Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2003-03-07 tkic PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAI`I HEARING TRANSCRIPT March 7, 2003 A regularly advertised public hearing on the application of KAMEHAMEHA was called to order at 12:05 p.m. in INVESTMENT CORPORATION (SMA 02-007) the King Kamehameha's Kona Beach Hotel, Ballroom IV, 75-5660 Pal Kona, Hawai`i, with Vice Chairperson Hannah Springer presiding. PRESENT:Hannah SpringerABSENT & EXCUSED: Fred Galdones Jeffrey McCallEarl Fujikawa Geraldine M. GiffinFlorence Kubota Aurelio Mina, Jr. Francis Smith Bill P. Thibadeau Ivan Torigoe, Deputy Corporation Counsel Christopher J. Yuen, Planning Director Norman Hayashi, Staff Planner Phyllis Fujimoto, Staff Planner Daryn Arai, Staff Planner Norren Kato, Staff Planner Kiran Emler representing Department of Public Works With no one from the public in attendance. APPLICANT: KAMEHAMEHA INVESTMENT CORPORATION (SMA 02-007) - Application for a Special Management Area Use Permit to allow th multiple family residential units and related improvements. The intersection and bordering AliÒi Drive and the proposed Kahului-Keauhou Parkway, west of the Keauhou Village Shopping Center and northeast of Keauhou Kona Surf & Racquet Club and Keauhou Gardens condominium project, KahaluÒu and Keauh Kona, HawaiÒi, TMK: 7-8-10:Portions of 35 and 93. SPRINGER:Thank you. Members, weÓre now moving on to Agenda Item The Applicant is Kamehameha Investment Corporation and itÓs SMA 02-007, an Application for a Special Management Area Use Permit to allow th 200 multiple family residential units and related improvements. The property is located at the intersection bordering Ali`i Drive and the proposed Kahului-Keauhou Parkway, west of the Keauhou Village Shopping Center and northeast of the Keauhou Kona Surf & st Racquet Club and Keauhou Gardens Condominium project, Kahalu`u and Keauhou 1, North Kona, Hawai`i. The Tax Map Key is 7-8 (thatÓs a correction to what you have before you), 7-8-10:Portions of 35 and 93. Thank you. Staff? EXHIBIT C HAYASHI:Thank you, Madam Chair. The Applicant is requesting to develop a 200 unit condominium project or multiple residential project o which is situated at the corner of Ali`i Drive and the proposed Kahului-Keauhou Parkway, or formerly referred to as Ali`i Highway. Just as a matter of orientation, this is Kuakini Highway leading south, Kamehameha III Road, and this is property is located in this location at the corner of the, again, Kahului-Keauhou Parkway and Ali`i Drive intersection. The Keauhou Shopping Center is located in this general location. Other land uses in the area or existing uses in the area includes the Ohana- Keauhou Beach Hotel, the former Kona Lagoon Hotel, which is curr several condominium projects. The Keauhou Golf, Kona Country Club Golf Course is located in this general configuration. Just as a matter of orientation, also, this is Makolea Road that stubs out through the proposed Kahului-Keauhou Parkway. And the reason why I mentioned that, there is reference to that particular roadway in one of the letters that we received from a concerned citizen. The proposed project will consist of a number of one-, two- and three-story structures, housing which would be for the multiple residential dwellings, u residential dwellings. The other size of the units would be approximately 1,100 square feet. The Applicant, the Petitioner, intends to develop the property as soon as it receives approval of this SMA Use Permit application and receipt of development financing. The overall cost of the development is estimated to be at $35 millio Just as a matter of orientation, also, between the subject property and Ali`i Drive, there is the Great Wall of Kuakini. This particular wall and the lower p and Ali`i Drive will be placed into the adjacent archeological preserve, that is the lands currently owned by Kamehameha Investment Corporation. Staff is recommending that the SMA Use Permit be approved with several conditions. And we did present this, I believe, early enough for you to review, so IÓll dispense with the reading of the proposed conditions. Are there any questions also had a letter for, a request for contested case hearing by John Tapocik dated, which was received on December 18, 2002 through the petitionerÓs representative, Carlsmith Ball. Since there was no filing fee attached to the request for intervention, we had sent a letter to Mr. Tapocik to submit the requested filing fee. The letter that we sent to the address that was noted in his petition was returned to us as being unclaimed. We also then sent the letter back to him to a California address. To this date, we have not received any correspondences or the filing fee from Mr. Tapocik. So we determined that that petition is not valid and not timely. We also received a letter from a Mr. Dale Jesse concerning, expressing their concerns about the project accessing off of Makolea Street. Again, as I indicated to you, the 2 project site is generally in this configuration. This is the proposed Kahului-Keauhou Parkway, and this is Ali`i Drive. Makolea Street is in this general location, this is Makolea Street. Now on this map here, the project is here. Makolea Street in relationship to this map, Makolea Street will probably be in this general location. So definitely access will not be, from this project will not be dir Street. And the Applicant has also sent a letter to Mr. Jesse to clarify that issue. SPRINGER:Thank you, Norman. Commissioners, any questions of the staff? At this point, will the Applicant or his representative, please come forward? And at this time, we have not received any requests from the public to testify at this time. I would ask if there are any members of the public who would like to testify to please indicate so at this time. Okay, continuing on, then, if you gentlemen at the table could please raise your right hands. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth on this matter County Planning Commission? TESTIFIERS:I do. SPRINGER:Thank you. If you could give your names and your residential address, starting with the gentleman on our right, please? ROCHA:My name is John Rocha. I donÓt know my street address. I Walua Road but I donÓt know the number. My mailing address is P Kealakekua. SPRINGER:Thank you. Mr. Lim? LIM:IÓm Steven Lim from Carlsmith Ball, 121 Waianuenue Avenue, Hilo, Hawaii. SPRINGER:Thank you. Did you receive the Planning DepartmentÓs Background Report and Recommendations? LIM:Yes, we did. SPRINGER:Okay. And if you would care, then, to make any comments, weÓre ready to hear them. LIM:No technical comments. We have some comment on one of the conditions relating to the roadway improvements, but IÓll get to that during our presentation. SPRINGER:Okay. Thank you. You may proceed with the presentatio 3 LIM:Okay. Thank you. Madam Chair and Members of the Planning Commission, Steven Lim on behalf of Kamehameha Investment Corporation. As you can see, weÓve got Royden Yamasato joining us today at the video table. This is a small effort on our part to offer and inform and to entertain the Planning Commission on this application. ItÓs first time for Royden and myself, so, weÓd please ask you to be gentle. Go ahead, Royden. The project district, and if you want to know, a lot of these graphics were obtained off of the web or the County of Hawai`iÓs web and, so, we have a lot of graphics available to us. And weÓre going to try to, you know, do our best on this first presentation. Hopefully, theyÓll get better over time. But the project is located in North Kona at Keauhou. YouÓve been to the project site and passed it many times. ItÓs within the County of Hawai`iÓs Council District No. 7; and youÓll see a crown, that will be the approximate location of the project site in each of these slides. The current Council person representing this district is Mr. Joseph Reynolds. The subject project is comprised of what we call, primarily, KIC Parcel 14-C. And if you have ever driven down Kamehameha IV Road and gone down pass the Shopping Center, taken a right and gone to that traffic light to nowhere, thatÓs where the project site is. And itÓs between there, which is the current Parkway location, and the Ali`i Highway. The County of Hawai`i General Plan LUPAG map for the whole island as shown in this slide and the particular enlarged portion of the LUPAG map showing that the project site is located approximately within the Medium Density Urban District, is shown here. The proposed County General Plan being processed by the County Council at this point is shown on the next slide. And the project area and the areas around there are being proposed for whatÓs being called a new classification called ÐResort Node,Ñ which is intended to show the major resort areas. The zoning for the subject property is RM-3; and, as you can see from the enlarged view of the County departmental map, this is basically an in-field project. We have had the zoning for numerous years; and it is just now that the market has been picking up, so weÓre processing the development. Essentially what weÓve asked for is up to, development of 200 multiple-family units. WeÓve been talking about the size being approximately 1,100. I think as weÓve gone through the development process and seeing the market evolve, what weÓre coming to see is that perhaps, instead of many smaller connected units, weÓre going to be looking more towards possibly nine or ten larger buildings, which would incre viewplanes through the project property. As you can see from the slide showing the building elevations, the top elevation on these buildings is 36 feet, which is still another 10 feet lower than the permitted height in the district. We expect that these buildings will be developed along approximately three 4 different levels along the property. We wonÓt be filling so we the land goes down. The project entrance is going to be off of Ali`i Drive. And if you take it from the Parkway alignment and all the way down to the bottom of Ali`i Drive, it will be approximately half way from the site. And weÓve mentioned 8- or 900 feet in the application; and as we got closer into the civil drawings, itÓs more like 500 feet. The County roadway system was discussed by Mr. Hayashi. And, essentially, the thing that will assist greatly in traffic circulation for this project project. I heard at the Land Use Commission hearing yesterday from Nancy Burns, whoÓs the CountyÓs contracted engineer, that theyÓre putting that southern portion of the project, which is just adjacent to this site. I think, theyÓre expecting the bids back next week. Is that correct, Ki? EMLER:Well, they expect it shortly. LIM:Okay, but itÓs very close and theyÓre moving quickly on that project. So this is a rendition of one of the, the intersection at the new Ali`i Highway and old Ali`i Highway, I guess the Parkway and the Ali`i Highway. These are photos of the makai portion of the site. WeÓre driving towards the south, fronting approximately the Kona Surf and Racquet Club. The subject