HomeMy WebLinkAbout2005-04-01 TYAMADASAFARIK
PLANNING COMMISSION
COUNTY OF HAWAII
HEARING TRANSCRIPT
APRIL 1, 2004
PUBLIC STATEMENT OF COUNCIL CHAIRMAN GARY SAFARIK
The following is COUNCIL CHAIRMAN GARY SAFARIKS PUBLIC STATEMENT on the
application of GERALD AND WENDY YAMADA (SPP 04-018) at 9:17 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 Jeffrey McCall
BillGraham
Andrew Iwashita
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 9 people from the public in attendance.
APPLICANTS: GERALD AND WENDY YAMADA (SPP 04-018)
Special Permit to allow the establishment of a commercial retail and office complex(gas
station/convenience store, auto repair and sales store, supermarket, financial institution, personal
services, restaurant, hardware supply, medical and dental office, other professional services such
as real estate, attorney, insurance, etc.) on approximately 3.17 acres of land situated in the State
Land Use Agricultural District. The property is located at the northwest corner of the Keaau-
Pahoa Road (Highway 130) and Aulii Drive intersection, Orchidland Estates, Keaau, Puna,
Hawaii, TMK: 1-6-9: 418 (portion), 419, 420 and 421.
SPRINGER:We do have a request for testimony, and if there is anyone else who would
like to testify on any of the items on our agenda today, please fill in the sign up sheet and submit
it to the staff. Also, if you have any written testimony on any of the agenda items, please submit
those to the staff. At this time we have a request from Commissioner Gary Safarik to testify at
9 oclock because he has another meeting, so thank you for your patience with us. And youll be
testifying on Agenda Item No. 10, the Gerald and Wendy Yamada item. Please come forward,
Mr. Safarik.
SAFARIK:You called me Commissioner Safarik.
EXHIBIT A
SPRINGER:Im sorry, Councilman Safarik. Will you please raise your right hand. Do
you swear or affirm totell the truth on this matter now being heard before the Hawaii County
Planning Commission?
SAFARIK:I do.
SPRINGER:At this time, could you please state your name, your residence address,
and proceed.
SAFARIK:Okay, thank you. Chairwoman Springer, Commissioners, new
Commissioners, Director Yuen, staff members, thank you for allowing me the courtesy of
testifying first. As I mentioned, I did have a meeting, and I appreciate that.
My name is Gary Safarik. Im the chairman of the Hawaii County Council. I reside in the
AinaloaSubdivision.Theaddressis16-2161AinaloaWay,andthatiszipcodeofPahoa.Ive
lived in the Puna region for over 25 years; and Im originally born and raised in Hawaii. And I
know you didnt ask for all that history, but I thought I shouldgive it to you anyway. Im
speaking to you today primarily as a private citizen and then, I believe, secondarily Im speaking
to you as the Council representative of District 5 for this particular area. Ihappen to have the
handout and my testimony primarily on my letterhead, but Im not speaking to you as Chair of
the Council. So this is a personal testimony.
Let me just read the first two paragraphs of my testimony so that itllbring you up to speed on
where Im coming from; and then Id like to make a few comments outside of this testimony, if
you would allow me.
SPRINGER:Proceed.
SAFARIK:I am writing in support of the applicants Gerald and Wendy Yamada who
are applying for a Special Permit to allow the establishment of a commercial retail and office
complex on approximately 3.17 acres of land situated in the State Land Use Agricultural District.
Proposed uses for the parcel may include a gas station/convenience store, auto repair, sales store,
supermarket, financial institution, personal services, restaurant, hardware supply, medical and
dental office, other professional services such as real estate, attorney, insurance and others.
