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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2020-02-06 Exh D New Cingular dba AT&T Mobility USE 19-082WINDWARD PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAII HEARING TRANSCRIPT FEBRUARY 6, 2020 A regularly advertised hearing on the application of NEW CINGULAR WIRELESS PCS, LLC DBA AT&T MOBILITY (USE 19-000082) was called to order at 3:52 p.m. in the County of Hawaii Aupuni Center Conference Room, 101 Pauahi Street, Hilo, Hawaii with Chairman Thomas Raffipiy presiding. COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Gilbert Aguinaldo (to 3:57 p.m.), Dean Au, Joseph Clarkson, Thomas Raffipiy, John Replogle. ABSENT & EXCUSED: Donn Dela Cruz. ALSO PRESENT: Michael Yee (Planning Director), Malia Hall (Deputy Corporation Counsel for the Windward Planning Commission), Jeff Darrow (Planning Program Manager), Maija Jackson (Planner), Christian Kay (Planner), Jessica Andrews (Planner), and Sarah Hata-Finley (Commission Secretary). And 25 members from the public in attendance. APPLICANT: NEW CINGULAR WIRELESS PCS, LLC DBA AT&T MOBILITY (USE 19-000082) Application for a Use Permit to allow the construction a non -manned telecommunication facility consisting of a 105 -foot tall monopine with related equipment within a 1,054 -square feet portion of a 20 -acre property situated in the County's Open zoning district. The subject property is located northeast of the Maku`u Drive -17'h Avenue intersection in the Hawaiian Paradise Park subdivision, Kea`au, Puna, Hawaii, TMK: (3) 1-5-023:040. RAFFIPIY: Let's move on to the next, the next item on the agenda, number four. Application for Use Permit to allow the construction of a non -manned telecommunication facility consisting of 105 -foot tall monopole with related equipment within 1,054 -square feet portion of a 20 -acre property. Maija? JACKSON: Thank you, Mr. Chair. The next application is also a request by AT&T Mobility for a Use Permit. The application is 19-82. The subject property is located in the Hawaiian Paradise Park Subdivision. You can see the property has a red dot on it in the slide. So, you have the Kea`au-Pahoa Road running in generally a north -south direction, and then the subject property is off of Maku`u, and Maku`u runs from here towards the sea. This, the subject property is actually a 20 -acre parcel that is owned by the Paradise Park Hui. So, the Applicant is proposing to construct a new telecommunication facility consisting of a 100 -foot tall self-supporting monopine tower. This is a monopole designed to look like a pine tree. With the branches the, the tower would reach to 105 feet in height. There will be twelve antennas and related ground facilities within a 1,054 -square foot portion of a 20 -acre property. The proposed project serves EXHIBIT D to expand coverage within Hawaiian Paradise Park, and provide a needed site for the FirstNet Program, which is the country's first nationwide communication platform dedicated to public safety. This is the Applicant's site plan. So here you have the larger 20 -acre parcel in the bottom slide. The Special Permit area, I'm sorry, the Use Permit area is shown in the dashed line, here. There are other structures on the 20 -acre parcel, so along 17'h Avenue there's a community center building located here, and then the association office is generally located near the 16'h Avenue and Maku`u Drive intersection in this location here. The middle image is a closer -up view of the proposed lease site. So, access would be off of 17'h Avenue in this location, and then the driveway would curve around an existing Spectrum utility cabinet to this area here. And then this is a closer -up view in the top corner of the monopine structure within the approximately 1,000 -square foot lease area and the ground equipment cabinets would be in this area here. These are the Applicant's elevation plans. Again, you can see the ground equipment surrounded by a chain-link fence. There will be green privacy slats within the chain-link fence so that folks won't be able to see into the equipment storage area, and then you have the approximately 105 - foot monopine tower. These are applicant's propagation maps, so it shows the general coverage that's existing. There is a cell tower along the Kea`au-Pahoa Highway. I think this is at a church, I think it's Sure Foundation if I'm correct. AGUINALDO: Yep, Sure Foundation. JACKSON: Yeah. And then we have one in Hawaiian Shores and then another one towards Pahoa Town, this is near the Malama Market area. So, this proposed tower would provide coverage in generally the Maku`u middle portion of Hawaiian Paradise Park. This map shows alternative sites that were evaluated by the Applicant. So, you can see the red ring is the search area that they evaluated. This is the proposed site location. There is an existing SBA tower nearby and then there were two other candidate sites that the Applicant looked at. This is an aerial photo of the property. You have 17'h Avenue, Maku`u Drive. The actual Use Permit lease site is in an area that's covered by Albezia trees right now. It's shown with the red dot. This little structure here is the Spectrum utility cabinet that's on the site, and then the community center building and the association offices. Oh, I also do want to note that the closest dwelling to the proposed tower site is this one here, and this is an old image, but there is also another house located generally in this location here now. C. SCHISZLER mom audience): Another one's going up, too, next to it. JACKSON: The zoning for the property is Open, which is shown in the dark green, and all of the other properties surrounding that are zoned Agricultural 1 -Acre. The General Plan map designation is Rural for this area of Hawaiian Paradise Park. And this is a view of the proposed facility access site from 171h Avenue. There's an existing gate and then the driveway would lead from there behind the Spectrum utility cabinet, and the tower would generally be located in the EXHIBIT D 2 background, in this area here. And this is a view of 171h Avenue between the access driveway and Maku`u Drive. It's not a paved street, but it has gravel in good condition. The Planning Director is recommending approval of the Use Permit with conditions. And I just want to see if we got any other testimony since you've received your packages. Okay, the Department didn't receive any other letters or testimony since your packages were provided to you. So that concludes my presentation. I'd be happy to answer questions. C. SCHISZLER mom audience): [Inaudible] RAFFIPIY: Excuse me. JACKSON: Ma'am, ma'am, I'm talking about testimony that we provided as opposed to those provided by, from— C. SCHISZLER mom audience): I'm sorry. RAFFIPIY: You will have the opportunity. C. SCHISZLER mom audience): I'm sorry, okay, sorry. [Inaudible.] RAFFIPIY: We'll address that when we call the testimony please. Thank you. Any questions from the Commission to the staff? CLARKSON: Yeah, what is an SBA tower? JACKSON: SBA is the owner of the tower. I'm not sure what