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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2005-04-01 TVOLCANO PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAII HEARING TRANSCRIPT APRIL 1, 2004 A regularly advertised hearing on the application of VOLCANO ASSEMBLY OF GOD (SPP 04-019) was called to order at 11:00 a.m. in the County Building, Councilroom - Room 201, 25 Aupuni Street, Hilo, Hawaii, with Second Vice-Chairman Hannah Springer presiding. PRESENT:Hannah Springer ABSENT & EXCUSED: Fred Galdones C. Kimo Alameda Bill Graham Andrew Iwashita Jeffrey McCall Allen Salavea Rene€Siracusa Rodney Watanabe Ivan Torigoe, Deputy Corporation Counsel Christopher J. Yuen, Planning Director Norman Hayashi, Planning Program Manager Phyllis Fujimoto, Staff Planner Jeff Darrow, Staff Planner And approximately 28 people from the public in attendance. APPLICANT: VOLCANO ASSEMBLY OF GOD (SPP 04-019) Special Permit to allow the establishment of a church and related activities on approximately 1.5 acres of land situated in the State Land Use Agricultural District. The property is located on the corner of Wright Road and Road A, adjacent to and northwest of Volcano Cymbidium Acres Subdivision in Volcano, Puna, Hawaii, TMK: 1-9-1: portion of 45. SPRINGER:Commissioners, staff, and members of the public, we€re now on Agenda Item No. 5. The Applicant is Volcano Assembly of God (SPP 04-019), a Special Permit to allow the establishment of a church and related activities on approximately 1.5 acres of land situated in the State Land Use Agricultural District. The property is located on the corner of Wright Road and Road A, adjacent to and northwest of Volcano Cymbidium Acres Subdivision in Volcano, Puna, HawaiŸi, TMK: 1-9-1:portion of 45. Norman? HAYASHI:Thank you, Madam Chair. Again, to the presentation map, the subject property is located with this red dot. It is situated along the northeast side of EXHIBIT D Wright Road. This would be the HawaiŸi Belt Road leading towards KaŸu and this would be towards the Hilo direction. This would be Wright Road going in a mauka-makai direction; and the Volcano Store is situated at this particular corner, which is a street over which is Haunani Road. The Volcano Cymbidium Acres Subdivision is located at this particular location. These are smaller sized lots which are 20,000 square feet. These are non-conforming lots within the State Land Use Agricultural District. The Applicant intends to construct and, establish and construct a church on the subject property. It is a 3.5-acre property, of which the Applicant would like to utilize 1.5 acres for the church. Access would be off of Wright Road which has a, which is a County road, a 50-foot right-of-way with a 20-foot wide pavement. Thepropertyiscurrentlyvacant,althoughtheportionofthepropertythatisproposedfor the church has been cleared by the Applicant, and maintained and cleared. The remaining property is vegetated with, would be vacant. The Applicant, the proposed facility would be approximately 2,800 square feet in size which would be used for the church, as well as church offices, as well as some of the classrooms for Sunday school and restroom. The facility will be utilized on Sundays. Services which would be held from, well, first of all, the Sunday school would start at 9:30 to 10 o€clock and after that at 10:15 Sunday services would resume from 10:15 to 12 o€clock. On occasion, the property would also be utilized for special events, such as weddings and funerals. There are a couple of dwellings in the immediate vicinity, one would be the property immediately to the rear of the subject property off of Road A; and this would be Road A. Road A is a private roadway. The dwelling is located at this particular location. There€s also, according to the County building permit records, a dwelling across of Wright Road, across of the property along Wright Road, although when we did do the site visitation because of the vegetation we couldn€t see the dwelling. Again, the property is approximately one mile from the Old Volcano Road-Wright Road intersection. We are recommending approval of the Special Permit request. Are there any questions at this time? SPRINGER:Commissioners? I have one, Norman. There was a Request for Standing in a Contested Case and the filing fee was not included in that. Was there any follow-up from that individual? HAYASHI:As far as, we did send a letter to the Applicant, I mean, excuse me, to the person that filed the Petition. They did respond with a subsequent letter. Basically what they wanted to do was just state their opposition to the Petition. So then they have not followed up with their initial Petition for Standing. 2 SPRINGER:Thank you, Norman. Again, Commissioners, any questions of the staff? Seeing none at this time, will the Applicant or the Applicant€s representative please come forward. SALAVEA:Madam Chair, before we continue, can I clarify for the record -. I do have conflict of interest with this agenda item and I would like to recuse myself from participating in this particular request. Should I clarify? SPRINGER:If you could, please. SALAVEA:Sure. My in-laws are members of the church and myself, my wife and myself frequently attend services there, and my father-in-law is the draft person for the building. So that€s where my conflict originates. SPRINGER:Thankyouforexplainingthattous.Mr.Torigoe,isthatproper action at this time? TORIGOE:Thank you, Madam Chairman. Commissioner Salavea, do you have any kind of substantial financial interest in the church, you or your wife? SALAVEA:No, but we do tithe to the church. I€m not sure if that, that qualifies. TORIGOE:Okay. This is one of those, it€s kind of borderline. Because ordinarily, unless you have some kind of substantial financial interest in the subject matter, it€s not really required under the Ethics Code that your recuse yourself. However, the County Charter does basically say that the Ethics Code is a minimum standard for ethical conduct, and that officers and employees should demonstrate the highest standard of ethical conduct so that the public may have trust and confidence in the integrity of government. And, so, given the rather apparent family ties that you have, I think it would be appropriate to recognize your recusal, if that€s what you desire to do. SALAVEA:Yes, I do. SPRINGER:Thank you, Commissioner Salavea. Thank you, Counsel Torigoe. In addition to the Applicant and their representative, any member of the public who wishes to testify on this agenda item will be sworn in at this time. I now have four names before me, Peter Serafin, Michael McKenney, Betsy Mitchell, Susan Bryant. If there is any other member of the public who wishes to testify, could you be sworn in at this time, please. Can you all please raise your right hands. