2012-02-16 Leeward Exh A - Towata Grand

Home

GIFFIN: Good. Would you please state your name into the mike? Thank you. GOODENOW: Kenneth Goodenow of Carlsmith Ball, representing the applicant who is with me today. Did you want me to spell that? GIFFIN: No, we have it in the written documents. GOODENOW: Thank you. Millicent Towata Grand. GIFFIN: Great, thank you. GOODENOW: You know, we really agree with most of the recommendation that this complies the, comports with the General Plan. We give thanks to the Planning Department, which I think did excellent work on this. There really is only one issue that we have, and that is the improvements to Old Government Road, Condition E, to improve the eight feet of area of Old Government Road, originally suggested by the Department of Public Works. But, you know, I do want to state that we appreciate the Planning Department recognizing that this isn’t your regular road, given the volume of traffic, the historic rock walls, and they write that in there in their recommendation. And the condition as currently written really gives a lot of, it really gives the Director of Public Works to say as to what will be done. And we can understand that. But this recommendation will effectively kill this project in my opinion. I’d like, I gave you two photos: Photo A and Photo B. If you could look at Photo A -. GIFFIN: Okay, hang on just a minute, please. GOODENOW: Photo A is coming off of Māmalahoa Highway there; it’s kind of the start of Old Government Road, a little in. You see that the rock wall is there. The distance of pavement in this area is seven feet three inches. But as was pointed out earlier in response to Mr. Whittemore’s question, the actual centerline of the road is not, is such that if you required 16 feet of pavement here, it would not only require removal of the rock wall on the applicant’s property but across the street; it would actually go into that rock wall. You know, I guess when people did surveying back then, maybe they weren’t so accurate. You look at the utility pole up here, you see the rock wall there, well, that’s the neighbor’s rock wall. It turns the corner there; it’s part of the neighbor’s. But actually, it is on the applicant’s property, a lot is in the roadway. So any kind of improvement would have to taper there. Our engineers looked at what it would cost. Even looking at the condition as written – let’s say Public Works said, “Okay, we understand the rock walls” – we go out to them, do different things, our estimate was $70,000 to $90,000 to do the improvement, and that’s not including any walls. And the utility pole there – if you look at Exhibit B, you’ve got a better look of the utility pole – that, because it’s connected to a major transformer down there, it would be, $50,000 is the estimate to move that. And very likely, because it would have to go back so far, they may have to move the other utility pole, because it would be going over the neighbor’s property, the trees there. So we are looking at a project that would cost $120,000 conservatively. If you look at the Google Map, which I provided, plus their Google Map, take a look at it, you can see there really isn’t much service; I mean this is like an alleyway to a handful of lots. And you are going to have, you know, that level of improvement, it’s going to have to stop right at the pole; it’s going to be a small area, because this road will never be fully improved. Look at all the rock walls lining this whole road. You know, you look at some of those on the map I gave you, the Google Maps, a lot of these private roads serve a lot more lots. Now, I understand they are not coming in 6 EXHIBIT A