SBA stands for. It's a tower that's not owned by AT&T or Verizon. It's owned by SBA. CLARKSON: Well, can you show me the, well I'll wait until the Applicant comes up. RAFFIPIY: I have a question, Maija. Can you go back to one of the photos that show, where it showed the driveway, yeah, wait, right there. What is that line up there? Is that, looks like a utility line going through the Albezia trees and all that? What is that? JACKSON: That, I believe, is a utility pole. RAFFIPIY: Oh, so it's just going to that pole over there. It stops right there at that pole. JACKSON: Yeah, I, I'm thinking that the main utility poles are on this side of the street, and then there's a line that's dropped to this pole and to the Spectrum facility. RAFFIPIY: I see. It doesn't go beyond the pole? JACKSON: I do not believe so. There is a community center to the left of this image, so there may be a line dropped further down, directly to the community center. EXHIBIT D 3 RAFFIPIY: Okay, thanks a lot. Any other questions from the, from the Commission? Thank you very much. Will the owner or the representative come forward please? You're already sworn in, so you can just proceed. TOMLINSON: Thanks very much. I'll try and keep this brief. Again, this is another site that fills a significant gap in coverage. It is also part of AT&T's FirstNet Program. In terms of co - location identification because I know that's a question, so SBA is actually a tower company, there's a number of tower companies, Crown Castle, American Tower, SBA, Vista, that all own, there's many of them that all own and manage towers. So, what typically happens in many cases is a carrier will build a tower and many times they actually sell them to a third party who then, basically, rents space as a business model. So, the SBA tower is one that is on I guess 13'h Avenue, and it is 150 feet tall and it has two carriers on it already. It has Verizon and T -Mobile. So, the reason why we couldn't go on that site was because the available height that we would get in aggregate would not be as beneficial as this particular site. It wouldn't provide the coverage that we needed, because that particular piece of land is, can't remember what the distance is, about 50 feet less in elevation, and then we would be down at about 115 feet for, on the tower as a third carrier on the tower. So that's why it was, it was eliminated. And we decided to go with the monopine at 100 feet, with the stealth monopine at 100 feet in its proposed location. AU: Mr. Chair, I have a question for the Applicant. RAFFIPIY: Thank you, go ahead Mr. Au. AU: Mr. Tomlinson, where did you put your sign? TOMLINSON: The sign is on, actually the main road. AU: So that would be on TOMLINSON: Not 17'', on AU: So, HPP is a private subdivision but it's considered a public road? Okay. RAFFIPIY: Any other questions? CLARKSON: So do youI have one more question. So, how significant, I mean, there's 150 - foot tower four blocks away. You would be at 115 feet, cause I guess the other two companies beat you to it. TOMLINSON: Correct. CLARKSON: And what is the difference in coverage between staying at 115 feet on that tower, maybe it's in my package and I just missed it, versus building a brand new 100 -foot tower. EXHIBIT D 4 TOMLINSON: I don't have a propagation map showing that, unfortunately, but in comparison, but the difference is in addition to that distance on the top of the pole, there's an actual elevation distance between 17'h Avenue and 13'h Avenue, which also adds to the aggregate loss of elevation. Seventeenth Avenue is higher in elevation. So, in aggregate, between the loss of, between the elevation on the pole and the ground elevation, there's about a difference of about 45 to 50 feet, which is significant for, for coverage. CLARKSON: Thank you. RAFFIPIY: Thank you. Any other questions? AU: Question, Mr. Chair. RAFFIPIY: Go ahead. AU: Can you briefly talk about the community association and how your correspondences went with having this cellphone tower. I mean, obviously they're in support of it because you're here in front of us. Can you just like, real briefly, just talk about the conversations you guys had. TOMLINSON: So how they, how they were involved? So they were approached to, I guess there'd been some concerns within Hawaiian Paradise Park about individuals having towers on their property, so there was a push to actually be on the association property, and they agreed to, to house the, you know, to lease space to AT&T for the tower. And, so we're, you know, under lease agreement with them, under the association directly. AU: Okay, thank you. RAFFIPIY: Thank you very much. Any other questions? Thank you, sir. I have eight people here signed up for, to testify. I have, will the following please come forward? Mr. Gene Tamashiro, Greg Kemppainen AUDIENCE MEMBER: He's not here. RAFFIPIY: Fred Kalaukoa, Dwight Vicente. AUDIENCE MEMBER: Not here. Not here. RAFFIPIY: Kevin Reinke. REINKE: Here. RAFFIPIY: And Crystal Schiszler? Can you please raise your right hand? Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth on this matter now before the Planning Commission? TESTIFIERS: Yes/I do. EXHIBIT D 5 RAFFIPIY: Thank you, we'll start from your right going down the line. Go ahead, ma'am. C. SCHISZLER: Okay. Yes. Hi everybody, my name is Crystal Schiszler, and I live on 17' Street in Maku`u. I live on the, almost to the dead end, and I've lived there for almost 30 years with my father, Michael Schiszler, and my brother Gabriel Schiszler, always, also lives on the dead end. He wasn't able to make it today, but he's also against the proposed cellphone tower. And, yes, I just wanted to address something. I'm here representing the children in my community also, and also there's a, thirty-three acres of protected archaeological Native Hawaiian villages and heiau and burial grounds at the end of the street. There's actually thirty- three acres that's been found by the University of Hawaii to contain remains, and there's also old rock walls. It's thirty-three acres old growth `6hi`a trees that are about hundred feet tall. There's mango trees that are hundreds of years old. There's, right next to our house, there's two acres of, also that's connected to this area, and there's Native Hawaiian burial grounds there also. So, this is a very sacred area, and this is the reason why this tree is a dead end. Because they found these burial grounds here, and that's why the road was never made all the way through to 17'h Street in Paradise Park. So this is a very sacred area to us, and I don't know if many people know about this area cause it's kind of, we've kept it kind of secret over the years to protect it, and we've watched over it and made sure it's been --it's actually zoned parks and recreation, people can go in there and check it out if they want to and I invite all of you, and also Mr. Tomlinson to go in there, it's a very sacred and spiritual area. And I find that the building of this cellphone tower right near this area is really disgusting, you know, just to be honest. You told me to tell the truth, so