2012-10-18 Leeward Exh A - Bonk - Laserfiche WebLink

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JONES: So right next to where the shed is located is the entrance to the Hawaiian Emersion School and the farmers market. And you can’t see it from this perspective. But on Saturdays there is a huge amount of congestion of people coming and going into the farmers market. Now, I have talked to some of the people who live on Kakanihia Road, they are my neighbors as well, the Bonks are loved in the community, they are a highly respected, loved family. And just this morning we’ve seen that two people who are on the Planning Commission who know the Bonks. The neighbors don’t want to interfere with Mrs. Bonk’s wishes. And as long as the Bonk family stays intact, and the Bonk’s sons are alive, the chances are this is not going to change; those two pieces of property will be the same, they won’t be overdeveloped. But, as we all know, life changes, financial crises happen, and then those two pieces of property may be put up for sale. Families will build homes on there. Each family will have a minimum of two cars, and maybe four cars, and kids and dogs, and that whole area is going to become a cluster of congestion. And we can sit here and say, oh, no, this will not happen, but we don’t know the future. That’s one of my concerns. And then I share the concern of Niki. I bought agricultural property. I’m a horse rancher. I raise chickens. I raise koa trees. They are all sensitive to air pollution, noise pollution, light pollution. And you would be surprised at the people who come up Kakanihia Road, climb my fence, and think they are going to hike into some wilderness area. And so that’s another concern of mine. The more commercial the street becomes, the more people are likely to wander up the path and enter my property. So I’m concerned about that. And like Niki, I’m concerned about the precedent. Because – and I know there are some attorneys in this room, and I love attorneys especially if it’s my attorney – but if in the future down the highway people want to start subdividing into half acres, they are going to get a sharp attorney and they are going to come right back, and they are going to say people on the Planning Commission knew the Bonks, they set the precedent. And they will fight and they will get their zoning into half acres, too. Yeah, and then we already have five acres where we saw this happen with another prominent Hawaii family. So if you all could sit here and assure me that this is all going to be a once-in-a-life-time thing, it’s not going to set a precedent, and some smart attorney is not going to come in five years from now and do these other precedents, I would be more comfortable with it. VAN DEN HURK: I just want to make one other comment. Right next to Nancy’s and my property, an older gentleman owned -. Was it 20 acres? JONES: Yeah. VAN DEN HURK: He owned 20 acres. Same thing – he wanted to, he wanted to subdivide the property so he could will it to his children. The children don’t want to move here, so now they are selling those parcels off. This will set a precedent that those five-acre parcels can now be subdivided into perhaps one-acre parcels or half-acre parcels. And now a beautiful, lovely agricultural area where I bought to have that horse property and my mules and things is now going to have, right now four houses on it, that could then have eight houses on it. And these people drive up and down our private road, they get lost, they go on my property. We all have the same problems. I just, it’s not about the Bonks because, and I feel bad because they are nice people and I’ve heard they are nice people, but it’s about the future of our agricultural area in Kamuela. Anyway, thank you. LEITHEAD TODD: I ask -. 6 EXHIBIT A