HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0545.001 2018-2020 Ha Kim ,��v oc k�
Y �o;: Michael Yee
Mayor �,Idg� Director
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Wil Okabe Duane Kanuha
Managing Director Deputy Director
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West Hawaii Office East Hawaii Office
74-5044 Ane Keohokalole Hwy • 101 Pauahi Street,Suite 3
Kailua-Kona,Hawaii 96740 Counter of Hawal i Hilo,Hawaii 96720
Phone(808)323-4770 Phone(808)961-8288
Fax(808)327-3563 PLANNING DEPARTMENT Fax(808)961-8742
October 11, 2019 =
Aaron S.Y. Chung, Council Chair
and Members of the County Council
County of Hawaii
25 Aupuni Street
Hilo, HI 96720
Dear Chair Chung and Council Members:
SUBJECT: Amendment to Change of Zone Ordinance No. 09-090A(REZ 09-000090)
Applicant: Dr. Trevor Rodrigues
Request: Time Extension to Condition D (Time to Complete Construction)
and F (Dedicate Future Road-Widening Setback)
Tax Map Key: 2-2-050:043
In regards to the Windward Planning Commission letter dated October 10, 2019 concerning the
above-reference matter, attached please find a copy of the draft transcript for the October 3, 2019
hearing for your information.
Should there be any questions,please contact Jeff Darrow at 961-8158.
Sincerely,
MICHAEL YEE
Planning Director
LRodriguesREZ09-090wpctranscript
Enclosures
LLC
Comm. No. •'
Ref.
Ref-owe G.C7,2'Y 2019 _
www.hiplanningdot.com Hawaii County is an Equal Opportunity Provider and Employer plannin hawaiicounty
WINDWARD PLANNING COMMISSION
COUNTY OF HAWAII
HEARING TRANSCRIPT
OCTOBER 3, 2019
A regularly advertised hearing on the application of DR. TREVOR RODRIGUES (AMEND
REZ 09-000090) was called to order at 9:01 a.m. in the County of Hawaii Aupuni Center
Conference Room, 101 Pauahi Street, Hilo, Hawaii with Chairman Joseph Clarkson presiding.
COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Gilbert Aguinaldo, Dean A Joseph Clarkson, Donn Dela
Cruz, Thomas Raffipiy, John Replogle.
ALSO PRESENT: Michael Yee(Planning DirectQJ*,Mafia Hd11L1 uty Corporation Counsel
for the Windward Planning Commission), Jeff Darr (Planning Piom Manager),Alex Roy
(Planner), and Sarah Hata-Finley(Commission Seeretary).
And 4 members from the public in attendance.
APPLICANT: DR. TREVOR RODIUGUES (AMEND REZ 09-000090)
Application for a time extension for C- dtlorr D (Time to Complete Construction) and
Condition F (Dedicate Future Road-Widening S4back) of Ordnance No. 09-090A, which
reclassified approximately 45,800 square-,feet of land from a Single=:Family Residential-10,000
square feet(RS-10)to_an Indusal-Commercial Mixed:20,000 square feet(MCX-20) zoning
district in 2009. The-s eb ct property is located_along the north side of East Kawili Street at the
corner of Laukapu Street and acros the street frcim Central Supply, Waiakea Houselots,
Waiakea, South Hilo, Haw i,
TMK: (3) 2 2 050.043.
CLARKSON: And with that, wee proceed to the first item on today's—first and only item on
today's arida, application lo' h todayy's agenda, an application from Dr. Trevor Rodrigues to
amend a re 09-000090. Aid,please proceed with a presentation, Alex.
ROY: Thankyour RIChainnan. Aight, today we're going to be talking about an amendment to
Change of Zone Ordinance 09-090A. This is for Dr. Trevor Rodrigues, the Applicant.
The Applicant is proposing-.o amend the following conditions of Ordinance No. 09-090A, to
include a five-year time extension for Condition D which is the time to complete construction; a
five-year time extension for Condition F which is the 10-foot future road widening condition.
