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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2003-01-17 thilton PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAI`I HEARING TRANSCRIPT January 17, 2003 A regularly advertised public hearing on JUSTIN HILTON (SPP 02-033) was called to order at 9:10 a.m. in the County Building, Councilroom-Room 201, 25 Aupuni Street, Hilo, Hawai`i, with Chairperson Fred Galdones presiding. PRESENT:Fred Galdones ABSENT & EXCUSED: Aurelio C. Mina, Jr. Earl Fujikawa Hannah Springer Florence Kubota Jeffrey McCall Francis Smith Grant Togashi Ivan Torigoe, Deputy Corporation Counsel Christopher J. Yuen, Planning Director Alice Kawaha, Staff Planner Susan Gagorik, Staff Planner Esther Imamura, Staff Planner Larry Brown, Staff Planner And approximately 17 people from the public in attendance. @OOKHB@MS9ITRSHMGHKSNM'ROO/1,/22(iRequest to withdraw application for a Special Permit to establish a campground and working model farm on approximately 2.967 acres of land in the State Land Use Agricultural District. The property is located `` on the east side of Kamili Road (also known as Opihikao Road), approximately ` 2.1 miles north (makai) of Phoa-Kalapana Highway (Route 130), Kaueleau, Puna, ` Hawaii, TMK: 1-3-2:40. GALDONES:Commissioners, we are on Agenda Item No. 1 on Unfinished Business. Applicant is Justin Hilton, SPP 02-033. This is a request to withdraw the application for a Special Permit to establish a campground and working model farm on approximately 2.967 acres of land in the State Land Use Agricultural District. Is the Applicant or its representative present? Will you please come forward. Hi, good morning. Please raise -. Okay. Hold on. Could I ask the Staff to make a presentation on this application. GAGORIK:Okay. Sure. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just to refresh your th memory, this application was originally heard in November, November 15 public 1 EXHIBIT A hearing. And the Commission at that time granted standing to Kathleen Leonard and John Peard. st Subsequent to that time, on November 31, the Applicant withdrew their application. So today you are just accepting basically the withdrawal, and the letter has been distributed to you. Are there any questions? GALDONES:Commissioners, any questions of Staff? KUBOTA:Mr. Chair? GALDONES:Commissioner Kubota. KUBOTA:Susan, we also have, we received a letter from the Intervenors with some concerns. Do we take that up after the decision has been made to accept the withdrawal of the application, or before we make a decision, or how do we handle this? GAGORIK:You could discuss that, you know, before your decision, if you wanted to, you know, as part of any discussion that you may have regarding the application. So it can be discussed before, you know, your formal withdrawal, if you choose. YUEN:Let me just say though that if the Intervenor wants the Department to treat this as a complaint, then we can do so; and I'll assign it to our investigator to look at it as any other complaint of a potential zoning violation. Then that would not -, from that point on, it would not involve the Commission. KUBOTA:So you're suggestion is that we determine whether we accept the withdrawal first and then handle it as a complaint, as a separate issue or together? YUEN:Well, I think you have to listen to the Intervenor and anybody who has come to testify on the, I mean to the Applicant and anybody else who has come to testify on the matter before you accept their withdrawal. KUBOTA:I see. YUEN:You really don't have any choice but to accept their withdr in the end. Because if they don't want to apply for the special permit, they don't have to, and to continue. What I'm -, all I'm saying is that when all is said and done, if the person that wrote this letter complaining that there are structures that are illegal, if they want the Department to treat that as a complaint, then the Department will. We'll assign it to our investigator who looks into these things. It doesn't directly involve this group of people sitting here any more after that. It's simply some, it's handled by the Planning Department. 2 Now if the investigator finds that there is a violation, then we would send a notice to -, asking the landowner to correct it. If, and if they find that there is no violation, we would inform the person making the complaint. KUBOTA:Thank you. GALDONES:Commissioner Togashi. TOGASHI:Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm very surprised to have seen this request to withdraw, and I realize that there was some opposition at that first hearing in November. And I'm just curious if you'd like to, if I may, what was your reason for withdrawing? GALDONES:Excuse me, Commissioner Togashi, I need to swear in -. TOGASHI:Oh, swear the -. GALDONES:The Applicant first before we do that. But are there -, I'll entertain any more questions to Staff before we go to the Applicant. Any others? Okay. Could you please raise your right hand. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth ` on this matter now before the Hawaii County Planning Commission? COLTER:Yes. GALDONES:Thank you. Please state your name, resident address, and you may proceed. And please speak into the microphone because your presentation is being recorded. ` COLTER:Valerie Colter, 12-7242 Piilani Street, Phoa. Do you want me to answer the question? GALDONES: We received -. TOGASHI:If you'd like to. GALDONES:We received your letter for a withdrawal. Do you want to add -, is there anything else you would like to add onto that? COLTER:Well, I'll just state -. Okay, that was the first time I've seen this letter, but I understand that there's a concern about the five structures. And basically what my client has decided to do, what Justin Hilton would like to do at this point is he doesn't want to fight with his neighbors, that's why he's withdrawing the request. He ` was under the misapprehension that Opihikao was so outback that nobody was going to 3 have a problem with what he wanted to do. And once he realized that that wasn't the case, he really just doesn't want, he doesn't want to try to have a facility where he has guests coming and have neighbors having bad feelings towards him. So what he has decided to do is to build a large single-family dwelling on that property, which I understand he's totally within his rights to do, and he is, as I am also a drafter- designer, I am drawing plans for him that will include the five structures that are already there, which are basically 12-foot by 12-foot rooms. Right now they're separate, but the plan is if we can get it all approved, to move them into place and they would become the bedrooms for a house. And I've already talked to the clerks at Planning, and they don't seem to have any problem with the basic of idea of how the house would be set up. There would be connection from the living room to these bedrooms. There wouldn't be any other way out of the bedrooms except to come into the living room. Everything will be connected under one large roof. And in the end, you know, he probably will end up selling the property at some point because he wasn't able to do what he thought about building there. GALDONES:Commissioner Togashi, you had a question? TOGASHI:So obviously despite the, I guess, public concerns, Mr. Hilton did not feel that he could offer mitigation? COLTER:He offered a lot of mitigation, and it didn't seem to be enough for his neighbors. TOGASHI:I see. All right. Thank you. GALDONES:Any further questions of the Applicant? There are four individuals from the public who have signed up to testify. Ma'am, could I ask you to step back for a while so we could have these four individuals make a presentation. Ruth Kala, Bernice Kaleikini, Ruth Elia, and John Peard. Would you please come forward. Do we have enough chairs? Staff, please, another chair. Thank you. Ruth and Bernice, could you come to the table, please. Thank you. I'd like to start by swearing you in, if you would raise your right hand, please. Do you swear or affirm to ` tell the truth on this matter now before the Hawaii County Planning Commission? TESTIFIERS:I do. Yes. GALDONES:Thank you. I'll start with the lady on my left. You may start your presentation. State your name, your resident address, and you may proceed with your testimony. a KALA:My name is Ruth Kal. My address is P.O. Box 42, Phoa, ` Hawaii. I live in Leilani Estates. 4 My concern is do I need to testify again if the Applicant is really going to withdraw, th because my testimony is the same as it was on November 15? GALDONES:Well, if you are satisfied with the action of the Applicant, you may choose to testify or not testify. KALA:Well, I do have some opinion statements that I would like to make, and that is that as far as mitigation, there was not a lot of mitigation. Number two, I am still interested in what would happen to those buildings if the property owner plans not to build the residence, his residence. GALDONES:Earlier this morning, Director Yuen had made a statement. KALA:I understand. GALDONES:In reference to that, and does that meet your satisfaction? KALA:Yes. GALDONES:Okay. Thank you. KALA:So I'd