I'm just really appalled by this for this fact alone. Not to mention, its right, they call it a community center, it's actually a park. There's, in their old photo does not show that there's a new like jungle gym equipment for children there. That's why their photo is really disgusting to me because it's a lie. It's not, and there's actually five more new houses that's gone up since then that they're not including in their photo. So, this community center is actually a park for children. And so I'm here speaking out for the children in my community. I'm actually also a school counselor working in Ka`u High and Pahala Elementary. So I'm very passionate about children, and I think this proposed cellphone tower is also very disgusting for this reason, what it's doing to children, and as the gentlemen so eloquently explained earlier that has these negative health effects, or birth defects, memory loss, cardiovascular effects, you know the list goes on and on. It's very disgusting. Their picture that they're showing of where the cellphone tower's gonna go is right next to a park where children play. Like it's literally like 20 feet away. Where they want to this next to, a jungle gym where little kids play. It's really disgusting, and I'm very disturbed by this, and don't understand why these people want to do this to our community. I think it's very sick. You know, I'm just being honest. I don't wanna speak like negatively, but I'm just appalled and I, just disgusted. And the way the other community has described the way their taken advantage of their community because its lower socioeconomic status. I'm disgusted by that also. But, actually, the really appalling fact of all this is, all the homeowners on our street, we're all homeowners here testifying, and we didn't receive any letters of notice. There was no letters. I'd like to see the sheet that says they sent it to us cause that would be a lie also. None of us received notices and my dad has been at this same address for thirty years. He has the same P.O. Box, did not receive a notice. This is against the law. So, this is illegal, immoral, and I'm just appalled. I can't, I think that should be dismissed at this point for the fact alone there was no notices sent to homeowners. How is this legal? How do we, how do we know? We only saw the sign. That's the only way we knew. And I came back from EXHIBIT D 6 Oahu, my mom had brain surgery, had to get blood drained out of her head and I come home and I see the sign. Tell me they're gonna build a cellphone tower. I was here before fighting for another cellphone tower my my mom's house. And we fought for that. And you know what, you guys said you were gonna put it there, but nobody put it there. I'm sure it's because Verizon didn't want the community outcry. And so this is the second tower I'd have to fight for here, and this one is more disgusting and appalling than the first, and I'm just amazed this is even happening right now and this is acceptable behavior for our community. And, you know, this is not a lower socioeconomic area, you know, but people still worked hard for what they have and you guys are taking away their property values. I mean, not you guys, but you know, you guys have the final say on this though, and I wanted to, you know, address that also. You guys have the say if this happens or not and this is in your control and if you think this is, you know, right or pono, I mean, I don't know why you guys are living on this island. So, you know, like, Chairman Raffipiy said before, he wants to protect this park where the water bottling facility's gonna go. This is right next to a park. This is the park I went to as a child, and I laid in the grass, and I enjoyed the nature of it. You think these kids wanna go lay in the grass in a park next to a monopole that looks like a, a, you know it's a tree. It's disgusting. You think you're fooling anybody with that? It's just insulting also. I mean, this is horrific. I'm appalled and horrified, and it's against the law, there was no notice sent out and I think it should be dismissed right now. It's really amazing this is happening. There's native Hawaiian hawks that live there, there's pu`ueo, there's Native Hawaiian bats, and where's the environmental impact study? There was, I don't, you know it's, I'm just amazed and this is, there's 20 acres, you know, that they're going to put this on. It's supposed to be protected land. The community association owns it, I guess, but I mean, don't we pay for our road maintenance fees? And there is, in that 20 acres, there's acreage of `ohi`a, no, excuse me. Okay, yes, I'll summarize, thank you. There's acreage of Albezia trees. They have not cut down, the community association. There's 20 acres that's full of Albezia trees. They're spreading pollen to our neighborhoods and they haven't cut down one tree. During Iselle, a hundred -foot Albezia fell on the road. We had to get five guys out there, a boom truck, three chain saws to cut it down. They didn't come cut it down. We took care of it and they're not done anything to cut those trees down and—who's getting this money for this lease, for this cellphone tower? That's what I wanna know. Community association owns it. Who's pocketing that $500 a month? This is just horrific for not even, they're using the $300 a month for road maintenance fees. What are they doing? They're cutting down any trees? Now they wanna make more money off of us and not do nothing? We should have the final say. We weren't even asked about this. It's amazing. I don't even know what's going on right now. It's just so messed up. So, excuse me. So, thank you. Thank you. RAFFIPIY: Thank you, Ms. Schiszler. Mr. Tamashiro? TAMASHIRO: Aloha everybody. Yes, I'm Gene Tamashiro. I'm a sovereign Hawaiian, lawful in my own country. And at this point I've pretty much said everything I could say, and it's also in writing. You folks have a notice of title correction, and you also have a warning to cease and desist. So, the way the law works, yeah, is somebody makes a claim, brings facts and evidence, and it goes against the ongoing 127 -year false presumption. So, I think it's really telling that nobody, I've been here for six hours, nobody has brought up any questions, and I'm here to answer any questions you might have in truth and law and consequences of breaking the law. Okay, and I'm here to answer any questions because I don't wanna see any of you guys have the EXHIBIT D 7 door, knocked on the door and it's either gonna be County, or it's gonna be State, or it's gonna be the US military because all you guys, and all them guys all pledged an oath to the United State's Constitution. I'm not making this up. You have Article VI of the US Constitution, the highest law in the land. Okay, and that matters. It is the highest law in the land. But the beautiful thing about that is that it presents the opportunity to recognize and to enforce unity in the law. Nobody has to lose their job. Nobody has to be kicked off the island. People just have to come in honor. And if one individual, one, after 127 years