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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2004-01-30 Soto PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAI`I HEARING TRANSCRIPT JANUARY 30, 2004 A regularly advertised hearing on the application of ERIC SOTO (SMA 03-007) was called to order at 9:10 a.m. in the King Kamehameha's Kona Beach Hotel, Kamakahonu Ballroom, 75-5660 Palani Road, Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, with Vice Chair Earl Fujikawa presiding. ` PRESENT:Earl FujikawaABSENT AND EXCUSED:Fred Galdones Bill Graham Florence Kubota Jeffrey McCall Aurelio C. Mina, Jr. Francis Smith Hannah Springer Bill Thibadeau Patricia O'Toole, Esq., Deputy Corporation Counsel Christopher J. Yuen, Planning Director Norman Hayashi, Planning Program Manager Phyllis Fujimoto, Staff Planner Jeff Darrow, Staff Planner Kiran Emler representing Department of Public Works And approximately 22 people from the public in attendance. ERIC SOTO (SMA 03-007) Continued hearing on a Special Management Area Use Permit application to allow the construction of a three and one-half story, 45-foot high, 12-unit multi-family residential development and related improvements on approximately 15,203 square feet of land. The property is located on the west (makai) side of Ali`i Drive, adjacent to and north of the Sea Village Condominium complex, Kahului, North Kona, Hawai`i, TMK: 7-5-19:30. FUJIKAWA:Staff, go ahead and proceed with your first application. HAYASHI:Thank you, Mr. Chair. First on the agenda is the application filed by Eric Soto, and this is in Unfinished Business. It's a continued hearing on a SMA Use Permit application to allow the construction of a three and one-half story, 45-foot high, 12-unit multiple family residential development and related improvements on approximately 15,203 square feet of land. The property is located on the west or makai side of Ali`i Drive, adjacent 1 to and north of the Sea Village Condominium complex, Kahului, North Kona, Hawai`i, TMK: 7-5-19:30. This particular application has been on the Commission's docket or agenda since August of 2003. There was a contested case hearing request that was accepted by the Commission. This was filed by the Sea Village, board of directors of the Sea Village Association. Since that time, the Association has withdrawn its request for a petition for a contested case hearing, and this is why this docket is back on the agenda for the Commission's consideration. However, we just received a letter from the Applicant's representative, Gregory Mooers, requesting that this particular application be deferred action, action on this SMA use permit be deferred in order that the Applicant may address certain issues pertaining to the development of this project. They also expect to have this issue settled within the next 60 days. All of you have a copy of this letter requesting for this deferment. Staff is recommending at the -, recommending that this hearing be continued and that it be placed on the -, on a subsequent Commission agenda after these issues have been resolved by the Applicant, and we would like to see written documentation that these issues are -, have been resolved prior to scheduling, placing it back on the Commission's agenda. Are there any questions at this time? FUJIKAWA:Are there any questions, Commissioners, to the Staff? If not, the Applicant's representative or the Applicant, please step forward. Can you kindly raise your right hand, please. Do you swear to tell the truth, affirm to tell the truth on this matter before the Hawaii County Planning Commission? ` MOOERS:I do. FUJIKAWA:State your name and address, please. MOOERS:My name is Gregory Mooers. My address is Box 1101, Kamuela, Hawaii 96743. ` FUJIKAWA:Mr. Mooers, you may proceed. MOOERS:I think the statements that Mr. Hayashi made are accurate. We have been in negotiations with the Board of Directors of Sea Village. We, I believe, have reached an agreement in principle and are formalizing that. When that document is signed, then we will come back to the Planning Department and ask them to put us back on the agenda. It's been a long negotiation, but I think it's been fruitful. I think we've addressed their concerns. I believe there will be a member of that board here today to make a public statement. FUJIKAWA:Commissioners, do you have any question to the representative of the owner? If not, could you sit back. I have four people to testify. Would Byron Truswell, Don 2 Kennedy, Sarah Crawford, Luna -, I always get a hard time with this name, Hauanio. There ` you go. All four of you, please step forward. What I'm going to do is swear all of you in first and then call you individually by your name and you give your name and your address. Can you kindly raise your right hand. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth on this matter now before the Hawaii Planning Commission? ` TESTIFIERS:I do. FUJIKAWA:Thank you. Let's start off with Byron. State your name and -, full name and your address, please. TRUSWELL:Mr. Chairman, I'm Byron W. Truswell. I reside at 75-6002 Alii Drive, ` Unit No. 3314, commonly known as Sea Village in Kailua-Kona. FUJIKAWA:Okay. You may proceed. TRUSWELL:I am the owner of Unit No. 3314. I have with me today Mr. Don Kennedy, is the owner of Unit No. 3209, and we are here on behalf of the Board of Directors of Sea Village and ourselves to testify on SMA 03-007. And as you are in receipt of the letter from Mr. Gregory R. Mooers, president of Mooers Enterprises, requesting that you defer action on the SMA until the developer can address certain issues pertaining to the development, we would like to go on record as agreeing with Mr. Mooers' request for a postponement. Sea Village and Suntera Corporation are in the process of negotiating agreements with the developer, Mr. Eric Soto, that pertain to this SMA application. We are working on agreements related to the easement for a sewer line connection as we oppose a treatment plant in the area. We are also working on agreements for landscaping controls along our common boundaries and a redesign of the building to allow better view planes for the Sea Village owners in Building No. 1. These negotiations have been fruitful, and we expect to be able to come to some agreement in the not too distant future. These agreements are extremely important to the owners, property owners of Sea Village, and it is our desire to have them completed before any construction or approval is agreed on by this Commission. The Sea Village board and owners request that their views be heard before any permit action is taken should these negotiations break down. Will we be afforded an opportunity to express our wishes in some future meeting? It is our belief that the developer and the neighborhood will be better served if we reach accord on our on-going negotiations. We would like to thank the Commission for their consideration of this matter and its effect on Sea Village and its neighborhood. And if the Commission has any questions, we'd be glad to answer them. 3 FUJIKAWA:Commissioners, do you have any questions with Mr. Truswell? If not, next person with Don Kennedy. Can you go ahead and state your full name and your address, please. KENNEDY:Oh. Don Kennedy, Sea Village, 75-6002 Alii Drive #3209. ` FUJIKAWA:Thank you. You may proceed. KENNEDY:I represent the Board of Directors of Sea Village, and Mr. Truswell has been the appointed spokesman for the Board. FUJIKAWA:Do you have any statements to make? KENNEDY:Nothing. TRUSWELL:That you agree -. KENNEDY:Yes, I agree with Mr. Truswell. FUJIKAWA:Okay, fine. Thank you. Commissioners, any questions with Mr. Kennedy? Go ahead. Commissioner Springer, go ahead. SPRINGER:Just a comment to the combined testimonies with regard to their question will we be afforded the opportunity to express our wishes at some future meeting. There will be another opportunity for public input when we hear the application, so that's a yes. TRUSWELL:Thank you, Commissioner Springer. Thank you very much. And thanks to the Commission for entertaining our thoughts. FUJIKAWA:Okay. Any other questions, Commissioners, you have for these two testifiers? None? Sarah, go ahead. State your full name and your address. CRAWFORD:My name is Sarah Crawford. My address is P.O. Box 2551, Kailua- Kona, and I am the owner of Unit 4303 at Sea Village. FUJIKAWA:Go ahead. CRAWFORD:Pardon? FUJIKAWA:You may proceed with your testimony. CRAWFORD:Okay. Thank you. As I mentioned, I am a Sea Village owner. I represent a group of about 20 people who are also Sea Village owners. We had not been informed that the negotiations with Mr. Soto were going well until this testimony today. In 4 fact, we have a letter from the Board indicating that they had attempted to negotiate with Mr. Soto to mitigate the adverse impacts of his condo from the beginning and it was not going well. Negotiations have not been successful was their words. We just wanted to express our concern about two things. One is the -, a very narrow driveway which the Soto development has proposed which doesn't meet the County's Department of Public Works recommendation, as well as this possibility of an on-site wastewater treatment plant. And if the Board is, in fact, in negotiations with Soto, what I would like to do is simply to say that we will reserve our comments for the next hearing, pending the successful, hopefully, outcome of those discussions. But I wanted just to raise your -, the concern of the wastewater treatment plant as well as the driveway at this time. Thank you very much. FUJIKAWA:Commissioners, any questions to Sarah? If not, Lunakanawai, you may -. State your full name and your address, please.. HAUANIO:Aloha, Mr. Chair. Aloha, Commissioners, thank you. My name is ` Lunakanawai Hauanio, and my address is Post Office Box 871, Captain Cook 96704. ` And this area, in particular, we have a growing concern about the adverse impact of our shorelines. We believe that the continuous construction of this type and magnitude continues to adversely impact the subsistence of the Hawaiian community. The water quality, in today's West Hawaii newspaper, Harry Kim article, depicts the same concerns, and until those issues have been resolved, I ask that the Commissioners take my testimony for this particular agendized item and, without objections, to have my testimony apply to all of the agendized items before the Council. Point one on the concerns is we have a growing depletion of our natural resources within this Kailua area. The quality and the quantity of the sea life, more particularly the quality, is becoming a level of -. I don't know if you folks eat wana or you guys collect kpe'e, but the taste is not the same anymore, you know. These kinds of developments is cumulative. And until the County comes up with clear and concise and unambiguous language as to how they're going to protect our subsistence, this process should stay far off of any approval. The second is the religious and the sanctuaries of Hawaii. The aloha spirit in Hawaii is being `` bombarded with all kinds of interpretations, and because of those all kinds of interpretations, we have a lot of animosities amongst our neighbors because we lack clear understanding of what the rules are on how we are to live with each other. People come to Hawaii and they see ` this kinds of infrastructure and they say, oh, where is Hawaii? Well, until the languages are ` corrected within the policies of the Planning Department, as well as the clear implementation of the constitutional provision which the final ruling of Judge Ibarra in the Hklia case clearly defines that gross neglect has occurred by the County and the State of Hawaii in regards to ` protecting constitutional laws, rules, regulations, until those things are resolved, this Council should stay far away from approving any adverse impact on Hawaiian subsistence. 