property is to our left. This is the view in the, somewhat mauka direction as youÓre going up towards the traffic light; the subject property on our left, also. The Keauhou Shopping Center is those buildings that you can see up there in the distance on the top. This is going the other way, going in the northerly direction towards the Ohana Keauhou Beach Hotel with the subject property and the Kona Gardens site on your right. This is the view of the subject property from the, essentially by the corner where Ali`i Drive starts to go uphill; and itÓs looking towards the subject property. And Kona Surf and Racquet Club is on the left. This is a view from the top down towards the subject property towards the -, and you can see the Kona Surf and Racquet Club buildings in the background there. ItÓs relatively flat; and this is a picture taken from the Keauhou Shopping Center. So you can see that thereÓs quite a difference in grade going down towards the ocean As you know, the Keauhou and Kahaluu area is rich with archaeological sites. Back in 1974, the area that the subject property is and right around the whole Kahaluu Bay area up towards, mauka towards the Kamehameha III Road was placed on 5 Register of Historic Places. It was also placed in the State Register of Historic Places; but because it was done without the concurrence of the landowner, it was removed. But itÓs still is on the National Register of Historic Places. The reason for placing it on the National Register was because of the proliferation of many heiaus at Kahaluu, especially. For purposes of the compliance of the project with HRS Chapter 343, an environmental assessment was processed and was accepted. The finding of no significant impact was issued by the Planning Department in January of this year and the FONSI was published th in the OEQC Bulletin on February 8 of 2003. The cultural sites within the property are, we just passed out an exhibit to you which is the February 13, 2003 State Historic Preservation letter to Kamehameha Investment Corporation which gives the final comments on the preservation plan and the data recovery plan. Essentially what theyÓre making findings on is that the only site to be preserved is Site No. 7828, which if you look on the, which is the habitation complex and which if you look on the project plans, you can see that thereÓs a preserved site. ItÓll be located as you go into the project site on the left-hand side, right next to the entrance way. As you probably have heard in prior presentations by KIC, they have a Keauhou Cultural Advisory Committee made up of numerous kupuna from the area. And what they do as a standard practice is to pass these development projects and their scenarios through the Cultural Advisory Committee for their review and comment. What on with the kupuna are, is a Keauhou Resort Master Trailways Plan. And what the graphic is intending to show is there are some minor footpaths that are located within the subject property that DLNR State Historic Preservation has said that we can data recover and remove. What the Cultural Advisory Committee is striving to accomplish is to create mauka-makai connectors. In this particular case, theyÓre trying to keep intact the functional use of the Makolea Trail, which is located where you can see the dotted lines there. ItÓs off the subject property where the actual alignment of Makolea Trial is. But what they intend to do is to bring it from the Ali`i Drive in the mauka direction, take it in the southerly direction till they reach near this subject property. And because of the Parkway project, thereÓs going to be a culvert that goes under the highway. The Cultural Advisory Committee has recommended that we take the Makolea Trail under the highway, and then above the alignment, then back in the northerly direction, then following it back up through the original alignment of the Makolea Trail. So theyÓve tried to keep intact the, at least the functional use of these trails. This particular Makolea Trail will go further mauka until it hits the old railroad right-of-way, which is intended to also be a public access that will go laterally across the mountain. So we would respectfully request that the Planning Commission favorably, grant a favorable recommendation and an approval on this Special Managem Permit; and we are open for any questions. SPRINGER:Commissioners, any questions of Mr. Lim or Mr. Rocha? I have a comment, if I may, on page 28 of the SMA permit application, Section 9 on the flora. This synopsis indicates a relatively sparse vegetation and doesnÓt bring to our attention 6 the number of native species that are listed for us in Exhibit 1 and, in particular with regard to the Maiapilo, the Ma`o, the Ilima, and those native species that are listed in Exhibit 1. I would hope that every care and thought would be given to utilize them where possible. LIM:Thank you. I think that that has always been KICÓs intent. They have a landscaping plan which youÓve heard of before where they try to implement as many endemic species as possible and native plants. SPRINGER:Thank you, Steve. Members, any questions or comments? have no one that has arrived from the public. IÓd like to take this last opportunity for any Commissioners to have any questions, or comments responded to by the Applicant. None? Is there a motion? YUEN:I just wanted to mention, though -. SPRINGER:Director Yuen. YUEN:That this is not a change; but itÓs apparent from the letter from SHPD that there are some unresolved historic site