just like to testify again because it's on record. GALDONES:Okay. Thank you. Commissioners, are there any questions of Ms. Kala? If not, Bernice. KALEIKINI:My name is Bernice Kaleikini. My address is P.O. Box 226, Phoa. I live in Tangerine Acres Subdivision. My concerns are similar to Ruth Kala. I know that the Applicant is withdrawing their special permit, and I still have a question as to what that single dwelling is going to be. What's going to happen with the single dwelling? Is it going to be a residential home or is it going to be something that's going to be made into like a thing? GALDONES:After you folks are through with your testimony, then I shall call the Applicant back to the table and she may at that time address KALEIKINI:Yeah. Okay. Because I already submitted a written st should have given you copies earlier. But my written statement' basically opposing that special permit. If there was anything that went further, advice -. GALDONES:Okay. If you'd like to submit the written testimony to then they can make copies for circulation. 5 KALEIKINI:I submitted it. GALDONES:Okay. Is there any more that you wish to say? KALEIKINI:Pretty much, you know, actually I wrote this statement, so I think I kind of want to read it. GALDONES:Okay. KALEIKINI:Let me see. My statement says that, you know: I was born and raised in Kau`eleau, `Opihikao when it was considered more remote than Kalapana. As a child I experienced just as you did when once you were young. No county water lines, no electricity, the nearest town about 10 miles away. Life was hard, but rewarding in its Ðsimplicity.Ñ I have seen how Lower Puna has changed in just some 30-odd years. I feel as a Puna native that development in the name of progress has had its consequences. Consequences that I now live with change. The increase in traffic, the high crime rate, all that can be attributed to Ðpoor planningÑ in development. As I travel to and from work every day, I come to wonder how could the past Planning Commissions approve such major, for example, subdivisions without clearly considering the future impacts? Not only do I see Lower Puna in its ÐpristineÑ form, but that of what a Honolulu newspaper article dubbed ÐThe Wild West.Ñ Now I ask you this, can you knowingly allow the beginning to the end of Kau`eleau, `Opihikao, in its current pristine form? You know, can you take a look around you and ask yourselves is this the legacy I choose to leave my mo`opuna? Or do I leave a legacy of consequences for the mighty dollar? This I can profess to, for once I was mo`opuna, but now I am makua, who now lives with the consequences of Ðpoor decisions.Ñ I would humbly ask this Planning Commission Board and its Planning Director to disallow Mr. Hilton to build this so-called Ðurban retreat,Ñ and for Mr. Hilton to reconsider his plans for development. But that, the Applicant has already stated their change in plans. My final point is this: Progress means change. Progress means change, change if not checked and balanced, will lead to unfortunate consequences for GALDONES:Thank you. Commissioners, any questions of the testifier? Hearing none, Ruth. State your name, resident address, and you ELIA:My name is Ruth Luka Elia. I'm from Phoa, Post Office Box 226. I live in Tangerine Acres. 6 And I am one of the families, we are the eighth generation that lives on that land. And I'm happy that these people are not, are dropping the permit, because eight generations we've been planting on that place. Like how my daughter has sta daughters, so I'm an eighth generation that's still planting and living on that land. People think that they're not living there, but they are living on that land. So this is the disturbance that we are fighting for. Mahalo. Thank you. GALDONES:Okay. Commissioners, any questions of Ms. Elia? If none, Mr. Peard. My name is John Peard. My address is P.O. Box 1545, Phoa. My wife Kathleen and I were the ones that did the contested case procedure here. I clearly want and need to carry on with that. To me, that's a hundred bucks well spent. I actually came here, I was hoping Justin Hilton would be here. I wanted to thank him for deciding to withdraw. Obviously he thought hard about the input from the neighbors, and it was all the neighbors that did protest this, not only right around the project but up and down the road. I think that speaks to the process that you have here and encouraging wide advertisement of these kind of special permits and how interested the neighbors are in what's going on in the neighborhood. So I'd encourage you to support and expand the number