[The] 09-090A ordinance was granted in 2009 to change the zoning designation of the subject
parcel from RS-10 to MCX-20, which is Industrial-Commercial Mixed Use. The Applicant is
proposing to relocate an existing veterinarian clinic to the subject property. He was provided an
administrative time extension in 2014 to the finalized construction deadline. Final Plan
Approval was secured by the Applicant in 2017 for the proposed building and parking area. He
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is now requesting condition amendments to accommodate longer than expected permitting times
and to comply with conditions of the original rezone.
If you look right down here, there is a small red dot. It shows the property just south of Banyan
Drive, directly. This is the current County zoning. Here you can see the subject property in
MCX-20, so that's that limited—industrial-commercial mixed use, excuse me. The ML is
Limited Industrial, and the pink or fuchsia is Residential. The State Land Use Boundary Map,
Urban.
Here's the General Plan LUPAG Map. Shows the area here as-,,Industrial, is the purple. Sorry,
you can't quite see the"Ind." And, then Medium Density Ulan for the remaining area around.
So, that's the LUPAG General Plan Map.
Here's an aerial photograph of the site. You can see twos existing structures here. This one has
been demolished and so it's all open. This is whereAh-b Applicant dans on building, and these
two structures will remain as rental dwellings.Mg,ib time being. The--- currently being
rented.
----------
Here's a site plan based off of the Plan_Approval the Y a ni il sed proposed stricture, veterinary
----------
hospital,parking area, entrance, and----ih-- e two existingiftuctures to remain.
Here's some site photographs. They are dittli shed outbMCause of the lights. But, the
property from, east from--if,,s on the cornerof La! l ,,Street and East Kdwili Street, so it's
hard to kind of tell but,t, an entrance 6CLauk ,-,and d§b off of East Kdwili Street.
A view west along EasXawili Street and a view-east along East Kdwili Street. And, then again,
the entrance to the parcel jam East-Kdwili Street i,and then a shot of kind of the interior of the
parcel from East-K5-wili
So, at,... me, the PIa'h#ft Dirdt1 -would llke to recommend, forward a favorable
recommendation for the amer dmeii onditions D and F of Ordinance 09-090A. Any
questions?
CLARKSON: Any questions far staff? If not, will the Applicant or the Applicant's
representative pleasecome forward? Please raise your right hands. Do you swear or affirm to
tell the truth on this matter,bef e Planning Commission today?
FUKE: I do.
RODRIGUES: Yes, I do.
CLARKSON: Please proceed.
FUKE: Sure. Good morning, Mr. Chairman and Members of the Commission. My name is
Sidney Fuke. I am assisting the Applicant, Dr. Trevor Rodrigues. I did the original rezoning,
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and so when the time extension was required or needed, Dr. Rodrigues reached out to me and,
thus, here we are.
RODRIGUES: Hi, I'm Trevor, I'm Trevor Rodrigues. I'm the veterinarian that's trying to build
a clinic. We have an existing clinic right now on Holomua Street, and the plan is to move
operations to the new place.
FUKE: I'd just like, would like to just amplify on what, you know, your staff had kind of
pointed out. There was an initial time ext—administrative time extension granted. Shortly
thereafter, then Dr. Rodrigues proceeded aggressively to retain-the services of consultants,
architects, so on and so forth. Then he had, the Plan Approval
was issued, and it took a while
before the Building Permit could be issued. It actually tool Gybe about a year and a half. So,
when the pen-nit was finally issued in October of 20I8,1_1h6V_ ine for having the building
occupied would have been of July of 2019.
And so, you know, there was like about an est ed 12-to 18-month-co----truction window, so
obviously, you know, he wasn't going to have enough time. He had a contractor already lined
up, financing with the bank,but the bank would ase the,money until M-encumbrance is
kind of like overcome. ___-- ----------
.. .....---
During the course of the preparing the Building'Pelm it, almost all of the conditions
that,that were attached to the original Z-M- changeiave been-snot. You know, things such as
like your access location, your improvemdnts- to the 10=` so forth. These are all
kdewalk, so
------lied with was just setting
kind of articulated in the- The d&-thingfW-wis,not complied
aside the ten additio6t'f(o I o-troadn -ofwaynd lhat'sj be worked upon, you know,
subject to the Commis s4on and C6Wftv Counciljfproval of the time extension.
