2017-04-17 Public Testimony on SMA 16-063 Contested Case

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LEEWARD PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAI‘I CONTESTED CASE HEARING PUBLIC TESTIMONY TRANSCRIPT APRIL 17, 2017 The following public testimony was presented at an advertised contested case hearing on the application of OCEAN VILLAS AT KAHALU‘U BAY, LLC (SMA 16-063) at 8:13 a.m. in the West Hawai‘i Civic Center, Community Center, Building G, 74-5044 Ane Keohokālole Highway, Kailua-Kona, Hawai‘i, with Hearings Officer Robert Crudele, Esq. presiding. PARTIES PRESENT: Stephen Menezes, Esq. (Counsel for Applicant), William Moore (Applicant’s representative), Paula McMichael (Intervenor), J. Yoshimoto, Esq. (Counsel for the Planning Director) and Daryn Arai (Deputy Planning Director) OTHERS PRESENT: Jeff Darrow (Planning Program Manager) and Noriko Sauer (Commission Secretary) And approximately 30-40 people from the public in attendance. APPLICANT: OCEAN VILLAS AT KAHALU‘U BAY, LLC (SMA 16-063) Special Management Area (SMA) Use Permit application to allow for the development of a 306-unit multiple family residential project and its related improvements including, but not limited to, internal utilities and driveways, landscaping, recreational amenities such as swimming pools, and off-site infrastructural improvements such as sewer system improvements within Ali‘i Drive and an emergency access/driveway improvements within the proposed Kahului-Keauhou Parkway right-of-way. The affected properties, consisting of approximately 42.551 acres, is located along the mauka (east) side of Aliʻi Drive and Kahalu‘u Bay, approximately 1,375 feet north of the Aliʻi Drive-Makolea Street intersection in Kahalu‘u, North Kona, Hawaiʻi, TMK: 7-8-010:004 and 7-8-014:013. SHARON WILLEFORD: Aloha. My name is Sharon Willeford. I’m a community advocate. I’ve been a teacher in Kona for 35 years, resident of Keauhou. My son was raised in the area and he is a fisherman. When he was five, he had a knife on his ankle and a throw net. He knows every inch of the coast. And he confided in me the other day that the area in front of the proposed development the reef is dead and there are no fish. I don’t know how we are going to sell timeshares or whatevers proposed for that area to people, if they know that the sewage is going directly into the ocean. We’ve had several closings of the beach down there lately. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to swim in somebody’s sewage. Their pharmaceuticals that go into the ocean, killing the reef. A development like this will contribute. So close to the ocean. They’ll be using pesticides. And even if they set up a sewage system for themselves, it doesn’t contribute to the area from Queen Kalama to Keauhou that has no sewers. So these are the issues that are closest to my heart. Also, for the children, the selling of the children’s land, the Hawaiian children. And all of the artifacts and the burials that are on this particular parcel, are very sacred 1 2017-04-17 Public Testimony on SMA 16-063 Contested Case