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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2021-12-02 Windward Exh A (Public Testimony re REZ 21-249/PL-REZ-21-007) WINDWARD PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAI`I TESTIMONY TRANSCRIPT DECEMBER 2, 2021 Public testimony regarding the application of RAJA DAGGULA (REZ 21-000249/PL-REZ- 2021-000007) was called to order at 9:15 a.m. via live stream online meeting, with Chairman John Replogle presiding. COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Gilbert Aguinaldo, Dean Au, Joseph Clarkson, Michelle Galimba, Thomas Raffipiy, John Replogle EXCUSED: Dennis Lin ALSO IN ATTENDANCE: Malia Kekai, Esq. (Counsel for the Commission), Jean Campbell, Esq. (Counsel for the Planning Department), Zendo Kern (Planning Director), Eric Cook (Planner), Christian Kay (Planner), Maija Jackson (Planning Program Manager), and Melissa Dacayanan-Salvador (Windward Planning Commission Secretary) APPLICANT: RAJA DAGGULA (REZ 21-000249/PL-REZ-2021-000007) Application for a Change of Zone from a Single-Family 20,000 square feet(RS-20) to a Village Commercial 10,000 square feet(CV-10) zoning district for approximately 36,373 square feet of land. The subject property is located on the north side of Old Volcano Road, approximately 335 feet west of its intersection with Wright Road, `Ola`a Summer Lots, Block "B", Lot 12-13, Puna, Hawaii, TMK: (3) 1-9-004:051. Secretary's Note: "—" indicates indiscernible speech due to internet/technical difficulties or simultaneous talk. REPLOGLE: So, we have three (3)testifiers registered to give oral testimony on Item number 1, Raja Daggula, REZ 21-000249/PL-REZ-2021-000007. We have Jon Clarke, Aubrey Hawk and Evelyn Wight. If everybody could turn their cameras on, I will swear you in together. Please raise your right hand, hands. Do you swear to affirm to tell the truth before the Windward Planning Commission? Please state your name and the town you live in prior to your testimony. HAWK: Yes, Aubrey Hawk. Oh, later, okay. Yes, I do. REPLOGLE: Everybody good? TESTIFIERS: Acknowledged by nodding their heads. REPLOGLE: Okay. Please limit your testimony to three minutes and not be repetitive. Staff will let you know at two and a half minutes by ringing a bell. If you've submitted written testimony there's no need to read the testimony you submitted, but you are welcome to summarize and update your testimony now. After your testimony commissioners may have 1 EXHIBIT A questions for you, if there are no questions or questions have concluded, please log out of Zoom platform and switch to the YouTube channel if you wish to observe the meeting. Okay. So, we will start with Jon Clark. Mr. Clark? I can't hear you. JACKSON: Mr. Clark is on mute. REPLOGLE: You're muted. Where did he go? Oh, there you are. You're muted, I don't know if you can hear us? KERN: If you're having a hard time on your phone star six (6) sometimes works to unmute. REPLOGLE: You're still mute. Don't stress, why don't we go on to the next person while you try work it out and you may speak when you're ready. So, we'll move to Aubrey Hawk. HAWK: Aloha Commissioners. Thank you so much for this opportunity to testify regarding the application of Raja Daggula to change its zone from RS-20 to CV-10. I am a resident of Volcano Village and I also serve as an officer on the board of the Volcano Community Association. I also serve as a member of the Board of Directors of the Friends of Volcano School of Arts and Sciences, and I am a volunteer instructor at that school for the international program Roots of Empathy. I am opposed to this application. Our community, at least those of us who've been lucky enough to find out about this issue, we feel blindsided by what we see as a very sneaky attempt to circumvent Hawaii County's new law pertaining to vacation rentals in residential communities. I believe any rezoning to commercial in this area, if it happens at all, should be for the general benefit of the community and not to line the pockets of one non-resident developer. Perhaps it had been technically possible and technically legal to change zones to commercial in this area and add yet another lodging facility to our small village, but it certainly does not adhere to the spirit of the new vacation rental law which was designed specifically to stop the proliferation of vacation rentals in residential communities. We are a small quiet rural community. Though we may lack the resources and inside knowledge that allow this developer to hire consultants, both of whom are former high-level employees of the Planning Department, we do know what is right and it is neither ethical nor pono to bring this absentee owned vacation rental