are going to make a bigger school, there will be more cars and more traffic. Right now I donÓt like to walk near there without a grownup because it is scary and I donÓt feel safe. If the school gets bigger, I think that they would be good but they should have to help make it safer for walking and driving. WATANABE: Is that it? Okay. Thank you for your testimony, Bradley. I donÓt suppose we have any questions of Bradley, yeah? Thank you. Okay. Look, I had indicated earlier I would have hoped to conclude this before lunch; but I donÓt think weÓd do a justice as far as our deliberation is concerned. So thank you for your testimony. At least we got through the public testimony. WeÓre going to break for lunch and shall we, yeah, shall we reconvene at 2:00, I think Î itÓs almost 1:00 already. RECESSEDThe Chair called a lunch recess at 12:45 p.m. RECONVENED The meeting reconvened at 2:10 p.m. WATANABE: The Planning Commission meeting, please come back into order. We had completed with public testimony on Agenda Item No. 1, which is P 05-001. And basically we are ready for a motion. So the Chair would entertain a motion. Does anyone care to make a motion? Mr. Housel. HOUSEL: Mr. Chairman Î make sure I get the language correct here Î with regard to the Parker School amendment to Use Permit No. 05-001, IÓd like t the decision on this until more consensus can be reached in the community. WATANABE: Is there a second? BOWMAN: Second. WATANABE: Okay. Well, we have -. Do we need any further discussion on this? Then, Maija? BOWMAN: IÓm sorry. Are we going to vote? EXHIBIT A 50 WATANABE: Well, I asked for discussion and no -. BOWMAN: Oh, okay, just, I would like to just explain. I do have concerns Î educationally IÓm in total agreement Î I do have concerns about the traffic, about the gym, about other recreational plans for the area. So I just, you know, want to voice that I am not against the educational part of it at all. And maybe more networking with the community -. And I am concerned about KapiÒolani Road. Thank you. WATANABE: Mr. Housel. HOUSEL: I want to maybe explain a little bit about my concerns. Obviously there is still community opposition, and they would like, what I heard was that they would like to work things out together, and that they feel that they should be allowed to participate and hopefully work out a consensus agreement for the entire community. The only other factors were, as far as my position, the enrollment; your current Use Permit does allow down to about 250, you said, and so that should allow you some time to continue working to solve this to more satisfactory agreement without necessarily impacting, you know, your schedule, I would hope. And also, I believe, in reading the documentation, your master plan, some of the plans you have, you probably wonÓt, do not plan to execute those for perhaps five or six years. So it seems like maybe there is not as a need for urgency on this particular approval today, that possibly it would be better to work with the community and come back at a later date to give us a more consensus agreement on this. WATANABE: Okay. Mr. Iokepa. IOKEPA: Mr. Chairman, you know, what I heard earlier from the applicants was reasoning for this request was so that they could seek funding thatÓs needed for the expansions that they require. And through all the testimony that I heard today, everybody is in agreement; they are all for, the community as well as the applicants are for this expansion. But the burden of providing that funding is borne by the applicant. So, I mean I agree with your postponement, but maybe part of the dialogue should include some kind of partnership, as far as the funding is concerned, between the community and Parker School, and make it as amiable as possible so that, you know -. I mean stakeholders are the entire community, given. So if you are stakeholders, then you should have a vested interest not only in the decision making but also in the monetary value thatÓs going to be placed on this campus, so WATANABE: Any further comments? Then, Maija? COTTLE: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Commissioner Housel? HOUSEL: Aye. COTTLE: Commissioner Bowman? BOWMAN: Aye. EXHIBIT A 51 COTTLE: Commissioner Beaudet? BEAUDET: Aye. COTTLE: Commissioner Iokepa? IOKEPA: Aye. COTTLE: And Mr. Chairman? WATANABE: Nay. But youÓve got the votes, huh? COTTLE: Yes. WATANABE: Yeah. Okay, so, letÓs see, itÓs postponed, but postpone -. Technically we have 90 days, yeah, or this application dies. Am I correct in that, Mr. Hayashi? HAYASHI: It could be extended beyond the 90 days, if the Commission decides to continue. I would suggest you specify when you want to put it back on the agenda, and I would recommend that, if anything, it will be sometime in January Î the January meeting WATANABE: Yeah, IÓm thinking along the same lines; I donÓt think 30 days is sufficient, yeah? So, well, Mr. Melrose, can I get comments from you, as far as placing this on the agenda for January of 2010? MELROSE: So the question is, has to do with the timing of the postponement specifically? WATANABE: Yeah, when you would represent -. MELROSE: IÓm not sure what the difference to the term, postponement or continuance. Is there difference in that term as it relates to the action thatÓs being proposed? WATANABE: Well, as far as -. If it means anything else, then you would have to start with a new application; I donÓt think you want to do that. MELROSE: No, thatÓs true. IÓm just looking for a -. WATANABE: So letÓs, letÓs just consider that continuance until the January meeting of 2010. That way, this application then stays live. And itÓs my understanding that if the applicant is in agreement, then the time frames that typically would apply, you know, can be extended. MELROSE: Okay. I think that there is some concern for the timing relative to the holidays and time to create that conversation. So IÓm not -. If February was