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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2020-06-04 Exh C Ted Tran-Tran-Tonnu FT REZ 20-240 WINDWARD PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAII HEARING TRANSCRIPT JUNE 4, 2020 A regularly advertised hearing on the application of TED TRAN/TRAN-TONNU FAMILY TRUST (REZ 20-000240) was called to order at 11:27 a.m. via live stream meeting with Chairman Thomas Raffipiy presiding. VIRTUAL ATTENDANCE (COMMISSIONERS): Gilbert Aguinaldo, Dean Au, Joseph Clarkson, Thomas Raffipiy, John Replogle. VIRTUAL ATTENDANCE (STAFF): Malia Hall (Deputy Corporation Counsel for the Windward Planning Commission), Michael Yee (Planning Director), John Mukai (Deputy Corporation Counsel for the Planning Director); Jeff Darrow (Planning Program Manager), Maija Jackson (Planner), Alex Roy (Planner), Jessica Andrews (Planner), Christian Kay (Planner); Rachelle Ley (Department Secretary), and Sarah Hata-Finley (Commission Secretary). And 21 members from the public live streaming the meeting. APPLICANT: TED TRAN/TRAN-TONNU FAMILY TRUST (REZ 20-000240) Application for a Change of Zone from a Single-Family Residential- 10,000 square feet(RS-10) to a General Commercial- 20,000 square feet(CG-20) zoning district for approximately 20,812 square feet of land. The subject property is located at 78 Lanihuli Street, approximately 150 feet northeast of its intersection with Kino`ole Street, Waiakea Houselots, 2nd Series, South Hilo, Hawaii, TMK: (3) 2-2-021:008. Secretary's Note: "—"means that there were technical and/or internet difficulties which made the conversation inaudible. RAFFIPIY: Item No. 3 on the agenda, Applicant Ted Tran/Tran-Tonnu Family Trust, Rezone Application 20-000240. Application for a Change of Zone from a Single-Family Residential- 10,000 square feet(RS-10)to a General Commercial- 20,000 square feet(CG-20) zoning district for approximately 20,812 square feet of land. The subject property is located at 78 Lanihuli Street, approximately 150 feet northeast of its intersection with Kino`ole Street, Waiakea Houselots, 2nd Series, South Hilo, Hawaii, TMK: (3) 2-2-021:008, and Christian will be doing the presentation. KAY: Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Can everybody hear me, and can everybody see the screen with the presentation? CLAY: Yes. KAY: Okay, thank you. EXHIBIT C 1 KAY: So, as you stated, Mr. Chair, this is an application for a Change of Zone. The subject property is situated in the South Hilo District of Hawaii Island; more specifically, in the Waiakea Houselots area. The subject property outlined here in black is located on Lanihuli Street between Kilauea Avenue and Kino`ole Street. The Applicant is requesting a Change of Zone from a Single-Family Residential— 10,000 square feet to a General Commercial—20,000 square feet zoning district for approximately 20,812 square feet of land. The Applicant is proposing to develop a new single-story, 9,500-square foot warehouse building including three 720-square foot restaurant/food stalls under a single roof. The Applicant is also proposing a 17-stall parking lot including one handicapped stall to accommodate customer and employee parking and a 10 by 40, 10-foot by 40-foot loading zone. The zoning for the subject property, and some of the surrounding area, is currently Single-Family Residential— 10,000 square feet as indicated in the yellow color. Again, the subject property is outlined here in black, and Kino`ole Street is generally running north-south through the slide with Lanihuli Street generally running east-west through the slide. Other zoning in the area is similar, General Commercial—20,000 square foot zoning as indicated in the red color, and some Double-Family Residential zoning as well. The State Land Use designation for the subject property and the surrounding area is Urban. The General Plan Land Use [Pattern] Allocation Guide Map designates the subject property and surrounding area as High Density Urban which would support this type of Commercial zoning. Here's an aerial photograph of the subject property, again, with Kino`ole Street running generally north-south through the slide, and Lanihuli Street generally running east-west through the slide. As you can see, there's some Residential and some Commercial uses to the right of the subject property. In this case, outlined in red, is the Hilo Veterans Center and also a doctor's office, and there are other commercial and residential uses in the area. The subject property as you can see is currently, has no improvements on it and is just in a vegetated state right now. Here is the Applicant's site plan. In this case, Lanihuli Street is running at the bottom of the slide, and Kino`ole Street running on the left-hand side, and as you can see, here's the proposed site plan with the larger warehouse structure in the back and then the three food vending stalls in the front with parking along the front as well and a loading zone on the left-hand side. Here's a view of the property looking north from Lanihuli Street. Again, the Hilo Veterans Center is located here to the right. As you can see again, it's a narrow long lot and currently vacant of any structures or improvements. Here are some views of Lanihuli Street looking west on the upper left-hand side with the subject property on the right-hand side, and on the lower left, here is Lanihuli Street looking east with the subject property here on the left. The