Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022-05-05 Windward Exh A (Testimony PD Report) WINDWARD PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAI`I TESTIMONY TRANSCRIPT MAY 5, 2022 Public testimony regarding the PLANNING DIRECTOR'S REPORT was called to order at 9:52 a.m. via live stream online meeting, with Chairman Dean Au presiding. COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Dean Au, Lauren Balog, Louis Daniele III, Michelle Galimba, and Dennis Lin ABSENT AND EXCUSED: Gilbert Aguinaldo, Wayne De Luz ALSO IN ATTENDANCE: Malia Kekai, Esq. (Counsel for the Commission), Jean Campbell, Esq. (Counsel for the Planning Department), Zendo Kern (Planning Director), Maija Jackson (Planning Program Manager), Jessica Andrews (Planner), Christian Kay (Planner) and Melissa Dacayanan-Salvador (Windward Planning Commission Secretary) PLANNING DIRECTOR'S REPORT Report on Special Management Area(SMA) determinations, minor permits and enforcement action issued by the Planning Director. Secretary's Note: "—" indicates indiscernible speech due to internet/technical difficulties or simultaneous talk. AU: So, at this time, I'd like to move on to the agenda, I'd like to take public testimony on the agenda items, and I do believe we have 5 in person and 3 in the Zoom for testimony. What I'd like to do is I like to go every other and I'd like to start off with the first in person testifier at our Aupuni Center. Tracie are you there? CAMERO: Yes. AU: Okay, so what I want to do is if we can swear everybody in. So, if you are on the screen, please turn your screen on and raise your hand and Tracie if you could verify that all the 5 in person, and they do raise your hand when I do swear them in. CAMERO: Okay. Chair, we actually have 6 in person, we just got 1 more. AU: Okay. CAMERO: Maija will be sending that to you. AU: Can you please make sure that all 6 are raising their hand and please raise your hand for the 3 Zoom testifiers. I EXHIBIT A CAMERO: Yes, they're all raising their hand. AU: Okay, do you swear or affirm to tell the truth before the Windward Planning Commission today? ROHR: I do. AUPUNI CENTER: Have the Planning Commissioners raise their right hand too. ROHR: I do. RUDNY: I do. AU: Okay, thank you very much. Thank you, testifiers. Please try to summarize your testimony within 3 minutes and not be repetitive. If you have submitted written testimony,please do not simply reread it, but supplement or update your written testimony. Staff will notify you verbally at 1 minute remaining and when 3 minutes are up. And after your testimony the Commissioners may have questions for you, and when there are no more questions, please log out of the Zoom platform and switch to the YouTube channel, if you wish to observe the meeting. This is to limit the number of participants on the screen in order to better manage the meeting, and also to minimize connection disturbance or noise. Thank you for your cooperation. I'd like to take the first testifier in the Aupuni Center. Please state your name and the town you live in. JAERICK MEDEIROS-GARCIA: Aloha, my name is Jaerick Medeiros-Garcia. I never get to see the Planning Commission and the rest of the people on this raise their right hand, to be honest with the people of our County. Okay. I'm looking at a person right now in front of me. I will let you guys know right now that Heather Kimball has a personal vendetta against me. Okay. She likes to do sneaky stuff, along with other people that I see up on this screen. Today I got some of the good news, Dean Au is leaving this Commission. Put me in the Commission. You guys need some righteous people up here. You know. Let's start with this SMA stuff here in Pepe`ekeo, our shorelines. According to Heather Kimball you guys all feel that there's no history on our shoreline. `A`ole. We've been asking 3 and a half years to put our access back in Pepe`ekeo, Hilo side of the mill. It was illegally moved. Jere Henderson promised the community. In order to get that gated community built it was a promise he made to our community that this access is provided. `A`ole, you guys. You guys don't just change stuff when you guys want to. I see some conflict of interest happening here. Mr. Darrow, Mr. Alex Roy, Mr. Zendo Kern, Heather Kimball,please you guys don't just sweep things under the carpet. We have an access now that puts us right in harm's way with all these logs from Hu Honua. Put our access back. You guys want to claim unsafe show me the records. Show me the records that it's unsafe. Mr. Yuen is who approved of it, you guys the County was the last people to go get this approval from environmental studies and stuff. Ten years ago, they wanted to build one house over there and now you guys are trying to claim for one private owner. Ms. Kimball, come