issues that we will have to resolve in the process of approving the Historic Preservation Plan. GIFFIN:I thought that that was covered in one of the conditions, Mr. Yuen. YUEN:That is covered by Condition 10. I just wanted to mention that at this time. GIFFIN:Okay. Madam Chair, I had a question. Like the Chair, I was concerned about the date of the Phillip Bruner report. Nothing else more recent besides, you know, between 1988 and now, Mr. Lim? LIM:No more recent report. I guess I would expect that unless there was some importation of soil from someplace else, we probably wo that was at least native species. I did have one comment on the conditions if youÓd like to hear now. SPRINGER:Yes, please. LIM:And this goes to the PetitionerÓs Exhibits 8 and 9, which, essentially what happened was during the initial SMA hearing for the, what was now, what was then called the Ali`i Highway, we participated because we were an affected landowner -. And our concern at the Kamehameha Investment Corporation was to make sure that we had adequate access intersections to our various la you see in Exhibits 8 and 9 are the letters from myself to the County and a letter back 7 from the County Department of Public Works agreeing to the intersections proposed. And primarily what we had agreed to was that, for purposes of this project area, there would be one located along the Parkway on the north end of the project; and that would be the secondary access to the project. What was also agreed to was that responsibility for the cost of design and construction would be later worked out with the Department of Public Works and the Applicant. That was pursued with us; and we had pursued it to a certain point with the prior Public WorksÓ Director, Dennis Lee. He left and, so, now we have to restart the process through Mr. Bruce McClure. It relates to proposed Condition No. 9. And I would request that in order to keep the ability of the Applicant to negotiate with the Department of Public Works on the cost of the improvements, that we modify a portion and that would be the sentence thatÓs the, itÓs about nine or ten lines down. It starts with ÐA left turn lane on the Kahului-Keauhou Parkway shall be provided at any proposed entry to the development.Ñ And I would suggest the change that says, Ðand responsibility for the cost of design and construction for all intersection improvements shall be determined between the Applicant and the Department of Public Works.Ñ What it does for the Applicant, it leaves that issue open. If in the end Public Works feels that, you know, they donÓt want, theyÓre not paying for anything and we have to pay it all and if we want another development, then thatÓs what weÓve got to do. But at least it gives us the, you know, it keeps the status quo in terms of our agreement with Public Works. So that would be my suggested change. SPRINGER:Director Yuen, do you have any comments on that? YUEN:I think, I wonder, Ki, have you been involved in this issue at all, who pays for what? EMLER:ItÓs really not mine. YUEN:At a different level? EMLER:Yes. YUEN:Okay. I think based on what Mr. Lim has said that I would the wording to be that a left-turn on the Kahului-Keauhou Parkway shall be provided by the Applicant at any, at the ApplicantÓs expense unless, otherwise, agreed by the Department of Public Works, at any proposed entry to the development. ThatÓs what you just said. LIM:Right, itÓs saying it in another way. As long as itÓs -. YUEN:In other words, if they insist. LIM:Okay. I donÓt want to waive any of our rights to negotiate these issues; and so, so long as thatÓs the understanding, then thatÓs fine. 8 YUEN:Okay. I would suggest my proposed wording. SPRINGER:Okay, then could you repeat that proposed wording and where to insert it, please? YUEN:This would be that line about half way down, paragraph 9. would say, ÐA left-turn lane on the Kahului-Keauhou Parkway,Ñ shall be provided by the Applicant, unless otherwise, shall be, I think it should say shall be, no, you know what, we need, there definitely has to be a left-turn lane, Ðshall be provided, and shall be paid for by the Applicant unless otherwise agreed by the Department of Public Works, at any proposed entry to the development.Ñ SPRINGER:Does everybody have that? Thank you. Mr. Lim, any further comments? LIM:Nothing further. SPRINGER:Members, any additional questions or comments either to Applicant or to staff? May I have a motion, please? GIFFIN:Madam Chair? SPRINGER:Commissioner Giffin? GIFFIN:I move that the Special Management Area Use Permit, SMA 02-007, be approved, along with the Background Report and the conditions as stated by our Planning Department and our Director, along with the proposed amendment to Condition No. 9 as read by the Director. SPRINGER:Thank you. Is there a second? MINA:Second. SPRINGER:Thank you. ThatÓs a motion by Commissioner Giffin and the second by Commissioner Mina. Is there any discussion? If none, Norman, can we have roll call, please? HAYASHI:Commissioner Giffin? GIFFIN:Aye. HAYASHI:Commissioner Mina? MINA:Aye. 9 HAYASHI:Commissioner Smith? SMITH:Aye. HAYASHI:Commissioner Thibadeau? THIBADEAU:Aye. HAYASHI:Commissioner McCall? MCCALL:Aye. HAYASHI:Chair Springer? SPRINGER:Yes. HAYASHI:Motion carries. SPRINGER:Thank you. Mr. Lim, youÓll be, of course, be informed of our decision today. Thank you. LIM:On behalf of KIC, thank you very much. SPRINGER:YouÓre welcome. The discussion ended at 12:35 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Sharon M. Nomura, Secretary 10