5 Finally, I implore the Commission to have mitigation such as wastewater treatment facilities, recycle of our solid waste, in every aspect of construction that comes before the body. Those pollutants enters our waters, and they identify them as non point source pollutants. Well, we all know that we're all going to throw rubbish, but if we don't implement some kind of mitigations with -, have it required, we're all going to be living in s-h-i-t. Mahalo. FUJIKAWA:Thank you. Commissioners, you have any questions with this testifier? None? If not -. SPRINGER:Mr. Chair? FUJIKAWA:Oh, go ahead, Springer. SPRINGER:I have a question for the Planning Commissioner (sic) regarding Mr. Hauanio's comments, and I wonder if briefly you could discuss for us how the process ` treats cumulative impacts, particularly with regard to loading of already well loaded infrastructure and the resource depletion that this application or those like it singularly might not offer a negative impact but cumulatively they do. FUJIKAWA:Planning Director. YUEN:We have to look at the cumulative effect of individual applications, and if the individual application continued onward, for example, if you had a first application for an area and it would create a precedent for the next nine, and the tenth would result in the destruction of the shoreline, then that would be a strong reason to deny the first application. If you have nine already approved and it's at the breaking point with nine and the tenth would break, the straw that broke the camel's back, then you should also deny the tenth. I'm speaking generally and not with respect to this particular application. We're aware on traffic that in order to consider traffic, you first have to decide that the additional traffic would have a negative environmental or economical effect in the Special Management Area. Is that a good enough answer for your question? SPRINGER:So the Department does take potential and cumulative impacts into consideration when preparing their recommendations for us? YUEN:Yes. SPRINGER:Thank you. TRUSWELL:Mr. Chairman? FUJIKAWA:Is there any question -? Go ahead. 6 TRUSWELL:If I could speak to this particular issue that Mr. Yuen has just mentioned and you brought up, in this particular case with this application that's being made before the SMA that's currently being discussed, Mr. Soto has made provisions in his planning to actually entrap the water from Sea Village, a big section of Sea Village's drainage water that's currently going into waste area where they are planning on their construction, and this Mr. Soto has already in plan in their plans to entrap that water into his collection system and, in turn, then dispense with it and take it out to the proper disposal. FUJIKAWA:Is there any other question, Commissioners, to the Director or the testifiers? If not, thank you very much for your testimony. The Applicant's representative, please step forward. Mr. Mooers, you have heard the testimony from these four people. Do you have any comments? MOOERS:No more comments. FUJIKAWA:Anything to say? MOOERS:No. FUJIKAWA:Commissioners, any questions with Mr. Mooers? If not, thank you. Commissioners, your decision? This is the application requesting for deferment. KUBOTA:Mr. Chair? FUJIKAWA:Commissioner Kubota, go ahead. KUBOTA:Yeah, I'm ready to make a motion, but before I do that, I'd like to thank the Applicant's representative and the neighbor board for trying to reach an amicable decision rather than going into a contested case, and the Commission is always appreciative of that fact, and I applaud your efforts. Thank you. Having said that, I would like to move that this agenda item be continued and agendized at the next subsequent Commission meeting following the -, provided that the issues have been resolved. SPRINGER:Second. FUJIKAWA:Okay. It's been moved by Commissioner Kubota and seconded by Commissioner Springer that this is to be continued. Any questions, Commissions? None? Staff, proceed with the roll call. HAYASHI:Commissioner Kubota? 7 KUBOTA:Aye. HAYASHI:Commissioner Springer? SPRINGER:Yes. HAYASHI:Commissioner Thibadeau? THIBADEAU:Aye. HAYASHI:Commissioner Graham? GRAHAM:Aye. HAYASHI:Commissioner McCall? MCCALL:Aye. HAYASHI:Commissioner Mina? MINA:Aye. HAYASHI:Commissioner Smith? SMITH:Aye. HAYASHI:Chair Fujikawa? FUJIKAWA:Aye. HAYASHI:Motion carries. FUJIKAWA:Okay, Mr. Mooers, we'll see you in the next meeting. Meantime, Staff, you have the schedule open for the next hearing. Is that in Kona hearing or -? HAYASHI:This would be after the issues have been resolved and agreed upon by the parties, then we'll put it -, place it back on the agenda, so there is no set date at this time. FUJIKAWA:Fine. Thank you very much. The discussion ended at 9:36 a.m. Respectfully submitted, 8 Janet L. Kama, Transcriber 9