on, you promised us 2 EXHIBIT A to help us. This is access that belongs to the community, in order for this guy to be able to build. He promised it. There's a lot of access that he promised, and he never deliver on. First and foremost, the Planning Commission, Planning Commissioner, or the Planning Director's they never made sure that the enforcement was done. To make sure that these things went thru like promised. I mean, I'm pretty sure Heather you feel comfortable lying to people because you've been lying to us all this time. JACKSON: Mr. Chair. Point of order. The testifiers are supposed to direct their testimony to you as Chairperson and not to other Commissioners or testifiers or staff. JAERICK MEDEIROS-GARCIA: Chair. AU: Mr. Medeiros-Garcia, can you please address your testimony to the Chair, and the Commission please. JAERICK MEDEIROS-GARCIA: You got it. Chair, I will tell you right now, there's a lot of conflict of interest on these pictures I'm looking at right now. We need our access back. We use that to go gather food for our families. The community use that access. We tired of getting things taken away for your guys' private interests. Please listen, hear our voices. We are people from the community. I speak on behalf of our 150 guys from the Makahanaloa Fishing Association. I am the President. My job is to make sure that corruption don't stop our access. My name is Jaerick Medeiros-Garcia, Makahanaloa Fishing Association President. Please do what's right. Mr. Darrow I will come talk to you. Chair, thank you for your time. Thank you for serving. Have a nice day. AU: Thank you for your testimony, Mr. Medeiros-Garcia. At this time, I'd like to take the next testifier in the Zoom room. Maija, do we have the first person in the Zoom? JACKSON: Yes, I believe Ms. Rohr is the first testifier in Zoom. AU: Okay, so Ms. Rohr please go ahead and testify, and as a reminder to all testifiers please address the testimony to the Commission and to me, to myself. So, Ms. Rohr go ahead, you have 3 minutes. Thank you very much. ROHR: Good morning, Commissioners and Chair Au. My name is Claudia Rohr. I've been a resident of Hilo for more than 25 good years. I have used the shoreline trails in Pepe`ekeo for most of those years. This testimony is about the Planning Director's report. A report on Special Management Area(SMA) determinations, minor permits, and enforcement action issued by the Planning Director listed on today's agenda. This testimony follows my oral testimony on the Planning Director's SMA report at the meeting held on Thursday, January 6, 2021. Today, I stand in protest of the lack of disclosure that on March 24, 2022, the Planning Director's Deputy Jeff Darrow closed enforcement actions ZCV-2018-019E without dealing with the illegally gated public vehicular access to the shoreline in Pepe`ekeo. In 2005, developer Jere Henderson and his partners doing business as Continental Pacific submitted communication amending the language of the zoning bill by adding one additional public vehicular access and 3 EXHIBIT A parking area for 4 cars at the location south of the Pepe`ekeo Mill side, known as Iron Posts. To Condition D to what was approved as zoning ordinance 05 50 to save the rezoning request at the County Council. This was to resolve the ongoing shoreline access dispute in the subdivision of over 1,000 acres. Condition D of zoning ordinance 05 50 reads the applicant shall also provide 1 additional public vehicular access and parking areas sufficient for a minimum of 4 vehicles at the location south of the former Pepe`ekeo Mill Site in the approximate area known as "Iron Posts". I have previously submitted a Google aerial photograph and the measurement of how that parking area has been moved 750 feet from where it was. This was to be a convenient drive-up public parking easement to access the pali trail"—" JACKSON: Ms. Rohr your 3 minutes is up. ROHR: Well, I'm asking for you to allow me to finish, please. It was located"—" it was located by survey next to the long wall near the pali. In 2018, developer Jere Henderson unilaterally fenced off the dedicated public vehicular access and parking area under the guise of a new landowner Gault's Gulch. Without doing proper due diligence the Planning Department's violations officer wrote a Notice of Violation under enforcement actions ZCV-2018-091E. Stating that moving the gate to the public access was an SMA violation that could be resolved by submitting an application for an SMA permit. This violated HRS Section 205A-26-2(c) and PC Rule 9-11(e)(3)requiring approval of an SMA permit before development consistent with any applicable zoning ordinance. — AU: Ms. Rohr— ROHR: —Zendo Kern as a private planning consultant came to represent Jere Henderson and Gault's Gulch in resolving this