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth on this matter now before the HawaiŸi County Planning Commission? TESTIFIERS:I do. 3 SPRINGER:Thank you all. Beginning with the Applicant and the Applicant€s representative, could you please state your name and your residence address and proceed, speaking directly into the microphone. Beginning with you, ma€am? BRYANT:My name is Susan Bryant. I am the daughter of the Applicant. I have handled all of the permit application. SPRINGER:And your address, please? BRYANT:Post Office Box 157, Volcano, HawaiŸi. SPRINGER:Thank you. And, you, sir? MATHISON:My name is Orville Mathison, Post Office Box 745, Volcano. SPRINGER:Thank you, sir. Have you received the Planning Department€s BackgroundReportandRecommendation? MATHISON:Yes,wehave. SPRINGER:Doyouhaveanycommentstomakeforusatthistime? MATHISON:I€ll be free with what I read. SPRINGER:Thank you, sir. Ma€am? BRYANT:No. SPRINGERCommissioners, do you have any questions of the Applicant? Commissioner Siracusa? SIRACUSA:We have a letter from the Volcano Cymbidium Acres Road Maintenance Corporation referring to Road A and the fact that they have been maintaining it exclusively since incorporation about 10 years ago. They would, it seems that they would like to make sure that the public accesses your property via Wright Road and not via at Road A. Of course, if any of your members are residents in Cymbidium Acres, I don€t see how they could possibly avoid using Wright Road, I mean, using Road A. But I was wondering if you had entered into any discussions with them about possibly contributing to their road maintenance fund. BRYANT:We were not aware of it. MATHISON:Yeah, we were not aware of any of this. SIRACUSA:The Wright Road? 4 MCCALL:The only -. SPRINGER:Commissioner McCall? MCCALL:Yeah, if I read the map correctly, the only access to the church property is on Wright Road. So they could not access it through Cymbidium Acres unless they make some changes to their plans. SPRINGER:Mr. Hayashi, is that accurate? HAYASHI:That is correct. And we do have a proposed condition that access shall be from Wright Road. SPRINGER:And that would be in addition to the conditions that we have before us? HAYASHI:Well,that€stheproposedcondition.Ithinkit€sCondition-. SPRINGER:Whatletteristhat,please,ornumber? HAYASHI:OnPage6oftheRecommendation,thatwouldbeCondition4. SPRINGER:Thank you, Norman. Commissioners, any further questions either of staff or the Applicant? Commissioner Graham? GRAHAM:We did receive a few letters. People were concerned about the character of the area changing and things like that. And the thing that was just coming to my mind is when we looked at the pictures it looked like the lot had been really cleared; and I know you have a long frontage on Wright Road there. And I think in general the area there€s a lot of, like Norman said, across the street you couldn€t see the house because of the vegetation. I€m wondering if you€re planning to do some substantial plantings along the border with Wright Road to sort of keep it in line with the rest of the area there as opposed to kind of a wide open facility. MATHISON:Yes. We really can€t do much until we get a building up and then work from there, but the building will sit on the back part of the property. And we were very careful with what clearing we did do already to leave as much as we could. We€ve got room just about enough for building and parking lot at the present time, but we€re not opposed to planting along the Wright Road. GRAHAM:Yeah, you don€t really have to wait for the building in order to do the planting, right? MATHISON:Well, during construction it might be a problem, maybe not. But, like I say, we haven€t been approached on any of this. But we want it in keeping with the community, and we€ve tried to do this thus far. 5 GRAHAM:Does that mean the letters that we€ve received, you don€t have copies of those letters? MATHISON:We€ve never received any. GRAHAM:No? Maybe the Planning Department staff could just be sure to pass those along to you, also. Thank you. SPRINGER:Other Commissioners, any questions either of the Applicant or the staff at this time? Commissioner McCall? MCCALL:The church services are currently being held where at this point in time? MATHISON:The church at the present time? MCCALL:Yes. MATHISON:It€s on Kilinoe Street. This is a temporary thing that we ended doing.Whenwefirstwentthere,wewentwiththeintentofbuildingachurchin Volcano, because up to that time we never had been, and there still isn€t a church building in the Volcano area proper. We first went to the school department because they do have a public school up there that on special occasions they use it, and found out that the principal at that school was in Mt. View. We went to Mt. View, we talked to the principal, and he was very pleased that we wanted to use the building because they have problems with vandalism and what have you because it€s empty so much of the time. But we needed one more approval; and when they got into Hilo, it was shirring down. When I asked why, they said, well, we just got through painting, we just put in new carpeting, we don€t want, you know, anybody in it. My response to that was that we had a good track record. Glad Tidings Church probably most, but if you heard, if you heard of Henry Kahalehili, I€ve pastored that church for six years prior to Henry coming. And the building was built during World