into our community. I implore you,please do not approve this application. Thank you. REPLOGLE: Thank you. CLARK: Jon Clark, can you hear me now? REPLOGLE: Okay, go ahead please. CLARK: Oh great. Aloha to everyone, I hope you had a great Thanksgiving. I'm going to keep it very short, she just articulated pretty much what I wanted to say. This is wrong, this is wrong. This guy is coming in here, bought the lot, I'm Jon Clark, I live in Volcano. I own the property directly behind the applicant. I own two (2) lots back there. The whole thing with rezoning a commercial so that he can come in and put a mini hotel, which is exactly what he wants to do. 2 EXHIBIT A That's exactly what he wants to do. If you've seen the plans, you can see it. The septic system alone is going to be a nightmare. I feel sorry for Kilauea Lodge when that hammering starts. I think you all need to do the right thing as she said, be pono, the kuleana is no! You bought this property. You're going to come in and say well you know, I'm just going to rezone it and then throw my hotel on it. Nah, I think you all need to be strong. Disapprove it and just say no! I'm all for development but, not this. Aloha and thank you very much for letting me speak. REPLOGLE: Thank you, Sir, and we will go to our last testifier Evelyn Wight. WIGHT: Aloha Commissioners, my name is Evelyn Wight, I live in Volcano the [testifier spoke in Hawaiian language - inaudible], of course. Mahalo for this opportunity to provide testimony on the Daggula/Kapoor commercial rezoning request. I'm speaking on behalf of myself and other Volcano residents who are not able to testify today. These include Kalena Blakemore and her family, Jill Briggs, and Eileen Toal-Dervisevic. I am, and we are opposed to this application to convert a thickly forested residential zone property to commercial zoning in order to circumvent short-term vacation rental laws. Calling it a"hosted rental" in the revised application does not change or disguise the developer's intent to create a vacation rental facility on a residential lot that our community does not want or need. This is a form of spot zoning, which changes the zoning for one piece of land, while the other land around it remains the same. This benefits only the non-resident landowner who wants commercial development while negatively impacting neighbors who have chosen to live in a residential forested area. People in our community value the native forest and the irreplaceable natural resources found here. Those values are also reflected in the Puna Community Development Plan and the Volcano Long Range Plan which while not legally, as I understand it, not legally binding are strong recommendations that represent community voices across Puna. What we want, when we have development is development that benefits our local community that benefits the people that live here. That preserves as much as possible, given that humans are living in it the native forest, which is home to endangered birds and plants and species found nowhere else on the planet. This proposed project is counter to these values, and it doesn't appear to have any local benefit maybe one or two jobs and that's not enough to make up for the incredible loss. Allowing one landowner to spot zone for their own profit, that's a dangerous precedent that could further harm our community, both up here in Volcano and throughout the Puna district as more and more people move here and look here for business opportunities. I and we strongly urge you to reject this application. Mahalo for your consideration. REPLOGLE: Thank you Ms. Wight. Are there questions from the Commissioners for the testifiers? Mr. Clarkson you're muted, though, okay. CLARKSON: Yeah, yeah. This could actually be for all three of you. The rezone if it's approved does not limit the use of the property to just the applicant's intentions. Now if the 3 EXHIBIT A property is rezoned, anything that is permissible in that zone could be developed. And you all have mentioned the lack of a benefit to the community. Are there kinds of commercial enterprises that would be acceptable in this location? I'm just thinking of a store, a post office. What are the kinds of things that you would find acceptable rather than the proposed vacation rental? HAWK: I could answer that Mr. Clarkson and thank you for the question. Anything but a short- term vacation rental is the short answer. Our community could use a veterinarian, a pharmacy, a doctor's clinic. We have many older residents here who now have to travel all the way down to Kea`au or down to Ka`u for their medical care. We could use a gathering area, an art bookstore, coffee shop that would be a place where the community could come together. A