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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022-03-17 Leeward Exh B (Item 2 Trefz (PL-REZ-2021-000013) LEEWARD PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAII HEARING TRANSCRIPT MARCH 17, 2022 A regularly advertised hearing on the application of DALE HERBERT TREFZ (PL-REZ- 2021-000013) was called to order at 10:41 a.m. via live stream online meeting, with Chairman Michael Vitousek presiding. COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Michael Vitousek, Barbara DeFranco, Clement"CJ" Kanuha III, and Mahina Paishon-Duarte ABSENT AND EXCUSED: Faith"Faye" Yates EX-OFFICIO MEMBER: Bryce Harada(Department of Public Works) ALSO IN ATTENDANCE: Malia Kekai, Esq. (Counsel for the Commission), Jean Campbell, Esq. (Counsel for the Planning Department), Jeffrey Darrow (Deputy Planning Director), Maija Jackson (Planning Program Manager), Christian Kay (Planner), Tracie-Lee Camero (Planner), and Noriko Sauer(Commission Secretary) APPLICANT: DALE HERBERT TREFZ (PL-REZ-2021-000013) Application for a Change of Zone from an Agricultural-1 acre (A-la) zoning district to a Single-Family Residential 15,000 square feet(RS-15) zoning district for 33,738 square feet of land. The subject property is located at 65-1310 Lihipali Road, approximately 170 feet northeast of its intersection with Opelo Road, Por. Waimea Homesteads, South Kohala, Hawaii, TMK: (3) 6-5-007:045-0001 & 0002. VITOUSEK: Moving on to item number two of New Business. Applicant is Dale Herbert Trefz, said that right? PL-REZ-2021-000013, application for a Change of Zone from an Agricultural-1 acre (A-1 a) zoning district to a Single-Family Residential 15,000 square foot zoning district(RS- 15) for 33,738 square feet of land. The subject property is located at 65-1310 Lilipahi Road, approximately 170 feet northeast of its intersection with Opelo Road,portion of Waimea Homesteads, South Kohala, Hawaii, TMK 6-5-007:045 with CPR units 0001 and 0002. Staff presentation will be by Christian Kay. Christian, please proceed. KAY: Yes, aloha and good morning, members of the Leeward Planning Commission, to the applicants, and everyone else here watching. Again, give me just a minute I'll share my screen. Alright, can everyone see that? Alright,perfect. Again, as the Chair stated, this is an application for a Change of Zone. The subject 33,738 square foot property of land is located in the South Kohala district of Hawaii Island, more specifically in the Waimea area. For reference, we've got Lindsey Road running generally in this direction 1 EXHIBIT B through the slide, and Lihipali Road is off of Opelo Road here, and the subject property is outlined here in red. The applicant is requesting a Change of Zone from an Agricultural 1-acre zoning district to a Single-Family Residential 15,000 square feet zoning district for 33,738 square feet of land. The property currently has two condominium property regime units, CPR 1 and CPR 2, with one single-family residence on each lot. The purpose of this request is to subdivide the property into two lots of roughly 18,237 square feet, and 15,501 square feet, consistent with the land area of each of the existing CPR units, but free from those CPR restrictions. The applicant intends to file a subdivision application immediately after approval of the rezone request and anticipates having the property subdivided by the end of 2022. The applicant estimates that the cost of the project will be minimal as access and utilities to the property have been long established for two dwellings on the property. The County zoning of the subject property and much of the surrounding area is Agricultural 1- acre as indicated in the light green. Mauka of the site of Lilipali Road is a state lot and is Agricultural 400-acres. Other zoning in the area are Single-Family Residential zonings 7,500 square feet. Similar 15,000 square feet and at 20,000 square feet as indicated with these other colors. The State Land Use Boundary designation of the subject property, and much of the area makai of the property is Urban as indicated by the pink color. So, because it's already Urban, there's no requirement for an associated State Land Use boundary amendment for this rezone request. And then to the top of the prop—across Lihipali Road is Agricultural. The General Plan Land Use Pattern Allocation Guide Map designates the subject property as low-density Urban, which can support up to six dwelling units per acre. So, it'd be consistent with the proposed RS-15 desigzoning designation. Here's the South Kohala Community Development plan map. A