Planning Director is recommending that the Commission forward a favorable recommendation to the County Council for the proposed Change of Zone. With that, I'm happy to answer any questions the Commission may have. EXHIBIT C 2 RAFFIPIY: Thank you, Christian. Any questions from the Commission? CLARKSON: Yes, I have a question. RAFFIPIY: Go ahead. CLARKSON: Can we go back to the photograph of the street, please? The street frontage in front of the Applicant's property. Christian? Does anybody hear me? RAFFIPIY: Yes, we can hear you. ROY: Here we're good. KAY: Sorry about that guys. I'm back. CLARKSON: Can we take another look at the photo of the street frontage? KAY: Yes,just give me one moment, please. All right, can you see that, Commissioner Clarkson? CLARKSON: Yes, I can, and I'm trying toso,this is another case it looks like to me where the virtually none of the street frontage or a lot of the street frontage is still in an unimproved state, and very little of it has the requirement for,where is it . KAY: The curb, gutter, sidewalk? CLARKSON: Correct. Okay, so thank you. This will affect one of my recommendations for amending the application, for conditions of approval. KAY: Sure. If I may, Commissioner Clarkson, the property directly adjacent, the Hilo Vet Center property, if you can see, they were required to do the street widening and the commercial, pardon me, the curb, gutter, sidewalk, meeting with the requirements of the Department of Public Works. So, and this is on the upper left-hand side. If you can see my arrow,this curb, gutter, sidewalk and road widening, and then kind of the same thing here on the lower left, you can see where that has been installed as was a requirement of their Change of Zone for your information. CLARKSON: Thank you. What about the property on the Kino`ole side of the subject property? KAY: I believe that is still in RS-10, if you can see here, RS-10 zoning. So,that's still a Single- Family Residential zoning. I don't have—let me see if I can get back to the aerial. The other, the other properties on Kino`ole that are commercial appear to have improved the frontage, but in terms on the Lanihuli side, the property adjacent with the Hilo Vet Center and the doctor's office installed those improvements. EXHIBIT C 3 CLARKSON: Just correct me if I'm wrong, but there is no other improvements on, in that block. The remaining properties other than the vet center and this property are all RS-10? KAY: Yeah, that's correct. So, RS-10 or RD-3.75, so yeah, except for the one on Lanihuli directly adjacent, the rest are still in Residential zoning. CLARKSON: Thank you. KAY: Yeah RAFFIPIY: Okay, thank you. Any other further questions from the Commission to the staff? All right, can I have the Applicants or the representative—okay, they're here? Jelena Clay and Thai Tran? CLAY: Yes. RAFFIPIY: All right, I will need to swear you in. Can you please raise your right hands? Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth on this matter now before the Windward Planning Commission? CLAY: Yes. TRAN: Yes. RAFFIPIY: All right, thank you. All right, can you go one at a time? Please state your name, where you reside, and you can proceed with your presentation. CLAY: Jelena Clay, Sunrise Estates. TRAN: What I ? CLAY: Just your name and where you TRAN: Oh, Thai [stated address]. CLAY: OopsI cannot RAFFIPIY: You can proceed with your presentation, please. CLAY: Oh no, I mean, was a presentation RAFFIPIY: —Okay— CLAY: Is that RAFFIPIY: All right, do we have any questions EXHIBIT C 4 CLAY: If anyone has any questions, though RAFFIPIY: —for the Applicant? HALL: Sorry, one second, Chair. You just ask the Applicant whether they agree with the Planning Director's recommendation. RAFFIPIY: Oh, I see, I see. Okay. Did you receive the Planning Director's Background Report and are you in agreement with the proposed conditions of approval to the County Council? CLAY: Yes. RAFFIPIY: Okay, thank you. Now, Commissioners, do you have any questions for the Applicant? No questions? All right. Did everybody get to read the public testimonies? Dean, did you read? AU: Yes. RAFFIPIY: Joe, did you get to read the public testimonies? CLARKSON: Yes. RAFFIPIY: John, did you read the public testimonies? REPLOGLE: Yes. RAFFIPIY: Gilbert, did you read the public testimonies? AGUINALDO: Yes. RAFFIPIY: All right. Yes, I did. All right, at this time, Commissioners, I need a motion for action. AU: Mr. Chair, I'll make a motion. RAFFIPIY: Go ahead, Mr. Au. AU: I move that we send a favorable recommendation to the County Council on the application for zone change Docket No. Resolution [sic] 20-000240 based on the Planning Director's recommendation which shall be adopted. RAFFIPIY: Did I get any second? AGUINALDO: Second. Commissioner Aguinaldo, second. EXHIBIT C 5 RAFFIPIY: All right, thank you. It's been moved by Commissioner Au and seconded by Commissioner Aguinaldo that this application be forwarded the County Council on, based on the Planning Director's, Planning Director's recommendation. Any discussion? Okay, Joe, go ahead. CLARKSON: Yes this is, I'm having a hard time remembering where we're at on this time limit condition. This to me looks like a perfectly natural case where this property could, should be, and easily could be in commercial zoning. Can't we delete the time limit so that it just [noise disturbance] they can do it whenever they want to and not do it or sell the property or whatever and