gourmet store or a produce market. The list goes on, it's basically anything that would be allowable in a commercial district,perhaps not a Starbucks or a 7-11. But something that is in line with the look and feel and historic nature of our village and that our community could come, all of us here the several thousand that live up here could come and take part in. JACKSON: Chair, I think— REPLOGLE: Okay. JACKSON: — she froze. REPLOGLE: We lost her. JACKSON: Yeah. REPLOGLE: Okay. HAWK: Which would result in REPLOGE: Oh, she's back. HAWK: Yeah, I froze there for a minute. Am I here? REPLOGLE: Yes, you're here again. HAWK: Okay sorry, did you not catch that or was there a question? CLARKSON: I think I got the gist of your response. So, thank you for that. HAWK: If I might just add Sir. The nature of the process for this issue to come before the community just the way it's designed with these three-by-three sign nailed to a mature `ohi`a tree, I might add. The community needs to have more input and I understand that we do have future opportunities, but before that precious residential lot is changed to commercial if it is changed. I think we really need to have more consensus on what goes in there. Thank you. 4 EXHIBIT A REPLOGLE: Thank you. Ms. Wight. WIGHT: Aloha, I'd like to comment, and these comments will be only for me. I personally wouldn't want to see anything large developed on that particular lot because of the forest. I understand that nearby lots are already developed commercial, and Kilauea Lodge is right there and there's a few stores and elsewhere. And I know that in the Volcano Long Range Plan this area of the village was described as a potential commercial development, and we do need all those things Aubrey mentioned. So, I'm not opposed to those kinds of things,personally, I feel like as a State, frankly, let alone as an island, our small community, we need much better management of every piece of land for our natural resources, not for the development of human profit-making machines, whatever they might be whether it's a vacation rental or even a store and so that's my personal opinion. I think Volcano Village in the Volcano Long Range Plan there's a proposal for a biosphere I think this whole region needs to be reexamined as a place that should be preserved as habitat. As I understand the current zoning laws and excuse me not zoning laws building codes and set back rules that have been changed recently. Those require clear cutting essentially now because of the amount of setback required and the amount of land required for water tanks and septic systems. I am completely for septic systems, by the way, so I hate cesspools they should all be banned everywhere right now yesterday. But in our tiny little village in this place, the one of the few places remaining in the whole state that has relatively intact native forest that is home to endangered birds, endangered species found nowhere else on the planet. We should have separate building codes that allow for the preservation of this forest, and I get that there's this whole thing about standardization and it's very difficult for a small group of people to have to review applications for a specific area just like other kinds of laws. But I'm personally very concerned about that, and I know this is a little bit off the subject that you asked Mr. Clarkson. So, I apologize, but for diverting, but this is what I'm personally passionate about and anyway, I just wanted to share that, and I do think we as a community here in the Village and across Puna need to implement something. Not just have a plan, the Puna Development Plan or the Volcano Long Range Plan that sits on a shelf but implement it and put it into law. So that we don't have this kind of thing, and so I mean it's got to be disappointing for the Daggula/Kapoor group to have thought oh, I have this opportunity I'm going to do it and then have this pushback, but they didn't know and the consultants they hired didn't understand and don't have the values that I have clearly, or they wouldn't have approved this idea of changing the zoning. So, I feel like that's an important next step, although again I apologize for going off subject a little bit, I'm passionate about this and I'm really concerned about that. So, I guess that's all I'll say right now. Thank you very much for letting me share. REPLOGLE: Thank you. Any other questions from the Commissioners? AU: Chair? Chair Replogle? REPLOGLE: Yes, Mr. Au. AU: Can you guys hear me, okay? 5 EXHIBIT A REPLOGLE: Yes. AU: Okay, so this question actually can go to all three testifiers. In the background report that we received. I'm looking at a letter from the Association. By any chance, are any of you 3 