2017-06-15 Leeward Exh B (AMEND SPP 11-000120)

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I’ll give you a little background on our organization. Hawai‘i Island Humane Society was formed by a passionate group of committed citizens over 50 years ago. While our organization has grown in capacity and services, our commitment to mission remains: Prevent cruelty to animals, eliminate pet overpopulation, and enhance the bond between humans and animals. Governance of our 501(c)(3) organization is provided by a dedicated all volunteer board of directors who represent our community well. Executive leadership is provided by Donna Whitaker who is with us today, and our professional and compassionate team members carry out day-to-day operations improving animal welfare and advocating for those without a voice. For many years our board of directors have been working towards building a new location for animal sheltering facilities to serve West Hawai‘i’s growing needs. The current one-acre location by the police station and the landfill in Kona is very hot, too small, it’s poorly located, and in the event of a fire all of the animals have to be evacuated for their safety, which is, as you can imagine, problematic to us. We are happy to report that construction is now underway at our new twelve-acre animal community center located at the former Fuku Bonsai and old quarry site near the Department of Water. Our new animal community center has been designed and engineered to decrease the number of animals euthanized by offering more space and a better living environment for the animals until they are adopted. This new facility is at approximately the one to twelve hundred-foot elevation; it’s going to be much cooler, cloudier, rainier, it’s going to be a lot more comfortable for the animals. We hope to decrease the animal intakes by increasing spay and neuter surgeries in our new veterinary clinic that will also provide for emergency care and treatment. The animal community center will also provide a place where people can enjoy the animals, congregate, enjoy the outdoor spaces, and provide a dog park and unique landscape, which is currently lacking in Kona – one of the main complaints that we hear is lack of recreational areas for people to enjoy with their dogs. We’ll have a separate large dog park and a smaller dog park to separate the size differential and any potential conflicts there. We are going to incorporate sustainability standards and green practices whenever possible in the design, construction and modification of the existing facility, and also in our everyday operations. We come before you today to seek an amendment to our existing Special Permit. Since we were first granted the permit in 2011, we’ve received Final Plan Approval and our Building Permit for Phase One that includes the two dog parks, administrative offices, a welcome center, restrooms and related improvements. We’ve also received Final Plan Approval for Phase Two that includes three dog dormitories, a cat adoption barn, and a barn for larger animals. Our request for amendment today is for our third phase that will include a larger state of the art veterinary clinic with additional stray dog and cat housing, designed to meet community needs today and then the future. With multiple surgery suites, our veterinary staff will be able to sustainably increase spay and neuter surgery, and provide the higher standard care for sick and injured animals. Eliminating pet overpopulation in West Hawai‘i can only be sustained through aggressive spay and neuter initiatives. We are in the schools everyday educating children, trying to break the pattern of non-education in regard to pet overpopulation and spay and neuter initiatives. One of our facts that we like to bring up is that a dog and her mate, if not sterilized, can produce 66,000 dogs over six years. This is why we are trying to increase our spay and neuter initiatives as much as we possibly can. As a final note, the parking for this facility has already been expanded to accommodate this use and all of the uses of the facility remain consistent as approved under the existing Special Use Permit 5 EXHIBIT B