little difficult to see, but the project site is right about here in an area designated as existing urban development, so there are no special requirements or designations that the subject property falls within. Here is the applicant's proposed site plan. For reference, we've got Lihipali Road generally running up and down on the slide here. Again, the existing property has two dwellings that have already been built on the property. The first dwelling here, CPR Unit 1 was built in 1963, the second dwelling unit here, CPR Unit 2 was built in 1988. So, each of the dwellings has their own driveway access off of Lihipali Road. Here's an aerial photograph of the subject property and some of the surrounding area. Again, we've got Opelo Road running here on the left side of the slide, and Lihipali Road running here toward the top. Again, the subject property is outlined in red showing the existing dwellings on the property and existing driveway facilities. There are similar residential type uses in the area and across Lihipali Road is the agricultural lots, the State agricultural lots. 2 EXHIBIT B Here's some views of the subject property looking in the makai direction. Again, we've got the two dwellings shown here on the left-hand side, and on the right-hand side the dwelling on CPR Unit 2. And here's a view of Lihipali Road looking westward with the subject property on the left-hand side, and a view of Lihipali Road looking eastward with the subject property on the right-hand side. This photo shows that there are several drainage facilities that were built by the County within Lihipali Road right-of-way. And so, there was some testimony about drainage facilities, and this just gives an idea of what those look like. They're essentially dry wells along Lihipali Road. So, the Deputy Director is recommending that the commission forward a favorable recommendation to the County Council. And with that, I'm happy to end the presentation and happy to answer questions when it comes to my time. Thank you. VITOUSEK: Mahalo Christian. And I just want to say the pictures were taken on a beautiful day. KAY: Oh, for sure. VITOUSEK: Okay, we can continue on to the applicant's presentation. Please raise your right hands so I can swear you in. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth on the matter now before the Leeward Planning Commission? PIPAN: You too, Dale. TREFZ: Yes, I do. LEUNG: I do. VITOUSEK: Mahalo. PIPAN: Shall we proceed? VITOUSEK: For the record would you please state your name, go around and state your names and the towns that you live in. PIPAN: Aloha, John Pipan, Land Planning Hawaii, representing the applicant on this matter. I live just outside of Honoka`a. Dale, you're muted but go ahead and please introduce yourself. TREFZ: Aloha. My name is Dale Trefz. You did a good job of pronouncing it. And happy to say I live in Waimea. LING LEUNG: Hi, I'm Yin Ling Leung and, call me Yin, and I live in Waimea. 3 EXHIBIT B PIPAN: Very good. VITOUSEK: Have you received the background recommendation report from Planning Department? PIPAN: We have. I reviewed the reports and conditions with all parties earlier this week and we're in agreement. We understand and agree to those conditions. VITOUSEK: Okay, terrific. Please go ahead with your presentation. PIPAN: Aloha Chair Vitousek, Planning Commissioners. Thank you much for your continued service to our island and your communities, and your dedication to this important process we're going through. Thanks so much to Planning Department staff, excellent presentation. Thanks also to Deputy Director Darrow for the favorable recommendation. I'll just touch on the brief history of these properties. Mr. Kay covered them in his presentation briefly, too. The lot 33,000 square feet created by subdivision early in the 1960s prior to the zoning being established for this area, so in that sense, the lot size is not conforming already to the Ag-1 designation, being less than 1-acre. Soon thereafter, the first home on the current lot, CPR lot 1 was built later on in the 80s. The, the second home was built as an `ohana and then shortly thereafter the CPR was established to separate ownership interests in those two homes on the property. So, since then these properties have been managed independently. However, there are those strings tying those the two together legally through the, the CPR itself. So, the requested rezone for several reasons would help to, to clarify this to separate the ownership interest, the make the management of the parcels more convenient, more safe for both, both parties. They'll speak more to