War II with old lumber, termites had it; and we had to, it had to come down. So we used the Hilo Intermediate School with no problem. We had a good track record, everything went smoothly. And I thought because of that it might help us secure this school up there, but he wouldn€t budge on it. So the next thing we did was we went to the Volcano House. It was then run by one of the hotel chains, Sheraton. And a fellow by the name of Wahl was the manager, and he gave us permission to use, to have a service on Sunday afternoons in the dining room of the employees, which we were there for some time, and until the change. And Sheraton no longer had the contract and it went to a private individual. At that time we were not allowed to continue; and the Japanese School was not available to us. There€s not too many buildings up here available. So we started having meeting at homes from time-to- 6 time, here and there; and that€s what we€ve been doing. Here of late, though, for some time we€ve been meeting at my house, just because there was no, no other place to go. I€m looking forward to the time when we could put up a building, Volcano would have its own church and which, I think, is an asset to any community. It can be used in times, besides services, besides bible studies, for weddings and so forth, and times of catastrophes like storms, or, you know, earthquakes, or whatever. If our building is still standing, then it€s available to, for temporary housing. So when you get a church, you get more than a church. For 5-1/2 years I served as a police chaplain, served Puna and KaŸu; and if I didn€t, you know, if I hadn€t been there and pretty well established myself, I wouldn€t have been able to do that, because it€s a voluntary job. And, so, there€s, like I say, there€s more than just putting up a building for a few people to meet in. SPRINGER:Thankyou,sir.Doesthatansweryourquestion? MCCALL:Justafollow-up.Sowhereyou€remeetingmostofthetimesis now at your house on Kilinoe. So you€re really only talking about moving about a block away from where you€re looking to re-locate the church? MATHISON:Well, yeah, Kilinoe Street is only about a block or two from where the property that we bought. MCCALL:Yeah, so as far as the residents are concerned, you€re really not, I mean, it€s basically, it€s in the same general vicinity? MATHISON:Yeah. And we€ve got an excellent record. We have never had a complaint from anyone in the time that we€ve been there. I went to both, closest neighbors before we purchased the property on either side of Wright Road, and we had their blessing. One of those properties has since sold to a different owner now, but there€s no opposition there; and the other parties still own the same land. So we€ve done everything we know to do. MCCALL:Thank you very much. SPRINGER:Thank you, both. Are there any further questions for the Applicants before we call the public testifiers to the table? Seeing none, if you folks could just sit back to the folding chairs behind of you, I€d like to call the public testifiers who have signed up. Peter Serafin, Michael McKenney and Betsy Mitchell to come forward. And I think I saw more than three hands come up during the swearing-in portion, and we have seats for two more individuals. If the three whom I called could come forward. Are there any other members of the public who were sworn in, who would care to give testimony at this time? Did all the folks who raised their hands to be sworn in intend to testify? If so, there€s room for one more here now. Otherwise, we€ll just go with these four folks. Beginning 7 at the far left, sir, if you could please give us your name and your address, and then begin your testimony. MCKENNEY:My name is Michael McKenney. I live at 19-4233 Road C in Volcano Cymbidium Acres in the subdivision. I am currently the president of the Volcano Cymbidium Acres Road Maintenance Corporation. That€s what was referred to earlier. SIRACUSA:Could you please speak out louder or into the mike? I can€t hear you. MCKENNEY:Okay. I am currently president of the Volcano Cymbidium Acres Road Maintenance Corporation. We are exclusively responsible for maintaining the private roads of the Volcano Cymbidium Acres Subdivision. I submitted this letter basicallysaying,atthistime,it€stheunderstandingofourRoadMaintenance Corporation that access to the church would only be via Wright Road and that it will have adequate parking on-site for its activities. We€re not concerned about the church per se, but we are concerned about impact on our roads that we have to maintain. They are substandard, they have very soft shoulders. And if the people start routinely going into the property that way, or parking adjacent to it because it€s convenient, or whatever, or there€s no parking -. And this also is a concern out on Wright Road. If you see Cooper Center Sunday mornings when there€s the Farmer€s Market, there€s big trenches all along the road just because people park on the shoulder, it€s part, cause there€s no parking available, but also it€s just more convenient. And, you know, it would convenient for somebody to park on our roads, but it€s going to deteriorate very badly and start blocking our roads. And just as an aside, since we do not actually own the roads in the subdivision, we maintain them, but the ownership is in limbo -. So, and we haven€t been able to determine whose it is, who does own them. But we have taken responsibility for maintaining those roads. Since we are not the owner, the Road Maintenance Corporation was not informed that the church was going to be put in. Also, we never had any contact whatever with the church about the proposed property or anything. So we received no notification from either the church or from the Planning Department about this going in, although it does affect us. That€s basically what I have to say. SPRINGER:Thank you, Mr. McKenney. I€d like, if possible, for the Planning Director maybe just to comment on notification. We understand that the group is not a landowner so they were outside of the notification loop. But, also, I think there was some concern expressed about parking on the shoulders. And do we have any authority over that, like with regard to conditioning on a requirement to keep off the shoulders? YUEN:Of the question on notice, I€d have to ask Mr. Hayashi. We could put a condition of no parking‚ on the side of the road. As far as on-site parking, there€s a formula in the Zoning Code for a facility like this as to how much on-site parking they€d have to develop; and we would make them do that at Plan Approval. 