of people you notify in terms of the radius to a development project and increase the visibility of your advertisement of special permits. Because these are the kind of developments that can create a real change in character of the neighborhood. We felt strongly that this development would change the agricultural nature of the area and start down the road a real different kind of road that the zoning didn't support and the neighbors didn't support. As far as the issue of the letter that we, Kathleen and I submit issue of the existing buildings. And we were concerned about what would happen to those and thought it would be reasonable to have some sort of timeframe on that where someone checked back and make sure that he took care of them or dwelling that's allowed on the premises. And I'm comfortable with handling that through a complaint or waiting to see what happens in a little while and checking in, whatever is easiest for you. The obvious concern was that it ended up a single family home and not five families, a multi-family situation, or dwellings that had the same, some of the same effects that a resort type development would have. GALDONES:Thank you. Director Yuen, would you like to reiterate your earlier statement regarding the complaint that, or the concern that's being raised by some of the testifiers regarding the five other dwellings? YUEN:Well, I don't think, again, if they want us to treat this as a complaint, then we will look into it. I, looking through the file again though, I do notice that Building Department red flagged the structures because they were begun without a building permit. So, supposedly, work is supposed to have stopped on those structures. 7 And I, they're not, since they've already been tagged by the Department of Public Works, I don't know that there's anything further that the Planning Department would do. If we found that they were being occupied now, that would be a separate violation, but there is a violation notice to them. As far as what was said about applying for a building permit and of a home, that sounds like something that would be allowed if they -, it would be allowed by the Planning Department. A single family home would the area. I'm not sure what they would have to do as far as the building permit side of it, but they probably could get a building permit to do that. GALDONES:Commissioners, any questions of any of the testifiers? If not, thank you very much. I would like to ask you to step back, plea Is there anybody else from the public wishing to testify on the subject matter? If none, could I have the Applicant's representative please come forward again. Thank you. You've heard the testimonies. Is there anything that you would like to add onto what you have already stated? COLTER:Not really. I will let Justin Hilton know that John Peard is satisfied with the idea that there will be a single family dwelling built there. And we're in the design phase, and as soon as we finish that and get an architect to review the plans, then he will be reviewing those. GALDONES:Okay. Thank you very much. COLTER:Thank you. GALDONES:Commissioners, there is an action taken by the Applicant to withdraw its application. What is the wishes of the Commissioners? GIFFIN:Mr. Chairman? GALDONES:Commissioner Giffin. GIFFIN:Mr. Chairman, I move that we accept the request to withdr Application SPP 02-033. KUBOTA:Second. GALDONES:Do I hear a second to that motion? KUBOTA:I second. 8 GALDONES:Okay. It has moved and seconded that the application of Justin Hilton, SPP 02-033, the request to withdraw application for a special permit, be approved. Any discussion? Hearing no, the motion has been passed by, motion has been made by Commissioner Giffin and was seconded by -. KUBOTA:Mr. Chairman? GALDONES:I'm sorry, who was that? KUBOTA:Me. GIFFIN:Mrs. Kubota. GALDONES:Oh, Commissioner Kubota. I'm trying to get used to this position. KUBOTA:You're all right. GIFFIN:You're doing just fine. GALDONES:Thank you. TORIGOE:You're doing good. You're doing good. GALDONES:Staff? GAGORIK:Commissioner Giffin? GIFFIN:Aye. GAGORIK:Commissioner Kubota? KUBOTA:Aye. GAGORIK:Commissioner McCall? MCCALL:Aye. GAGORIK:Commissioner Smith? SMITH:Aye. GAGORIK:Commissioner Togashi? TOGASHI:Aye. GAGORIK:Commissioner Fujikawa? 9 FUJIKAWA:Aye. GAGORIK:Mr. Chair? GALDONES:Aye. GAGORIK:Mr. Chair, the vote passes with seven ayes. GALDONES:Thank you. You will be notified in writing of the Comm action. Thank you. The discussion ended at 9:40 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Sharon M. Nomura, Secretary Planning Commission 10