that here in a moment. We feel like this application is fairly straightforward, bringing in line the zoning with the use. And the use is consistent with the surrounding properties. We did receive one item of testimony from the public with concerns. We followed up with Mr. Jensen by mail and by email. To date he hasn't responded to any of our offers for further discussion, but his concerns revolved around drainage, around increasing density. So, there's no development proposed with this rezone. Things are going to stay like they are. It's just turning a CPR lot line into a TMK property boundary. So, in that sense, the concerns related to increasing density, or increasing traffic, increasing run off, are pretty unfounded. He, he did point out that applicant, Mr. Trefz operates a, a rental out of his home which is currently not regulated by the County to—it's not a short-term vacation rental. They live in the home full time, and they just rent one of the rooms. Never had any complaints, been doing it for about ten years now, so they've been completely transparent with that process throughout. And should the County enact regulation of these hosted vacation rentals, obviously, Mr. Trefz will comply. He's been, to date, keeping up with all of his transient accommodations and general excise taxes. So, gets great reviews. Looks like a beautiful place, as you've seen. 4 EXHIBIT B We, we'd really love to have direct conversation with Mr. Jensen and, you know, make sure everybody's comfortable with it, but it takes two to have a discussion. So, I feel like we've done our part on that side. And again, we, we reviewed the conditions, find them acceptable. So, I'll hand the floor over to Mr. Trefz to just introduce himself briefly and then we'll, we'll continue with Ms. Ling Leung and circle back for your questions. Thank you. TREFZ: Good morning, everyone. I appreciate the, as demonstrated, how much care and attention you take to these kind of matters. We moved here about 16 �/z years ago, December of 2005. And frankly, I'd never heard of a condominium lot before. I was looking for the high rise or townhouse or something. But the common element that we do have is the fence. We each have our own water meter, our own electrical supply, and so, from our point of view, and in a moment I'll introduce you to my neighbor and 1-just a brief word on the neighborhood up here, this is a very special place, Lihipali Road in particular. We know each other, care for each other, and we have solid relationships. When Mr. Jensen proposed with his letter to his opposition, he indicated that he was essentially our next-door neighbor, which is not true. He does not live up here. Needless to say, that's neither here nor there. So, we're looking for you to making this right. We are looking at future generations, passing it on to our kids or whatever. And we'd like to put a stop to the fire truck showing up at the wrong house in the middle of the night, which has happened. There's no, by no fault of Yin. In this case they came in the middle of the night to our door, lights flashing and banging on our door. And, by the time I got up and got out there, they said, "Oh we were just ready to hack down the door." And, you know, we're ready to put an end to packages going to the wrong house because delivery guy can't understand the difference between A and B. So, with that, I'm going to introduce to you my dear neighbor, esteemed friend, Yin Ling Leung. LEUNG: Thanks, Dale. The reason why only Dale's name is on the application is exactly why he's such a great neighbor, because we were still in Redmond, Washington when we put this application in. We bought this house because my mom's aging. She's 80 years old and she lives in Hilo where I spent my hanabata days, and if you know Leung's Chop Suey House or Sum Leung's Chinese Kitchen, you would have seen me as a small kid running in and out and also scooping food by the time I got to high school. So, you know, we've owned this house for about 16 years. Dale around the same amount of time. We probably moved in together around the same time and I think we bought these houses going, I think we, I was able to buy it because there was a little bit of a discount for being a CPR. I think a lot of buyers are kind of like confused and worried that it's kind of like leasehold land or something, and then they walk away, right? So, we were stubborn and of course the views and Waimea's so special that we had to, we had to have it even if there was this confusing thing. So, I think this division will just make it easier. So, when it's time for me to move to an old folk's home or in with my kids and I have to sell the house, or you know, if I pass it on to my kids, I don't want that kind of confusion to be there. You know, that's just it. And I think that Dale already addressed the other two reasons. You know the, we're always like taking our little packages and mail back and forth, and then also that fire truck when we had a fire alarm here, it like automatically called the fire department and they showed up at—but also like just in case like an ambulance were to show up or something, we would, that would just be really sad if it went to the same, the wrong house. 