testifiers are you part of the Association? HAWK: I am. Aubrey Hawk, I'm Secretary of the Volcano Community Association (VCA). AU: Okay, well that's all I wanted to know and I'm assuming that the applicant is going to address the meetings and some of the things that say it. But if you want Ms. Hawk, if you can just kind of briefly, really short you don't have to go on about it just give us the gist of how the Association meetings went from your standpoint. HAWK: We had one meeting which the Association had hosted and Mr. Arai and Mr. Fuke who are consultants for the developer were there in person. The developer was there via Zoom, albeit with a bad connection. Several other community members were there via Zoom and about ten (10) of us VCA board members and neighbors and community members were there in person. It was a bit of a chaotic meeting. It was designed just to sort of be a dialogue building, let's just talk story and share what it is we want to do. But the bottom line is we are opposed to rezoning from residential to commercial for the purpose of bringing in any type of vacation, lodging, hotel, motel facility. We as a community believe that the County law that was just recently passed. It actually caused a lot of longtime residents whose livelihood was to operate small B &B's and little STVR's on their property to have to relinquish that income. Even though there was no complaint from the community, because of permitting or just the various things that allowed them that would have allowed them to maintain and be grandfathered in. Now we see an outside nonresident developer with absolutely no connection to Hawaii, let alone to Volcano Village looking to kind of get around that law because they've been able to pay the right people and bring in another STVR. Which we've all agreed, we simply do not need in Volcano Village. There are hundreds of opportunities and places for people to stay. So that was kind of what the VCA, that's where our position stems from. Then secondarily, we are very concerned with larger clear cutting type developments on this particular lot, which is relatively very thickly forested on that whole Old Volcano Road that could potentially be converted to commercial that's probably actually the most forested lot. So those are some really old `6hi`a trees and hapu`u ferns that are in there. Once those are gone, they are gone, and we have determined, the Puna Community has determined that it's very important to maintain that canopy so that our native birds can do their overflights upcountry. So that was the secondary point of the VCA on this project. There's just no way around those 2 points. No matter how they keep trying to tweak it or call it a hosted or say oh we are going to preserve the trees. We know that the plans that they have don't have to be adhered to once this commercial zoning would be approved. Does that answer it for you? 6 EXHIBIT A REPLOGLE: Thank you. Anything else Commissioners? I have a question and all 3 of you are welcome to answer it. Don't your communities up there have a system for homeowners to place their properties in conservation easements as they sell them? So as an example, you have cleared, built your home, saving as much of the forest as possible. When you sell it, you can put a conservation easement on it that will protect the trees and I asked this because it goes to what all 3 of you have been saying regarding protecting this native forest. Anyone of you could answer that. HAWK: I can answer. REPLOGLE: Okay. HAWK: I know that there's obviously this opportunity that is available to anyone who wants to do it via the Hawaii Land Trust, I believe. We currently have seven (7)properties who have done that so far in Volcano. I'm curious, so how does this pertain to the current issue application that we're talking about? REPLOGLE: I think it pertains to it in terms of what people in your community think about your forest and what you've all been saying. And I just wanted to know if that was in fact did happen, I heard about it several years ago and I think it may have even started in Mauna Loa Estates. HAWK: Ah okay. Yeah, I know that several people have done that. But it's probably not the kind of thing that maybe someone have a lot of means and know-how and extremely passionate about the environment would seek out. I don't think it's something that everyone knows about, but I am proud that we do have a handful of people who have done that in the village, one of them is right across the road from me. REPLOGLE: Okay, thank you. Any further questions? Okay. The public testimony ended at 9:15 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Melissa Dacayanan-Salvador Secretary to Boards and Commissions 7 EXHIBIT A