8 SPRINGER:Thank you, Mr. Director. Commissioners, are there any questions for the testifier? Commissioner Alameda? ALAMEDA:Probably, just my own unawareness of road maintenance and all, but if you don€t have gulches or potholes or, you know, things that are caused from basic parking on the side, then what do you maintain? MCKENNEY:We have a 40-foot right-of-way, we have about a 14-foot wide chip- sealed road with very poor shoulder. There are no trenches in it now. All it would take is one truck parking there, and we would have big trenches that would continue to grow. ALAMEDA:So, cause I was thinking road maintenance, your job is to maintain theroadsthatusersuse? MCKENNEY:Yes.Forthepeopleofthesubdivision,yes,it€stheirprivateroads. ALAMEDA:Oh,okay.Igotcha. MCKENNEY:Sowe€reresponsibleformaintaining,andwe€vegottotakecareof them if they get busted up. ALAMEDA:Right. And your concern is if more cars come on that road, then you€d have to maintain more? MCKENNEY:Yeah, it€s going to be more work for us, it€s going to wear down the roads. They€re only chip-sealed, they€re 20-30 years old, they€re just, they can€t stand up to regular routine traffic, entry and exit, you know. Either that, it€s primarily access and also just parking, you know, over-flow parking. ALAMEDA:Okay. I gotcha. Thanks. SPRINGER:Thank you. Commissioner Siracusa, then Graham? SIRACUSA:I just wanted to clarify here. Are you talking about Wright Road or Road A? MCKENNEY:I€m talking about Road A. Right now there€s nothing to stop, there€s no fence or anything to stop anybody from driving in off of Road A, or is there a provision that says that they can€t enter via Road -? SIRACUSA:Well, would putting signage on that part of Road A saying no parking on shoulder‚ be part of the responsibility that the Road Maintenance Committee has taken on? I realize that for Wright Road if that situation, you know, people would have to ask the Traffic Division of the Public Works. 9 MCKENNEY:We could put up signs, but we don€t have police, we don€t have any real enforcement authority. We pretty much have to rely on, you know, the provisions that are established. You know, we don€t think it€s unreasonableto not use our roads if it€s not necessary. In fact, that€s part of the Planning Department€s condition, is that access be via Wright Road for exactly that reason, because it€s a public-maintained highway, not a privately-owned road that€s privately maintained by people. And the church as far as I know is not a member of the Road Maintenance Corporation and would not be required to be. And we€ve had controversies with other facilities within the thing that raised real horrible issues about, okay, how do you determine what is an appropriate fee given this number of cars and everything else. And we just as soon avoid that nightmare if it can be accessed via the highway and we don€t have associated traffic problems. That€s all we€re asking. SPRINGER:Thankyou.CommissionerGraham? GRAHAM:Again,justtryingtoclarifythesamething.Ithinkwhatyou€re asking is that access only be on Wright Road, for one. And I think in our application conditions we speak of the access to Wright Road, but we never say on these proposed conditions that there shall be no access from Road A. So if we put that in the condition, I would presume that would handle that problem. MCKENNEY:Yeah, it sounds like as it is planned, it would probably work out. But if we could have an explicit provision, kind of giving us a little more insulation, that would be great. GRAHAM:Okay. And then the other issue was that people might park on the side of the road on Road A there, and we don€t have any specific hard-and-fast remedy, other than the fact that, I guess, we have no access from that road and presumably people wouldn€t park there. Is that adequate for you, or is there something in particular you€d -? MCKENNEY:I€m not sure what we can do to really completely control that. I mean, we have a 40-foot right-of-way that restricts, that we have some jurisdiction over, that we try to maintain and control, but we don€t actually own it so -. GRAHAM:So maybe, you know, if the church here is in accord, they could just accept that they will inform their members not to park on the side of Road A, and that should handle it, huh? MCKENNEY:Yeah, if they could -. We can put up signs; and if they could encourage their people to, you know, cooperate with us, that€d be great. It€s what we€re after. GRAHAM:Okay. Thank you. MCKENNEY:I mean, we€re not objecting to the church itself. 10 SPRINGER:Before I call on you, Commissioner Siracusa, if I understood the Planning Director correctly, at Plan Approval time the parking formula would be addressed on the number of congregants and the number of parking stalls required. And should this matter of parking on the shoulder be taken up at that time or should we amend Condition 4 to include to address it? YUEN:Well, we could put a condition on no parking‚ because -. You are allowed to park on the side of the road right now, the public road. So, it€s a little difficult to, if it became a regular thing then we could enforce it. I think you have to take some degree of common sense on this. And if they have a funeral of a popular member of the church and they have a lot of people there, there may not be enough parking; and, I wouldn€t revoke their permit for it, let€s put it that way. But if it turned out that they didn€t have enough parking spaces, using the formula, then, we would like them to make enoughparkingsothattheydon€tregularlyparkalongsidetheroad. SPRINGER:Thisisjustfollow-uponthat.Theroadsideconditions,shoulder conditions in Volcano may be very