I believe the concerns regarding traffic control as related to this project will be mitigated by
traffic signals at Ainaloa and Orchidland Drive which are presently being studied by the State
Department of Transportation. In addition, access to the property would be from Aulii Street,
which is a street that runs perpendicular with Highway 130, rather along the Highway 130, as
residents would no longer need, oh, Im sorry. In addition, access to the property would be from
Aulii, rather than from Highway 130, as residents would no longer have to travel to Pahoa,
Keaau or Hilo to access retail and office services, primarily the region that were talking about or
the entire Puna region along Highway 130. Right now, according to the 2000 Census it says its
the fastest growing district in the State of Hawaii, population-wise.
Paradise Park which is a subdivision, along with Ainaloa, runs on both sides of Highway 130.
The Hawaiian Paradise Park Subdivision has currently 8800 lots that are available for building in
the Ag-1 district, or Ag-1 classification. If you look at the buildout today in Hawaiian Paradise
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Park,theres approximately a third, 33 percent or so, of that subdivision that has been built out.
Currently, Hawaiian Paradise Park has over 10,000 residents, 10,000 residents. There is no place
to buy a loaf of bread, other than the Wiki Wiki Mart which is on Orchidland Drive. Theres no
place to access dental or medical services. Theres no place to address the need for automobile
repair or any other type of retail experience for those folks. They have to get onto the highway
and they have to travel either to Pahoa or they have to travel to Keaau to access these services.
When I looked at the plans, and I wont go into all of the issues regarding the pros and cons of
this development. What Im suggesting here is that will provide for the residents of the District 5
of the Pahoa and Puna regions another opportunity for accessing retail, accessing professional
services, and the like. Currently, in the Puna region in ratio to the rest of this island, we have
4 percent of all retail designations or all urban expansion commercial type designation, four
percent. As opposed to Kona, Kailua and surrounding areas have 76 percent commercial and
retail. So you can see right off that we are underserved when it comes to retail and urban
expansiontypeareas.Somyhopeisthatyoulltakealookatthisprojectnotspecifictothe
project but specific to the region.
We have always mentioned as a group in Puna that we wanted to protect the pristine coastal
areas of our area. We wanted to protect some of the designated areas along that coastline with
designated and exempt trees, and other flora and fauna, archaeological sites, historic burial sites.
We have decided that that coastal area should remain pristine and undeveloped. However, with
that said, we need an area that we can develop and designate so that the people in that region are
served, which is now starting to hit about 40,000 people.
So if you would take a look at this project, based on what the needs are in the district, I believe
that some of the traffic issues that surface would be mitigated by, as I said, a traffic signal or
signalized intersection at Ainaloa and the highway, Highway 130, also at Orchidland Drive and
Highway 130. This particular project is right in the middle of those two areas. And if anybody
gets on the highway in the early morning going to work on Highway 130 theyll know that
theres a long stream of cars. If you come home at pauhana time, you will also run into this long
stream of cars traveling back and forth between Puna and the Hilo and Keaau area. The same
type of issues occur, of course, in Kona, but were not as bad yet as that particular area of Queen
K, but were starting to get there. So the issue, again, is not that were exploring building in an
area that would not be, I believe, acceptable to most of the people in the Puna region; and I think
that, Ive talked to Commissioner Siracusa from the Puna region about some of these broader
issues.
So, with your indulgence, I will conclude my testimony and ask for your consideration on this
particular permit.
SPRINGER:Thank you, Mr. Safarik. At this time Id like to welcome our third of the
new Commissioners to the table, Allen Salavea. Welcome, Allen.
SALAVEA:Aloha, aloha. I apologize. I had an appointment, prior commitment that I
couldnt reschedule, but thank you for having me here, and good morning.
SPRINGER:Good morning. Commissioners, are there any questions for Mr. Safarik?
Commissioner Graham?
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GRAHAM:Mr. Safarik, as you Im sure know, our Planning Director is
recommending denial of this application; and the reason hes recommending denial is more for
planning reasons. It has to do with highway, but on broader plane reasons also. And youre
speaking of the great need in your district. So Im wondering are you feeling the need is so great
that planning issues can kind of go to the side or are you disagreeing with the Planning Director
about the fact that this is not proper planning, given that the Orchildland Drive is already being
developed commercially?
