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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2021-12-16 Leeward Exh G (Item 9 Liliuokalani SPP) LEEWARD PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAII HEARING TRANSCRIPT DECEMBER 16, 2021 A regularly advertised hearing on the application of LILI`UOKALANI TRUST (PL-SPP- 2021-000004) was called to order at 2:24 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), Jessica Andrews (Planner), Maija Jackson (Planning Program Manager), Christian Kay (Planner), Tracie-Lee Camero (Planner), Eric Cook (Planner), and Noriko Sauer (Commission Secretary) APPLICANT: LILI`UOKALANI TRUST (PL-SPP-2021-000004) Application for a Special Permit to establish a cultural academy and retreat facility within an existing ranch house and barn and related improvements, including overnight accommodations, programmed activities and special events on 5.362 acres of land situated with the State Land Use Agricultural District. The subject property is located at 64-5122 Pu`u Manu Place, approximately 1,560 feet from its intersection with Mamalahoa Highway, Pu`ukapu Homesteads, 2nd series, Waimea, Hawaii, TMK: (3) 6-4-018:095. VITOUSEK: Next up we have an application for a Special Permit to establish cultural academy and retreat facility within an existing ranch house and barn and related improvements, including overnight accommodations, programmed activities and special events on 5.362 acres of land situated with the State Land Use Agricultural District. The subject property is located at 64-5122 Pu`u Manu Place, approximately 1,560 feet from its intersection of Mamalahoa Highway, Pu`ukapu Homesteads, Waimea, Hawaii, TMK: (3) 6-4-018, parcel 095. The applicant is Lili`uokalani Trust. Permit is PL-SPP-2021-000004. Staff presentation will be by Jessica Andrews. Jessica? ANDREWS: Hello. Yes, hi, can everyone hear me? VITOUSEK: Yes. ANDREWS: Okay. Give me just a minute here to bring my presentation up. VITOUSEK: Is everything alright? Were you able to get on there? There we go. 1 EXHIBIT G ANDREWS: Sorry about that, everyone. We have a new system set up here, so we're getting used to this whole process. Okay, can everybody see the introduction screen here? VITOUSEK: Yep. ANDREWS: Great. Okay, so I'm going to be presenting for Lili`uokalani Trust, Special Permit application SPP-2021-000004. This is the location map, and you're seeing the subject property in red. It's in the South Kohala District. The applicant is requesting a special permit to establish a cultural academy and retreat facility and related improvements including overnight accommodations, programmed activities and special events on 5.362 acres of land situated within the State Land Use Agricultural District. The proposed use will occur throughout the subject property including within an existing 3,476-square foot, four bedroom, three and a half bathroom ranch house, and an existing [2,700] square foot barn. The applicant will offer small group sessions for four to eight participants at a time. Two to four staff members will be on site including at least two staff members during any overnight stay. The existing dwelling will be used to board participants during overnight stays and provide staff office and workspace. An existing barn will have maker spaces, and a workshop, in addition to sleeping accommodations for visiting staff. The remaining site will remain open with fenced pastures, a riding ring, a horse barn, goat barn, and pig pen. Fruit tress and lei plants will also be planted and nurtured to support hands-on activities. The application originally requested that day programs end at 5:00 p.m., and following the applicant's request to modify the ending time for day programs, the Planning Director recommended that Condition Number 5 be revised to allow day programs to end at 6:00 p.m. And there was a revised condition that was provided to the commissioners. Program hours, therefore, will be 7:00 a.m until 8:00 p.m. Day programs will end earlier at 6:00 p.m. Quiet hours for any overnight stays will be from 8:00 p.m. until 7:00 a.m. This is the zoning map for the area. The subject property is outlined in red, and it is Ag 5-acres, so Agricultural 5-acres. Nearby zoning is almost entirely agricultural, with some family agricultural, FA-2a. Otherwise, it's Agricultural 40-acres, some 3-acres, and to the west is Agricultural 1-acre. The entire surrounding area is designated agricultural, the State Land Use Boundary Map designation. And the LUPAG Map designates the subject property as Important Agricultural Lands. Nearby is Low Density Urban, Rural, and to the north is Extensive Agriculture. So, this is the Community Development Plan conceptual plan. And I apologize that its, it's