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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2005-03-18 TNEXT PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAII HEARING TRANSCRIPT March 18, 2005 NEXT DESIGN, LLC (SMA 05-001) A regularly advertised hearing on the applicationwas called to order at 12:15 p.m. in the King Kamehameha's Kona Beach Hotel, Kamakahonu Ballroom, 75-5660 Palani Road, Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, with Chairman Fred Galdones presiding. PRESENT:Earl FujikawaABSENT & EXCUSED:Rene' Siracusa C. Kimo Alameda William Graham Jeffrey McCall Francis Smith HannahSpringer Fred Galdones Ivan Torigoe, 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 14 people from the public in attendance. APPLICANT: NEXT DESIGN, LLC (SMA 05-001) Special Management Area Use Permit application to allow the establishment of a restaurant (Kentucky Fried Chicken) on 18,997 square feet of land. The property is the former Chevron service station site located at the northwestern corner of the Palani Road  Kuakini Highway intersection, Kailua-Kona, North Kona, Hawaii, TMK: 7-5-5:61. GALDONES:Commissioners we are on agenda item number 8. Applicant is Next Design, LLC (SMA 05-001). This is a Special Management Area Use Permit application to allow the establishment of a restaurant (Kentucky Fried Chicken) on 18,997 square feet of land. Norman. HAYASHI:Thank you Mr. Chair. First of all to the overall location map. The subject property is situated at this particular location at the corner of Kuakini Highway and Palani Road. All of you probably are familiar with this particular property that previously housed the Chevron Service Station which has since been moved- since has been demolished. King Kamehameha Hotel is situated at this location. The applicant is- intends to construct a 3,000 + square foot, 1 EXHIBIT F story building which would house the Kentucky Fried Chicken Restaurant. It will include the indoor as well as outdoor dining and it will also have a drive through. Access to the property- primary access to the property would be from Palani Road at the lower portion closer towards the hotel. This would be both ingress and egress. There will also be a- also a driveway that leads out, right turn only from the property to Kuakini Highway. The property also would include several areas for parking- several parking stalls meeting the code requirement. It€ll be constructed by the end of this year or early 2006 at an estimated cost of 2 million dollars. The Planning Director is recommending approval of this particular request with conditions. We also received a recent correspondence from the Kona Traffic Safety Committee expressing some of their concerns. One of the concern was to make sure that there€s adequate- concern relative to the expansion of, or widening of Kuakini Highway. And just talking to Mr. Emler from the Department of Public Works, the right-of-way has been- would be taken from the mauka side of the prop- of the highway rather than the- affecting the subject property. Is that correct? EMLER:Justtoclarify.Ibelievethere€salreadyan80footwiderightofway which is consistent with the- the balance of Kuakini which is under improvement construction right now. There would be no improvement widening on the project- on the Nextel project side of Kuakini. The sidewalk that is already there existing is already on the property line so they would not have to widen Kuakini to this side in the sense of the improvements that would be necessary. All improvements for widening the roadway to install additional lane-age would occur on the other side of the road. HAYASHI:Okay, thanks for the clarification. With that, are there any questions? GALDONES:Commissioners are there any questions? Commissioner Springer. SPRINGER:Thank you. Do I understand correctly that it€s right turn only off of and onto Kuakini Highway? HAYASHI:Yes from the property there would be right turn out only. SPRINGER:Okay. And right turn in only? HAYASHI:There would be no ingress from this particular section. SPRINGER:Exit only. HAYASHI:Yeah. SPRINGER:And on the- I guess it€s the Palani Road entrance- is there left- are left turns permissible off of Palani Road? HAYASHI:They could- there€s no restriction as far as this- their proposal is concerned nor are we restricting that by our conditions so they can go either direction. SPRINGER:And- does Public Works agree with that left turn in and out of the facility? 