5 EXHIBIT B So, you know, Dale and Patsy, my neighbors are very humble. So, I'm just going to brag a little about them because it's why having this rezoning will be helpful. It helps them stay. I know, like my mom, you know, any little income, so like having that little air B&B downstairs or VRBO is really important to just kind of like making ends come together when you live in Hawaii, right? And so, it's never been a problem for me, I live right next door to it so I would know. And also, you know, Pasty is the care coordinator. Like, so all the home care stuff that goes on in North Hawaii, Pasty's like the, the head person. That's why she can't be on this call; she's working really hard to make sure all our kupuna are, are taken care of, right, so. I just also want to like express thanks to the commission. Cause I, I used to do non-profit environmental justice work. And the Planning Commission is where the rubber hits the road on what land use happens and how we protect the land and the people, you know, and so, I think it's really great that you spend all this volunteer time listening to us and going through all these applications. And, and so we appreciate the magnitude of what you're trying to do. So, mahalo and I hope you approve our, our very simple ask to change, you know, the zoning so we can have the two separate TMKs. PIPAN: Thanks. Thanks, Yin. I also wanted to point out before we wrap up our presentation that we did receive a letter of support from a direct adjacent neighbor to the west, the Lam family. And that is in the background report in the record. So, with that, we'll conclude, we'll wrap up. We'll take any questions you might have, but we would greatly appreciate your, your consideration of a favorable recommendation passed on to the County Council. Thanks. VITOUSEK: Mahalo. Okay, before we get into any more discussion, I would just love it if County Planning Department would give a little tiny background on what a CPR is for some of the commissioners, and on what the restrictions are in terms of what's needed if let's say, Mr. Trefz wants to apply for a building permit. Does he then need to get approval from the applicant [sic],just so that the Planning Commission can understand the nature of what a CPR is versus two separate fee simple lots. DARROW: I can touch upon that. VITOUSEK: Thank you. DARROW: Thank you, Chair. CPR is referred to as a condominium property regime. It's a type of avenue that people use mainly for ownership. We'll see a lot of that in apartments and hotels. Mainly apartments where you have one property, one tax map key but multiple owners because they all own a unit as part of that particular property. When you look at the real property tax records, you'll see an additional set of numbers attached to that particular property; 0001, 0002, but it's all the same primary tax map key. What happened was prior to the Planning Department changing our rules and our subdivision code, CPRS were able to be done within the agricultural zoning to, in a sense, circumvent our subdivision process. So, and it created all kinds of problems for us because when we were looking at, you know, farm dwellings and ownership and signatures of authorization, oh my gosh, it was quite a headache to 6 EXHIBIT B deal with. So, we had to actually create internal memos to kind of resolve that until we changed our subdivision code. So, at this point, we have pretty much said that if you want to do a CPR in a particular zoning, you need to meet the standards of a subdivision. So, if you're in the agricultural zoning and you want to do a CPR on a 5-acre lot that's zoned Ag-1 VITOUSEK: Hold on, hold on. Hold on. DARROW: Okay. VITOUSEK: We just lost Commissioner Kanuha. Okay, there he is. Sorry about that. DARROW: They can do up to five units because the zoning allows for, you know, five lots right. But they have to meet that now. So, in this particular case, we have one of those remnant CPRS that happen. The approval isn't with the