enforcement action. Now on March 24t', Jeff Darrow impermissibly closed the enforcement action without resolving intentional gating of the dedicated vehicular and parking easements that the public has been endlessly complaining about. That information is not in the Planning Director's report to the Planning Commission today. In my opinion AU: Ms. Rohr? ROHR: —I'm summing up now, please let me sum up. In my opinion — AU: Ina couple seconds. ROHR: —In my opinion, the Planning Department's failure to resolve intentional disruption of dedicated public access easements to the shoreline was governance at its worse. It disrespects the public, the County Council, and the rule of law. It undermines the public trust of their own government. This is not the end, thank you. 4 EXHIBIT A AU: Thank you Ms. Rohr for your testimony and at this time I'd like to take the second testifier in the Aupuni Center. Tracie? CAMERO: Thank you Chair. I have Jaeslee. AU: Welcome Jaeslee, please state your name and where you live. JAESLEE MEDEIROS-GARCIA: Hi, my name is Jaeslee Tayz Medeiros-Garcia and I live in the Big Island. I represent Makahanaloa Association shoreline and my mommy grew up over there and I want to learn what she got to learn. So,please don't take away the fishing association access. Thank you. AU: Thank you, Ms. Medeiros-Garcia, thank you for your time and thank you for your testimony. At this time, I'd like to take the next Zoom testifier. I believe it's Ronald Rudny. RUDNY: Aloha everyone. Actually, my first name is Donald. AU: Oh, sorry. RUDNY: That's okay. I just have a general comment about this same issue, and maybe even a little bit more. I live in Pepe`ekeo right now. We have lived here for over 12 years. Enjoy it very much. It's very beautiful here on the Hamakua Coast. One of the things I feel it's very important is that the citizens, the people, the residents here, especially those with families have reasonable and safe access to our shoreline. That's problematic here on the Hamakua Coast. Obviously, there's some developments that have interfered with it and I think it's incumbent upon and I'm talking to the Planning Commission now, but maybe they can relay my thoughts to the Planning Director and the Planning Department. We need your help. We really need you to be involved with the community. One of the things that I felt since I've been here. I've had involvement in government on the Mainland and I found the communication between the administration and the people has not been good, but it's at it's worse right now with the administration we have. So, I really would urge the Planning Commission to relay this to the administration and do whatever you can to get the Planning Department to work with the community in a number of issues that we have here on the Hamakua Coast. Whether it be shoreline access or complaints about junkyards and things of that nature. I found that,personally, I believe,just what I've seen that that there is a lack of response to the community, and I support these people who want to have reasonable and safe access for themselves and their families. So, thank you very much for letting me speak. AU: Thank you, Mr. Rudny for your time. Next testifier at the Aupuni Center is Debbie Nakasato. NAKASATO: Aloha kakahiaka. My name is Debbie Nakasato. I am from the Makahanaloa Fishing Association. I look at all of you, and I wonder which one of you will have a heart to listen to us. I'm here as the people. The people. We had someone come meet with us and we 5 EXHIBIT A heard her, and she made us believe that she was going to help us. We wanted so badly to believe that. I grew up on that shoreline. I fished on the shoreline. Throw net on the shoreline. I learned everything on that shoreline. We know every trail like the back of our hand. Blindfolded you can still find the trail. So why? Why do you move it? Why do you make us go where there's logs from Hu Honua? It's a fire hazard. Like why? Who in here can listen to us? Please, my mom fought this. Now I'm fighting this. Are my kids going to have to fight this too? That's not fair. We are the people. Our footsteps are there. The same footsteps our ancestors made. Listen to my voice. Enough is enough. Stop taking from us. Community zero. Developers 10 million. Please hear our voice. Enough already. Somebody on here, please have a heart. Let us keep what is ours, so we can still feed our families. Thank you. AU: Thank you Ms. Nakasato. At this time, I'd like to take our final testifier in the Zoom room. I believe it's Greg Vlasek, are you there? VLASEK: Aloha, good morning. I am here, I'm actually listening in as an applicant for item 2 on the agenda. So, I'm just listening at this point. Thank you. AU: Okay, so I believe Maija that we have no more Zoom testifiers? JACKSON: That's correct. AU: Okay, so I believe we have 3 more testifies at the Aupuni Center. So, at this time I'd like to call up Jaesrick-Lee Medeiros-Garcia. JAESRICK-LEE MEDEIROS-GARCIA: Hi my name is Jaesrick-Lee Medeiros-Garcia. I live on the Big Island. I live on the Big Island. Please don't take away our fish and access. We go down to throw a net, catch fish and feed our families. Please listen to my voice. Thank you. AU: Thank you, Mr. Medeiros-Garcia for your time. At this time, I'd like to call Starnani Matsumoto. Are you there at the Aupuni Center? MATSUMOTO: Hi, aloha, good morning. My name, Starnani Keomaka-Agres Matsumoto. My husband is with the Makahanaloa Fishing Association. I came here on his behalf. We just asking to please hear our voices. Open the access to the beach for our people. We moved up here 30 something years ago from Waianae. I raised my kids to go hunting, fishing to gather their own food from our island. I want that generation to continue for my grandkids and so on. So, all I'm asking is you guys to open the access to our beaches for our keiki's in the future. That's all I'm asking. Thank you. AU: Thank you Ms. Matsumoto for your time. At this time, I'd like to call the last testifier that we have, Blake McNaughton. Are you there? 6 EXHIBIT A MCNAUGHTON: Aloha kakou. Mahalo for your time. My name is Blake McNaughton. I'm the Vice President of Makahanaloa Fishing Association. I live in Kaupakuea which is an Ahupua`a, that's right down the road. Claudia did a good job of kind of outlaying the history behind this, but I just wanted to kind of set this in the context of this whole area. In 2005, the subdivisions were being developed and the County worked with the developer and work with the community and the community credit to them, they stood up and they demanded access be put in place. The community was promised 6 vehicular shoreline accesses down to the shoreline. They ended up with 2. The one that everybody's testifying about today is one of those accesses which has been blocked for 4 years. The other one is blocked as well. That's been blocked for about 8 years. So, you can see the frustration from these testifiers that this subdivision has not been done correctly. The County didn't receive that easement of access until 2011. People already had built in there by then. So, if this is landing in the Windward Commission's lap and I understand that a lot of you guys didn't work on this in the beginning, but we need to back up now and do this correctly. So, moving this one vehicular access that runs to the shoreline back and let me tell you, when it was blocked, it was blocked and there is no parking put in. In fact, no parking signs were put all around that area. We had to go in and put and make areas so that the public, not just our fishermen, but the public could access that area and the landowner has never, never done a good job of maintaining that access. They're responsible for maintaining the whole entire shoreline. You cannot walk that shoreline. So, we need some enforcement. We need the County to step up and enforce the laws that are already on the books. We're not asking you to do anything that's not correct. Okay,just to give you guys a little bit of some history of this place, because this is not just a random place. Okay, this leads to a fishing spot it's called Iron Posts by the guys but it's Lonoka`eho. Okay, Lonoka`eho was 8t'headed chief from Kahiki, from Tahiti and the story goes that he fought with Kane and Kanaloa, and he fought with Pa'ao the Navigator before he came over to Hawaii. Okay, at some point Lonoka`eho decided to come back from Kahiki and challenge Kamapua`a. Kamapua`a lives in one of his houses at Kahuku. Our hill above Pepe`ekeo and he came and challenged Kamapua`a. Kamapua`a destroyed him and turn them into stone and that's the stone that sits right on the edge of the fishing spot. As well as the name of the stream that comes out of that area and so these are story places. That cliff line is Kukuilaumania. It has a name; these places have history. This area was fished for generations and now we're getting stopped from accessing these areas in the proper way. Okay, so let's not let this happen and cut off thousands of years of our history. Okay, we knew this access for our community and for our fishermen to provide for their families. Mahalo for listening. AU: Thank you, Mr. McNaughton for attending. Thank you to all testifiers for coming and taking your time. I believe there's no more testifiers, but I'd like to ask my fellow Commissioners do you have any questions for any of the 9 testifiers that just testified? 7 EXHIBIT A This item ended at 9:42 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Melissa Dacayanan-Salvador, Secretary Windward Planning Commission 8 EXHIBIT A