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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2005-04-01 TWORLDHEALING PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAII HEARING TRANSCRIPT APRIL 1, 2004 A regularly advertised hearing on the application of WORLD HEALING INSTITUTE (USE 05-002)was called to order at 5:00 p.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 Jeffrey McCall Bill Graham Andrew Iwashita Allen Salavea Rene€ Siracusa Rodney Watanabe Ivan Torigoe, Deputy Corporation Counsel ChristopherJ.Yuen,PlanningDirector Norman Hayashi, Planning Program Manager Phyllis Fujimoto, Staff Planner Jeff Darrow, Staff Planner And approximately 7 people from the public in attendance. APPLICANT: WORLD HEALING INSTITUTE (USE 05-002) Use Permit to allow the establishment of a children‰s convalescent facility on 31 acres of land situated within the Resort-Hotel 25,000 square foot (V-25) zoned district. The property is the site of the former sugar plantation manager‰s home located along the north (makai) side of the Honokaa-Waipio Road, Kanahoanua and Waikoekoe, Hawaii, TMK: 4-8-06: 3, 13 and 69. SPRINGER:We move on to Agenda Item No. 9. The applicant is World Healing Institute (Use 05-002). It€s a Use Permit to allow the establishment of a children‰s convalescent facility on 31 acres of land situated within the Resort-Hotel 25,000 square foot (V-25) zoned district. The property is the site of the former sugar plantation manager‰s home located along the north (makai) side of the Honokaa-Waipio Road, Kanahoanua and Waikoekoe, Hawaii, TMK: 4-8-06: 3, 13 and 69. Mr. Darrow? DARROW:Thank you, Madam Chair. If I may direct the Commissioners€ attention to the location map. The area of this application is within the Hamakua district of Hawaii, more specifically this is located near Waipio Valley. The open area in green, and this area located here is the Waipio Valley, just behind that we have Kukuihaele. The road that€s traveling through the middle of the map is identified as the Honokaa-Waipio Road, and then we have the Old Government Road of the Kukuihaele Road. The area of the application is identified in purple which shows the resort zoning. The properties have road frontage on both the Honokaa- Waipio Road, as well as the Old Government Road. The access is going to be from the Old EXHIBIT H Government Road. The applicant in this case, World Healing Institute, is requesting a Use Permit to allow the establishment of achildren€s convalescent facility. The purpose of this facility is to allow children that are undergoing physical and emotional transformation to be able to stay at the facility and go through a healing process. The facility will be located within the existing plantation manager€s residence; and it will house up to 10 children, each with one parent or guardian for a period of one to three months. The plantation residence is identified as a historical site and is identified on the State Registry of Historical Places. Any renovation that is done at the facility will require the applicants to submit plans for review and approval from the Department of Land and Natural Resources, Historical Preservation Division; and that will also be a condition that they will have to comply with in Ordinance 01 22, Condition T. The conditions of approval also have Condition No. 2 which states that the applicant will be required to comply with all applicable requirements of Change of Zone Ordinance 01 22, that actually rezoned this area to Resort-25,000 square feet. The Planning Director is recommending that the Planning Commission approve this request. Are thereanyquestions? SPRINGER:Thankyou,Jeff.Commissioners,anyquestionsofstaffatthistime? Commissioner Siracusa. SIRACUSA:Are there any conditions that have been put forth by the State Department of Health, any requirements for a facility of this type? Maybe I should have asked Commissioner Alameda that. DARROW:I€m not aware of any. They sent their standard comment letter. But as far as it being a convalescent home, that€s the question, if I could defer that to the applicant€s representative. I€m not aware of any, and I don€t think there were any that were submitted along with comments. ALAMEDA:And just to answer your question, Commissioner Siracusa, as the applicant comes up and explains a little bit more about what the facility will be used for, that will probably get me more in line with whether or not Department of Health issues would come to play. SPRINGER:Are there any other questions of staff? Seeing none, will the applicant or their representative come forward, please. Thanks, Mr. Fuke. You€re already sworn