SAFARIK:I believe that the planning issue is never going to be, should never be put
aside. That should be first and foremost. I believe in that wholeheartedly. What Im suggesting
is that, and Mr. Yuen and I probably agree on most of the things when it comes to planning. But
I also believe that the percentage that we have in the Puna region for commercial activity, for
giving the people choices is lacking and were underserved. And with all respect to the Planning
Director,Ivetoldhimthat.Sointhisparticularcase,Idisagree.ButIamnotgoingtodisagree
that it should not be first and foremost a planning issue and then, secondarily, or maybe on equal
plane as planning issues, weve got to start serving the needs of the majority. And thats all Im
suggesting here at this particular time.
GRAHAM:Thank you.
SPRINGER:Other Commissioners? Commissioner -.
IWASHITA:Morning. I guess the, my question is about the General Plan, and the
General Plan was just passed in January. How do you, I guess my concern is that, you know, it
seems like this concern about more commercial space being allocated for the area would have
been addressed or considered in adopting the amendments to the General Plan. And if you can
explain to me why it wasnt and why we have to deal with it on this basis?
SAFARIK:Okay. Thats a good question. And I think that the number of steps that
were referring to here, were still in the interim amendment stages where Mr. Yuen is going to
provide the Council now with some interim amendments to the overall General Plan.
Moving back a bit, Director Yuen and I, along with some other people in the community wanted
to, and one of the interim amendments thats going to be coming forward from Director Yuen is
the Ainaloa and Highway 130 intersection and the Orchidland Highway 130 intersection
designated as Urban Expansion. My hope, and Im still in discussion with Director Yuen, is that
Aulii location would also be in one of those bubbles. So I envision a bubble at Orchidland Drive
approximately 50 to 70 acres, a bubble at Ainaloa and the Highway maybe another 50 acres
Urban Expansion, and then this particular project area at Aulii for another Urban Expansion. So
for three areas along Highway 130, I would hope to see the opportunity for Urban expansion.
Therefore, it would make it a lot easier for anyone that is looking at the Puna region in the future,
would know from a good planning perspective -. As Mr. Graham mentioned, weve got to
maintain that planning status as always first and foremost in how we do things and how we
rezone. But we also have to address some of the lack of area that we have in the Puna region
and, especially, in this most populated corridor that we call Hawaiian Paradise Park-Ainaloa and
Hawaiian Beaches.
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Andjustasa side note, Mr. Iwashita, there was a, and it finally came to fruition, about 8 acres
right outside of the Pahoa area thats just, I guess, they just had their grand opening. Its call the
Malama Village Market Place. And theres a gas station there, theres a Subway, theres a
hardware store, theres a Village Market Place that is run by Foodland. That place is packed
every day. There is a pent up need in an underserved community. And when I look at the people
that are accessing that particular Pahoa Village Market Place, its primarily from the lower
region, or I shouldnt say the lower region but the makai region that we call Leilani Estates,
Nanawale, Hawaiian Beaches, Pahoa, Kalapana, Sea View Estates, Kaohe Homestead. All those
areas are being serviced by that particular development, but we still have an area that we call
Hawaiian Paradise Park, Ainaloa, Orchidland that is not being serviced. And I submit that this
project would provide for that particular service. So to answer your question in a round-about
way, Im hoping that these two areas, plus Aulii, would be considered for Urban Expansion
designation in the General Plan.
SPRINGER:Thankyou,Mr.Safarik.CommissionerSiracusa.
SIRACUSA:Ivehadquiteafewpeopleapproachmeaboutthisproject.Andoneof
the things, one of the comments that have been made repeatedly has been isnt this the first step,
isnt this setting the standard for strip development along Highway 130? And if we have three
bubbles then whats to prevent us later on from connecting the dots and making it a solid strip
mall all the way? How would you respond to those people?
