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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2021-12-16 Leeward Exh F (Item 7 Onaka SPP) LEEWARD PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAII HEARING TRANSCRIPT DECEMBER 16, 2021 A regularly advertised hearing on the application of RACHELLE ONAKA (PL-SPP-2021- 000003) was called to order at 2:06 p.m. via live stream online meeting, with Chairman Michael Vitousek presiding. COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Michael Vitousek, Barbara DeFranco, Clement"CJ" Kanuha III, Mahina Paishon-Duarte, and Faith"Faye" Yates ALSO IN ATTENDANCE: Dalilah Schlueter, Esq. (Counsel for the Commission), Jean Campbell, Esq. (Counsel for the Planning Department), Jeffrey Darrow (Deputy Planning Director), Eric Cook(Planner), Maija Jackson (Planning Program Manager), Christian Kay (Planner), Jessica Andrews (Planner), Tracie-Lee Camero (Planner), and Noriko Sauer (Commission Secretary) APPLICANT: RACHELLE ONAKA (PL-SPP-2021-000003) Application for a Special Permit to establish a three-bedroom bed and breakfast establishment within an existing single-family dwelling and an adjoining guest house on 1.312 acres of land situated within the State Land Use Agricultural District. The subject property is located at 76-3724 Duarte Road, approximately 410 feet from its intersection with Mamalahoa Highway, H6lualoa I" & 2nd Partition Lots Mauka, H61ualoa, Hawaii, TMK: (3) 7-6-005:017. VITOUSEK: Getting back to item number 7. Aloha Rachelle, is Mr. Fuke here as well? FUKE: Here I am. VITOUSEK: Okay. FUKE: Sorry about that. VITOUSEK: No worries. Applicant is Rachelle Onaka(PL-SPP-2021-000003), application for a Special Permit to establish a three-bedroom bed and breakfast establishment within an existing single-family dwelling and an adjoining guest house on 1.312 acres of land situated within the State Land Use Agricultural District. The subject property is located at 76-3724 Duarte Road, approximately 410 feet from its intersection with Mamalahoa Highway, H6lualoa ahupua'a, Partition Lots Mauka, H61ualoa, Hawaii, TMK: (3) 7-6-005, parcel 017. Staff presentation will be by Eric Cook. Aloha, Eric, please proceed. PAISHON-DUARTE: Chair, Chair Vitousek, I actually want to state to the Commission that I am actually related to the applicant and will recuse myself from any decision-making on this matter. Thank you. 1 EXHIBIT F VITOUSEK: Okay, mahalo. COOK: Okay. Thank you, Chair, and good morning—good afternoon, Commissioners. So, as previously mentioned, this application is for a Special Permit, and with that I will get into my presentation, so just one second here and I will. Okay, is everyone able to see? VITOUSEK: Yes. COOK: Okay, thank you. So, Rachelle Onaka, Special Permit Application 2021-000003. JACKSON: Excuse me, Eric, your, your presentation mode is on the notes mode. Can you make it a full presentation mode? COOK: Yes,just a moment. SCHLUETER: Chair, I apologize, one other note. Commissioner Paishon-Duarte, can you just shut your camera off until this matter is over and then turn it back on and you can continue to participate. Thank you so much. COOK: Okay. Sorry about that. So, here we have the location map. The subject property is denoted with a red star here. It's located in Holualoa in the district of Kona. The property is on the mauka side of Mamalahoa Highway, which is running north-south on the map. The applicant is requesting a Special Permit to establish a three-bedroom bed and breakfast within an existing single-family dwelling and an adjoining guest house on 1.312 acres of land to provide accommodations for under ten adults. Here we have the proposed site plan submitted by the applicant. There are a total of three existing structures on the site including the second farm dwelling in the bottom right corner that is intended to serve as the residence for the farm/rental manager. Just above the structure is a permitted guest house that is intended to be used for the bed and breakfast operation. In the bottom left corner, there's a farm dwelling that is also proposed to be used for the bed and breakfast operation. The portion of land above the farm dwelling is the existing coffee farm, here. The subject property outlined in red, as well as the lands immediately north, south, and east of the subject property are all similarly zoned Agricultural 1-acre. Lands immediately west are zoned Single-Family