in. Did you receive the Planning Department€s background report and recommendation? FUKE:Yes, we did; and it was also shared with the applicant. And prior to going on, however, Madam Chair, I€d like to also acknowledge the presence of Pat Linton who sits on the Board of Directors for the World Healing Institute. Its Executive Director and President is away on a trip right now, her name is Aletta Brenendel, so she€s on the mainland right now. The staff€s background report and the recommendation, the favorable recommendation, were reviewed by the applicant; and she found them to be acceptable. We would like to note, however, just for the record, that on the background report, and perhaps it was my error, that I had noted that there were two dwellings, two additional dwellings on the property; but, in fact, there is only the primary manager€s, former manager€s dwelling, and a guest house. The existing, 2 theother purported dwelling, one was already demolished; and then the other one was used by a former plantation resident, and he had a lease with the former owners that allowed him to live on the property for the rest of his life; and he expired about five or ten years ago, and that house now is in disrepair right now. So the intent is to eventually have that second or that remaining dwelling to be demolished. In response to the question about the, whether it would require like a certificate of need, this project is not intended to provide any medical services on the property. It€s intended purely to be like a rest home prior to or like after a person goes through, like a Ronald McDonald House, you know, sort of. So like a Ronald McDonald House would not require like a certificate of need or any, as I understand, Department of Health type of permit. So if you have a child that would be, maybe scheduling for like some kind of tumor surgery or whatever have you and, you know, they are maybe from an outer island or from all parts of the United States or the world and they want to come here and they need to just rest up, get acclimated before, you know, going in for theactualsurgery,thenthefacilitywouldprovidethatkindofaccommodations. Itisanonprofitentity;andsotheirprimaryfundsarethroughlargefoundations,andthrough private individual donors, as well as a lot of volunteers. SPRINGER:Thank you, Mr. Fuke. Commissioners, any questions for the applicant€s representative. Commissioner Siracusa? SIRACUSA:Yeah, I€m just wondering if they would be required to be make to the building any renovations relating to ADA since some of these children may be in wheel chairs. FUKE:You are correct. They do have to make some renovations to the basic building and the structure. As your staff had indicated, because the building is listed under the State Historic Register it has to go through that review process. But primarily what you€re looking at is all of the interior renovations and to do the necessary ADA compliance. SIRACUSA:So is it appropriate for us to make a decision on this before those possible renovations go through the historic preservation or -. I mean, I just want to make sure we€re not doing the cart before the horse here. FUKE:No. I think that what you€re looking at right now is just allow -, you know, whether this use is appropriate, the basic concept of the use is or is not appropriate for this particular location. And if the decision is yes, then there are conditions as outlined by your staff€s report which would require that certain steps would have to be followed before the facility can be operational. SIRACUSA:So Resort zoning would seem to apply even if the people utilizing the area are children, right, because they will be using it in a restful kind of context rather than it€s not a school, it€s not a, you know what I mean? FUKE:Well, transient accommodations, I guess, you could stretch it along that line. But the way that we had looked at it was more that this was like a convalescent home; and so by the terms of the Zoning Code, it says that you need to have a use permit. So -. 