SAFARIK:Thats an excellent consideration. But the whole notion of doing these
bubble-type Urban Expansion designation is precisely for good planning. I would respond to
those people that once we designate this in the General Plan as Urban Expansion, and we allow
those areas to be rezoned for Urban Expansion, that will serve the greater Puna community for
the next 25 years. In between those areas are residential homes, people are living in those homes
there. So I dont believe that were going to get into a strip mall issue, because a strip mall
would note that were not planning, were just going and building as the need arises. What Im
suggesting is that were directing the need for the Urban Expansion into these three areas and
leaving the rest of the areas that we want to keep pristine out of that quotient. I dont know if
that would answer your question or address the people that youve talked to, but thats how I
would respond to them.
SIRACUSA:Thank you.
SPRINGER:Thank you, Mr. Safarik. Commissioners, are there any other questions for
the testifier? Commissioner Watanabe?
WATANABE:You know, Im not against the development per se. I think where I have
some problems is with the recommendation from the Land Use Commission where theyre
suggesting that this may not be the proper method of reclassifying the land use here. And in
light of the recent Hokulia dealings, it kind of troubles me, especially since in reviewing the
history in that immediate vicinity it seems as though we have been somewhat inconsistent in
approving or denying. Would it help you if this Commission were to even say, like recommend
to the Land Use that this be approved but not approve it on its own?
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SAFARIK:I dont know that the LUC, Land Use Commission, at the State level
would review this, because this is under 15 acres. Soits going to be primarily a County
function.
WATANABE:Okay, 205 suggested, okay. Then-.
SAFARIK:I think maybe what theyre referring to is, you mean, our agricultural
classification at the State level?
WATANABE:Well, what Im seeing here is from Anthony Ching, the executive director,
hes saying that Based on the description proposed, the proposed commercial shopping complex
appears to be of such magnitude and scope as to constitute a major urban use in the Agricultural
District. As such, we believe that establishment of the complex should be more properlysought
through a district boundary amendment rather than a special permit, which implies to me the
venueiswrong,notthattheprojectiswrong.Andinmaybeerroneouslyimpliedthatweshould
go back to the Land Use, but Im wondering if were taking the right process.
SAFARIK:I would hope that we would have, we being collectively, Council,
Commission, Director, community groups, would be able to identify the needs, I think, more
appropriate, especially in that area, than maybe relying on some of the recommendations or
opinions of, lets say, somebody that does not live in that region. In fact, that person, Mr. Ching,
lives on Oahu. Im not sure how the land use -. Director Yuen, the Land Use sent a letter of
recommendation on this particular project? Cause I wasnt, I didnt get a copy of that. But Im
not sure where or how they reviewed this project, Mr. Watanabe, so I couldnt comment. But
Im just hoping that we would have more of an input and more of an impact on the decision
based on issues on this island as opposed to the LUC.
WATANABE:I dont disagree with you, not in the development or the need. I just dont
want to wind up in a situation where we took an improper procedure and then all the decisions
coming to question at a later date. Thats my concern.
SAFARIK:I hear what youre saying. And I dont know that we all have crystal balls
to know of whats going to happen in the future. But I think that what we are is prudent and
thoughtful people, and Im hoping that we will not have any implications on this particular area.
And I look to the guidance of Chairwoman Springer, yourselves, our Corporation Counsel, the
Planning Director, to keep us out of that type of problem.
SPRINGER:Than you Mr. Safarik. And, Commissioner Watanabe, this discussion will
continue when we get to the agenda item; and, for your benefit, the record will reflect that when
it comes into the public record. And are there any other questions of the testifier? Any follow
up, Commissioner Watanabe?
WATANABE:No. Thank you.
SPRINGER:Thank you, Mr. Safarik.
SAFARIK:Thank you very much.
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The discussion ended at 9:41 a.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Sharon M. Nomura, East Hawaii Secretary
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