Residential 15,000 square feet. A bit more, a bit further north is a cluster of properties zoned Village Commercial. The subject property, as well as lands immediately north, south, and east of the subject property hold the designation of Agricultural. The lands immediately west and a bit north have a 2 EXHIBIT F designation of Urban. The subject property and all lands surrounding in every direction hold a LUPAG designation of Low Density Urban. Lands further east have the designation of Important Agricultural Lands. Here, this is a, this is a clipping of a much larger map from the Kona CDP, and this is the Kona land use map. The subject property is denoted with a red star, again here, and it falls within the Rural Town Transit-Oriented Development Zone, which is distinguished with a dark blue line. Here we have an aerial photo of the subject property. You can see the property is along private road, Duarte Road, which bisects the subject property with an active coffee farm on the northern side of Duarte Road. Duarte Road intersects with Mamalahoa Highway to the west. The surrounding context of the neighborhood is residential, with Holualoa Elementary School just northwest of the property. Here we have a few site photos. The photo on the left is looking in towards the subject property from Duarte Road intersection with Mamalahoa Highway. In this photo you can see the unapproved master meter system to the left of the driveway entry. This here, and that's how they're currently getting water to the site. The photo on the top right is from the driveway entry looking out to the Mamalahoa Highway facing north. Photo on the bottom right is the driveway entry looking out to Mamalahoa Highway facing south. Here are a few more site photos depicting the existing structures that are proposed to be used in the bed and breakfast operation. The photo on the top left is of the second farm dwelling that is planned to be the living quarters for the farm/rental manager. And the photo on the top right is of the permitted guest house that is proposed to be rented out to guests of the bed and breakfast. And the photo on the bottom is the first farm dwelling that is proposed to be rented out to guests of the bed and breakfast as well. The Planning Director is recommending approval with conditions. And, so, that concludes my presentation and I'll hand it back to you, Chair. VITOUSEK: Mahalo. At this time I'd like to ask the applicant to come forward with a repletive. Mr. Fuke, let's [indiscernible audio]. FUKE: Okay. Can you hear me now? VITOUSEK: Not very well and your camera is off. There it is. FUKE: Is this okay now? Yeah? Not really? VITOUSEK: It's not great. FUKE: I can see — 3 EXHIBIT F VITOUSEK: He disappeared. Still see his name there. Shoot. Mr. Fuke, are you there? FUKE: Can you hear me now? Yes, I am. VITOUSEK: There, I hear you a little bit. Hello? FUKE: [Indiscernible due to audio disruption.] VITOUSEK: Gosh. Well, I can't see you Mr. Fuke and it's coming in and out quite a bit. How `bout we drop off again. Drop off again. Ms. Onaka, would it be okay if we swear you in at this time? Okay, you're on mute. There you go. ONAKA: Alright. VITOUSEK: Do you--can you raise your right hand? Oh, there you are, Mr. Fuke. You're there as well. Can you raise your right hand, Mr. Fuke? Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth on the matter before the Planning Commission? ONAKA: I do. FUKE: I do. [mouthed] VITOUSEK: Thank you. And looks like it's a better connection. Would you please state your name, town you live in, and please proceed with your presentation. FUKE: Okay, thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Hi again. Same guy, Sidney Fuke, and I'm here helping out a friend of mine, Rachelle Duarte Onaka, and she there she is under Hailey Onaka. We've had a chance to discuss her application, and she's reviewed it, as well as the conditions, and found them to be totally acceptable. I know it's been a long day for the Commission. I'm prepared to kind of go a little bit more into detail to supplement whatever the staff had provided, but just as soon at this point in time defer to questions that the commissioners may have. One final point, however, before opening ourselves up to questions, is the Duarte family, you know, Rachelle and her family, it's like a fourth generation owners within that area and so they're deeply rooted in the community in that particular area. The road that services the property is called Duarte Road. So, you gotta imagine how committed are you, you know, to this to the project, but aside from that, I'm just kind of, both Rachelle and myself, we're available for questions that commissioners may have. VITOUSEK: Mahalo. Commissioners, are there any questions for the applicant? Commissioner DeFranco? 