3 SPRINGER:Other Commissioners, questions for the applicant€s representative? Commissioner Graham. GRAHAM:Mr. Fuke, I€m just not familiar with World Healing Institute. Is this an organization that has other such facilities in other locations that we€re aware of? FUKE:Yes, that€s why we have Mr. Linton here. SPRINGER:Commissioners, while Mr. Linton is coming to the table, any other questions for the applicant€s representative? Mr. Linton, may I swear you in? LINTON:Yes. SPRINGER:Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth on this matter now before the HawaiiCountyPlanningCommission? LINTON:Yes,Ido. SPRINGER:Ifyoucouldpleasestateyournameandyourresidentialaddressforthe record. LINTON:My name is Patrick Linton; and I reside at 45-3468 Kawela Street in Honokaa. SPRINGER:Thank you. You may proceed with our testimony. LINTON:Yes, the World Healing Institute has two locations. One has been here in Hawaii for about the last two years bringing, at this point, two groups of children through their programs. They have been leasing facilities over the last year or so to provide those services. One has been in the Waimea area and then the most recent group was a leased facility in the Paauhau area. There is also a second program center which is on the Eastern shore of Virginia; and they are also providing services to children and their parents and guardians there. SPRINGER:Thank you, sir. ALAMEDA:Could I -? SPRINGER:Commissioner Iwashita. ALAMEDA:Madam Chair? SPRINGER:Yes? ALAMEDA:You know, in the application you liken this project like the Ronald McDonald House. So I wanted to just put out that like how we use the Ronald McDonald House on Oahu and see if it€s kind of similar. Like in some instances we send some kids up to like Queens Hospital for a day treatment program but at night they have no place to stay. And so, like, we kind of negotiate with the Ronald McDonald House if they can stay there for a night; 4 andthat would be like one potential use, as well as some of the kids coming out of Kapiolani, you know, and part of that whole kind of like debriefing after surgery and before they€re off to maybe a different island. Is that kind of -? LINTON:It€s as close as an analogy as we have, but the services that World Healing Institute provides is a little bit more enhanced than that. Right now our partners where the actual care is provided include Tripler Army Medical Center. We are also talking with Kapiolani because they specialize in children€s services as well. Our partners are the ones that actually provide the care. And what we do is we help to provide the case finding for the children and then in the -. Let€s say the children were going to have a surgical procedure done that needed the facilities like Tripler or Kapiolani, what we would do is we would help to arrange for the children and their mothers to come here to be in Hawaii. We would then make sure they€re acclimated, maybe pre-surgery, we would help provide them with a variety of services really to -. It€s not care in the traditional sense. It would be what I would call mind-body or holistic type of carewherewe€reworkingwiththemtopreparethemforsurgerywithnutrition,withnature experiences, and getting them used to our staff so that we€re building relationships with them. And then our partners take over when they actually have to do the surgery, so that the children and their mothers would have actually been in Tripler or on Oahu for anywhere from a week up to many weeks because these are more intense surgeries. Once they have recovered and are ready for discharge, instead of going to a home situation, then they come back to our facility where we again have a trained staff and volunteers that are again providing more of a recovery type of service using, again, nature-based experiences, it could be the expressive arts, the creative arts, various mind-body techniques, nutrition, holistic care of that nature. But none of that, and then after a period of a few weeks, post-operatively, then we send them home; and they€ve had a tremendous experience in that. So it€s a little bit different. But in terms of category of care, Ronald McDonald House is very close in terms of the next closest analogy. ALAMEDA:Thank you. SPRINGER:Commissioners, other questions for the applicant or for Mr. Linton? IWASHITAI have one. SPRINGER:Commissioner Iwashita. IWASHITA:Mr. Linton, so from what you described, are you regulated in any way by any State or Federal agency? LINTON:No. We have, of course, both in the state of Virginia and the state of Hawaii, we€ve investigated that very closely. But because we are not directly providing a licensed service or a licensed type of care, we do not fall under a regulatory category. And we have checked that out very, very thoroughly with the Department and other appropriate agencies so, just to make sure of that. Again, with, if our children do need that, that is provided by a licensed provider through an association arrangement that we have with them; and it would fall under their license. But the types of services we provide are not a licensed service, it€s basically a convalescent. 