Planning Department, it's with the Real Estate Commission where they submit an application and they, they get approval through that. What happens, the other problem that consists with the Planning Department as a result of these, is because its one property owned by a particular amount of owners. Not so much in an apartment complex do we run into this problem, but on agricultural land we run into it on a consistent basis and that is one of the owners might be doing something that is in violation of the zoning code, yet we have multiple owners of the same TMK. And so, there was a time where they were all getting drawn into the violation because they were all part owners. But again, that's, we kind of resolved a lot of those issues at this point. I hope that clarifies that. I don't know. Maija, you might want to chime in if I missed something. JACKSON: Yeah,just the last thing that I would add is the same thing with an owner wanting to build a house on a CPR unit. Through Department memo, we allow an individual owner to do that without getting landowner authorization from the other CPR unit owners. DARROW: Yeah, there was a time where we didn't have that guidance and what would happen was, you know, if your neighbor wasn't being very neighborly, they could choose not to sign off and give authorization, which obviously isn't really fair. VITOUSEK: But that's only in the form of an internal memo at this point and not actually codified? DARROW: Well, again, we're dealing with an issue that's actually something that was before our changes in the Code that was approved through the Real Estate Commission. VITOUSEK: Right. DARROW: We, we still, so yeah, we have a memo that deals with the CPR units previous. But, moving forward now, they pretty much have to comply with the subdivision code which resolves a lot of problems for us. VITOUSEK: Okay. Mahalo. 7 EXHIBIT B DARROW: And again,just, this is a good thing that's happening here. It's taking away the CPR and giving clear ownership and separation to these individual owners, which I'm sure they're going to be happy about too. VITOUSEK: Thank you. And then I'll also add that we have Mr. Bryce Harada here from the Department of Public Works to address any concerns about the flooding that was identified in a letter of opposition. Mr. Harada, would you mind describing any impact that this application might have from flooding? HARADA: Yes, thank you. This particular lot is zoned in Flood Zone X, and shaded X, so at least from our standpoint we don't regulate the flooding on those particular flood zones. As far as the direct impact of these two particular CPRS, at least from Public Works' standpoint, we don't see any—we know that neighbor, or the someone had mentioned about flooding downstream, but as far as the direct impact from this lots, Public Works doesn't see any. VITOUSEK: Mahalo. Thank you, Mr. Harada. KAY: Mr. Chair, if I could just add one thing. When we were out there taking photos on that beautiful day that you mentioned, I did have an opportunity to look down into those drainage facilities to see if there was any evidence of siltation. I was able to see all the way to the bottom, so there was no, they weren't filling up. There weren't issues with the not being able to handle storm water as it came down. VITOUSEK: Okay. And I believe the maintenance of those facilities would fall well outside the scope of this application. So, commissioners, are there any questions of the applicant or of the Planning Department staff? Seeing no, would anybody like to make a motion? Commissioner Kanuha. KANUHA: I'd like to make a motion. I move that a favorable recommendation be forwarded to the County Council on the applicant-proposed change of zoning docket number 2021-000013 based on the Deputy Planning Director's recommendation which shall be adopted. VITOUSEK: Well, is there a second? PAISHON-DUARTE: I'd like to second. VITOUSEK: Seconded by Commissioner Paishon-Duarte. Now we can open it up for discussion. Anybody? Okay, seeing none we can move forward with the roll call vote. KAY: Sorry, I'll do this again. Commissioner Kanuha? KANUHA: Aye. KAY: Commissioner Paishon-Duarte? 8 EXHIBIT B PAISHON-DUARTE: Aye. KAY: Commissioner DeFranco? DEFRANCO: Aye. KAY: And Chair Vitousek? VITOUSEK: Aye. KAY: Thank you, Mr. Chair. Motion carries with four aye votes and one excused. VITOUSEK: Mahalo. You will be notified of the Commission's decision in writing, and good luck with Council. Aloha. The hearing ended at 11:10 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Kim Tanaka Secretary to Boards and Commissions 9 EXHIBIT B