2 EMLER:I think that Public Works did not examine that issue of- off of Palani Road for the reason that this was a pre-existing development. There is very little other choice. Also lately on several applications we€ve been told that improvements regarding traffic would not be considered applicable to the Special Management Area criteria. So I didn€t examine that in particular by say doing traffic counts at that intersection to see if- or at that driveway approach to see if a left turn lane would be necessary. I- I would say that- off the top of my head one would be good if we have an appropriate width to install one at that location. SPRINGER:Question. How many feet is it from the intersection of- of Palani and Kuakini to the proposed driveway on Kuakini? EMLER:Are you asking me? SPRINGER:I€maskinganyonewhocananswer. Anapproximationwouldbefine. Maybewhilewe€rewaitingforthatMr.Chair-ifIcouldasktheDirector-Iunderstandthatwith the SMA we work under the constraints of the Topliss decision but that€s a highly congested area so I€m wondering how we should take into our consideration the known traffic conditions there? YUEN:Well as we€ve discussed before- you can only condition traffic to the extent that it touches upon other issues with the SMA. As Commissioner Graham mentioned one time if you- if you were creating a problem such that people couldn€t even get to the ocean- if you were potentially displacing parking places that the public used to get to the- to go to the beach. You were- would cause a problem with the tsunami evacuation- all those kinds of things could tie into the SMA. But your garden- your typical traffic issues are not going to rise to that level of problem or extent. Now, but it doesn€t mean that- so- so we would not put the condition in the SMA permit. That doesn€t mean that there is absolutely no handle. There- a project like this has to go through something called plan approval. Anything outside of single family zones goes through plan approval. One of the- one of the requirements of plan approval is that it€s as at an existing traffic movements would not be hindered or obstructed or something like that. So, we have required some improvements in certain situations on plan approval but we- we don€t push it that far. Let€s- let€s put it that way. Because it€s a property or zone- we have a year€s plan approval to make really major kinds of changes or improvements. But we- we have done some things at the plan approval stage. SPRINGER:But when the service station was there- there were 2 entrances off of- off of Kuakini Highway so- or it was a very large entrance that you could drive into the gas pumps- facing either direction. I€m wondering though in the years that the site has not been in use traffic has increased tremendously. Is it possible to consider anyway for discussion on the Kuakini entrance that it be right turn only in and out and just- just have all incoming/outgoing traffic be right turns only? YUEN:I wouldn€t suggest doing that at SMA permit. We- we as Planning 3 Department staff and Public Works have got to look at this at plan approval. We already have discussed some things that we were going to put on plan approval. But because of the reasons that I mentioned earlier, I wouldn€t put it on the SMA. SPRINGER:Might you consider that at plan approval? YUEN:Mr. Emler is listening and we€ve made a commitment that we would route plan approval through Public Works in Kona to comment. It€s going to still be a Planning Department decision how far we can go on- on plan approval for property that has existing accesses and- and approvals. They have a left turn off of Palani on the gas station too didn€t they? SPRINGER:Yeah they did. EMLER:Yes.It€sapproximatelyahundredfeet.I€msorryittooksolongbutthe scale is not correct the way they€ve got it on there so- I had a hard time understanding why I wasn€t getting something that made sense. SPRINGER:Okay. Thank- thank you all. GALDONES:Any further questions? Commissioner McCall. MCCALL:If I€m not mistaken the- the gas station had a SMA permit it wasn€t grandfathered in- or- or well would I be right in assuming that- that another gas station could be put on this property without- without a permit? Or would it need to come here for a- an additional SMA permit? HAYASHI:Since the facility has been demolished they would have to come in for a new special permit- I mean a SMA permit for a gas station also. If they had retained that facility then they could have just continued the use provided that they- it wasn€t discontinued for a period of more than 1 year. GALDONES:Any other questions? Seeing none will the applicant or its representative please come forward? Hi, Mr. Fuke. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth on this matter now before the Hawaii County Planning Commission? FUKE:I do. GALDONES:Mr. Fuke, could you please state your name and residence address. FUKE:Sure. Good afternoon. My name is Sydney Fuke, I€m a planning consultant. My residence address is 1358 Mililani Street in Hilo. With me today is- is the applicant Mr. Stanford Lee, he€s the architect- the principal architect for Next Design and- that has the contract to do the Kentucky franchise- Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise. The background report and the staff€s recommendation were reviewed by the applicant and found them to be acceptable. I€d like to just take a moment to kind of briefly explain you know- I 4 guess CommissionerHannah Springer€s comments about the traffic- the circulation system in that area. When the service station was in operation they actually had- and you€re very familiar probably- they had 3 driveway