So, one other thing is that duruig the courseof thesendingnotices to the surrounding property
0—
owners, I dizl receive a--,-call ft6ffiA__e neighborn ether this was going to be like a pet
_--on
hotel wffi&rd you have overnight dccbmmodatidfiijbr dogs, so on and so forth, and the concern
was if you then, you know, could create a lot of noise, you know, in that area. But,
Dr. Rodrigues affirmed that tis this is fdally like a hospital. So, only the sick and infirmed will
be housed there- nd there will-.,b- housmg&%' an enclosed area where basically where a little
noise would emanate from the p"_ erty.
CLARKSON: Any questions for Applicant or—
AU: —Mr. Chair, I have aqu"estion. You mentioned that a contractor was selected. Do you
mind if I ask who was selected?
RODRIGUES: Sakoda Construction, Adam Long.
AU: Okay, so upon what happens with your application at this Commission and going through
the County Council, do you anticipate hiring the same contractor?
RODRIGUES: Yep, he's ready to go, chomping at the bit.
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AU: Okay.
CLARKSON: Any further questions? If not, thank you. You've already addressed the
Background and Recommendation Reports. Is there any public testimony on this matter?
Apparently, so. Will Dwight Vicente please come forward? Please raise your right hand. Do
you swear or affirm to tell the truth on this matter before the Commission today?
VICENTE: [No response.]
CLARKSON: Let the record show that Mr. Vicente is unswomn-.-Please proceed.
VICENTE: Good morning. My name is Dwight Vicente ffloresent the Hawaiian Kingdom. I
noticed that the administrative rules for the Planning Dg-
they use a term, "Native
Hawaiian." That term is defined in the Hawaiian Hlom'WCommts,s'-pon Act so that term is limited
to the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act which i
q�
,4, 0,000 acres
25, as illegally ceded in
1898 by joint resolution to the United States bytts�=banana republic th-_'d no authority of these
-
Crown and Government lands that was illegalf d ed and was incorpoedt 6d under Article IV,
Section 3, Clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution.
------ -------At that time period, 1898, the Spaniggimerican War&hW'and the—Spain hadcededto the
United States without authority, Philip�pffijds" Guam, Puerto Ri-c
- o, Cuba, and they threw in the
bonus baby which is the 1,750,000 acre,s J of ChoW ru and G ovcFrwnent lands. So, in 1920,those
lands had become the Hawaiian Home Lands, whiblfoqced theseslands under the Northwest
`_W loodq d Public Trust Doctrine.
Ordinance of 1787. That`.s"�'Whiv.N.-ou.have t
So, the State and Coununder Section IV of that':`6dmission act is limited to the 1,750,000 acres
only. I believe this land-herd was fiat- -----ceded in I by the banana republic and, therefore, is still
under the Hawaiian KingdoAffiw�jslCr wn lands that has Native Tenant Rights and political rights
Au-noidfo
to them. ndt_heatehas_-,_' d� �' n through the Land Use Commission, the
State Historic Preservation, theI
_y P anniag-Department, and the Planning Commission.
And,by thewad, you guys are.n the wrong location. You guys should be located at Prince
,_
Kuhio Plaza fight now. That fiW-s are Hawaiian Home lands. This is still Kingdom. Hilo was
not ceded in 1898 So, the decision you make is in question because you are in the wrong
location. It's just so of the President, the Congress, or the U.S. Supreme Court under Article 1,
Section 8, Clause 17, dfVw UNrSViConstitution. They're limited to the 10-mile square,
Washington D.C., so they cap�'ly make the decision there. So, the County and the State is in
the,pretty much in the wrong location. They need to relocate for the time being untill the 1898
joint resolution get resolved.
So, going back to the terminology of the Native, Native Hawaiian, so the Planning Department
admits that they only deal with Hawaiian Home Lands. The other term is the Native Tenant
Rights and political rights to the land. So, there's a distinction that there is a separation going
on.
