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shopping in Hilo or Kona. Kawaihae will not suit our purpose, because it wouldn’t help our
<br />community in any way. There is West Hawai‘i Concrete area; they have commercial space out
<br />there – the dust, the noise. The type of work my son does, he details cars, and he needs a clean
<br />environment, which we built on our property that would be sufficient, for West Hawai‘i would be
<br />way too difficult to run his kind of operation. A security thing is a big deal with my son – security
<br />of the customers, cars and security of his equipment.
<br />Auto shops around Waimea have been shutting down for one reason or another. My son wants to
<br />try and provide this service to our community. We think it’s a very needed service within our area.
<br />He is qualified. He is confident. He has expertise. He can do this, given a chance. We ask for
<br />your approval. Thank you.
<br />HOUSEL: Thank you. Would you like to make a comment?
<br />CAITANO JR.: Yes. Some of the things in the County’s recommendation for denial was about
<br />rural-ness, keeping the area rural. As you can see in the pictures on the slide show, we’ve
<br />constructed the building, or our shop, to mimic or duplicate our existing dwelling; it’s not a metal
<br />structure with heating and A/C. There are no huge exterior lights. A lot of the vehicles that pass by
<br />ask what it is, because they can’t tell if it’s, you know, a shop. So as far as keeping the area rural
<br />and, how do you say, un-urbanized, I think that’s not an issue here, because the building itself is
<br />very aesthetically pleasing compared to a lot of commercial buildings that you see. Like my dad
<br />was saying, the reason that I’d like to be a home-base business is because security is a big factor for
<br />me. The type of vehicles that I’ve been working on in the past few years, are usually higher-end
<br />European or Asian, even domestic vehicles. And the commercial areas that are available to us
<br />within the reasonable radius don’t have the security measures that I would need to lock up not only
<br />my equipment but especially our customers’ property; some people, you know, I have customers
<br />that drop off their cars with purses still in them, you know, all their belongings, and that’s the trust
<br />that they put into us as a family to take care of their things while their vehicles being maintained or
<br />serviced. As far as noise – I’d like to thank all my neighbors for testifying that – as far as noise
<br />levels, we have animals all four sides of our building to the west, east, there’s live stock, across the
<br />street is live stock, all open. Within an aerial map I took last night, within 500 feet, there’s only
<br />five houses within 500 feet, within 1,000 feet is eleven buildings. So as far as noise and traffic, the
<br />effect will be very minimal, you know, to our area, our surrounding area. Like my dad said, as far
<br />as being agricultural land, we plan on, if we do get approved, on planting marketable produce and
<br />floral to even make this piece of property more agricultural-oriented. That’s all I have to say now.
<br />Thank you.
<br />HOUSEL: Thank you. Would you like to make a statement?
<br />MIKKELSON: Iwould just stay here to answer questions, if there are any, if they’d like me to
<br />help.
<br />HOUSEL: Okay. Commissioners, do you have any questions of the applicants?
<br />GIFFIN: I do.
<br />HOUSEL: Commissioner Giffin.
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<br />EXHIBIT A
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