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WATANABE:Thank you.
<br />ALAMEDA:Any other questions for staff before we proceed? Okay, thank you,Mr.
<br />Darrow. Will the applicant or their representative please come forward. I was just checking if
<br />Ive got to swear you in again. No need. Okay, youve already been sworn in so you can
<br />proceed.
<br />FUKE:Sure. Thank you very much. Mr. Chairman, again, just for the record, my
<br />name is Sidney Fuke. Im a planning consultant. The applicants are here today. We have Ed
<br />Olson and Robin Ura. They both make up collectively Kulana Kea, LLC.
<br />In specific response to some of questions, I think those are very good questions Commissioner
<br />Siracusa raised about the agricultural designation of the property. My understanding is that
<br />whentheALISHmapswerepreparedbytheStateDepartmentofAgriculture,theyweredone
<br />like the late 70s or early 80s. And I dont believe that theyve ever had any updates to that map.
<br />But, you know, subsequent to that they were looking at what is called like the LESA System, the
<br />Land Evaluation Soil Analysis System; and, I guess, thats sort of like under review right now by
<br />the State. And then the County has an obligation to come up with different soil, not soil but land
<br />classification for these better agricultural lands. Notwithstanding that the Land Study Bureau has
<br />classified that property as C and by virtue of, if you look at the property and you see what the
<br />prior use was and, you know, more recently they had some corn farm on the property, its fairly
<br />evident that you do have very good agricultural potential thats very, you know, soil based,
<br />agricultural potential. When I was approached by the owners to assist them in the processing of
<br />the application, we had examined different alternatives; and the soil characteristics, the overall
<br />character of that area also kind of played into part. And one of the things that were looking at is
<br />trying as much as possible to minimize the number of lots that, you know, notwithstanding what
<br />the General Plan said, like it says its low density urban, but, you know, to see what can
<br />reasonably done to the property to make it feasible for small scale agricultural pursuits and still,
<br />you know, maintain the agricultural rural kind of ambiance.
<br />So we started off like, you know, there are two existing lots of record; and as the staff pointed
<br />out you have like a, you know, erroneously or otherwise, but you still have like about an acre, a
<br />little more than an acre thats presently zoned RS-15. And so cumulatively its possibly like
<br />about five lots in that area, you know, your two existing plus your RS-15 being subdivided into
<br />three 15,000 square foot lots. But, and so we kind of used that as a basis to say like, well, this
<br />alternative by downzoning the property, the RS-15 to Ag-5, FA-5 and downzoning the balance
<br />from Ag-20 to Ag-5, you know, you basically, it will arrive at the same kind of density. But, at
<br />the same time, you would enhance the agricultural opportunities for the property.
<br />Just by way of further background, Mr. Olson is intimately involved in a number of agricultural
<br />pursuits here in the island. He has about over 3,000 acres of land thats presently cultivated in
<br />active macadamia nut both in the Kau district as well as in the Hilo/Hamakua area. He has a
<br />ranchland thats nearly about 4,000 acres of land thats in the Kau as well as in the Puna district.
<br />And, particularly, like in this general area he has about 300 or 400 acres of land, excuse me, 300
<br />acres of land in the Puueo area which he calls it OK Farms; and presently it is being cultivated
<br />with a whole bunch of different type of agricultural pursuits. And I was surprised to learn that he
<br />has coffee grown on the premises; and, you know, this was his first year of harvest, in the coffee.
<br />4EXHIBIT D
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