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

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existing small lots. But it was also that it’s surrounded by buildings, so it’s not specifically adjacent to agriculture, you know, like between Mrs. Bonk’s house and this lot and parcels to more Waimea Town, there are existing homes. Between this lot and, if you are going back towards Hilo, it’s already one-acre lots, and it’s already got the Hawaiian Homes Commission building there; so it’s not immediately adjacent to large agricultural parcels. So those are some of the considerations that kind of make this a little bit different than other applications that might come in. But I can’t guarantee you that other people won’t come in and seek rezoning and, you know, because they come in and they are a case-by-case basis. But generally speaking, you know, most rezonings in this area are not going to fly unless they are consistent with this Community Plan. VAN DEN HURK: Can you take me back to that other, the one before? Does this rezoning -? Now, my property is the kind of big square one that’s, right there, that one. The property to the left, if you see, there’s one, two, three, four, those are five-acre parcels, originally that was a 20-acre parcel. You’ll notice that to the left of me that bottom half of that subdivision, if you will, is this green color. Does this rezoning allow that person to then subdivide that five-acre parcel? LEITHEAD TODD: Not necessarily. And there are a couple of considerations. If you move forward to the Waimea Community Plan. You’ll notice that it’s in the green, which is small farms; so it’s less likely to get a favorable recommendation. The other thing is the fact that it was recently subdivided and rezoned to create those five-acre lots also makes it less likely to get a favorable recommendation, because it’s fairly recent. If they were a 20-acre lot and they were coming in and asking for the five acres today, I’d say possibly 50/50 because five-acre lots are consistent with small agricultural farms. And so they might, even if they were coming in today, get those five acres. But I think it would be less likely that they would get a favorable recommendation for that one five-acre lot to get further subdivided because of 1) it’s close in time to when the prior rezoning occurred, and 2) because the Community Development Plans have it for the small farms area. NELSON: Thank you. You can be excused now. Thank you. Commissioners, do you have any responses? Applicants, please come up again. Thank you. Do you have any responses to the testimonies you’ve heard? MOORE: Not really. I think the Planning Director has explained the situation well enough. NELSON: Thank you. BONK: I appreciate hearing from the neighbors on the 40-acre Ag lots. But all the half-acre lots on this road were established in the 1950’s, and most of the people that bought these house sites bought it for family homes and, including my parents who bought it in the 1970’s, I believe, when my dad and mom purchased their acre. But my brothers are actual farmers. And my brother, Seizen, would have loved to buy the parcel neighboring him on both sides and actually continue to farm right next door, but he cannot afford to buy land on this strip for farming; it’s been out-valued from farmers actually purchasing farm land on this road, and it’s kind of unheard of to even -. He would have loved to buy the Kerr’s lot right there that’s open pasture; it went up for sale recently, somebody bought it for the house basically and is fixing up the house. So, you know, we are out- pricing people in Waimea for actual farming. And it would be nice to have more agricultural land, of course, for farmers, but -. The best he can do is now to do seedlings and use it for storing his farm equipment and things like that to help his farm. 8 EXHIBIT A