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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2021-08-05 Windward Exh A (Public Testimony re SPP 12-138) WINDWARD PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAII TESTIMONY TRANSCRIPT AUGUST 5, 2021 Public testimony regarding the application of CONNECTIONS NEW CENTURY PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL/COMMUNITY BASED EDUCATION SUPPORT SERVICES (CBESS) (SPP 12-000138) was called to order at 9:05 a.m. via live stream online meeting, with Chairman John Replogle presiding. COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Dean Au, Gilbert Aguinaldo, Joseph Clarkson, Michelle Galimba, Dennis Lin, John Replogle EXCUSED AND RECUSED: Thomas Raffipiy ALSO IN ATTENDANCE: Malia Hall, Esq. (Counsel for the Commission), Jean Campbell, Esq. (Counsel for the Planning Department), Jeffrey Darrow (Deputy Planning Director), Maija Jackson (Planning Program Manager), and Melissa Dacayanan-Salvador (Windward Planning Commission Secretary) APPLICANT: CONNECTIONS NEW CENTURY PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL/ COMMUNITY BASED EDUCATION SUPPORT SERVICES (CBESS) (SPP 12-000138) Discussion and action limited to the procedural question on whether the Windward Planning Commission will make a decision on the record as presented or open the record to hear new evidence regarding Special Permit SPP No. 12-000138, which was remanded back to the Windward Planning Commission by Intermediate Court of Appeals for further proceedings consistent with its January 31, 2020 Memorandum Opinion vacating the County of Hawaii Windward Planning Commission's May 12, 2014 Decision and Order,which denied Special Permit SPP No. 12-000138. The subject Special Permit sought to develop a K to 12 charter school campus with dorm facilities and related uses on approximately 70 acres of land situated in the State Land Use Agricultural District. The property is located on both the southwest and northeast sides of Edita Street near its intersection with Kaumana Drive and adjoining the Pacific Plantation Subdivision in Kaumana, South Hilo, Hawaii, TMK: 2-5-006:141 Secretary's Note: "—" indicates indiscernible speech due to internet/technical difficulties or simultaneous talk. REPLOGLE: We have one testifier registered to give oral testimony for Item 42 Connections/CBESS (SPP 12-138). Henry Lee Loy. I ask that you limit your testimony to three minutes. Also, I would like to remind you that your testimony should be limited to the procedural question before the Commission today and should not include testimony on the merits of the application. 1 EXHIBIT A RAFFIPIY: Mr. Chairman? Point of order. REPLOGLE: Yes, please. RAFFIPIY: As stated at last month's meeting, I will have to recuse myself from hearing this agenda item and being that this is the only item that will be discussed today I request that I be excused from the meeting. REPLOGLE: Yes, you may be excused, I thought it was very good of you to show up today. Thank you very much Thomas, you are excused. RAFFIPIY: Thank you Mr. Chairman. Thank you all. REPLOGLE: Have a good day. RAFFIPIY: You too. REPLOGLE: Okay, so, testimony to the merits of the application. After your testimony,please log out of the Zoom platform and switch to the YouTube channel if you wish to observe the meeting. This is to limit the number of participants on the screen in order to manage the meeting and also minimize connection disturbance or noise. I am going to swear you in. Please raise your right hand. Okay, do you swear to affirm to tell the truth before the Windward Planning Commission? LEE LOY: Yes, sir. REPLOGLE: Please state your name and the town you live on prior to your testimony and you may begin. LEE LOY: My names is Dr. Henry Lee Loy, I'm a retired physician in Hilo, Hawaii. It is important that this Commission know and understand that never has anyone spoken against the existence of Connections Public Charter School. To be clear, we are opposing the development of a Public Charter School on Edita Street entrance road for multiple safety reasons that have been and will be iterated via oral or written testimony. A school of this magnitude is inappropriate for the proposed location. I'll address water usage estimates and the availability of potable water from the Department of Water Supply henceforth DWS. The project acknowledges that the maximum potable water allocation by DWS for development is 4,200 gallons per day. REPLOGLE: Excuse me, sir. LEE LOY: This application form based on 60 gallons per day per student standard a 4,200 gallons allocation could support 70 students. The Intermediate Court of Appeals decision questions — HALL: Chair, point of order. 2 EXHIBIT A REPLOGLE: Excuse me, excuse me Mr. Lee Loy. Can you pause. Your testimony is supposed to be in regard to the documentation not problems or issues concerned with the school being there or not being there. We're here today to decide whether to allow new public testimony in or to continue and use testimony already provided and — HALL: Let me just verify that, sorry. REPLOGLE: Go ahead. HALL: Chair. REPLOGLE: Yeah, no, please. HALL: Yes, Mr. Lee Loy basically this is only for a procedural question today on whether we are going to open up the record or just make a decision, the Commission will be making a decision on the record. So, if you would like to testify on the merits of the application that would be happening at the next hearing will have an actual hearing where you can testify to those things. But at this point we are not hearing testimony on the actual school itself just on the procedural question of whether the Commission should make a decision on the records as presented or open up to limited evidence. LEE LOY: Okay, on the procedural question would my testimony given regarding clarification on the figure of the student standard be relevant to today's meeting? REPLOGLE: I don't believe so. The question today is, should we the Commission and please correct me Ms. Hall. Should we the Commission take what is on the record and use that to make a decision as to whether to allow the school to be or to say no, we can't do that. Or, should we allow the record to be opened and now like you're testifying just now, you could do that at the next meeting, if that's what we decide. So, you would be speaking either for going with the previous testimony and not opening it up, or you would like to see it reopened and why. I don't know if that