a little bit small and hard to read. However, I did designate the subject property in red. You can see it, there's an arrow pointing to it. And it's within the Small Farms and Ranches Preservation Program, in green, designated in green by the conceptual plan. 2 EXHIBIT G And this is the applicant's proposed site plan, and you can see the existing farm on the upper left, existing house on the upper right. There's, most everything is designated E for existing. There is a new septic system that's shown kind of in the center, upper center of the site plan. And the access road, it runs across the top of the property there. And this is an aerial photograph showing the subject property outlined in red. Pu`u Manu Place. The access drive runs along the left side of the property. So, there's the existing barn and the existing house shown in the upper portion of the property. These photographs show the entrance, essentially the intersection of Mamalahoa Highway and Pu`u Manu Place. On the lower left is looking east on the highway, on Mamalahoa Highway. On the right is looking west, the same intersection. And on the upper photograph you see the entrance onto Pu`u Manu Place which is the private road that accesses the subject property, and you're looking south in that photograph. These are some photographs of the subject property. On the upper left you see Pu`u Manu Place, you're standing across Pu`u Manu Place looking east across the subject property and on the upper right, it's a little further in on the same access driveway with views of the barn and the existing house. And then the bottom two slides show a view across the subject property looking at the pasture lands and the fencing, and of course the Pu`u that is existing on the property. So, the Planning Director's recommendation is approval with conditions. And that's the end of my presentation and I'll hand the floor back to the Chair. VITOUSEK: Okay. Mahalo. Next, we have the applicant. All the applicant's team that I've got listed is Jill Beatty with the Lili`uokalani Trust, Austen Drake with SSFM, Kimi Yuen with PBR, and Carrie Ragsdale with PBR. Is that the entire team we have? Okay, right on. Would you please raise your right hand so I can swear you in? [Applicants recognized raised their hands.] Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth on the matter now before the Leeward Planning Commission? ALL: I do. VITOUSEK: Thank you very much. Please proceed with your presentation. YUEN: Aloha and good afternoon, Chair Vitousek, Vice Chair DeFranco, members of the Leeward Planning Commission, Deputy Director Darrow, Planning staff, and members of the public. Hi. Mahalo nui for having us here today and for hearing a little bit about our project. We appreciate the Planning staff's help with all of this. And I am from PBR Hawaii representing the applicant, Lili`uokalani Trust. And our, the applicant has no issue with any of the conditions that are proposed as a part of the approval for the Special Permit. 3 EXHIBIT G We appreciate the consideration of extending the ending time for the day programs, and that was really because the application went in in September and since then the Trust has found out that the end time for a lot of schools might be a little bit later than they initially planned, so that extra hour for their day programs is much appreciated. It was included in the second notice that went out to the surrounding properties, so they were aware of that as well. And we understand that it was brought up at the homeowner's association for Pu`u Manu in their November meeting. And so, with that, I would like to turn it over to Jill Beatty who's the program director from Lili`uokalani Trust to give a very, very brief presentation. So, mahalo for your time. BEATTY: Aloha Chair Vitousek and members of the Leeward Planning Commission. My name is Jill Beatty. I live here in Waimea and employed by Lili`uokalani Trust. Mahalo for allowing me to share a few words about our proposed project. I think Carrie's going to do--share a screen, or a slideshow for us. RAGSDALE: Sorry, can you not see it? VITOUSEK: No. BEATTY: No. RAGSDALE: Oh no. Okay, sorry, one second. Okay, how about now? VITOUSEK: You got it. BEATTY: Thanks, Carrie. For those who may not know, Lili`uokalani Trust was established over a hundred years ago by our last reigning monarch, Queen Lili`uokalani, for the benefit of Native Hawaiian children. Her hopes were that all her assets would go to providing opportunities for `opio to realize their greatest potential. Can you go to the next slide, Carrie? LT is proposing a nature-based program based in Waimea, which we'll call LT Ranch. The program is designed to serve a very small group of Native Hawaiian `opio at a time