.PD BACKGROUND REPORT (PL-SPP-2024-000061)

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west of its intersection with Wainaku Street in South Hilo, HI(Figure 1). Access to the parcel is from Kaiwiki Road, a County owned and maintained paved roadway. This area of the South Hilo District is considered Lava Zone 8, on a scale ranging from 9 to 1 (least hazardous to most). The site is located approximately 4 miles from the coastline and is not in a Conservation District or Special Management Area. A stream bisects the property in the north-south direction. The Land Use Pattern Allocation Guide (LUPAG) designates this land as important agricultural lands (Figure 6) and the Land Study Bureau classifies the soils for this property as roughly half"E" (very poor) and half"D" (poor) (Figure 7). Under the Agricultural Lands of Importance to the State of Hawaii (ALISH) classification system,the subject site is mostly considered prime with an area along the stream being unclassified (Figure 8). The U.S. Department of Agricultural Natural Resource Conservation Service (MRCS)has designated the soil type for the property as Kaiwiki hydrous silty clay loam with 10 to 20 percent slopes. This soil type is formed by ash fields on lava flows. The soil is considered well drained with a medium runoff class. The applicants have established a significant amount of biointensive regenerative agricultural activities on the property and have worked hard to remove invasive species and plant with natives. The portion of the property west of the stream contains a timber, carbon sequestration and fruit tree forest with a coffee and tea understory, planted with a variety of native trees and conifers, including coast redwoods,native Koa, lumber pines, cypress, China fir, Japanese redwood and Asian giant sequoia. This forest area also includes a variety of spice trees,tea plants and rainforest fruit tree crops compatible with the forest canopy. The areas east of the stream have been cleared for both residential and agricultural uses. The agricultural activities on the east side of the property include an established tree nursery with approximately 900 Christmas trees, a variety of other ornamental conifers and a variety of tropical fruit trees, as well as several native plants for pollinator habitat which were funded in part through a NRCS grant. This portion of the property also contains vegetable gardens, fruit orchards and rotational pasture paddocks for 15 goats. The applicants request to use an existing dwelling and guest house located on the property as the bed and breakfast. The project area is just above the east bank of the stream on a grassy area of the property. The landowners also propose to construct an approximately 500 square foot open air pavilion on the lawn beside the bed and breakfast. The pavilion will provide the landowners and guests a covered area from which to relax and enjoy views of the farm while also serving as a coffee and tea drying area. 11