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So, the Planning Department does not recognize Native Tenant Rights because they only deal
with Hawaiian Home Lands and should be limited to that. So your rules need to be changed or
you cease..
With this, I'll end with the reservation of rights to this Kingdom under the Queen's Protest of
January 7, 1898, against U.S. Minister Stevens. It has yet to make its way to the U.S. Supreme
Court, Article III, Section 2, Clause 2, original but limited jurisdiction. The other one is the Joint
Resolution of 1898. It's unconstitutional. And, going back to 1875, the Reciprocity Treaty,
King Kalakaua and the U.S. President did not sign. And 1820, President Monroe appointed John
C. Jones as an agent for the U.S., and he was in charge of the missionary family and the U.S.
Navy. They was sent here without treaty. Thank you.
CLARKSON: Thank you. Any questions from the Comnns 0 r this testifier? If not,thank
you. Is there anyone else that would wish to testify?_,,_,Af-_ot, I ni __-motion to close public
testimony.
.............
DELA CRUZ: So moved.
AGUINALDO: Second.
CLARKSON: All those in favor?
COMMISSIONERS: Aye-
- ----------_
CLARKSON: Opposed` Motion carried. Pudic testimonsed. At this time, I'll ask for a
motion for action. 400
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REPLOGLE 14nave that avorable recommendation be forwarded to the County Council on
the appli—c--n- 'WiYamend--Change-bf
Zone Ordinance
E 09-090A based on the Planning
Direct6i fecommenda-fibMs, which_shallbe ad6pf
-----------
AGUINALOO,, I second.
CLARKSON: Before I call for-Aemote, I'm going to make a motion to amend the motion, and
bear with me. It would be to remove all time, relevant time conditions from this rezone. If you
could all look at the cdiffi_fion;,I'in going to move to amend the motion to remove the first
sentence in Condition D,`t'0�Qre-move the time limitation for the 10-foot future road widening strip;
and Condition F to be prior to receiving a certificate of occupancy; to remove all of Condition P
that's left, which is the last sentence; and to remove"in a timely fashion" from Condition Q.
AU: Mr. Chair, where are we looking at? Can you just point out what page?
CLARKSON: On Page 3, Condition Q at the very bottom.
HALL: But which document.are you looking at, the Recommendation?
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CLARKSON: I'm looking at the Recommendation. So, Condition D is on page one. Once
again, to remove the first sentence of Condition D. Condition F is on page two, to make the 10-
foot future road widening strip contingent, not on time but on actually getting a Certificate of
Occupancy to use the new building that's already got Final Plan Approval and a Building Permit.
And, then, on page three, Condition P, having to do with additional time extension. That would
be irrelevant because Condition D has been modified. And, then, in Condition Q,just to remove,
"in a timely fashion." And, the reason I suggest this, this is a property that was rezoned in 2009.
Its surrounding area is Light Industrial, Commercial. I think it should remain that way regardless
of what Mr. Rodrigues does and that this should be a permanent rezone.
AU: Mr. Chair? Question? Has the Applicant been discuss.-- ith these changes or is this—?
CLARKSON: Will the Applicant—do you have anykectrcn to having the time limits
removed from these conditions?
FUKE: I haven't had a chance to discuss it wit Rodrigues, but ifi-concept, you know, I
think it's good. I mean like, you know, recogram that this is an area th industrial, and so
what you want to do is like basically allow the pf6wto occur,without any 5ft constraints, and
so from that standpoint,you know, how you had proposed to-ly6u know, ame 'Conditions D, F,
_
-guess the only questions that I would
P, and Q, you know, substantively, W-6h .---no obi ecti dw 1-f
have is a little bit more on a philosophibiltdAis--whether this Vis,in moving forward, whether this
is going to be the consistent position of-th-e CosSion and Department. But,relative to
this application, you knowTwould recoft—Imend to Dr. odriguesrthat he would accept that.
-- ----- --- ---------
CLARKSON: Thank 1550- veryffil much. As to y_ #---s.,,-.,cond i§§�4B.2-maybe Jeff Darrow would like to
y
speak to that? ConsigMe
going 115TWard?