of false presumption, somebody come forward and go, "you know what, we actually don't have any proof." I mean Malia don't have no proof. Nobody here. I always ask the question, does anyone have proof that the State of Hawaii for the public record is lawful in Hawaii. Nobody raise their hand. Nobody say nothing. So, we know that the law is already confirmed. We have families that are ready to stand in honor to confirm their title. And no Kanaka Maoli or if you related to Kauikeaouli number three, nobody is above the law. And neither are you. So, if you have any questions, please ask it because the future of this `aina and of your own families, of your own self, you think I'm making this up. You think it's a joke. I promise you, the law will be enforced. Okay? And, if the County and the State and the military don't do it, who's gonna do it? Who's gonna enforce the law? We're all obligated to. There is no statute of limitations on fraud. So, honor up please. Yeah, I beg you. Thank you. RAFFIPIY: Thank you, Mr. Tamashiro. Go ahead. Please state your name, where you reside. Please state your name, where you reside, and proceed. KALAUKOA: My name is Fred Kalaukoa and I live right across the street from 17. Right across the street from where they're gonna put it. And I measured this morning from where they're gonna put it to my house, only about 150 feet. And Hawaiian Paradise Park never let us know anything. We didn't know anything about this. They just gave `em the okay to bid on it. Even though we all members because we pay, all pay road tax, road maintenance. We never have a say in this. We never have any say. And not only that, like everybody said, our house value going drop. And not only that, what about health -wise? My wife already got cancer. I live right across the street. And if you show that, they can show the map again, you see where the stone wall is? This guy, Jose with the beard over here, he live right across the street. He lived right across the street. You see where the gate is? You go directly across. His house is right there. They going put `em; he going be less than 150 feet away. So, got the health problems, and it got the devaluation of the land and the house, too. And then, you know, I stand on the chance of my wife already got cancer, okay, so I not happy about it. And HPP, I think we going have to make a, going have to sue them. I going get all these guys together and we might have to sue them. They gave `em the okay without our vote. We didn't even know anything. But anyway, I just hope, you guys are our only prayer, that you guys do the right thing cause that's all we can do is ask you guys what is fair for us. We cannot challenge this big companies. But, we can challenge HPP though. That's all I'm saying. RAFFIPIY: Thank you, Mr. Kalaukoa. Mr. Reinke? REINKE: Hi, my name is Kevin Reinke, and I live right across the street in that new house that's not on the map. Okay, it's on a bluff overlooking the recreational center. I just moved here from New York after a lifetime of living on Long Island and working in Manhattan to try to EXHIBIT D get away from city life, and everything that goes with it, especially cellphone towers. I also have three grandkids here that visit me quite often, as well as the multitude of kids that are at the, the playground that's not on the map also, but it's, it's, it's directly right across the street from my, my house where kids are playing all the time. In fact, there are cars that are lined up in front of my house on 17'h because the gates for HPP rec center are closed, but they park on my street in order to play in the playground. So, the kids are in the playground 24/7. So that's one thing that I, I'd like to find out if HPP had any thoughts about what is going to happen to all the kids that are playing in that playground at all, at all times. Another twist that we have is, is the property values, okay. I spoke with the fellow who appraised my house when it was just built a year ago, and he said that the, there would definitely be a downturn in the amount of value that my house could garner, you know, if I went to sell it. I went into the internet and found a couple of, couple of items, one of them happened to be a survey that was done by the national institute for science, law, and the public policy survey and they had a thousand respondents to this survey that was done in June of 2014. And it came up and said that ninety-four percent of, ninety-four percent said a nearby cell tower or group of antennas would negatively impact interest in a property where the price that they would be willing to pay for it. Seventy-nine percent said under no circumstances would they ever purchase or rent a property within a few blocks of a cell tower or antennas. Eighty-nine percent said they were generally concerned about the increasing number of cell towers and antennas in the residential neighborhood, and fifty-seven percent said they experienced cognitive effects from radiation emitted by cell towers, etcetera, routers and portable phones, you know, that affected them. And that homeowners would pay from ten to nineteen percent to over twenty percent less for a property if within close proximity to a cell, cellphone based station. Now a question that I have for AT&T is when will they send me the check for when I have to, if I sell my house for less than I need to get for it? I mean, it's, it's a demonstrated fact that property values go down. It's a demonstrated fact that, you know, there is a health, health, you know health risk which I, you know, I know that I don't have any information on that per se, but also the fact that, you know, my front door is probably maybe 175 feet from the tower. Okay? We also have the Spectrum shed there that you saw on the map, which is in total disrepair. It looks, you know, like a very much of an eyesore. RAFFIPIY: Can you speak directly into the mic please? REINKE: Oh, okay, I'm sorry. The Spectrum shed that they have there that you see that pole going into in the wires, it's in very much disrepair, and I fear that the same thing would happen with an AT&T, you know, building that, you know, they don't really need to keep it up, you know, upright. All they have to do would make sure that the wires stay dry. And, you know, I'm against the cell tower for those particular reasons. Thank you. RAFFIPIY: Thank you very much. Any questions? AU: Mr. Chair I have a question for Ms. Schiszler. RAFFIPIY: Go ahead. EXHIBIT D 9 AU: So, Ms. Schiszler, you said that you grew up in that area, you've been living there for thirty years? C. SCHISZLER: Yes. AU: And I don't see you on the list, and maybe it's a question for staff, I'm assuming you live too far from the location? C. SCHISZLER: No, I -- AU: Because when, when notification is sent out, it is, it's sent out to the close landowners, but you mentioned that you live at the end of 17''? C. SCHISZLER: Yes, I'd like to clarify that for you. My father, Michael Schiszler, is the homeowner. I just live there with him. So, he's the homeowner there, he gets the mail in his P.O. Box. So, I don't