in a quiet and reflective space. Our therapeutic program is based in three pathway activities of `aina, animals, and art. And we believe that the `opio who come to this ranch and engage in our activities and curriculum will develop deeper connections to themselves, to others, and the larger community. We ultimately recognize the inherent mana within them. Our, in 2022 we're hoping to offer several program options from after school day programs to a spring and fall break, as well as four 3-week residential programs. Again, all program operations will not exceed eight `opio at a time and will be overseen by ranch staff to facilitate a safe and healing experience for `opio. Our current team on site right now is, we have Honu Lindsey and Nicole Relacion who are our Ho`amana coaches. They will be engaging with `opio on a regular basis. We have Chris Wong 4 EXHIBIT G who is our facility maintenance lead and who takes care of the land and buildings, and then myself. And then we love to highlight our most therapeutic and popular numbers of our team, Teddy and Baybe, our horses, Bowie and Marley are potbelly pigs, and Kiko and Mela, and they will be very much a part of this therapeutic process. We are very cognizant of the fact that we are part of a HOA and the importance of being great neighbors with our Pu`u Manu homeowner association. We're committed to maintaining the beauty and serenity of the neighborhood and, in fact, our program is designed to align with this type environment. Meaning small in numbers with quiet and reflective activities. We have met several times with our association this year to answer questions and get their feedback on how we can be the best neighbors possible. And some of the things we've offered to our HOA and they've appreciated are listed here on this slide and are very much in align with maintaining the serenity of this neighborhood. Mahalo nui for your consideration of our Special Permit. I'll be happy to answer any questions if there are any. VITOUSEK: Mahalo. Commissioners, are there any questions for applicant or the County staff? Commissioner Paishon-Duarte? PAISHON-DUARTE: Yes, mahalo for the program outline. It's very helpful. Does the, your, does this application also include a residential manager? So, will there be someone on-site that would be maintaining the property and programing 24/7? BEATTY: Currently there is no manager on-site. However, we are on-site seven days a week to care for animals and we, during the residential of course we'll have people 24/7, but we are very cognizant of the need to care for the animals and the land, so we are here very, every day. Seven days a week, and in contact with our neighbors. PAISHON-DUARTE: Thank you. One follow-up question. Is it the intent of this program to draw participants primarily from Hawaii Island, or is the intent also to expand and reach `opio from the entire pae `aina? BEATTY: Yeah, great question. We actually, we're looking in our first year possible remaining on Hawaii Island, but our, as you know, LT is a statewide organization and our hopes are to reach `opio who are most in need, and so we will be offering opportunities from `opio from neighbor islands, from all over the pae `aina to be a part of this program. PAISHON-DUARTE: Mahalo. VITOUSEK: Commissioners, any other questions? Okay, if not, we'll seek a motion. Commissioner Paishon-Duarte. PAISHON-DUARTE: Sure. I move to approve. I move that the application for Special Permit number 2021-000004 be approved based on the Planning Director's recommendation which shall be adopted. 5 EXHIBIT G VITOUSEK: Mahalo. KANUHA: I second. VITOUSEK: Seconded by Commissioner Kanuha. Discussion? You know, I think this is a great use. KANUHA: Yeah. VITOUSEK: Great project. KANUHA: I was just going to say that I know a lot of kids that have benefitted that have gone through [indiscernible] the Lili`uokalani Foundation and the Trust and the programs that they put forth, so I think this would be great. VITOUSEK: And what a great use of the small farms and ranches, preservation area, to not only preserve but to perpetuate farming and ranching culture for the next generation. KANUHA: Yes. VITOUSEK: If there is no further discussion, we can do a roll call vote. ANDREWS: Okay. So, Commissioner Paishon-Duarte. PAISHON-DUARTE: Aye. ANDREWS: Commissioner Kanuha. KANUHA: Aye. ANDREWS: Commissioner DeFranco. DEFRANCO: Aye. ANDREWS: Commissioner Yates. YATES: Aye. ANDREWS: And Chair Vitousek. VITOUSEK: Aye. ANDREWS: And the motion passes 5-0. 6 EXHIBIT G VITOUSEK: Mahalo. You'll be notified of the Commission's decision in writing. The hearing ended at 2:44 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Kim Tanaka Secretary to Boards and Commissions 7 EXHIBIT G