different off of Wright Road than off of Volcano Highway, for example, where there€s a graveled shoulder. How do we, how does the Planning Department take those differing conditions into consideration? YUEN:We€re operating under the, on this application, we€re operating on the assumption that the formula for how many parking spaces they should have is enough for the normal use of the church. And it€s not, I can tell you that, knowing Wright Road, it€s not ideal, would not be ideal for people, for that to be a normal thing, that people had to park along the side of the road. We wouldn€t want that to happen. I don€t know that we€ve had -. When I€ve looked at churches that have been done with Special Permits or Use Permits it always seem to me that there€s quite a bit of parking, ends up the result. I couldn€t tell you how many spaces this church per how many square feet would be required. We could find that in the Zoning Code for you; but I recall it being generally, it ends up looking like they have a pretty big parking lot on these churches. SPRINGER:Okay. Again, before I go to Commissioner Siracusa, I want to make sure that on Condition 4, should we then add the word only‚ to follow Wright Road, the driveway connection to Wright Road only?‚ Would that satisfy the concerns brought up in discussion? HAYASHI:Well, I think we should just add something to the effect that driveway to the proposed, Driveway access to the proposed development shall be limited to Wright Road only.‚ SPRINGER:Okay. Thank you, Norman. Thank you for waiting, Commissioner Siracusa. SIRACUSA:Thank you. The testifier indicated that he felt that a lot of people would park on the side of the road because it was easier. It€s always been my observation 11 that people will park as close to the building they€re going to as possible sothey don€t have to walk so far. And this even goes for people, if they€re going to be doing jogging, and you€d wonder why, you know, they€re tryingto save on walking if they€re going to be doing exercise. Nevertheless, people being who they are, as long as there€s adequate parking, and that would be determined at Final Plan Approval point, it seems to me that unless it was a really crowded event, like the popular funeral, for example, that Director Yuen mentioned, I think everybody would be crowding as much as possible to get as close to the building as possible, especially since you get a lot of rain up there. MCKENNEY:If I can comment. Let€s see. We are mainly concerned if, you know, would be concerned if there was a great big event like that. If you€ve actually been up to the property, Wright Road is nice, solid pavement. Right off the shoulder is mud. And if you were confronted with a choice of there is no space left in the parking lot, are you going to park on Wright Road where all the traffic is, and it€s just mud on the side,orgooffontothisnicenearbyconvenientroadwithbroadshouldersthatlooksokay but they€re going to get turned into trenches? That€s where you€re going to go; and that€s my main concern. So if there€s going to be a big event or something, perhaps if we could just be told or, you know, just be notified there€s something else, and if they can make an effort to try to see that people didn€t end up sprawling all down into our subdivision, that, I think, would be sufficient. Add that, I like the provision about only access, normal access only via Wright Road. SPRINGER:Thank you; and your comments are part of the record and will be taken up at the appropriate time, such as Plan Approval process. Commissioner Siracusa? SIRACUSA:Yeah, just a friendly suggestion that the church might want to consider if they were having a big event like that, asking the police to lend you some of those nice bright orange cones that you could put along the area where there is a question of concern. Cause certainly if it€s all muddy like that as well, people would end up getting stuck, too; and that would help to avoid that problem as well. MCKENNEY:Yeah. Thank you. SPRINGER:Thank you. Commissioners, any further questions of this testifier? Seeing none, sir, if you could please give us your name and your resident address? SERAFIN:Yes, my name is Peter Serafin and I live at 19-4260 Wright Road, which is immediately across Road A from the proposed development. And I have met with Reverend Mathison to hear first-hand his plan; and he has explained the plans of his church and proposal to my satisfaction. I€ve got a prepared statement which actually duplicates a few things that Mr. Hayashi has mentioned and Reverend Mathison, so please bear with me. I€ll try and skip that stuff. 12 Reverend Mathison has been conducting church services in the basement of his home for many years. In the 10 years we have lived on Wright Road I know of no complaints made against the church by any neighbor. Under Reverend Mathison leadership, the church has always been respectful of neighborhood concerns and, in principle, we have no objection to this request for a Special Permit. However, we believe it€s important that certain conditions be attached so that when Reverend Mathison is no longer pastor, future leaders of the congregation will have specific guidelines to follow so that they can continue to follow his legacy of excellent relations with the neighbors. We therefore request the following conditions be attached to the granting of this permit regarding church use. According to the application, as Mr. Hayashi mentioned, the services are now from Sunday school 9:30 to 10:00 a.m. and services themselves from 10:15 to noon, as well as occasional wedding, funeral or luncheon. In view of the Applicant€s stated parameters of use, we request that use of this facility be limited to Sundaysbetweenthehoursof9:30a.m.andnoon.Further,thatspecialcelebrationsbe limited to no more than one per month to be held between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. for a maximum duration of no longer than two hours. Regarding noise, we request that church bells or other audible instruments or devices used for calls to worship as part of the services or for any other purpose, as well