5 IWASHITA:So the license entities you€re talking about are Tripler, or Kapiolani, or some of those that you mentioned earlier? LINTON:Yes, those would be the ones that, of course, are appropriately licensed and governed to provide the surgical services and things like that. If during the convalescent period a child might, let€s say, get a cold, or run a fever, or something like that, we have relationships with local pediatricians, and there are clinics to take care of the children. And so we would basically take them to a licensed provider to provide a licensed type of service. The services we provide are not licensed services, mostly recovery, or convalescent is a good term for that. ALAMEDA:Madam Chair? SPRINGER:Commissioner Alameda. ALAMEDA:In follow-up to that as well, licensed people can come on the property and providetheirservices,correct? LINTON:Yes.Anexampleofthatwouldbeifwefeltachilddidnotnecessarily need to be transported or required some care, let€s say, over, let€s say three visits a week, we would then work with a local licensed home care provider agency to provide that in the actual home. But we would not be providing those services ourselves. ALAMEDA:On the property? LINTON:It could be on the property through -. In this case, the location would probably be the home health agency that€s based on North Hawaii Community Hospital. ALAMEDA:Okay, got you. SPRINGER:Commissioners, any further questions? I have a question. Mr. Linton, the patients who come to convalesce with you, are they coming from the State of Hawaii, from the Island of Hawaii, or from some place abroad from here? LINTON:Well, it€s interesting, another one of our strategic partnerships is an international, a very established medical missionary organization called Operation Smile, which helps to do cleft palate and cleft lip, restorative procedures, through missions that they do in the home countries. In some cases they run into cases, however, that cannot be done safely and they are more intense, and so those cases need to be done in a different kind of facility. And so far we have, that€s where Tripler comes into play, because they have the level of service that is able to take care of those more intense type of operative procedures. In this case, it€s called an encephalo (phonetic) seal removal procedure and they get tremendous professional training out of it; and their staff volunteers a lot of their time but in return they€re getting a lot of exposure to cases you don€t normally see. In this case, the two groups that we€ve had so far have been children from the Philippines; but we€re very interested in, because we can only do two or three of those kinds of groups a year, we have some additional time, and so we€re developing relationships with local providers so we can do more with local children as well. 6 SPRINGER:Soarethere local children that would be using your facility or is this primarily out of state or, out of state? LINTON:It would be a combination. We do have an interest in international children, but we like very much the idea of blending that with children here locally so that we€re building a world community and those connections between, from children all over the world, including our own children here. We think the connection and the exposure is excellent. SPRINGER:Thank you, sir. Commissioners, any additional questions? Thank you, gentlemen. At this time I€d like to find out if there are any members of the public who would are to testify on this matter. Seeing none, Commissioners, what is our pleasure? WATANABE:May I make a motion? SPRINGER:Youmay,CommissionerWatanabe. WATANABE:InthematterofUsePermitNo.05-002,Iwouldliketomovethatwe approve as recommended the Use Permit for the reasons stated by the Director. SPRINGER:Thank you. That€s a motion by Commissioner Watanabe, with a second by Commissioner Iwashita, to approve the World Healing Institute€s Use Permit Application No.05-002. Is there any discussion? Commissioner Graham? GRAHAM:I understand that the conditions within the recommendation from the Planning Director are part of that motion. Is that correct? SPRINGER:Yes. Thank you for that clarification. Mr. Darrow? DARROW:Commissioner Watanabe? WATANABE:Aye. DARROW:Commissioner Iwashita? IWASHITA:Aye. DARROW:Commissioner Alameda? ALAMEDA:Aye. DARROW:Commissioner Graham? GRAHAM:Aye. DARROW:Commissioner Salavea? SALAVEA:Aye. 7 DARROW:Commissioner Siracusa? SIRACUSA:Aye. DARROW:And Madam Chair? SPRINGER:Yes. DARROW:The motion passes seven to zero. SPRINGER:Thank you. DARROW:Thank you. SPRINGER:And,gentlemen,you€llbeinformedinwritingofthisdecision. FUKE:Thankyouverymuch. SPRINGER:You€rewelcome.Thankyou. Thediscussionendedat5:17p.m. Respectfully submitted, Sharon M. Nomura, East Hawaii Secretary 8