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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022-08-18 Leeward Exh A (Items 2&3 McCullough PL-SLU-2022-000006 & PL-REZ-2022-000026) LEEWARD PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAI`I HEARING TRANSCRIPT AUGUST 18, 2022 A regularly advertised hearing on the applications of ARTE MCCULLOUGH (PL-SLU-2022- 000006 & PL-REZ-2022-000026)was called to order at 9:38 a.m. in the West Hawaii Civic Center, Community Center, Building G, 74-5044 Ane Keohokalole Highway, Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, with Chairman Michael Vitousek presiding. COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Michael Vitousek, Barbara DeFranco, Michael Dela Cruz, Zaheva Knowles, and Mahina Paishon-Duarte ABSENT AND EXCUSED: Clement"CJ" Kanuha III ALSO IN ATTENDANCE: Keyra Wong, Esq. (Counsel for the Commission), Jean Campbell, Esq. (Counsel for the Planning Department), Jeffrey Darrow (Deputy Planning Director), Maija Jackson (Planning Program Manager), Clinton Mercado (Planner), Alex Roy (Planner), Janice Hata(Zoom host), and Noriko Sauer (Commission Secretary) APPLICANT: ARTE MCCULLOUGH (PL-SLU-2022-000006) Application for a State Land Use Boundary Amendment from Agricultural to Rural for 5.848 acres of land. The subject property is part of a two-unit condominium property regime (CPR) and is located at 62-2225 and 62-2239 `Ouli Street, at the southwest corner of its intersection with Kawaihae Road, Kanehoa Subdivision, `Ouli, South Kohala, Hawaii, TMK: (3) 6-2-009:015. APPLICANT: ARTE MCCULLOUGH (PL-REZ-2022-000026) Application for a Change of Zone from an Agricultural-5 acre (A-5a) to a Residential and Agricultural-2 acre (RA-2a) zoning district for 5.848 acres of land. The subject property is part of a two-unit condominium property regime (CPR) and is located at 62-2225 and 62-2239 `Ouli Street, at the southwest corner of its intersection with Kawaihae Road, Kanehoa Subdivision, `Ouli, South Kohala, Hawaii, TMK: (3) 6-2-009:015. VITOUSEK: Item 2 and 3, we'll take those two together. Applicant is Arte McCullough. Item 2 is application for a State Land Use Boundary Amendment from Agriculture to Rural for 5.848 acres of land. The subject property is part of a two-unit condominium property regime and is located at 62-2225 and 62-2239 `Ouli Street, at the northwest [sic], southwest corner of the intersection with Kawaihae Road in Kanehoa Subdivision, `Ouli, South Kohala, Hawaii, TMK (3) 6-2-009: Parcel 15. And application for a Change of Zone from Agricultural-5 acres, A-5a, to Residential and Agricultural-2 acre, RA-2a, zoning for 5.848 acres of land in the same spot. Staff? Presentation? MERCADO: Aloha and good morning, everyone. I'm Clinton. I'll be doing the Arte McCollough presentation. 1 EXHIBIT A All right, so the first slide is our location map—okay. ROY: I'm sorry, we've got to[inaudible speaking out of microphone range] MERCADO: No problem, thank you. Okay, so our first slide is the location map. The subject 5.848-acre property is located at the corner of the Kawaihae Road and `Ouli Street in the Kanehoa Subdivision, which is located in the South Kohala District of Hawaii Island. The subject property is outlined in bluea little small, but we'll see it on the next one. The applicant is requesting a State Land Use Boundary Amendment from Agricultural to Rural, and a Change of Zone from Agricultural-5 acres, A-5a, to Residential and Agricultural-2 acres, which is for the 5.848 acres of land. The reason for the request: According to the applicant, the primary purpose for the request is to address estate planning as the subject property currently consists of two condominium property regimes, CPR, also known as, consisting of approximately 2.9 acres each. Each CPR unit accommodating one of the two existing single-family dwellings. If the requested land use entitlement changes are approved, the applicant proposes to subdivide the 5.848-acre property into two approximately 2.9-acre lots, each of which will accommodate one of two existing single-family dwellings. Further, no additional improvements are currently proposed by the applicant, and the subject property is fully built out with existing dwellings and accessory structures. The County Zoning Map—here is a closer view of the subject property outlined in blue. The subject parcel is currently zoned Agricultural-5 acres, which is shown in the light green color on the slide. Nearby parcels are zoned Ag-5a and Residential and Agricultural acres which is shown in yellow on the slide. And finally, the parcel across Kawaihae Road is zoned Agricultural-40 acres which is shown in blue. Next is the General Plan. The General Plan [Land] Use