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so it’s more wear and tear on the brakes, it’s noisier. And so that’s the input that we’ve had. I don’t
<br />know whether how scientific that is, but that’s what we’ve been informed.
<br />
<br />GIFFIN: Okay. Any other questions of staff? Hearing none, may I have the applicant or the
<br />applicant’s representative? Good morning, Sid.
<br />
<br />FUKE: Do I need to be sworn in?
<br />
<br />GIFFIN: You know the drill. Yes. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth on this matter now
<br />before the Leeward Hawai‘i County Planning Commission?
<br />
<br />FUKE: Yes, I do.
<br />
<br />GIFFIN: Please state your name.
<br />
<br />FUKE: Sure. Good morning, Madam Chair, Members of the Commission. My name is Sidney
<br />Fuke. I’m a planning consultant assisting on this project. Regrettably, the principal is not here; he
<br />is from Saratoga, California, and was not able to be here. I can answer a lot of the questions, but I
<br />think that I might need to kind of preface it a lot by just showing the relationship between this
<br />particular project and the project that you are going to hear next, and so like -.
<br />
<br />GIFFIN: That’s really good. Thank you.
<br />
<br />FUKE: So you all understand that I think there can be like, the testimony given today can probably
<br />apply to the other one.
<br />
<br />Back in 2005, this group called Waikoloa Mauka purchased almost all of Waikoloa Land’s
<br />properties in the Waikoloa area, the ending part of 2005. And since that time what they did was
<br />focus on – this is the so-called Highlands project area – and so at that time the former owners,
<br />Waikoloa Land, they were going in with the County Council for an extension to complete their
<br />subdivision, and, of course, their plans reflected the construction of an 18-hole gold course. So in
<br />2005, the ending part, and finally in 2006, I believe, the County Council approved the time
<br />extension and – oops, anyway – they approved the time extension. And there were like several
<br />conditions, you know, 2006 or 2007, there were several conditions: One was that they had required
<br />the applicant to go to the Land Use Commission to have the property reclassified from the
<br />Agricultural to the Rural district. And so they had to do that, you know, pay big bucks to do the
<br />environmental impact statement and all that stuff, and they finally got that done in 2008. Relatedly,
<br />the other conditions called for, if you are going to do a golf course, then make sure that you let the
<br />community know that you are going to do a golf course, because I think at that point in time there
<br />were concerns raised by the Waikoloa Village Association who owns and maintains the golf course
<br />that, you know, you are going to have another golf course, it’s going to provide competition, what’s
<br />going to do to us, so on and so forth. And so it didn’t say that you can’t do the golf course but, you
<br />know, just give the Village Association or the community some ideas as far as whether it was going
<br />to be built or not. Along the way the developer just said no, they are not going to do a golf course
<br />because, you know, obviously it didn’t pencil out and -. They still kept the open space area; they
<br />are going to be using that as drainage way and natural walkways, you know, so on and so forth.
<br />
<br />The last item relates to the question that everybody has been talking about, the roundabout. There
<br />was a condition that originally required the intersection to be signalized. Then when we went in to,
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