2019-03-07 Hearing Transcript - William Quinn Pahoa Farm & Garden

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Permit is appearing to be needed, but it's not, you know, it's not a convenience store. It's not a restaurant. It's not it's not, it's not a cafe, and I think that's, I think that's a really, really big thing to consider. Also, the other big factor, I know I said this before, this is Puna, and Puna can be very controversial. We have close to 250 signatures of support. We have two letters of opposition. That's unprecedented in Puna. It really is. And, I think that's a testament to Mr. Quinn and his family and his business here. So, I'm going to let Mr. Quinn speak his mind, and I can help fill in anywhere I can. Mr. Quinn? QUINN: Thank you folks very—yeah, thank you folks very much for having me back. We have put great thought into the concern, concerns of this council, especially with regards to customer safety and traffic safety. In 19 years of doing business in Pahoa, we have not had one liability claim or traffic incident where we are presently located. We play, we pay close attention to our customers and their needs. We do not advertise our business. No big grand openings. We rely on word of mouth advertisement. We feel it is important to note that both the geographic and demographic criteria of Puna is very specific. I do not believe big business will target this area due to the nature of our small town. We want to thank the Planning Department and the Department of Transportation for bringing to our attention the line of sight issue. Also, there were two opposition letters. One of them expressed concern about hydroplaning. So, what we had done is we had gone down to the Department of Transportation on Makaala Street— HALL: Please speak into the mic QUINN: —and I spoke to a gentleman over there. He was very nice. He made a copy of the book that the Department of Transportation uses as a guideline for the line of sight issue that the Planning Department feels is not there. So, after getting the two copies in this book that the Department of Transportation uses, he gave me two pages, and these two pages will express the amount of feet that you need at a certain rate of speed. On the first sheet, travelling at 35 miles an hour, and it is a 45 mile an hour zone, it would require 250 feet stopping sight. If you're travelling at 45 miles per hour, you would require 360 stopping sight distance. On this other sheet that came out of this—that the Department of Transportation uses, travelling at 35 miles per hour, you would need 250 feet. Travelling at 45 miles per hour, you would need 360 feet line of sight. What we had done is we had done a preliminary check with a licensed engineer who came out to the parcel. To just do a preliminary line of sight distance, it cost us a $150. The request of a hard copy put in writing could be furnished to you folks. That cost would be $700. So, we paid the initial one hundred and fifty, and what he came up with is, the sight distance towards Kalapana is 350 feet. We're short ten feet going right. If you were to look left towards Kea`au, we have 465 feet. We surpass the requirements on this book by over a 150 feet, I think it is. What has to be done is the side of the road has to be maintained with the California grass. We feel if that was maintained, and it's something we could do on a regular basis, we would be able to acquire the extra ten feet to make that line of sight, and we can also furnish you with a hard EXHIBIT D 6