2013-01-10 Windward Transcript Paradise

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This is an aerial that was taken previously. It identifies the keopuka in the area. Again, National Park on your left. Royal Gardens Subdivision on your right, and the particular subject property identified in the back outline. This was a house that was on the property owned by Jack Thompson. Since this application has been submitted there has been a recent lava flow that has taken away the house. This is a little closer picture. This is more accurate now. So you can see the recent flow that’s coming through the Royal Gardens Subdivision. Again, the portion of the National Park. This is the location of the former Thompson home. This is just above the property in a helicopter. It identifies the remains of what was on the property. So you have a water tank and I believe there was a portion of a satellite dish. So you can see the satellite dish and the water tank, but no more home. The applicant is requesting a special permit to allow the establishment of a helicopter landing area on a 10,000-square foot portion of a 1.003-acre parcel of land. This will include a helicopter landing platform on a 225-square foot, or 15-foot by 15-foot, portion of land within the helicopter landing area. The normal flight pattern, which may vary with weather and eruption activity, is from the Hilo airport to the Pu‛u O‛o vent, to the subject property, and then returning to the Hilo airport. The applicant anticipates that they will be on the ground for approximately thirty minutes each trip to allow the visitors an opportunity to view the lava, flora, and natural terrain up close. This is the submitted site plan with the application. And, again, since this was submitted the lava has taken away the home. The water tank still exists. The landing area is to the right of the residence, and identified with a blue outline. The actual platform is in the middle of the landing area identified with a dark blue shade. This is an example of one of these landing areas, along with the helicopter. This was a map that was submitted both within the final environmental assessment report as well as the special permit application. It is not to be, it is a daft map and it is not official, it is not final. But, again, it gives you an idea of what the National Park is looking at as far as restricting certain flight patterns and above ground levels for these helicopters. That’s all this is, it’s just for reference purposes. The area of the Thompson residence is in this general location here. This is a typical Paradise Helicopter flight path. You’ll see here on the bottom of the map where it mentions Jack’s place, that’s Jack Thompson. And, again, as they were mentioning you’d come from Hilo airport, you would go up to Pu‛u O‛o vent to the residence or the subject property. It looks like they go to Kalapana and then back up to the airport. The Planning Director is recommending approval with conditions. If I can bring to your attention several correspondence that have been submitted since the background has been submitted to the Planning Commission. No. 1, we’ve received a petition for standing in a contested case hearing. This was submitted by the Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park Service. We have, this was received ndth January 2. We’ve also received a letter from John Carse, and this was received January 7. You should have gotten a copy of that. It has several letters included in the correspondence. We have a resubmittal of the response letters from Paradise Helicopters to the National Park, as well as from Bob Ernst. And the reason why I say resubmittal, it’s the same correspondence that is also within your background report under Exhibit 12. We’ve submitted to you the recommendation report, which is in yellow. And lastly, this morning we have received a letter from Corey Harden; and that should be in your possession. 2 EXHIBIT A