was real clear, but I hope so. LEE LOY: I guess, I feel my testimony would support the fact that the Findings of Fact are legitimate and that there is already evidence within that has been given, but it needs clarification and that's what I'm trying to do as the Circuit Court had remanded to the Commission. I was trying to help clarify that which would help whether it needs to be either used as is or open up for more testimony, I guess. REPLOGLE: Okay. However, your testimony is facts of things as you said that have already been stated and are in the record. Is that correct? LEE LOY: Yes, they are, but I think it needed clarification of where that student standard came from which was not mentioned, which is what the Third Circuit Court of Appeals asked for. 3 EXHIBIT A REPLOGLE: Okay, and I think,possibly, it would be okay to address that. I don't believe we need to hear about the gallons of water or any of that. But I do believe if you have a point to make in regards to opening, reopening the hearing or going with what exists, we would appreciate hearing that. LEE LOY: Okay. Can I proceed then with just trying not to address that. REPLOGLE: Yes, I don't want to cut you off and you made the time I would like to give you the opportunity to say, make your point should we go with what's already been stated and if that's what we the Commission decide. At the next meeting, what you're talking about today would be totally relevant. LEE LOY: I'm sorry Mr. Chairman. REPLOGLE: If we decide to go with what's on the record, at the next meeting you could what you were saying to us about the water and all that,you're refreshing those important points in the decision that was made. Okay, and that would be great to hear at our next meeting when this would be on the agenda if it's decided to be reopened to fresh testimony you could still make your presentation in the form you were attempting to today. I think I'm getting that correct. LEE LOY: Well, I think my testimony today maybe relevant, and it may apply to either you go with a current testimony or whether you open it up, so, I think it will relevant either way. REPLOGLE: Okay, which would you prefer it to be, that's the question today that you should be supporting. LEE LOY: You're asking me, I'm sorry what are you asking me again? Sorry. REPLOGLE: Anybody wish to, what I'm trying to say is if today you say I don't think we should open it up — HALL: Chair, chair. REPLOGLE: Yes. HALL: Counsel for CBESS has his hand up. REPLOGLE: Oh, I'm sorry. May I see your, oh okay, Mr. Hong please. HONG: Thank you. I was just informed by the attorney for Connections. REPLOGLE: Yes. HONG: That for some reason his link is not working, and he can't get into the Zoom hearing, Deputy Attorney General Carter Siu. So, I was wondering if someone from the Planning Department or the Commission could send Mr. Siu a link. Oh, there he is. Now his connected. 4 EXHIBIT A Thank you. The other thing that I did want to mention is again, this is a procedural issue and Mr. Lee Loy is trying to pollute the record again by putting in additional facts that we are, if the Chair is going to allow that then we are entitled to rebut those facts and this now reopens the entire hearing. So, I would suggest that the Chair and the Commission abide by its agenda and have him either address the procedural issue, reopen the hearing and have it be a do-over or not. Without getting into the facts, because once we start getting into the facts regarding the per gallon and all that kind of stuff. If Mr. Lee Loy is going to get into that, we are entitled to rebut that. Thank you. REPLOGLE: I agree with you Mr. Hong and that's what I'm trying to clarify for Mr. Lee Loy. So, and I think you helped me there. So, Mr. Lee Loy, it's the procedure, not the gallons. Do you want it to just stay as it is or do you think it should be reopened to new public testimony? That's your options here. We do not wish to hear about the gallons or any of that. — LIN: Chair, Commissioner Clarkson has a question. REPLOGLE: Mr. Clarkson, go ahead. CLARKSON: Yes, I just like to ask our Corporation Counsel a question to clarify this issue. If the Commission decides to make its additional considerations only on the record, will testimony of any kind be allowed, and if so, by the public. If so, what kind of testimony would be allowed? HALL: You're saying, if you guys decide to make a decision on the record? CLARKSON: Yes, I think it's unclear to Mr. Lee Loy and to me from what you said earlier and what Chair Replogle is saying. HALL: Well State Law and Planning Commission rules require that the Commission take public testimony. So,public testimony will be given, with that said, if the record as presented you guys will be making a decision on the record as presented. CLARKSON: So, we are required to take testimony but if we decide here today to only make a reconsideration on the record, we will be disregarding all of that testimony. Is that the case? HALL: Yes. CLARKSON: Okay, thank you. REPLOGLE: Okay, once again Mr. Lee Loy. For keeping the record as it is and proceeding at the next meeting with that or would you like to see it open to new public testimony? So someone who didn't testify in 2014 could come and testify at the next meeting for or against the school, but, they would be new testimony. HALL: Chair, sorry. REPLOGLE: Yes. 5 EXHIBIT A HALL: It's not just public testimony, it would be new evidence, it would be— REPLOGLE: Okay. HALL: —the applicants and the would also be able to so, Mr. Lee Loy the question is basically do you want them to make a decision on the record that has been already presented, or would you like new evidence to be entered into the record? LEE LOY: Okay. REPLOGLE: There you go. LEE LOY: Alright, thank you Chairman, Commission members and Counsel. I appreciate your time, your efforts to volunteer and those who are uncompensated. So, what I'm going to do is just defer that decision to the Chair and the Commission and I guess that's your job. So, no further comments from me, sir. REPLOGLE: Thank you very much Mr. Lee Loy. LEE LOY: Should I leave? REPLOGLE: Okay, you may go to Zoom, excuse me not Zoom, but YouTube if you wish to watch and follow the proceeding from this point on. LEE LOY: Very good, have a good day everyone. REPLOGLE: Okay, thank you. The public testimony ended at 9:21 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Melissa Dacayanan-Salvador Secretary to Boards and Commissions 6 EXHIBIT A