PL-SMA-2023-000038 10.06.23 Jana Cook Email Comments on Application

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DISTRIBUTED AT LPC 1-18-24 HEARING Item#3 Kona Hawaii Development LLC 10-06-23 Jana Cook Email Comments on Application From: Jana Cook<jcook231@att.net> Sent: Friday, October 6, 2023 12:50 PM To: Roy, Alex<Alex.Roy@ hawaiicou nty.gov> Subject: Kona Hawaii Development LLC Application (PL-SMA-2023-000038) Aloha, Mr. Roy, I have received the Notice of Submittal about the proposed hotel development at Ali'i Drive and Kahakai Road. I am on owner and on the board of directors for Hale Kona Kai, located directly makai to the proposed project. As you may guess, there are many questions about the application. Primarily, I find the notice to be deficient in a couple of aspects. Notably, there are no images of the west and north elevations, including the appearance of the outdoor parking and recreation areas. A lot of attention is given to the west and south elevations, including noting the building height on the Ali'i side is 40', under the maximum of 45'. There is nothing noting the height of the retaining wall and building at the west elevation along Kahakai Road. When 40 feet of building is added on top of the existing exterior wall of the parking structure, it will significantly change the character of Kahakai Road. Such a structure will have negative impact on our building for lack of morning sunlight and changes to the natural air flow we currently enjoy. The increase in the number of units from 48 to the stated 100 is a significant intensification of use for the property. As I look at the diagrams of the units, the Residential Type C unit, of which there are 51, has one exterior door, two interior doors, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and -if I am reading the miniscule diagram correctly-two kitchenettes. This seems designed for use as lock-off units meaning there are actually 151 rooms being created. The available parking is completely insufficient to handle this and will have significant impacts on the already congested parking in the area. The Figures 5 and 6 provided are not accurate, showing a lawn and landscape area that is not within the property lines of the project and where there is actually an existing office building. This seems very intentional as our building, Kona Reef and the residence in between are"ghosted" in the images, but this building is fully obscured with landscape images. This gives the impression of a landscape buffer area which does not exist and that the project is at street level on the west side. Such a buffer should be required for the development to provide screening for the outdoor recreation areas of the hotel and to dampen noise which might otherwise cross the property lines, negatively impacting the existing residential properties. That would require the area where the plan shows 20 paved parking spaces to be changed to landscape. Noise is another impact that seems to have been ignored in the proposal. The U-shape of the structures, with recreation, parking and vehicle maneuvering occurring within, will focus noise on the Hale Kona Kai building. Outdoor paving for parking may also cause noise to "bounce"from the balconies and recreation areas and cross the property line toward the residential units.