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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN LAAC 2025/01/07 (2024-2026) Committee on Legislative Approvals and Acquisitions l't Session Hawaii County Building 25 Aupuni Street Hilo, Hawaii January 7, 2025 CALL TO The regular meeting of the Committee on Legislative Approvals and Acquisitions ORDER: was called to order at 5:23 p.m., in the Council Chambers, Hilo, by Mr. Dennis "Fresh" Onishi, Acting Chair. ROLL CALL: Present: Mr. Dennis "Fresh" Onishi, Vice Chair Mr. James E. Hustace, Member Ms. Michelle M. Galimba, Member Mr. Holeka Goro Inaba, Member (came in later) Ms. Jenn Kagiwada, Member Mr. Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Member Ms. Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, Member Ms. Rebecca Villegas, Member (came in later) Absent& Excused: Ms. Heather L. Kimball, Chair STATEMENTS The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, FROM THE Statements from the Public on Agenda Items. PUBLIC ON AGENDA ITEMS: (There were none.) ORDER OF The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, RESOLUTIONS: Order of Resolutions. Res. 43-25: AUTHORIZES A GRANT OF EASEMENT FOR UTILITY PURPOSES TO HAWAI`I ELECTRIC LIGHT COMPANY, INC., OVER TAX MAP KEY: 6-8-041:023 (POR.) Allows for a grant of easement from the County of Hawaii to provide electrical service to the new Keolalani at Waikoloa subdivision in South Kohala and allow for the installation of vacuum switch equipment, with an independent appraisal valued at$590. Reference: Comm. 64 Intr. by: Council Member Kimball (B/R) LAAC-1 January 7,2025 Vote on Res. 43-25: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to recommend adoption of (Approved) Res. 43-25. Seconded by Mr. Hustace and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Galimba, Hustace, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Villegas, and Acting Chair Onishi —7. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Members Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder and Kimball —2. Excused: None. ACTING CHR. ONISHL Members, I'm going to be taking Bill 11 out of order because we have the applicant here and then we also have Jeff Darrow here, and he can do his presentation. So Mr. Clerk, can you read in Bill 11? Change Order As directed by the Chair and with no objection from the Committee Members, the of Business: following item was taken out of order: BILLS FOR The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, ORDINANCES: Bills for Ordinances. Bill 11: AMENDS SECTION 25-8-33 (CITY OF HILO ZONE MAP), ARTICLE 8, CHAPTER 25 (ZONING CODE) OF THE HAWAI`I COUNTY CODE 1983 (2016 EDITION, AS AMENDED), BY CHANGING THE DISTRICT CLASSIFICATION FROM SINGLE-FAMILY RESIDENTIAL 10,000 SQUARE FEET (RS-10) TO INDUSTRIAL—COMMERCIAL MIXED —20,000 SQUARE FEET (MCX-20) AT CITY OF HILO, SOUTH HILO, HAWAI`I, COVERED BY TAX MAP KEY: 2-2-036:065 Applicant: Nimr Y. Tamimi (Area: 22,900 square feet) The Windward Planning Commission forwards its favorable recommendation for the requested change of zone, which would allow the applicant to expand its office space by converting an existing residential dwelling on the subject property into an office building. This property is located at 781 Laukapu Street. Reference: Comm. 39 Intr. by: Council Member Kimball (B/R) Motion to Approve: Ms. Kierkiewicz moved to recommend passage of Bill 11 on first reading. Seconded by Mr. Hustace. ACTING CHR. ONISHL Director. (Note: At this time, Planning Director Jeff Darrow came forward to address the members of the Committee.) Page 2 LAAC-1 January 7,2025 MR. DARROW: Thank you, Council Members. Jeff Darrow with the Planning Department. As mentioned earlier this morning, this is going to be our new process in Committee when we bring forth an application, we'll present a PowerPoint presentation to the Committee Members for their reference. At any time, if you have any questions, please feel free to stop and I'll try and answer those questions for you. The applicant is Nimr Y. Tamimi. He's requesting a change of zone from RS-10 to MCX-20. The location of the application is on Lanikaula Street. You can see a little red dot that identifies it on the Hilo map. The applicant is requesting a change of zone from single-family residential 10,000 square feet to an