acceptable time, we could do it at that point in time. EXHIBIT A 52 WATANABE: Oh, okay. MELROSE: But I donÓt know if IÓve gone past that time frame here, instead of January. WATANABE: Well, okay -. MELROSE: And IÓm also a little, you know, interested in, I mean the concept of consensus is a real tough thing to deal with in this context; I mean I understand that the community had a lot of issues with traffic and their community issues that have been going on a long period of time. And I understand why this sense of accountability is a concern to them because theyÓve been talking about this for a long time to solve the big problems Î not the ones we cause by any means but the ones that were caused by growth generally. So the frustration is not, you know, is laid upon this conversation, as you can clearl financially or practically the school is going to be able to come to something where everybody sits here in kumbaya, and says yes weÓve come to an agreement. And I want to make clear at this point in time that thatÓs not -. If that is the expectation of the Commission, then I want to talk about that a little bit because I want you to understand what the real circumstances are and what the limits to what a small school can do to do this. So I just want to, I heard the word ÐconsensusÑ and IÓm just wanting to ask a little bit about what that means to you and then what kind of an agreement you think is going to be useful. WATANABE: Mr. Melrose, IÓm checking with counsel to see, you know, the technical aspect of this as far as our time limits are concerned; so if you give us a second here. So Maija, for the record you had four ayes and one nay, right? COTTLE: ThatÓs correct. WATANABE: (After a brief discussion with Mr. Gonzalez,) I believe we have the definition now, Mr. Melrose. It seems apparent that our rules allow us to continue this, if the applicant is in agreement, beyond the stated 90-day period. And it would appear to me that you are saying that you would prefer, because of the holidays, to have this continued until the February 2010 meeting. Is that correct? MELROSE: ThatÓs correct. WATANABE: Yeah, IÓd like that on the record so there is no, so you have no problem with the continuance, yeah? In that event, then, since the majority of the Planning Commission would like to continue this matter, let us reschedule this for the February meeting of 2010 for the Leeward Planning Commission, okay? And within that time frame -. I recognize all of the arguments you are attempting to present at this point; however, you know, action was taken and it is definitive at this point. So I would encourage you to go can come up with as far as some type of, working out some type of agreement with the community. MELROSE: WeÓll do our best. EXHIBIT A 53 WATANABE: Okay. So I believe itÓs within my purview? We donÓt have to forum that, huh? BOWMAN: IÓm sorry. I have one. WATANABE: Yes. BOWMAN: Sorry I had to run out. One of what I Î and I donÓt kno appropriate Î but IÓd like maybe the staff to find out more about the regional park that might be planned for the area. One of my concerns is the gym and the traffic, and IÓm just wondering if there are in fact any other plans Î County, State Î plans for recreational facilities such as a gym. I think Mr. Ray mentioned that thereÓre plans for a regional park. So if we can get more information, that would help. Thank you. MELROSE: Yeah, if there is anything else you can provide us that would help us understand what are the issues, you think are most important in that, weÓll make sure we do that. If itÓs just saying go and talk to them and come up with an agreement, thatÓs a little harder for us to understand. I mean this is the decision-making body, so -. WATANABE: Mr. Housel. HOUSEL: If I can offer a few things that I heard. There were several concerns about safety, you know, pedestrian safety and possibly auto safety, and I would certainly like to see, you know, a clear plan that shows beyond the shadow of a doubt that we are not having to be worried about safety issues. So I think thatÓs very important in this plan as far as the traffic and the pedestrian safety. Thank you. BOWMAN: And I guess I would like to voice that IÓm, if you, I donÓt know how imminent it is to building the gym, but IÓd like to know maybe a little bit more about Î someone mentioned that it mostly will be leased out Î and I just, you know, want clarification on that, because again, I look at KapiÒolani Road as a very narrow road and with increase in traffic -. And I donÓt know if there is, maybe the Department of Transportation can address this, if there are plans to put signals on the Kawaihae-Lindsey area; I donÓt even know if you can put signals there. So some of that I would like clarified. MELROSE: I appreciate that. It would have been useful for us to have that opportunity to rebut, or just respond to some of those conversations, that might have helped your answering those questions today, but now we are going to deal with it in February, so -. Okay. BOWMAN: Okay. IÓm sorry. Thank you. WATANABE: So Mr. Housel, just to clarify your previous motion, you are in agreement, I take it, that we would extend, or continue this -. HOUSEL: Right. EXHIBIT A 54 WATANABE: Until the February of 2010 meeting? HOUSEL: Right. I agree. I think continuance is a better word than postpone, right? WATANABE: Okay. Then, who seconded? You did, yeah, Lani? Are you also in agreement in that clarification? BOWMAN: Yes. WATANABE: Okay. So then thatÓs revised the motion to continue t 2010, yeah? Okay. Sorry to keep you in suspense for that long. MELROSE: No, no, no. Thank you very much. And thank you for th deliberation and the work you guys do everyday. So, appreciate the consideration. WeÓll be back to talk to you more. Stay tuned. The discussion ended at 10:21 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Noriko Sauer, Secretary Leeward Planning Commission EXHIBIT A 55