as amplified music of any kind, be prohibited. In the church€s current location, Reverend Mathison uses a microphone and a single small amplifier so that the worshipers, to preach his sermons. We realize it€s important for the worshipers to be able to hear their pastor during services and we have no objection to this. However, we ask you to limit the volume of said amplified speech to no more than 50 decibels, which is approximately the level of normal conversation as measured from the edge of the property on either Wright Road or Road A. Parking, which some of this has been addressed but I€d like to go on record about this, too, according to the application an average of 30 people now attend Sunday services. The proposed new facility will triple that capacity to 90 worshipers with off-street parking planned for 24 cars. Wright Road is at its busiest on Sunday mornings. Approximately 250 shoppers and dozens of vendors come to the County-owned Cooper Center each Sunday morning for our Farmer€s Market, which is located down the street from the proposed church. There are no sidewalks, nor gravel shoulders, on Wright Road. Many local residents walk to the market on the street itself; and during this time we also have neighborhood children on skateboards headed toward the County Skate Park adjacent to Cooper Center. In order to maximize the visibility and safety of pedestrians on Wright Road, and given that there€s plenty of off-street parking available on the church property, we ask that parking be prohibited on Sundays on the sections of Wright Road and Road A, which is irrelevant now, fronting the church property and that the County post signs to that effect on both sides of the street. Ultimately, we congratulate Reverend Mathison on the growth of his congregation and look forward to his continued good neighborliness. 13 Thank you. SPRINGER:You€re welcome. Commissioners, any questions for the testifier? Commissioner Alameda? ALAMEDA:I have two questions. So you live or you own property next to the church? SERAFIN:Both. ALAMEDA:Oh, both. Okay. Thank you. SERAFIN:It€s my house. One of my house, in fact, I mentioned on Page 5 of the Commission€s Report -. See, we are one of the several properties near the church in CymbidiumAcres. SPRINGER:IwouldjusthaveaquestionofthePlanningDirectorregardingthe testifier€s concerns regarding hours of operation and sound levels. How do we, how does the Department make recommendations on these subject areas of churches in residential areas? YUEN:I€d like to wait till the end of the testimony to make specific comments on the questions. But, generally, the general question was sound levels and hours of operation. Maybe Mr. Hayashi can help me with this. I don€t think that we€ve typically put hours of operation on Use Permits or Special Permits for churches, or special sound conditions, though, right? HAYASHI:As far as the hours of operation, we haven€t done that. Regarding sound, we also haven€t included any kind of conditions for churches. YUEN:Not typically. You€ll see another application for, where we do have a sound condition, but that€s for a cabinet shop. You know, just generally on measuring sound levels, it€s a little tough on intermittent sounds. If you have a, and I have a sound meter that I use from time-to-time. And what happens is that if you€re, say, if you were measuring the sound of my voice now, you would get, and it€s numerical, you would get the number which spike up and then drop, and spike up and drop. And I€m not sure how that€s handled when, in the regulations which talk about 55 DBA, for example, what the gentleman spoke of at 50 DBA -. There€s a, Department of Health has sound regulations; and the standard in a residential neighborhood for daytime is this 55 DBA, which is 55 decibels. It€s not a very loud, 55 is not a very loud sound. In an agricultural area, though, unfortunately, the level, the allowed level by the Department of Health is very high, it€s 70 DBA, which is quite loud. So, we, in the other application you€ll see we€re recommending the residential level at the property line. But as far as this specific request, let me wait till the end of the, all the testimony and then I€ll make some comment if you have, still have a question then. 14 SPRINGER:Thank you. You, sir? SERAFIN:If I may? Given that this is a Special Permit with conditions, could we not say that amplified music would be prohibited as one condition, which would alleviate the bulk of the problem, except for the amplified speech of the Reverend€s sermon which -. As I said, he has always been very, very sensitive to his neighbors. And if can codify this somehow so that people who know, who come after him as pastor would follow the same principles. SPRINGER:Thank you, Mr. Serafin. Your comments are part of the record and I€m sure will continue to be part of the discussion. Ma€am, your name and address, please? MITCHELL:I€m Betsy Mitchell. I live in the Village on Iiwi Road, which is paralleltoWrightRoadbutquiteawaysaway.I€mmainlyveryresponsibleforCooper Center and Farmer€s Market, so it€s right in with this with parking. Our people have been parking on the shoulder. We are now presently putting in an additional parking lot at Cooper Center to take that strain off of Wright Road, and our parking lot will be available to the church at any time they need to use it. We€ll have plenty of parking; and we€re most anxious to have the church built. It€s a good thing for our community. And we want it there and the people want it there. I€ve had fun talking to people Sunday morning; and we have between 250 and 300 people that come to our Farmer€s Market. You should come, too. It€s really quite great. And they€re very outspoken and very positive in their feelings and very willing to tell us what they think. So when I asked, What do you think of a church coming in?‚ Wonderful,‚ they said, That€s just what we need. But more than just one, please.