DARROW-:'Thank-,.vou. Mf i_:_-Gh Good morning, Members of the Planning Commission.
As been kind of doih 4rairiffion time extensions, trying to figure out
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which- ayi jj- those-:discussions
,W_,,_- d'during-to go, an (un ere was direction towards how to deal with
time conditions on permits is normally related to permits that come before the Planning
Commission such as Use Pef S, Spec'ilhl,,Permits, SMA Permits, those types of permits. And,
then the directf :,of going thr gh time 6hainges or time conditions in ordinances,which come
before the PlanningZ11-Commiss Ins io but ultimately are approved by the Hawaii County Council.
And, so, in our dis6_1i`S§1Qns on the-prdinances, there were discussions on both sides of the island,
the Leeward Plarining_-C is''S"60-oftz as well as the Windward Planning Commission, and it's—
you know there really h;i f'h6&n a vote or kind of a, you know,whether or not everyone agrees
or not but the direction seemed to be that if a zoning is appropriate for a particular area, why do
we need time conditions. That was one question. The other question is if we do have time
conditions, we just have them come back and refresh the time condition. We don't do the whole
zoning ordinance again.
But, the problem is, in certain situations, is that right now we're going through the General Plan
Amendment, and so, if everything stayed the same, no problem. But, let's say in a particular
area, in the future General Plan Amendment, they change it from say Commercial to Residential,
and we've already approved the rezoning for Commercial with no time limits. And, so, then the
6
question is how do we re-evaluate if that they haven't complied to come back in and be able to
change that zoning to a more appropriate zoning. Now, that's just an issue that can come up.
In this particular case, we have looked at the previous General Plan which is currently Industrial.
We've looked at the future General Plan which for this particular property and area are looking
to change it to Light Industrial. They're changing the overall Industrial category to two
categories: Light Industrial and Heavy Industrial. And,this is appropriate for this area which
right now the zoning is MCX which is more a Light Industrial. It's an Industrial-Commercial
Mix.
So, in this particular case, it probably would be okay to go fes_
and also knowing the fact
that the Applicant is pretty close to complying with condJi__ this case. To answer your
actual question, we have not—
HALL: —It depends—
DARROW: —Yeah, getting back to the origin question. Kind of toolrf=-little detour there.
But, the reality is, we have not polled—we have Adtlad a vo_t,6,--,.We have 10feally taken it to
the level. But, again, with permits, w�have to changetons—I'm sorry,�W"ave to change
rules, right? Because those rulessau have to do URV'f
time extension. For ordinances,
it's usually a change in the conditionOTireroOare some rules_`m` d code that we may need to look
'I ,
at to change overall,but basically, once _'N" u put In a-con Ud i t i an ordinance, that becomes
applicable for that particularzoning ordinaic e as ffif-g- time conditions or conditions of
' r
compliance overall.
I would also look to f Director tojs-ce if he's ij�� ith the overall direction.
CLARKSON--- Director Yee hmm&fiffon my proposed amendments?
YEE: J think as it pertains to thig-varticular app] on, I agree with Sid in terms of I don't
think, no,-_there's a rub orithisl,applic
on. I think trying to look down the road and what this all
means, yotr4ffiow, this is coMM9 at us,right now, and I haven't had time to ponder beyond today.
So, that's the' answer or reslianse I h M____ right now.
HALL: What are a11_tlo ramifications—.
YEE: Yeah, what are all-th- :i replications beyond this? But, it makes sense for this project if the
Applicant is amenable with it
CLARKSON: If I could just speak in favor of my proposed amendment—I think the
Commission spends a great deal of time—I consider it wasted time redoing time extension
conditions. I'd say that's probably one of the biggest jobs we do, and if there are properties like
this one that clearly appear to be properly rezoned, there is no reason to have to come back and
revisit that rezone every few years either on an administrative basis or by the Commission as a
whole or by the County Council. And, I'm perfectly willing to admit that there might be
properties where a rezone should be contingent,but for those that are obviously appropriate for
7
the area they are in, there's no reason I don't see to put time limits on the projects that are
suitable for that rezoned area. It's all—it's my only reasoning.
