2025-02-03 Letter from John Pipan Response to Comments & Proposed Conditions

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In response to Mr. McMahon's comments to the State Department of Transportation (DoT), we have received no comments or concerns from the DoT. While the applicant has not directly reached out to anyone in the DoV s office regarding the prior events, he did reach out to the County Police Department on multiple occasions and their office responded that they did not anticipate any significant impact to traffic from the event. Additionally, comments received from the Police Department in response to this Special Permit request did not express any concerns regarding the storage of work vehicles. Mr. McMahon's wife, Mrs. Huang, also expressed concerns regarding the proposed use in comments sent to the Planning Department on January 18, 2025. Her letter lists possible negative impacts of the Special Permit request with relation to the condition of Indian Tree Road, safety and security, environmental harm and disruption to her farm. Again, the applicant is aware that any additional traffic on the road may impact the road's quality. As he has in the past, he plans to continue to fill potholes and make improvements to the road. However, it should be noted that during Mr. Tepper's previous attempt to fill potholes in the road in 2024, Mrs. Huang's husband, Mr. McMahon, attempted to disrupt the work by removing gravel as it was being laid. With regard to safety and security, all guests of the event will be required to register and Mr. Tepper will follow the security protocols outlined in our January 9, 2024 letter to the Planning Director. Mr. Tepper will also notify all landowners along Indian Tree Road prior to the event via email. Should any complaints be received from neighbors during the event, the applicant will be available to hear those complaints and will immediately address all reasonable complaints. Any attendees found to be disorderly or disruptive will be ordered to leave the event and will not be permitted back to the event in subsequent years. With regard to environmental harm, the proposed event should have minimal, if any, environmental impact. The event will only be held once per year and will be centered on a respect for the environment with an emphasis on the practice of"leave no trace". Environmental effects from an annual bonfire will be negligible. As noted in the background report, an inspector from the Fire Department previously visited the site in 2023, prior to that year's event, and agreed that there was very little risk of fire in this rainy mauka area of Papa`ikou. Nevertheless, a 3,000-gallon water tank will be sited in the vehicle storage area and will be available for emergency fire protection and fire extinguishers will also be located within the bonfire area and each of the campsite areas. If required, the applicant will also install an additional water tank within the bonfire area reserved for fire protection. Regarding vehicle emissions from the stored work vehicles, it is unfortunate that emissions are an unintended consequence of most vehicles, whether they are being used for agriculture or not. The applicant will work with his lessee, who owns the vehicles and uses them to supplement his ranching income while not being used for his own agricultural activities, to ensure that they are properly maintained and perform as efficiently and with as minimal emissions as possible. With respect to Mrs. Huang's concerns over farm disruptions. It is unclear how the annual event will cause harm or damage to her cacao harvest. Nevertheless, the applicant is open to discussing these concerns and potentially selecting an alternate date for the event which would be more agreeable to Mrs. Huang.