‚ So, hopefully, you€ll get some more requests for more churches in Volcano. But parking, they can certainly use our parking lot and our orange cones. Thank you. SPRINGER:Thank you, Mrs. Mitchell. Are there any questions for the testifier? ALAMEDA:I have a question. SPRINGER:Commissioner Alameda? ALAMEDA:How far would the walk be if they do park in your structure from -? MITCHELL:From Cooper Center? ALAMEDA:Right, to the church. MITCHELL:A considerable walk. ALAMEDA:A mile? 15 MITCHELL: I would say a mile. KENNEY:Also, they€re going to be jammed when the church is there. That€s when the farmers market happens, when church services are. MITCHELL:Yeah. Meet at the Farmer€s Market and car pool. SPRINGER:Members of the public, if you can please use the microphones when you comment so that we€ll be sure to catch your comments. Mr. McKenney, is there something that you wanted to say intothe microphone? MCKENNEY:Yes, just that, yeah, people would beable to car pool from Cooper Center but Cooper Center Farmer€s Market goes on Sunday morning, that€s when the churchserviceswouldbe.Sothat€s,theoretically,availableparkingbutactually, practical level, there would be no parkingavailable; and it is a mile away, so -. SPRINGER:Thank you for thatcomment, Mr. McKenney. To the next testifier, to Mrs. Mitchell€s right, please? May we have your name and address? PELLETIER:Yes, my nameis Bob Pelletier. My address is P. O. Box 1049, Volcano. I live right on Ele Paio Road, well, it€s Hoonanea Street now, right next door to the pastor€s street. And I€d just like to say everybody, people have said already, but I feel the church would be a good asset for Volcano. I think it€ll be a place where people could go if they need help, and as well as providing the building for emergencies. And I also feel that it€d be good for the youth of Volcano, get the youth program going now with a decent facility; and I just feel all in all it€ll just be a very big asset to the community. That€s basically it. SPRINGER:Thank you. Commissioners, any questions for the testifier? Ma€am, if you could give us your name and address, please. THOMAS:My name is Jiranan Thomas, I live on 19-3996 on Kilauea Road; and I want to support Mr. Mathison. And I€m real grateful, you know, to have the church for our community coming up. And I believe he has 3-1/2 acres, I believe, and we have enough parking lot for all the, you know, people to come to our church. SPRINGER:Thank you, ma€am. Any questions for the testifier? Thank you, you may all stand back from the table now, and if the Applicants could return to the table. Thank you all. To the Applicants, you€ve heard some of the concerns from your neighbors in the community, in particular from the Road Maintenance organization from Cymbidium Acres, as well as the concern from Mr. Serafin regarding prohibition perhaps or limitation on amplification of music, and also Mrs. Mitchell€s comments about perhaps 16 parking at Cooper Center. Do you have any comments to make regarding what you€ve heard today? And please speak into the microphone so we can capture your comments. MATHISON:Well, first of all, we have 3-1/2 acres. I don€t see any problem ever parking on Wright Road, or even on Road A as far as that goes. The parking lot is pretty well grubbed out already and the building site is ready. Parking, you know, I see no problem because, like I say, we have 3-1/2 acres. As far as no amplified music, I don€t know how, I say, you put your hands behind your back and try to do something. We€ve had amplified music under control in all the time that we€ve been there. Again, we€ve never had a complaint. Our closest neighbor is not more than about 100 to 125 feet away from us, never had a complaint and he doesn€t attend our church. We€ve always been, tried to be mindful of our neighbors and that won€t change. So putting a cap on our music is, well, to me, isn€t necessary. And measurementsfromwherethebuildingwillsit,wesitjustaboutinthecenterofthe building, of the 3-1/2 acres. We are about 375 feet from our building to Road A to start with. Road A is 40 feet wide. And the gentleman that€s thinking about doing a cap on our music is probably another 150 feet which gives us about 565 feet from our building to where he lives. If we€re not disturbing the neighbors within a few feet or half a block even from us, I don€t think he€s, I don€t think, I doubt that he has ever heard us, even where we€re at now; and we€re going to be further away with our building than we are to his facility. So I see no, it just doesn€t jive. They also, from, we share with, they have a, , kind of service a religious service; and they€re built right on Wright Road, facing Wright Road -. Trucks and cars will make far more noise than he€ll ever hear from us. And I don€t know -. Questions? SPRINGER:Commissioners, are there any questions or comments for the Applicant at this time? I just have a question to the Director. Should there be an incident or incidents of public nuisance, the usual public nuisance complaint process would be followed by any neighbors who have concerns with noise or other behavior issues? Is that correct? YUEN:That€s a possibility, yes. SPRINGER:Thank you. Any other questions or comments for the Applicant, for the staff? Mr. Director, do you have any comments that you want to make at this time or not? YUEN:Well, we would continue to stick with our recommendations with the clarification of the changed wording to make it more clear that the access is only from Wright Road. I think, I would not recommend limitations on hours or church bells which are part of a church service. I could see possibly limiting amplified music after dark. I think amplified music is a common part of normal church services now and would not think, if you€re going to approve a church, don€t put conditions on that make it difficult to have normal services. But that€s, as far as the specific ones that were requested, that€s 17 about as far as I would go. I would also be quite comfortable with the conditions that we have in the recommendation. SPRINGER:Thank you. Commissioners, having heard the Director€s comments, do you have any questions of him? Commissioner Graham? GRAHAM:I just wanted to ask Mr. Mathison if the Director€s possibility of having a requirement of no amplified