industrial- commercial mixed 20,000 square feet, or MCX-20, for 22,900 square feet of land. The applicant, who owns an engineering consulting firm on the adjacent property to the east, proposes to expand the office space by converting an existing 2,716 square foot dwelling on the subject property into an office building to house up to ten employees, half of which will be relocated from the existing business next door. The applicant will secure a change of use building permit from the Department of Public Works to comply with the requirements for a change of occupancy from residential to commercial and final plan approval from the Planning Department to comply with onsite parking and landscaping requirements. The applicant plans to immediately apply for a change of use building permit as soon as the change of zone is approved. This process will determine what improvements to the building and property may be necessary to meet the requirements of the proposed new building occupancy, which will in turn determine the additional cost and timeframe necessary to complete the conversion of the structure from a dwelling to an office building. This is our County of Hawaii zone map. This is our County zoning. The yellow represents single-family residential 10,000 square feet. The purple or blueish type color is our commercial-industrial mixed. In this case it's 20,000 square feet. The subject property is identified with a red outline. Just for reference, you have Lanikaula Street running in an east-west direction and you have Laukapu running in a north-south. This is located on the corner of Laukapu and Lanikaula Street. This is our state land use boundary map. All of the pink area identifies state land use urban zone. And this is our General Plan (GP) Land Use Pattern Allocation Guide (LUPAG) map. The dark gray color represents industrial. The orange color represents high-density urban. I believe that's supposed to be high-density urban. It could be medium. But as we can see with the red outline, this is located within the industrial General Plan area. Page 3 LAAC-1 January 7,2025 This is a site plan submitted along with the application that shows the existing dwelling. It identifies the open areas on the property as well as East Lanikaula Street and Laukapu Street. These are some aerial site photos of the property and the adjacent business as well as Lanikaula Street and Laukapu Street. These are some site photos from the ground. The top left identifies the view of the property from Laukapu Street, you can see the existing dwelling as well as the existing business located in the rear of the dwelling. The lower right photo is a property from the corner of east Lanikaula Street and Laukapu. Again, you can see the existing dwelling as well as the existing business. These are several photos identifying the area. The top left is a view of East Lanikaula Street facing east. To the upper right is facing west on East Lanikaula, and on the lower is a view Laukapu facing south, and last on the lower right is the view of Laukapu facing north. The Planning Director's recommendation for this application was a favorable recommendation with conditions. And the Windward Planning Commission's recommendation at its November 1, 2024 meeting, they have voted to forward a favorable recommendation to the County Council based on the Planning Director's recommendation. That concludes our presentation. Do we have any questions? ACTING CHR. ONISHL Thank you, Director. Is there any questions, Members? Okay. Nimr, do you want to come up and say a few words or, you're okay? Yeah. Members? Mr. Inaba. MR. INABA: Thank you, Acting Chair Onishi. Director, love the presentation, especially the aerial view. I think it really gives us the opportunity to see what's on the ground, to see what's nearby. In support, and yeah, mahalo for preparing that presentation. I yield. MR. DARROW: Thank you. ACTING CHR. ONISHL Ms. Villegas. MS. VILLEGAS: Sure. I just was interested in hearing from the Council Member that represents this district to see if. ACTING CHR. ONISHL He's chairing the meeting. So, I'll talk after we finish. MS. VILLEGAS: Okay. Gotcha. No worries. Looking forward to hearing what you have to say. I yield. ACTING CHR. ONISHL Anybody else; any other members? Okay, if not, yes, it's in my district. I know