AU: Mr. Chair? I support your amendment to the motion in this particular applicant. The
Applicant has shown good faith in proceeding with the project. So, I don't see us as a
Commission not granting or not approving this amendment. We know, we see a lot of
developers that come and they want to do these projects, and a lot of'em don't even do anything
and then they come for the time extensions. So,you know, it's nice to see an applicant that's
almost there. They just need that time extension. So, I appreciate that.
DARROW: Mr. Chairman? Question for Corporation Coupe
HALL: Mm-hmm?
DARROW: Just for process clarity, we vote onN611-amended ordin_qb_�- or motion first?
HALL: Hold'on, let's make it cleaner. Commifis&ioner Replogle,would-`WATike to amend your
X
motion to include his suggested amendments? EA e theres,_- ally wasii'Msecond to his
motion, so technically his motion isn't even on the id'abl"I"o athpoint. So, woVfftpu like to
amend your motion to include it? If-s-up ayouu. Or yd' cats_ withdraw and havesomebody else
motion. 50ithdr ------
REPLOGLE: I think it would be best if 1-
W aw�Inme.and yoirftdo yours, Mr. Chairman.
And, then one of us can!Scn �I__ ,
CLARKSON: Yes, #6*Df order Is it just customary or is it required by our rules that the chair
never make initial motions?
HALL -.1fts-Tar eft- vm-u&Ro&6 les fh hairs' you know, to make motions.
CLARKSON: Okay. So;AWhaif tk*Yin.2 that the motion be made in the form that would
remove the,sections of the conditions thatpointed out earlier.
REPLOGLE: I what you said.
CLARKSON: I'llgo-th-
ADA-he more time quickly. To remove the first sentence in
Condition D; to make the l�road widening condition on it'd be done prior to receiving a
certificate of occupancy; removing all of Condition P, most of which was already removed; and
removing"in a timely fashion" from Condition Q. It basically leaves all the other conditions
intact. Only removes time-related conditions.
DARROW: We would also re-alphabetized Condition Q to be P, as P has been removed.
CLARKSON: That, too. You can just say, "I so move."
REPLOGLE: I so move. I agree with what he said.
8
CLARKSON: Is there a second?
AGUINALDO: I second.
CLARKSON: Any further discussion?
RAFFIPIY: Can I ask a question, Mr. Chair? So, are we, are we changing the administrative
rules now?
HALL: No. ===
CLARKSON: No, this is just related to this proposed ainenaeIordinance which will have to go
before the County Council but—
HALL: Also, the rules only need to be changecfWe changed time conditions for permits. So,
this is zoning. It's different, so, in the end, onc�this goes up to Council,the Council could put
back the time conditions and if they wanted to, the ould dust say we don'FQ with that and
do it, so you guys don't have the final jurisdiction ondnes But, if you guys wit to start doing
this for permitting, then, yes, we wdVWJJamve to make some rule changes, yeah.
RAFFIPIY: Got it, thank you.
HALL: Yeah.
AU: Mr. Chair? Just to clarify with the Applicant and the Applicant's representative that these
amendments are okay?
FUKE. des,I dust re-conferred-with Dr. Rodrigues and, yes, the proposed amendments are
totally act eptable.
CLARKSON _If there's no further discussion,please poll the Commission.
ROY: Commissioner Replogle'
REPLOGLE: Aye.
ROY: Commissioner Aguinaldo?
AGUINALDO: Aye.
ROY: Commissioner Au?
AU: Aye.
ROY: Commissioner Dela Cruz?
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DELA CRUZ: Aye.
ROY: Commissioner Raffipiy?
RAFFIPIY: Aye.
ROY: And, Chair Clarkson.
CLARKSON: Aye.
ROY: Motion passes. _
CLARKSON: Thank you.
The discussion ended at 9:33 a.m.
Respectf submitted,
-Sarah Y.-Hata-Finley, Secretary
Windward Planning Commission
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