HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0426.004 2004-2006 Bibliography Page I of 2
Murashige, Laura
_...v.
From: Eoff, Karen ,
Sent: Monday, September 19, 2005 10:00 AM - ` I `I ;
To: Murashige, Laura
Subject: FW: Testimony for Planning Committee-Agricultural TouriSrii gill
-----Original Message-----
From: Dorothy Walsh [mailto:halehula@lavazone2.com]
Sent: Monday, September 19, 2005 8:40 AM
To: Pilago, K. Angel
Subject: Chapter 25 Agricultural Tourism Bill
Dorothy Walsh
P.O. Box 90
Kealakekua, HI 96750
(808)322-3005
Honorable Angel Pilago, August 23, 2005
My name is Dorothy Walsh and 1 have been a resident in Kona for the past 17 years. My family and I live on a 2-acre
agriculture farm in Kainaliu where we grow plants and fruit trees. Our family is very concerned about the potential
amendments to Chapter 25 of the zoning code, which specifically relates to agricultural tourism.
Our neighbor is .Ioe and Deepa Alban who own Kona Joe Coffee. They advertise on television as well as in all [he
tourism publications, touting themselves as a "World Class Visitor Center." A year and a half ago, they built a huge
structure under a permit as a coffee processing facility. Most of their structure is for the purpose of tourism and sales
of coffee, chocolate, mugs, tee shirts, and other tourist related products. They operate their agricultural tourism
facility without a special use permit and have visitors of I50 cars per day, including [our buses. Their "roadside
stand" consists of a structure much greater than 1000 square fee[. On several occasions they have had special events
on their property. In addition, their advertisement signs on Mamalahoa Highway blatantly seek out other coffee
farmers from which they can buy coffee from. Doesn't this bring up the question about agricultural tourism straying
into the path of literally becoming a commercial operation?
Our family has been adversely affected by [he noise of their coffee processing which is 75 feet from our home, as well
as numerous tourist traffic. Because they have no special use permit, they have had no reason to be concerned with
noise levels or consideration of the neighbors. 1 want to make an appeal that as you consider Chapter 25 of the
Hawaii County Code related to Agricultural Tourism, that you would be considerate of situations like ours where
neighborhoods are adversely impacted. Please limit the number of annual visitors and have specific guidelines in
which you would protect neighbors. I believe that the abatement of noise is a very important issue that needs to be
addressed by those involved in agricultural tourism. If specific guidelines and parameters are established and indeed
enforced, then problems will not arise like those we are dealing with on a daily basis.
understand that tourism is vital to our state's economic success, however 1 do believe that when tourism operations
such as our neighbors are allowed to continue without standardized guidelines, our state is disregarding the numerous
agricultural neighbors that make Hawaii so wonderful.
There are numerous Pandora's boxes that are presently opened and need to be dealt with. That means that some sort
of enforcement of these parameters will need to be actually carried out.
Thank you for your time and consideration in this matter, which is crucial to preserving our agricultural lands.
Please support agricultural farmers like ourselves who do not wish to participate in agricultural tourism.
Sincerely yours, Comm. NO.
Ref. To: twerwl
Reif. Date
9/19/2005