receive it. But he, we just, you know A. SCHISZLER (from audience): I didn't receive anything in the mail. C. SCHISZLER: And neither did these gentlemen, I just want to clarify. AU: Actually, I looked on the record, ma'am, both of those gentlemen were sent notification. I found their name on the list, but I did not find Schiszler's. C. SCHISZLER: Okay, is my father's name— AU: No, I did not find, so that's a question for staff, is there a, can you pinpoint where you live on 17''? And from there we'll figure it out and see if you were supposed to have been sent notification. C. SCHISZLER: Well that's my father, Michael Schiszler. It's under his name. It wouldn't be sent to me. I'm not the homeowner. My father, Michael Schiszler, is the homeowner. I just live there with him. I've lived there for thirty years. AU: Mr. Schiszler, can you just pinpoint where you live? And my question to you, Maija and Jeff, is were, were they within the distance of notification? A. SCHISZLER (from audience): [Inaudible] AU: Twenty blocks, you said? HALL: Twenty lots. C. SCHISZLER: This is the proposed tower, correct? This is the end of 17' Street and Maku`u? JACKSON: This is Maku`u. EXHIBIT D 10 C. SCHISZLER: Okay, well, this is a dead-end street, so it's kind of hard to tell you guys, but we're at the end of the road. AU: So at the very end? Way up there? C. SCHISZLER (by presentation screen): Yes. I'm have to pass by this tower because it's a dead end. This is Hawaiian burial grounds, so we'll be passing by the tower every day multiple times so, its [inaudible] pass by every day. We're on the same street. AU: Okay, ma'am, I think you're gonna have to talk into the microphone to get all this on record. But I guess, Maija, what is the distance? It's, I believe it's 500 feet because the last applicant was 500 -foot radius. So are they, is this property owner, the Schiszler's, in the 500 - foot radius? JACKSON: I don't know if they're in the 500 -foot radius, but the 500 is the correct range. AU: Okay, thank you. JACKSON: I'm still trying to figure out if their property is on the Maku`u dead end, or C. SCHISZLER: Yes, it is. JACKSON: Okay. C. SCHISZLER: That's what I said multiple times. Yes, it is. JACKSON: So, I believe, let's see. C. SCHISZLER: Yes, there is, it's the Hawaiian burial grounds. They didn't put the road, there's remains there. Yeah. ROMERO (from audience): So, the thing is [inaudible]. AU: Sir, sir. HALL: Just come to the table. Or point to where it is on the map. RAFFIPIY: You can point it on the map please. ROMERO (by presentation screen): When you come to Maku`u and you turn on 17'', it comes to a dead end right about, around here. And that's where they live. HALL: Oh, okay. ROMERO (by presentation screen): Right around this area right here. EXHIBIT D 11 HALL: Yeah, okay. ROMERO (by presentation screen): This is all one acre lots, then they live around this area right here. Because the road ends in the middle of 17''. AU: Okay. HALL: Okay. AU: Okay, so, so my question is answered. I believe the frontage of those lots, I used to live in HPP, and those frontage of those lots are about 100 feet, if I'm not mistaken, a little bit over 100 feet. JACKSON: Yeah. AU: So, if you lived twenty lots down, times 100 feet, that's way past the 500. So, I'm just, I'm just trying to get clarification on why you didn't get notified. So, the answers, the question is answered. Please don't respond. Thank you. KALAUKOA: Can I say something? RAFFIPIY: Go ahead, please. KALAUKOA: I wanted to ask you guys if you guys, if you guys got time, actually come down and look how close that thing going be to the—Jose's house, his house, and I live right across the street. Really close. C. SCHISZLER: And the park. Children. RAFFIPIY: Okay thank you. Any other questions for the testifiers? Alright, thank you. Can I have Albert Schiszler, Jose Romero, Jaerick Medeiros-Garcia please come forward. Please raise your right hand. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth on this matter now before the Planning Commission? TESTIFIERS: Yes. RAFFIPIY: Thank you. We'll start from you, sir. Mr. Schiszler and going down. A. SCHISZLER: Good afternoon to, to all of you. My name's Albert Schiszler, I'm a resident of Hawaiian Paradise Park for forty-two years in the area that is being proposed for the cellphone tower. Now, number one, there are records available with the University of Hawaii and at the office of the Community Association HPPOA, stating that that road, 17'', all the way down to where we live at the end, has been designated heiau area. It's part of the record, they did a geological survey there. They had a term paper, one of the classes, they went down and they surveyed that whole area, and that is why it actually dead ends. Now, you look on any map in EXHIBIT D 12 the State of Hawaii, it shows that road going all the way through to Paradise Park. But, at the last minute, Watamull, the developer, put a dead end there for the purposes that I just stated. Because he knew it was culturally sensitive. He didn't want traffic flow going through there all the time. So, he made a dead end. Now, you can check any map, it'll show you exactly what I'm saying. It shows the road going through. Now why does it dead end all of a sudden, after the subdivision was already planned? Watamull knew that that was culturally sensitive. And also, the area has never, as far as I know, applied for an EIS or an archaeological survey through the Hawaii Archaeological Society. And there's owls, hawks, been nesting there for like forever right where the tower is. And I agree with the other people who've stated that the children play right where they're talking about. Hawaii Paradise Park is the third largest community on the Big Island. We have more people than Waimea, but we have no infrastructure except for a few good paved roads. We have one park for the entire community. We have community events right right where the tower wants to be placed. We have children, like you said, all the time. Now this area's been completely overgrown with another tree issue. We have an Albezia tree issue. Now HPPOA are not good stewards. They haven't done a thing about it. They're letting these Albezia trees grow everywhere. You cannot drive, you cannot drive between Maku`u and Paradise Park on 16'h Street because of the Albezia trees, HELCO will not put power. They have a very bad problem with that to begin with. Now, I never was mailed a notice of this meeting. I found out yesterday about this meeting. I hadn't received nothing in writing, nor did my son who is a property owner down there also, in the mail which is in violation of Sunshine Law, and that right there is grounds for a dismissal on this project. There are many other, you know, I agree with everything that everybody has said. But the fact of the matter is this is a private subdivision. Now what AT&T does not understand about the word private, I don't know. We pay for the roads. We pay exorbitant amounts of money every year to keep our road maintained for anybody who wants to go down there. Why? Why are we