4 EXHIBIT F DEFRANCO: Hi. So, I noticed that the road, the driveway going into the property seemed to like, maybe it needed some repairs. Was that something that was going to happen? FUKE: It's basically a 10-foot-wide road that's been servicing that whole area, the so-called Duarte subdivision. They have a water system, private water system that comes off of the County line that runs up the property. In terms of for police and fire protection services, they at least require a minimum of 10-foot-wide paved access. So, that would meet the minimum requirement. The other thing like Vice Chair DeFrancoI kind of wanted to point out is that Rachelle and her family already have an existing, what they call like hosted short-term vacation rental on the property. They're converting it to a B&B essentially doesn't change their current operation except in two respects. One is that, in the event the short-term vacation law changes and then they'd have to be considered grandfathered. That's something that they don't want to have to contend with. And secondly, by having it like a B&B, and if it's issued by this Planning Commission, then it mandates the person to actually live on the property and it's going to be a family member. And when you have a B&B, with a family member living on the property then there's a great amount of control for, you know, in case there are complaints and all that stuff as opposed to a straight on short-term vacation rental. And that's the objective of the reason for this change. VITOUSEK: Okay. Commissioner Yates? YATES: Just a question. HowI'm a little familiar with that area and with the families there because I grew up in Kona when I was much younger. But it—how many, do we have a lot of B&B's up there, or not a problem? FUKE: I don't believeI don't know the number of B&Bs in that area. I know that they have like aI think it's an eight or ten-room inn. The Holualoa Inn that's kind of right in that area, but it's within the village core. As far as the number of B&B's, I'm not really sure. YATES: I was specifically wondering about up to Duarte Road, because I noticed that there's a number of houses there, but I'm not sure how many there are there. [Unintelligible cross talk.] FUKE: I'm sorry, go ahead. ONAKA: The housing on the road mainly houses all of our family. So, those are mostly Duarte family. COOK: And I can provide a little more clarity, Commissioner Yates. In terms of the permitted bed and breakfasts in the area, there's none in the immediate surrounding area. There is one that is further south, and it is approximately 900 feet southwest of the subject property and it was approved with a USE Permit to establish a 2-bedroom bed and breakfast operation quite some 5 EXHIBIT F time ago, many years ago. But in the direct surrounding area, no, there's not permitted bed and breakfast operations. YATES: Just wanted to be sure this is a good thing for the Duarte, or Onaka, or family, that they don't have to come in later on and say that`Oh my goodness,' they're having problems. VITOUSEK: Okay. Any further questions? Okay, seeing none, we can seek a motion. Commissioner DeFranco. DEFRANCO: I just want to move to approve the application for the Special Permit Number 2021-000003 be approved based on the Planning Director's recommendations. YATES: I second. VITOUSEK: Okay, a motion by Commissioner DeFranco, seconded by Commissioner Yates. I'll open it up for discussion. Seeing none, proceed with the roll call vote. COOK: Okay. Thank you, Chair. So, we're going to vote to approve as recommended by the Planning Director with conditions. Commissioner DeFranco? DEFRANCO: Aye. COOK: Commissioner Yates? YATES: Aye. COOK: Thank you. Commissioner Kanuha? KANUHA: Aye. COOK: And Commissioner, Chair Vitousek? VITOUSEK: Aye. COOK: Okay. Motion carries with four ayes and one abstain. VITOUSEK: Mahalo. You will be notified of the Commission's decision in writing. The hearing ended at 2:24 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Kim Tanaka Secretary to Boards and Commissions 6 EXHIBIT F