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who show up to work on it, and it doesn’t necessarily always reflect the wishes of smaller
<br />communities. In this case, you have the neighbors, you have a petition, I think, which has been
<br />submitted, and you also have the Waimea Community Association in support of that. The difficulty
<br />for the Department was that there was inconsistency with the South Kohala CDP. So those are the
<br />things that you need to weigh.
<br />HOUSEL: Okay, thank you. Could we call the applicant, please? Good morning. Could you
<br />please use the microphone and raise your right hand? Do you swear to tell the truth now before the
<br />Leeward Planning Commission on this matter today?
<br />APPLICANTS: I do.
<br />HOUSEL: Thank you. Have you received the background information and the recommendation
<br />from the Planning Director?
<br />CAITANO SR.: Yes, we have.
<br />HOUSEL: Okay. Would you like to comment on, or add any detail to your plan?
<br />CAITANO SR.: Yes. I’m Tyson Caitano, Sr., requesting a special use permit. I’m grateful for all
<br />the testimony that came in. And you do have a copy of our petition that we pursued. In pursuing
<br />this petition, we just got a notice that they may, land use recommended a denial, so we said, okay,
<br />let’s go talk to the neighbors. And the first thing we did was walk down our street, Alanui ‘Ohana
<br />Place. We went to every single neighbor and got overwhelming approval; they were all in favor of
<br />us doing the business. We said, well, let’s go to the neighbor subdivisions, see what they think. We
<br />started pounding doors in a neighbor subdivision – same response, overwhelming approval, they
<br />want to see us in this venture, they need it. I hope you had a brief chance to read through the
<br />comments of the petition. But they were, like,ecstatic. We had people driving to our house and
<br />saying, can I sign your petition. And we put this together in about three days. Had we had more
<br />time, we would have ventured further; we only covered like a mile radius from our property.
<br />All that said, I want to address the ag use thing that seems to be a real hang-up in our area. My wife
<br />and I have lived there for over 31 years, have never pursued an active ag venture, not in farming or
<br />live stock. We tried and it didn’t work; the lot is way too small to sustain live stock. We didn’t
<br />know too much about farming. Ironically, the meeting with Waimea Association and Design
<br />Committee suggested and recommended that if you get approval, we would like to see you
<br />landscape your frontage in order to break up the looks of a commercial building. My wife says that
<br />if we’ve got to plant, why not plant something we can market. So she says why not plant ilima, we
<br />can sell it for leis. Bird of Paradise, everybody takes that to the supermarket, you know, other
<br />flowers, some trees. If we’ve got to spend the energy, the time and the money to water these plants,
<br />let’s sell it, and let’s make a little bucks on it. So if, it looks like, if we get approval, you guys are
<br />going to turn me into a farmer basically, because I’m going to basically start planting the frontage
<br />of my property with something other than just shrubs and bushes to hide behind; I would rather
<br />make an income, if I’ve got to spend for the water. That’s my thoughts on the ag versus
<br />commercial setting.
<br />We had comments: Why don’t you move your operation to Kawaihae, they’ve got commercial
<br />space there available. Kawaihae will not service our community; if the people go and drive to
<br />Kawaihae and leave their cars there, they might as well go to Hilo or Kona –at least they are
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<br />EXHIBIT A
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