the responsible people for road maintenance when anybody, including AT&T wants to come and live in our backyard? Now I've been paying road maintenance fees down there for over forty-two years. Now that amounts to at least $10,000 inroad equity. Does AT&T have any road equity? Zero. Are they ever going to have any? What, they're going to pay $400 a year lease for their property? That's a commercial venture right there. They're going to pay money for leasing something that's commercially tied to big brother, then that's a commercial project. That's an ag, ag zoned land. That 20 -acre parcel was set aside by Watumull as parks and recreation, not for commercial ventures. We're in a private subdivision for God's sake. With no infrastructure, and this would be the first infrastructure that we get? I don't think so. And it's just like, nobody's doing their homework and I don't think that AT&T can compete with Verizon and that looks like what they're doing. They're trying to compete with Verizon. We have no problem with reception. I have a phone here. Now, I switched out of AT&T years ago. RAFFIPIY: Please start wrapping up. A. SCHISZLER: Oh, oh, excuse me. I've had AT&T years ago and I quit their service because of bad reception. It's, it's, it's, it's not a reception issue. We have good reception with Verizon. And I've been told by NETCOM, who's one of the biggest computer people in the area that EXHIBIT D 13 Verizon is God. They have the best reception and nobody's gonna come close to beating them. We don't need competition in the commercial cellphone business in our park. RAFFIPIY: If you can start wrapping up your testimony, please. A. SCHISZLER: Yes sir. Okay then, we'll wrap it up real quick. Let's see. I think that the, I humbly request you folks to deny the Applicant until all the votes are in. We haven't even voted on the issue in the park with all of the homeowners. Nobody has voted on this with the people that are gonna be, you know, accepting this. We have no votes. Until the votes come in on this, I think to avoid any future litigation, like for instance, an appeal process, we just talk all morning what an appeal process does. Now, is that what we want to go through again on this? Is another appealed process, because that's where it'll wind up if you don't deny it. Thank you, sir. RAFFIPIY: Thank you, Mr. Schiszler. Mr. Garcia? MEDEIRO S -GARCIA: Mahalo. Thank you for you guys' time. Long day today. Once again I come from Pepe`eke6, Makahanaloa. My name is Jaerick Medeiros-Garcia. Excuse me, yeah, so I just wanted to touch on couple more things. These towers do give effects off on people's homes such as sounds, humming [made humming sound] at night through their homes. That's what it sounds like. People think they going crazy. Some people think their neighbors working on their cars with their compressors on, you know? But it's happening all night long. The later it gets the louder it gets. It is very real. Your property depreciates when you try to sell it. Nobody wants to live next to this killer. You know? Another thing would be if you get one, you guys claim you guys get Hawaiian hawks, these things will kill `em. I see birds fall out of the sky on my farm. Like I said, the bees, I see `em fall out of the sky; they get disoriented. They don't know where to go. These things are all very real, you know. I oppose any towers. Once again, AT&T, we got two communities that need towers, it's called Sunrise Ridge and right down the road, we have the expansion road to Saddle Road. Please, go check it out. Put couple up in there. Those guys' homes are getting higher, their land costs. You might wanna help us out so we can purchase land in there. Another thing too is where does this end? Really, where does it end? We really need that much communications? You know? Before the days people used to communicate with smoke signals. We really no need any more of this cell towers that is killing everything, plants, flowers, people. It's desecrating everything, soil, the trees, the land, the animals, bees, you know. If given the fair notice opportunity to the community, about this permit request, majority of the community is more concerned of their health and not their cell service. I oppose all cell towers. I think we don't need it. It's scary. It's for the future. We don't need that. It's gonna kill our kids, I'm telling you guys, yourselves. I plan on living long. I don't know how much longer I going live with all these cell towers. Look around. Go step outside. Do one 360, you going see all the cell towers right outside this door. Please, please deny this permit for these people and their communities. Sorry, I come and speak on, I speak on behalf of myself but most of the people that cannot be here, cannot speak up because they don't know that these things are happening. I just try to make myself maka`ala about what things was happening in the community. So that I can speak on their behalf if so. But thank you very much for your time. Thank you, Commissioners. EXHIBIT D 14 RAFFIPIY: Thank you, Mr. Garcia. Mr. Romero. ROMERO: Aloha. I first like to thank all of you for being here and you know sharing this moment. But I also like to thank God and without Him we wouldn't be here and sharing this moment, you know. I'm a vet, I served the military. I live in 15-1960 right in front. I never had this skin disorder in my life. I, like I said, I did three tours and during my tours, we was in vehicles with high RF radiation in this vehicles and one day I came back from deployment and I just got one spot and then it just grew and it's all over my body now. I'll take my shirt off and everything. But, this is the, I'm here for my health concern because if, if I know that that did this to me, you know, what is that tower gonna do to me in the long run? You know? I found some articles online about towers in schools and kids getting cancer, brain cancer, and kidney cancer, stuff like that. It's just research, you know, you just gotta open your eyes. You know, we're here sharing this moment, you know. The devalue of the property is gonna go down. You know, it's, it's just outrageous just to think that this, this technology is supposed to help us. You know. It's, it makes damage and I'm living proof. And I live right across that thing. I was trying to stay calm because it upsets me, you know, and I've suffered PTSD and like you was telling, you said the parks, you know, nice parks, everybody wants to go relax and, that's my house. I get out in my yard, beautiful view. I don't need a monopine in there. I need peace in my life. I need peace. You hear that? Fucking peace man! [Pounding table.] If I see those fuckoh, nevermind. Oh, okay, okay, okay. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Fuck. That's all I gotta say. I'm sorry. [Left the meeting room.] RAFFIPIY: Thank you very much. Do you have any questions for AU: Mr. Chair, I want to make a comment. RAFFIPIY: Okay. AU: Thank you, Mr. Romero, Mr. Romero for your services. You know, if it wasn't for individuals like Mr. Romero, we wouldn't be here today to have this process. Question for the Schiszler family, you, where did you hear about this tower? A. SCHISZLER (from audience): Excuse me? AU: Where did you hear about it? How did you hear about it if you didn't hear it from your association, or if you didn't hear about it from the Applicant? A. SCHISZLER: No, I didn't hear about it from anywhere. AU: So who did you, the question is who did you hear it from? A. SCHISZLER: Who did I hear what? AU: About this tower? EXHIBIT D 15 A. SCHISZLER: About the tower. AU: About this project. A. SCHISZLER: About the tower. There's a sign down there. AU: Okay. Okay. So that's, that's how you found out about it. A. SCHISZLER: There's a sign. A small sign in the bushes. That's how I found out. AU: Okay. I was just curious to see who told you, or if anybody told you. C. SCHISZLER: I told my father about the sign. We drive by the sign every day. It's a dead-end street because of the burial grounds. So, we drive by the signs every single day. And I told my father because he didn't see the sign, actually. He drives by every day but you know, it's so small. The writing is not visible. My father did not know about it until I told him last night. Because that's how small and discreet the sign is. So, he didn't know about it till last night when I told him. He drives by it every day. You know what, I fought for this before that's why I know what that sign meant and I, you know, I'm here fighting for it again. Cause this is wrong. So I, probably anybody else but me may have not known what the sign meant, but I knew what it was when I saw it, and I didn't have to read it so, and I let my father know. That's why he's here. AU: Okay, thank you Ms. Schiszler. You know for the Commission's knowledge, you know, again the Planning Department, they do what they need to do and I just want to make sure that all the procedures were followed, the signage, notification. You know the purpose of the sign is for people driving by, that's what the sign's there for, so I'm glad you were notified by the sign. Thank you. A. SCHISZLER: I just wasn't notified by mail. AU: Okay. Okay, thank you. That's fine. A. SCHISZLER: That's the part AU: —Thank you very much— A. SCHISZLER: —kind of upsetting to me. I thought that was mandatory to be notified by mail on these matters. Part of the Sunshine Law or something like that? So, you know, there's no way that you folks can say you sent it to me if I didn't, if I didn't receive it. RAFFIPIY: Sir, it A. SCHISZLER: Isn't that part of the Planning RAFFIPIY: Yeah, sir, it is required for those that live within 500 feet of the affected area. EXHIBIT D 16 A. SCHISZLER: Oh, I understand. C. SCHISZLER: Was Jose sent a notice? He said he didn't get one. AU: His name is on the list that the Applicant has sent out. So, there's a list of all the applicants that were, oh, I'm sorry, the applicant sent a list of all the landowners within 500 feet, and that is a requirement by the Planning Department. C. SCHISZLER: I understand that when I talked to my neighbors outside, none of them said they got a notice. I know they're on that list, but they told me that they didn't receive a notice. So, I don't understand how that's, you guys followed the law. I could have it on a piece of paper. Is it certified mail that they know it was received? So, I'm questioning if it, they told me they didn't receive it. MEDEIRO S -GARCIA: Can I just share one thing? RAFFIPIY: Fifteen seconds please. MEDEIRO S -GARCIA: Okay, okay. So, I am proof that yeah, they might have one list, one requirement to send it 500 feet, but I know for one fact when that thing is given to, sort of say for instance, AT&T, they try to send it to the P.O. Boxes, but there is no proof of them doing that. Okay? I, when all my neighbors in my district, when that had to happen, majority of `em didn't get one. But it's listed on a list like that, saying they must send `em to these addresses, but they don't get it. They don't get it. So, if, if can, Planning Department, please, try and enforce it instead of just handing them one paper and saying, hey, this the addresses, 500 feet around this place, send this mail. No, no, no. Have them send a receipt of all the mail that has been sent out. That's the only way you going verify. AUDIENCE MEMBER: Get a signature. RAFFIPIY: Thank you. Any, any other question? C. SCHISZLER: And the effects of this tower go further than 500 feet, so I think this is unbelievable HALL: That's the limit. C. SCHISZLER: It goes up to 1,500 feet, it's effects, and so I think that's flawed. RAFFIPIY: Mr. Clarkson? CLARKSON: I want to make a motion that public testimony be closed. REPLOGLE: Seconded. [Inaudible conversations by audience members.] EXHIBIT D 17 RAFFIPIY: So there's a motion on the floor. C. SCHISZLER mom audience): [Inaudible] Where's the proof it was sent? RAFFIPIY: There's a motion on the floor to close. REPLOGLE: And I seconded. RAFFIPIY: All those in favor to close testimony, public testimony say aye. COMMISSIONERS: Aye. RAFFIPIY: Opposed, nay. Public testimony is now closed. CLARKSON: I still have one more question for staff. Are there any, you know, we get so many cell towers applications here, and some of them recently have been in HPP. Are there any, to your knowledge, other applications pending, or recently approved applications for which the cell tower has not yet been built near this site? JACKSON: I'm not aware of applications we haven't received yet, but there was a tower application submitted by Cellco, which is Verizon, and that tower was near Railroad over on the Shower Drive end of the subdivision, and that was CLARKSON: Quite a ways away. JACKSON: denied. That was denied. DARROW: Malia, I think would be able to answer that. HALL: I don't know what application you guys are talking about. JACKSON: Okay. HALL: But yes, there was a recent denial, and yes, the court upheld the recent denial. It was the one with, if we're speaking about the same one, it was the one where basically the house was within the falling radius of the tower. JACKSON: Yeah. RAFFIPIY: Any, any other comments? Can we poll the Commission please? Oh, can I get a motion please? HALL: For action. RAFFIPIY: For action. EXHIBIT D 18 JACKSON: Mr. Chair, before the motion for action, can I speak to the notification issue? RAFFIPIY: Go ahead, please. JACKSON: So, so we have an affidavit that was provided by AT&T's representative, and the affidavit was notarized, which is required for an affidavit because it's a sworn oath, and it says that they notified everybody on this list. That's the landowners within 500 feet of this hearing on January 22nd, by mail. RAFFIPIY: Thank you. KALAUKOA (from audience): Jose didn't get one. He lives right across the street. RAFFIPIY: Mr. Tomlinson. Can you come up here? I'd like to ask you one question. Did you receive the Planning Director's background and recommendation reports? TOMLINSON: I did. RAFFIPIY: Do you agree with the Director's recommendation and its conditions of approval? TOMLINSON: Yes. RAFFIPIY: Do you have any further comments about those? TOMLINSON: No. RAFFIPIY: Thank you. That's all. Can I get a motion from the Commission please, for action? CLARKSON: I'll make a motion. I move that the application for Use Permit Docket No. 19- 00082 be approved based on the Planning Director's recommendation, which shall be adopted. AU: I second. RAFFIPIY: It is moved and second that the motion be adopted. Discussion? REPLOGLE: I have a question, and I just heard this. So, we denied an application for a cell tower based on the falling radius of the tower, and I was led to believe most recently that we couldn't do that, but that the court did uphold that denial. Am I correct? HALL: Yeah, the Third Circuit Court upheld it, yeah. REPLOGLE: Okay, and this man here, I'm sorry, I don't remember your name, in the plaid jacket said he's KALAUKOA (from audience): A hundred fifty feet away. EXHIBIT D 19 REPLOGLE: A hundred fifty, and the poll is a hundred— HALL: Five. REPLOGLE: A hundred and five. Okay. Thank you. My questions [Inaudible comments by audience members.] REPLOGLE: Okay, excuse me C. SCHISZLER (from audience): [Inaudible] RAFFIPIY: Please allow the Commission to discuss the issue. REPLOGLE: Anyway, okay, I got my answer. CLARKSON: I'd just to say in support of my motion, you know, we get basically at least one cell tower application every month or two, and there's often very emotional discussion about the effects of radio frequency emissions, and we are not allowed to even consider any of that discussion in our actions. ROMERO (from audience): Proof! Proof! Proof! And you still lie to yourself! [Mr. Romero removed his shirt.] C. SCHISZLER (from audience): —You guys aren't gonna [inaudible] CLARKSON: —And so, so ROMERO (from audience): Go lie to yourself! Go! Go lie to your fucking self, man! [Left the meeting room.] CLARKSON: When we make a decision, we have to make it on other issues, like whether people are living within the fall radius of the tower, and that sort of thing. Whether there is actually access, and we have denied applications on those kinds of, for those kinds of reasons before, but none of those are present here. RAFFIPIY: Thank you. Maija, do we have that? What's the distance, what's the falling radius or distance of Mr. Romero's house from the proposed area, proposed pole? JACKSON: Let me find that for you. RAFFIPIY: That's the house that is not on the map. HALL: No, his house is the one that's not on the map. EXHIBIT D 20 RAFFIPIY: Oh, your house is the one that was on the map. REINKE mom audience): Mr. Romero's house [inaudible]. JACKSON: So, the house that is on the map, the distance is 235 feet southwest of the lease area. And, that was the closest dwelling that was found on the image. RAFFIPIY: So, the house that is not on the map is farther away from it. JACKSON: It is just next to it. So, let me show you here. REINKE: Mr. Romero's house is across the street, directly from, from the site. Now there's 100 -foot setback from 171h to the middle of the tower. So, his house is, you know, on the other side of, of 17', so he would be 100 feet plus the width of, of 17'h Street which is probably 30 feet. Something like that, 25 feet of road. Then his house is set back probably 75 feet from the road, so he's a couple of hundred feet away from the center of the tower. RAFFIPIY: Thank you. Anybody have anything to discuss? Can you go ahead and poll the Commission? JACKSON: Yes, the motion is to approve as recommended by the Planning Director. Commissioner Clarkson? CLARKSON: Aye. JACKSON: Commissioner Au? AU: Yes. JACKSON: Commissioner Replogle? REPLOGLE: Aye. JACKSON: And Chair Raffipiy. RAFFIPIY: No. JACKSON: Okay, the motion fails at three, one. REINKE: Can I ask a question? HALL: Sure, why not. REINKE: Is the vote valid being that there's three members of the committee gone? HALL: No, the motion failed. EXHIBIT D 21 REINKE: Oh, motion failed. Okay, thank you. AU: So, I'd also like to make a comment. You know, I've heard a lot of comments from testifiers regarding their association, so you guys need to talk to them. Just a comment that I want to make. [Inaudible conversation between Mr. Darrow and Ms. Hall.] REINKE: Could I ask another question? RAFFIPIY: Stand by please while HALL: Yeah, let's take a recess real quick. RAFFIPIY: Let's take a five-minute recess. Chair Rafpiy called a recess at 4:56 p.m., and the meeting was reconvened at 5:02 p.m. RAFFIPIY: The Windward Planning Commission is back in session. We're moving over to Item No. 5, application to amend Use Permit No. 168 to allow an additional two bedrooms— HALL: No, no, no. Sorry, we're still on No. 4. RAFFIPIY: Say again? HALL: We're still on No. 4. We still need a motion. RAFFIPIY: We're still on No. 4? HALL: Yes, cause thatoh, sorry. Sorry, Sarah. We're still on No. 4 because we haven't had a motion that passed, so that motion failed so basically at this time, there's either another motion for action will be taken or a motion for continuance. Those are the options. RAFFIPIY: Go ahead, Commissioner Replogle. REPLOGLE: I would like to move that we do a continuance of this until next time so we can have more people here to weigh in on this and give everybody an opportunity to ponder it. Please feel free to vote against it. RAFFIPIY: Any second? CLARKSON: I'll second that. RAFFIPIY: There's a motion on the floor to continue, to the next meeting. EXHIBIT D 22 CLARKSON: I'd just like to briefly explain my second. If we don't take any action, then within 60 days, it's automatically approved, so we have to take some action, and there's no vote to approve, there's no vote probably to deny since there were three votes in favor of approval. So, we're going to continue it to next month. RAFFIPIY: Thank you. Let me just explain why I voted no the first one. I voted no cause I feel like the homeowner's association, HPPOA, didn't do a good job in notifying or having some kind of community meeting with there's a notification out, and have a proper dialog between the homeowners and the board, the association. I don't see any evidence in the documents that we have that there was such a meeting ifI feel like if this is, this is something critical, that they should at least have a dialog on their own if they have an agenda. They have a meeting, a monthly meeting, at least it there would be at least agendized and discussed and have the opportunity, the homeowners would have the opportunity to come and participate. That was the reason why I voted no. Any discussion? REPLOGLE: No. RAFFIPIY: Okay, let's poll the Commission. JACKSON: I'll take the vote. So, the motion is to continue the hearing to the next meeting. Commissioner Replogle? REPLOGLE: Aye. JACKSON: Commissioner Clarkson? CLARKSON: Aye. JACKSON: Commissioner Au? AU: Aye. JACKSON: And Chair Raffipiy. RAFFIPIY: Aye. JACKSON: Okay, the motion carries four, zero, and next month's hearing, March 5' REPLOGLE: March 5t'. RAFFIPIY: It'll be 9 o'clock. HALL: Yeah. RAFFIPIY: Thank you very much. EXHIBIT D 23 The discussion ended at 5:06 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Sarah Y. Hata-Finley, Secretary Windward Planning Commission 24 EXHIBIT D