points. They had 1 along Kuakini Highway and they had 2 along Palani Road. Palani Road- whether you call it Palani or the extension of Alii Drive- I just don€t know which. So when the applicant- the designer looked at the property they- what they wanted to do was to address that issue and try to minimize the- the- the impact- you know to the- the flow in that general area while still having the- the franchise, the Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise in that area. So what they did was, initially decided to terminate the access closest to the intersection, which would be at Kuakini and Palani Road and locate the access as far makai as possible. They wanted to do the full movement at that particular area because having full movements on the Kuakini Highway end would be more problematic. The- if you visualize the situation as you- if you get into that area by a car if you€re traveling makai you know- basically you€re going to be making a right turn movement so it€s really like- does not provide too much of an interference. It€s the out bound from the facility that could become problematic and so the outboundwhat-whatwas-whattheyhadlookedatisthatbyallowingtheoutbound,rightturn only on Kuakini minimizes the kind of conflict that you would find possibly along Palani making a left turn over there. And so that€s- that€s the strategy behind that. Bearing in mind also that this- this facility is not like how the former facility which- which was very automobile dominant. This is more like- you know you€re going to have people driving in but yet at the same time given the- the resort complexion in that area you€ll have a lot of walk traffic- pedestrian traffic as well. And so, this is why you know the- the franchise felt like it would be a very appropriate use in this particular area. There was also concern raised by the staff and we provided information earlier that because it was a former gas station- service station as well, whether the property was properly remediated and it was properly remediated and we provided that documentation to your staff. GALDONES:Thank you Mr. Fuke. Commissioners any questions of Mr. Fuke. Commissioner Fujikawa. FUJIKAWA:Sid, you were saying that there will be right turn only from- on Kuakini side and down by the Alii Drive side. Are they going to allow left turn? FUKE:The plan- the plan as proposed is like only- you have a right turn out bound -. FUJIKAWA:Right. FUKE:On Kuakini. And then you would have full movements on the Palani side. FUJIKAWA:But, Ki on the Alii Drive side, isn€t there a double yellow line all the way down- you can€t cross over? So that would be opposite of the- what hotel is that Seaside entry? EMLER:There€s no prohibition from crossing a double-yellow line for turning into a facility. As far as turning left from- from Palani Road or Alii Drive whichever you choose to call it- I think you know if you were looking at a left turn location, that particular location whether in traffic or in a separate lane probably would not make a lot of difference because 5 traffic is slow on Alii Drive in general, especially in that area and people expect delays. And- the one thing I might be concerned about is how fast people are coming down and that could be a problem. FUJIKAWA:Okay, thank you. GALDONES:Further discussions or comments? Hearing none is there anyone here from the public to testify on the subject matter now before the Hawaii County Planning Commission? Seeing none. Commissioner Springer. SPRINGER:Thank you I almost forgot I€m looking at the transmittal from the Kailua Village Design Commission Meeting and I€m wondering if the applicant is going with a single story proposal? FUKE:Itisasinglestory,correct. SPRINGER:Thankyou. GALDONES:Seeingthattherearenoonefromthepublictotestify-therebenofurther comments or questions from the Commissioners. Mr. Fuke do you have any closing comments. FUKE:No, I don€t. GALDONES:Okay. Commissioners it comes with a recommendation from the Planning Director for approval by the Planning Commission. Commissioner Alameda. ALAMEDA:I€d like to make a motion that we- for Special Management Area Permit SMA 05-001, that we accept. FUJIKAWA:I second. GALDONES:It has been moved by Commissioner Alameda, seconded by Commissioner Fujikawa that the application by NEXT DESIGN, LLC, Special Management Area Use Permit SMA 05-001 along with the background report and the recommendations be approved by the Planning Commission. Further discussion? Hearing none, Norman. HAYASHI:Commissioner Alameda. ALAMEDA:Aye. HAYASHI:Commissioner Fujikawa. FUJIKAWA:Aye. HAYASHI:Commissioner Graham. 6 GRAHAM:Aye. HAYASHI:Commissioner McCall. MCCALL:Aye. HAYASHI:Commissioner Smith. SMITH:Aye. HAYASHI:Commissioner Springer. SPRINGER:Yes. HAYASHI:ChairGaldones. GALDONES:Aye. HAYASHI:Motioncarries. GALDONES:ThanksNorman.Mr.Fukeyouwillbeinformedinwritingoftoday€s actions. FUKE:Thank you very much. GALDONES:You€re welcome. The discussion ended at 12:36 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Lynette Sanemitsu, West Hawai€i Secretary 7