a—and if Christian could mute there, thank you. What is the recommendation of the Director? CLAY: That would be great to lift the time limit, especially with the condition that, the way everything is right now, maybe we can extend it. CLARKSON: Director Yee, what is your reaction to just removing the five-year time limit? YEE: I want Jeff to chime in. He has more experience with the issues with time limits, please. REPLOGLE: Go ahead, Jeff. RAFFIPIY: Jeff, go ahead. DARROW: Thank you. Aloha, Commissioners and Applicants. We recently went to County Council with one of the rezoning applications that the Planning Commission did take out the timing requirement, and I gotta say, it was, it was a pretty tough battle up there. So, I mean, they were, they really, it feels like the Council itself really wants to see a timing factor on the applications. The particular one that went up,there was some factors that they, they were okay with. This one I think would be a little different being that this is a brand-new rezoning. There hasn't been anything done, there's improvements. The, I understand your direction, Commissioner Clarkson, that your thinkingI mean and this is what we discussed about going through all those hearings on timing and time extensions and everything that the, if the area is appropriate for the zoning, why, why is timing such an issue, you know? Why do we care about when they build it, you know, we're concerned about the land use, and again we agree with that, but I think overall, we have to come to a consensus between the Department, the Commission, and the Council. I mean, the Commission has every right to forward a recommendation to the Council, and we can go up there and speak with them again about it, but they, I kind of feel that on this particular one, they may feel differently on the last one. They understand the whole picture that we were trying to get at,that the Commission was trying to present as far as timing shouldn't be a matter in these issues, but they wanted to see some pressure on the actual development of the property for those commercial uses and for the improvements that are required in connection with those improvements. Again, if—if the matter of the five years is an issue, that can be adjusted, but I think our,the Department" "the Commission consider the timing condition to go forward up to Council. EXHIBIT C 6 AU: Mr. Chair? RAFFIPIY: Thank you. Go ahead, Mr. Au. AU: Since I was the one that made the motion, I'd like to comment on Commissioner Clarkson's comment. Since the Applicant has not requested it until after Commissioner Clarkson mentioned it, it was never part of a discussion, so I think I'm just going to leave the motion as it is and forward with that. Because if it was an issue, and I understand Commissioner Clarkson due to you know what is going on with the world right now, you know, you're watching out for the betterment of the community and the Applicants, but it wasn't requested initially by the Applicants. So, I'm just going to leave my motion as it stands. CLARKSON: No, I appreciate that Commissioner Au, and I just wanted to get clarification from Planning staff as to what the status of this timing condition was. I understood that it was hopefully going to be phased out, but if the Council is adamant about including it, I don't know, my, my suggestion was to train the Council or persuade the Council that this is really extraneous, but I'll, I'll leave it at that. Thank you. RAFFIPIY: Thank you. Any further discussion? CLAY: Would the time limit be able to be extended if necessary? KAY: I can address that, Mr. Chair. Right now, the condition requires construction of the proposed development as substantially represented by the Applicant or as otherwise permitted by the zoning district within five years, and that's Condition B. We have our standard condition, and that's Condition Q for an administrative extension for up to an additional five years, so ultimately, the Applicant would have up to ten years to construct something on the property without having to come back to the Commission and County Council to amend, and the application itself said that they were looking to build by the end of 2021 which, you know, obviously the application came in before all the changes in the world here, but even so, there's a ten-year window before they would have to come back to this body or the County Council, up to a ten-year window. CLAY: He's good. TRAN: No, I'm good. RAFFIPIY: I'm sorry, did, Ms. Clay, were you trying to make a statement? CLAY: Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Tran said that that's sufficient. RAFFIPIY: All right. Thank you very much. Any further discussions? All right, if there is no discussion, staff would you please do the roll call vote. KAY: Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Commissioner Au? EXHIBIT C 7 AU: Aye. KAY: Commissioner Aguinaldo? AGUINALDO: Aye. [Inadvertently on mute.] KAY: Commissioner Clarkson? CLARKSON: Aye. KAY: Commissioner Replogle? REPLOGLE: Aye. KAY: And Chair Raffipiy. RAFFIPIY: Aye. KAY: Thank you, Mr. Chair, motion carries five, nothing. RAFFIPIY: Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you. The Commission will—you'll be notified of the Commission's decision in writing. Thank you very much for participating. The discussion ended at 11:50 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Sarah Y. Hata-Finley, Secretary Windward Planning Commission EXHIBIT C 8