2015-03-19 Leeward Exh B (Amend SPP 378)

Home

testimony, speak directly into the mic. I’ll start with swearing you in. Could you please all raise your right hand? Do you swear and affirm to tell the truth now before the Leeward Planning Commission? TESTIFIERS: Yes. I do. BEAUDET: Thank you. So we’ll start at your far left. MILLS: Good morning, Mr. Chairman and Members of the Commission. I am Clarence Mills. I am 73 years old. I need your help. I’m here today to support the special use permit for Five Mountains Fitness Center. I am a member of the Five Mountains Fitness Center, and have been a member since nine years ago, from the very opening. I am in excellent health thanks to Five Mountains Fitness Center. Dr. Dawson is my primary physician who has informed me during my annual physicals that my blood test results and vital signs are very good. He always asks me, “Are you still going to the gym?” I reply, “Yes.” He would then say, “Well, whatever you are doing, please continue.” Again, I need your help. I do not want to live forever. Nobody does. But I want to live healthy. I want every day to be precious, and I want it to be a healthy day for me. And Five Mountains does that. Members of the Commission, the Five Mountains Fitness Center plays a major role to raise my survival and wellness program. I work out at least four to five days a week. It gives me mobility, humility and self-respect. The Fitness Center is my life. I already know I have three minutes. The Planning Director has not made a recommendation. I sat once upon a time in the same position you are in. My recommendation to you is to move to approve the special use permit so the Fitness Center may remain with or without the conditions as provided by the Planning Director. I need your help to stay healthy. I don’t want to end up at McDonald’s drinking coffee early in the morning. Thank you very much. JOHNSON: Good morning. My name is Susan Johnson. I live in Waimea at 67-1243 Māmalahoa Highway. I’m the co-owner of Five Mountain Fitness. I just want to give you some facts today about the Fitness Center because I think there’s some miscommunication. We are a corporation. We’ve been in this same location for nine years without any problems. We do not run on the road to cause traffic problems; we stay off the road. We don’t even go on the side of the roads. We stay within the base yard. As for traffic, we average 3.7 cars per hour, and I have documentation for that. Our gym operates within the footprint of the warehouse. We are not taking up agricultural land. Some of our members are, it’s a very multi-generational group of people; we have kids as young as 14, we have people as old as 90. Mr. Mills is not the oldest member of the gym by far. These people depend on us to be there for their health and their wellbeing and the style of life that they’ve chosen. Some of the organizations we work with are North Hawai‘i Community Hospital and the Ho‘omalule Program. This is a program for Native Hawaiians for health, nutrition and fitness. This is an OHA funded program and they depend on us to be there for them. We work with Get Fit Hawai‘i, providing free classes during their operation for ten weeks for all their members. We work with Parks and Rec on things like Sports Expo. We work with Parker School and their powerlifting program. All these organizations depend on us to be there. These high school kids, and you may hear from some of them today, they just qualified to go to powerlifting world championships, and they depend on us that we are there so they can train. We also have athletes that are Ironman, marathon, powerlifters, Olympic lifters, bodybuilders, some of these people are in contest preparation now, and depend on us to be there. We have many competitors that compete at the world level, and they depend on us, too. I realize we are on agricultural land, but Waimea does not provide an industrial area for business like us. We can’t be in an office building. So we have no options. If you close us down, we’ll go out of business. Our employees won’t have their jobs, 6 EXHIBIT B