this area really good. What's going to be good is that that house has been vacant for a while. I knew the family that lived there, and Page 4 LAAC-1 January 7,2025 something happened to the husband, and it's just, I guess, the wife moved away or something like that but then it became vacant. That area, what is great is that it will help with getting upgraded on the sidewalks and curbs, right. And across them is a warehouse where you have like restaurants; you have businesses that have sidewalks already, so it's going to be matching that whole area and it's going to widen the road. The only thing I had was that have you ever thought about doing like a right in, right out on Lanikaula? You can introduce yourself for the record. (Note: At this time, Application Nimr Y. Tamimi came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MR. TAMIML Aloha. Nimr Tamimi, applicant for the change of zone. Regarding right in, right out; one of the conditions of the rezoning is that. So, on Lanikaula Street, if there is an entrance there, it'll be only right in, right out. ACTING CHR. ONISHL Okay. Okay. Are they going to request like a certain distance from that intersection? MR. TAMIML There isn't any distance requirement that I've seen other than the right in, right out on that street. ACTING CHR. ONISHL Okay. Okay. MR. TAMIML I think that dimension on the property is 100 feet. So, it goes 100 feet along Lanikaula Street and about 200 feet on Laukapu Street. ACTING CHR. ONISHL Okay. Good, good. So, I'm asking my colleagues if you folks can support this project. Like back then, when I was on the Council, I always felt this Waiakea Houselots, which is what that area is called, would be like the second industrial area, fee-simple lots because up in Kanoelehua Industrial area, that's all like leased land. There are some fee-simple, but then a lot of them are already all occupied. And so, if we want to grow businesses like we heard today, we need to start opening it up. And I did back then on the Council, we did a resolution to having where in the General Plan to allowing commercial applications for rezoning in this whole area. Okay. Right now it's based on just the main roadways and so by that amendment it will open up the other side roads. Director, you have anything else for us? MR. DARROW: Nope. I mean, this one's a pretty straight forward change of zone application. ACTING CHR. ONISHL Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you, Nimr. MR. DARROW: Thank you. Page 5 LAAC-1 January 7,2025 ACTING CHR. ONISHL All those in favor of Bill 11 moving forward to the Council, say "aye." Vote on Bill 11: The motion to recommend passage of Bill 11 was carried (Approved) by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Galimba, Hustace, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Villegas, and Acting Chair Onishi —7. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Members Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder and Kimball —2. Excused: None. ACTING CHR. ONISHL Mr. Clerk, can you read in Bill 198? Return to Order The Chair directed the Committee to return to the order of business. of Business: Bill 198: AMENDS THE STATE LAND USE BOUNDARIES MAPS FOR THE (2022-2024) COUNTY OF HAWAI`I BY CHANGING THE DISTRICT CLASSIFICATION FROM THE AGRICULTURAL DISTRICT TO THE RURAL DISTRICT AT WAIMEA, SOUTH KOHALA, HAWAI`I, COVERED BY TAX MAP KEY: 6-4-024:027 Postponed: September 16 and October 15, 2024 (Note: There is a motion by Council Member Kierkiewicz, seconded by Council Member Lee Loy, to recommend passage of Bill 198 on first reading.) (Note: Comm. 1015.41, from Katherine A. Garson and Onaona P. Thoene from Carlsmith Ball LLP, dated January 2, 2025, transmitting a request for postponement for Bill 198, was circulated.) ACTING CHR. ONISHL Okay. So, can I have a motion? MR. INABA: Chair, there is a motion on the floor. ACTING CHR. ONISHL There is a motion already? MR. BROWN: There's a motion on the floor so you guys can go right into discussion. ACTING CHR. ONISHL Okay. And we do have the applicant on Zoom. MR. INABA: Yes. Page 6 LAAC-1 January 7,2025 ACTING CHR. ONISHL Okay. The applicants, do you folks want to say something first, Mr. Arai? (Note: At this time, Planning Consultant Daryn Arai came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MR. ARAI: Sure. Daryn Arai, Planning Consultant assisting Kaupulehu Land with this state land use boundary amendment and change of zone request. We did submit a communication, dated January 2, 2025, requesting postponement. We became aware of some procedural questions regarding, more specifically, Bill 199 and especially given the fact that you've had a long day today, confirmation hearing, and we realize that the Committee meeting was only scheduled for an hour, we found it best to ask for a postponement to give the Council and the Committee a better opportunity to address these applications in its full breath. So, we hope you will consider our request for a postponement. ACTING CHR. ONISHL Okay. Thank you. Anybody has any discussion? Okay. If not, can I have a motion to postpone to the next Committee meeting? Vote on Motion Mr. Inaba moved to postpone Bill 198 to February 4, 2025. to Postpone: Seconded by Ms. Kierkiewicz and carried by the following (Approved) voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Galimba, Hustace, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Villegas, and Acting Chair Onishi —7. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Members Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder and Kimball —2. Excused: None. Page 7 LAAC-1 January 7,2025 and Bill 199: AMENDS SECTION 25-8-11 (LALAMILO-PU'UKAPU ZONE MAP), (2022-2024) ARTICLE 8, CHAPTER 25 (ZONING CODE) OF THE HAWAI`I COUNTY CODE 1983 (2016 EDITION, AS AMENDED), BY CHANGING THE DISTRICT CLASSIFICATION FROM AGRICULTURAL—5 ACRES (A-5a) TO RESIDENTIAL AGRICULTURAL—0.5 ACRES (RA-0.5a) AND NEIGHBORHOOD COMMERCIAL— 10,000 SQUARE FEET (CN-10) AT WAIMEA, SOUTH KOHALA, HAWAI`I, COVERED BY TAX MAP KEY: 6-4-024:027 (Applicant: Kaupulehu Land, LLC) (Area: 5.349 Acres) The Leeward Planning Commission forwards its favorable recommendation for this amendment to the State Land Use Boundaries Map and an unfavorable recommendation for the requested change of zone, which would allow the applicant to subdivide the property into eight lots consisting of three retail/commercial lots fronting Mamalahoa Highway and five residential agricultural lots. This property is located at 64-983 Mamalahoa Highway. Reference: Comm. 1015 Intr. by: Council Member Inaba(B/R) Postponed: September 16 and October 15, 2024 (Note: There is a motion by Council Member Kierkiewicz, seconded by Council Member Galimba, to recommend passage of Bill 199 on first reading.) (Note: The following Communications for Bill 199 were circulated: 1. Comm. 1015.40, from Katherine A. Garson and Onaona P. Thoene from Carlsmith Ball LLP, dated December 16, 2024, transmitting proposed conditions of approval; 2. Comm. 1015.42, from Katherine A. Garson and Onaona P Thoene from Carlsmith Ball LLP, dated January 2, 2025, transmitting a request for postponement; and 3. Comm. 1015.43, from Council Member Heather L. Kimball, dated January 6, 2025, transmitting proposed amendments.) ACTING CHR. ONISHL As the applicant had requested for a postponement, can I have a motion to postpone to February 4, 2025? Motion to Postpone: Mr. Inaba moved to postpone Bill 199 to February 4, 2025. Seconded by Ms. Kierkiewicz. ACTING CHR. ONISHL Any discussion on the postponement? Yes, Mr. Inaba. MR. INABA: Yes, thank you. I just want to point out to the Committee that the applicants had worked with Chair Kimball on an amendment and it's Comm. 1015.43, and just to review that prior to the February 4 h Committee meeting. Thank you, Chair. I yield. Page 8 LAAC-1 January 7,2025 ACTING CHR. ONISHI: Thank you. Any other discussion? Okay. All those in favor of postponing Bill 199 to February 4, 2025, please say "aye." Vote on Motion The motion to postpone Bill 199 to February 4, 2025 was to Postpone: carried by the following voice vote: (Approved Ayes: Committee Members Galimba, Hustace, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kierkiewicz, Villegas, and Acting Chair Onishi—7. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Members Kdneali`i-Kleinfelder and Kimball—2. Excused: None. ACTING CHR. ONISHI: Okay. That concludes this Committee. ADJOURN- There being no further business, Acting Chair Onishi adjourned the meeting MENT: at 5:43 p.m. Approved: VI// Z.q Ms. Heather L. Ki ll, Chair (Date) Legislative Approvals and Acquisitions Committee Hlltk Page 9