music after dark, if that would constrain you in an unacceptable way? MATHISON:Well, I€ve never considered it before. We don€t even have a night service. We may at sometime, or if they have a wedding later or something like that; but, and it€s hard to predict exactly what our needs are going to be. But, like I say, we€ve always been mindful of our neighbors and consider them like we would like for them to considerus.LikeIsay,rightnow,there€snothinggoingonintheeveningsatall.What the future holds, I don€t know. But, basically, there€s many churches now don€t even have a night service, and we fall under that category. But we don€t have, we don€t have any drums in our music department. It seems like they bother me a lot, too, places where I€ve been; but we don€t even have one. GRAHAM:So if I hear you correctly, you€re indicating that that wouldn€t be a problem for anything you€re doing now but you€re not looking forward to have such restrictions, cause you don€t know what may transpire in the future? MATHISON:Yeah, we€re not looking to do any changes as we get moved into our new building. What might encourage change or require change, we would have to face it when it came. But, like I say, as you, if you were to stand where the church is going to be put now, you can€t see a house in any direction, north, south, east or west. We€re, it€s 710 feet long, the property, and we€re just about half way, a little bit more mauka than we are to Road A on that distance. Like I say, I did a little measurements the other day, it€s about 365 feet to our property line from where the church is, it€s almost 400 feet. They€ve got 40 feet of roadway. And it€s, you know, that€s before you even get to where the houses might be setting. I see no problem, but I know you€re trying to cover all the bases, too. If the time came and people are unhappy, then we€d want them to voice that and work it out with them; but we€ve got a good record. I think that stands on itself. We got bed and breakfasts in the same block that we€re on, we never got a problem. In fact, the people that own it said if you ever are bothered by our people, let us know if we didn€t bring much harmony up there. SPRINGER:Thank you, Pastor Mathison. I€m wondering if the Planning Director is, would add that condition, or would that come as a motion from the Planning Commission? YUEN:I€m not advocating it. It€s something that I think would be reasonable if the Commission wanted. Of the list of things that was requested, that€s about the most, I would think, that I would feel comfortable with recommending. But it€s 18 really up to the Commission. As I said, I feel comfortable with the conditions as stated in the Recommendation. If the Commissionwants to go further with this question of amplification, that€s one possible condition that the Commission could put in. SPRINGER:Thank you, Mr.Yuen. So, there we have it on the matter of any condition regarding no amplified music after dark. That would come in the form of a motion to add an additional condition from the Planning Commission. Commissioner McCall? MCCALL:Yeah. I would be uncomfortable with adding the condition about noise. I think we have a congregation here who is comfortable with the community that they, and very mindful of the community. I don€t see a problem here. I think where they€re positioning the church is actually going to be, they€re in a more isolated area than they were before. I just don€t see any real problem. And I think there are things in effect thatifsomethingdidgetoutofhandatsomepoint,youknow,thereare,youknow, complaints could be made, and I think the church would be, you know, mindful and willing to work things out. So I€m happy with the conditions as they are. ALAMEDA:Madam Chair? SPRINGER:Thank you. Commissioner Alameda? ALAMEDA:I concur with Commissioner McCall and the Director. I€m also happy with the conditions that have been already stated. And I€m ready to make a motion if nobody else has any concerns. SPRINGER:Commissioners? ALAMEDA:Okay. I€d like to make a motion with regard to Applicant Volcano Assembly of God (SP 04-019), for approval for the Special Permit to allow the establishment of a church and related activities on approximately 1.5 acres of land situated in the State Land Use Agricultural District and the conditions as stated in the document, making note of Condition 4 to be a little bit more specific with regard to the access of Wright Road only. SPRINGER:Thank you. Is there a second? MCCALL:Second. SPRINGER:Moved by Commissioner Alameda and seconded by Commissioner McCall to approve Special Permit application 04-019. Discussion? I have a question for the Director. Where this application covers 1.5 acres of land but they have 3.5 acres of land and thereabouts, could parking occur outside of this 1.5 acres? YUEN:No. They would have to put the parking on the 1.5 acres. I think there€s plenty of room in the 1.5 acres. But if they wanted to develop the parking outside, 19 the Special Permit should be, everything connected with the Special Permit should be on the 1.5 acre site, the way this application is done. SPRINGER:Should the congregation grow at some point where the 1.5 acres is not sufficient, at that time they might be able to come forward and make additional requests? YUEN:They could come in for an amendment to this Special Permit to enlarge the site. SPRINGER:Thank you. Is there any further discussion? Seeing none, Norman? HAYASHI:Thank you, Madam Chair. Commissioner Alameda? ALAMEDA:Aye. HAYASHI:Commissioner McCall? MCCALL:Aye. HAYASHI:Commissioner Siracusa? SIRACUSA:Aye. HAYASHI:Commissioner Watanabe? WATANABE:Aye. HAYASHI:Commissioner Graham? GRAHAM:Aye. HAYASHI:Commissioner Iwashita? IWASHITA:Aye. HAYASHI:Commissioner Salavea has abstained. Madam Chair? SPRINGER:Yes. HAYASHI:Motion carries. SPRINGER:Thank you. You€ll be informed in writing of our decision today. 20 MATHISON:Thank you. We appreciate your time and yourconsideration. Thank you. SPRINGER:Thank you for coming. The discussion ended at 12:50 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Sharon M. Nomura, East Hawaii Secretary 21