2012-05-03 Windward Transcript Circus

Home

But when you have a situation where you have ongoing complaints from neighbors, the Department is basically required to investigate those complaints. And if there's a determination made that existing activities are in violation over and about what's permitted in the special use permit, then we have to do something about it. This is an unusual situation cause I don't know that in my memory we've ever really come in to seek revocation. But basically it’s because when we saw the advertisements for the Bellyacres and Le Chic and other things that appeared to be occurring on site, they seemed to be public performances, with donations sought that were not in compliance with the special use permit and were resulting in an impact. And one of the issues of the special use permit is when you allow nonagricultural uses on agriculturally zoned land through a special use permit there’s always a representation made that it’s not detrimental to the surrounding property owners and, in particular, the subdivision. So you have to address parking, you have to address noise, you have to address maximum number of people at any event. And I suspect that if I were to open my home up to events on an annual basis or more often where people were coming in, I was soliciting donations for them to come to my house, and we had cars all over the subdivision that my neighbors would probably be calling because I would be creating a nuisance to my neighbors. And so you have to have some mechanism for policing activity. You have to have some mechanism for ensuring that the neighbor’s rights are not impacted. I happen to think this is a marvelous organization. I’ve seen many performances of the Hiccup Circus. I think they fulfill a need in the community and an activity especially for young children that is welcomed by the community. I think they provide a valuable service. But it still means that if you come in for special use permit on agriculturally zoned land, if you make certain representations about what your activities are, you have to comply with those representations. It appears that part of this is a misunderstanding between Mr. Ellis and his Board as to what is or not is a public performance, as well as the Department’s understanding. And that may be a function of having to spell out more carefully in this all future special use permits what constitutes a public performance, what is or is not a permissible use, and what type of maximum numbers of people you’re going to expect. On farmers markets it is a common misconception of people on agriculturally zoned land that a farmers market is a permissible use on ag land. The only thing that’s allowed is you can have a fruit stand, or vegetable stand, or mac nut stand that sells the produce you grow on your property. You cannot have people come from other properties and sell what they grow on their properties on your property. For that you have to have a special use permit. And the reasons are because of the additional traffic, the additional parking, the additional impact on the community. But it’s a common misperception so I can understand how Mr. Ellis would've thought that it was permissible, cause it is happened multiple times on the island. And typically what people do is when we cite them we say, hey, come in, get a special use permit, make it illegal. And that's typically what occurs. They come in, come through the process, and make it legal. My frustration is that this has been more than two years since we started and said please come and amend the permit. And at some point you have to try and get someone to move that process along more quickly because otherwise there's no teeth in the special use permit, there's no ability to ensure 21 EXHIBIT B