2014-12-04 Hearing Transcript-Steve Shropshire SMA 14-058

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From the actual road in certain areas to the ocean, there’s quite a bit of elevation drop, as much as 200 feet in some areas. Along the cliff line, there’s about a hundred foot drop from the cliff to the property. These are some site photos. I put a little reference on the side showing which direction these photos were taken. There was an actually an old quarry site on the property, and this is looking in that particular area, looking makai, so there’s an actual hole in this particular area. This is located from, looking from the ocean towards the mountain, and you can kind of see that area that has a little hole inside it. This is looking towards Hilo from about where the structure’s located so you can kind of see the elevation of the property this way. And this is taken from the same place, and you can see the highway elevation. There’s quite a drop here. This is one of the areas of concern. This picture doesn’t give it justice, but there was quite a steep drop from the old rail—railway, roadway lot and down to the cliff line. And this is an area near the nor—or the Hilo side of the property that’s more flat inside, and then just beyond this is the stream entering into the ocean. And lastly, this is a photo taken from that area back towards where the structures are, and again this area here, there’s quite a bit of drop in elevation that has concerns that we need to address. The Planning Director is recommending that this SMA permit be approved with conditions. I have a few items that I’d like to bring to your attention before we conclude. Just as a matter of information, this is again, the zoning is currently in place so there is a—the County zoning allows for subdivision up to a half acre lots in the RA. The additional requirement because this property is located within the SMA is an SMA permit to address possible concerns of affecting the coastlines and the SMA. There was some concerns that were brought up at the last hearing regarding potential contamination in the soils, petroleum, old storage tanks from the old gas station that was there. The Applicant has submitted a report that talked about these, this site being cleared by DOH. We did send the report to the Commissioners, but it was approximately 70 pages in length so we didn’t make copies, but we did reference it. We did submit the DOH letter that basically cleared the site of the issues that were brought up. So, arsenic was tested as well as petroleum products. In the letter, it talks about approximately 1-1/2 point, tons of material that were taken off site that were possibly contaminated as well as the two gas tanks that were removed. A summary, I had asked the Applicant if they could submit a brief summary regarding what was tested in that report, and that was submitted this morning. It’s just a simple half page letter that summarizes. It says gas tank removal on the top and it kind of summarizes those issues. Additionally, this morning, we have received a final coastal erosion study. As we had mentioned previously that there were concerns regarding cliff stability and the fact that this development is along the cliff. When that occurs, we ask that the applicants hire people to do what are called 3 EXHIBIT A