HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0526.018 2010-2012 July 31, 2012
Hawaii County Council Planning Committee
Opposition to Bill 168
Change of Zone Application (REZ 11-143)
RS-10 to CV-10 Souza/Mulliken TMK 1-8-002:064
My name is Dru Casburn, I live in Hilo, and I thank you for the opportunity to speak in opposition to this
proposed zone change. I have visited the Nichols Road neighborhood many times over the past 16 years.
This opposition isn't about resisting change, it is about the preservation and safety of this older
neighborhood. A quiet neighborhood , where I have witnessed residents, young and old, walking the
narrow unimproved road to catch the bus, to get to school, or to go to Mountain View Town center; a
neighborhood of families playing ball in their yards and of kids riding bikes. It is currently a road less
travelled. It is a neighborhood with houses on both sides of a one lane broken up road, homeowners
dependent on existing shoulders for parking their cars, few residents using carports or garages for cars
as is typical on Hawaii Island. A very narrow unimproved country road demands that anyone driving
through must proceed slowly and with caution. This has made for a safe and quiet neighborhood for
decades and decades since the first home was built early in the last century.
A commercial business which includes the servicing of Large Utility Vehicles for the Volvanoes National
Park , as the applicant has testified this would be, should not be placed in the front yard of an existing
residence. These Vehicles would have to turn onto Nichols Road at the very entrance to this established
and historic neighborhood. If you haven't driven through, from Nichols to Pszyk, I would encourage you
to do so, to judge for yourself what road improvements would be necessary and the cost involved of
those improvements to get the road to the point where Large Utility Vehicles could safely navigate
through the neighborhood on a regular basis, and in order to safely enter or exit Pszyk Road - as the
applicant in previous testimony has recommended they do as a safer alternative to Nichols Rd .
To allow this commercial business here would be disruptive to the lifestyle that the families in this
neighborhood have experienced for generations. Thank you.
Comm. No. S7.--(0• o
Ref.To: PI PC.
Ref. Date, Jilt 2 1 24312