2025-04-14 UNITE HERE Local 5 Testimony

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UNITEHERE ! Cade Watanabe. Financial Secretary-Treasurer Gemma G. Weinstein. President Eric W Gill,Senior Vice-President 1516 South King Street, Honolulu, Hawaii 96826-1912•Phone(808) 941-2141 •Fax(808) 941-2166•www.UniteHere5.org April 14, 2025 Leeward Planning Commission West Hawaii Civic Center, Council Chambers, Building A 74-5044 Ane Keohokalole Highway Kailua-Kona, HI 96740 Public hearing on April 17, 2025 at 9:30am Testimony about SMA permit determinations for agenda item titled "Planning Director's Report" To Chair Au, Vice Chair Noborikawa and members of the Leeward Planning Commission, Thank you for this opportunity to testify. My name is Ivan Hou and I'm with UNITE HERE Local 5. We represent 10,000 workers in the hotel, foodservice and healthcare industries across the state. We represent workers on the Big Island including workers at the Royal Kona Resort, Waikoloa Beach Marriott Resort and Kaiser Permanente health clinics. We recently contacted you and other Hawaii County regulatory stakeholders regarding Zoning Variance application #PL-ZVAR-2025-00007, by Kona Hawaii Development LLC, forTMK: (3)-7-5- 018:011 located on Alii Drive. In the communication, we opposed the zoning variance request made to the County, but we also raised concerns about the water usage analysis the Leeward Planning Commission ("LPC") relied upon when deciding on the Special Management Area ("SMA") permit. Please see the March 14, 2025 dated letter included below as Exhibit 1. The SMA application had a discrepancy between the room-mix in the architectural plans compared to the room-mix assumptions used by the engineering firm that calculated the water usage. The applicant's analysis claims water usage that conveniently fell within 980 gallons of the Hawaii County Department of Water Supply's allotment, but our manual count of the architectural plan's room-mix leads to a different conclusion where water usage would significantly exceed the water allotment. We found that: - The SMA application undercounted the number of people by at least 84 (24.4%) o Combined, the additional 84 occupants would add up to new grand total of 25,862 gallons per day. o That would be 4,840gpd or 23% more than Savant Engineering's estimated water usage of 21,022gpd considered in the SMA permit. - The project would exceed the DWS allotment of 22,OOOgpd by 3,862gpd, or 17.6%. - The State of Hawaii Commission on Water Resource Management said in its October 19, 2023 letter to the Planning Department that it still had "concern on whether DWS can meet the additional demand of 22,OOOgpd for this proposed project". Water usage was a major concern raised by some commissioners and residents during the SMA permit process.