Pattern Allocation Guide Map has classified the subject property and the surrounding properties in the Kanehoa Subdivision as Rural shown in the mustard. The parcel across Kawaihae Road is classified as Extensive- Extensive Agriculture, excuse me, shown in the white. Next, we have the State Land Use Map. The State Land Use designation for the subject parcel is Agricultural shown in the green, the light green. The surrounding parcels consist of both Agricultural in light green and Rural in tan, some mix here. I'd like to add, too, a lot of these, many of the surrounding properties in this subdivision happen to reclassify, you know, their properties to Rural and rezone Residential Agricultural, as you can see on the map here. Here is an aerial shot. The aerial is, aerial photo is the subject property outlined in yellow and of its surrounding area. Kawaihae Road is located north and `Ouli Street is east of the property. North is towards the top where the arrow is here. The surrounding area consists of residential and agricultural activities. The existing driveways to the properties are off of`Ouli Street as indicated with the arrows down below and then the middle of the screen. Towards the bottom of 2 EXHIBIT A the subject property is dwelling number 1, which was constructed in 1990, and towards the top of the image is dwelling number 2, which was constructed in 1998. Here is the proposed subdivision plan. The site plan shows the subdivided lot line in the middle and all its existing structures. Here is a site photo from `Ouli Street, looking on the street the left is existing driveway to unit 1 of the subject property. The second image is the existing driveway to unit 2 of the subject property. Here is also standing on Kawaihae Road looking south onto `Ouli Street from Kawaihae Road with the subject property on the right and a flipped image standing at the intersection looking north from `Ouli Street across Kawaihae Road, which is a vacant property. And last is the Planning Director's recommendation. The Planning Director recommends the Planning Commission forward a favorable recommendation to the County Council for the State Land Use Boundary Amendment and the Change of Zone requests. Thank you. That concludes my presentation. Back to you, Mr. Vitousek. VITOUSEK: Thank you. Okay, I'll invite the applicant to come forward. ARAI: [Inaudible asking for permission to move a chair to the applicant table] VITOUSEK: Yes, of course, absolutely. Okay, I'll swear you in. Please raise your right hand. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth on the matter before the Planning Commission? ARAI: I do. VITOUSEK: Thank you. Please state your name and the area that you live in. ARAI: Good morning, Mr. Chairman, members of the Commission. My name is Daryn Arai. I'm a planning consultant residing in Hilo. I'm here representing the applicant, Arte McCullough, who sits to my left, and he resides on the property situated in South Kohala. VITOUSEK: Okay. And have you received the background and recommendation reports from the Planning Department? ARAI: Yes, we have. VITOUSEK: And do you agree with the recommendations, including the proposed conditions? ARAI: Yes, we do. VITOUSEK: Okay. Please proceed with anything you'd add. 3 EXHIBIT A ARAI: Thank you. Again, good morning. Thank you for having us here today and for considering the request by the applicant, Arte McCullough. We appreciate the very thorough presentation by the department staff as always—stole a little bit of my funder but that's quite all right. As far as we, you know, we do agree with the recommendation, and we are very appreciative of that favorable recommendation, as well as the proposed conditions of approval, but just a little bit of background if you don't mind. The project site is located in Kanehoa Subdivision. That subdivision was approved in 1985 and consists of 35 acre-size lots. Of those lots, approximately seven have undergone a transition, a similar transition as being requested by the applicant today, and that has occurred over the course of 37 years since the subdivision was created. Adjacent to the west or makai of Kanehoa Subdivision is Anekona Subdivision, and as you saw from the presentation this morning, that subdivision was approved in 1990 and consists of 36 five-acre size lots. And over the course of 30 years, 32 years, since the approval of that subdivision, approximately 25 of those lots within that subdivision has transitioned to the Rural District and RA-2 acre zoning. So the applicant is basically requesting the same consideration for a Rural designation and a RA-2 acre zoning, which is consistent with the General Plan, which designates the area for Rural as shown during the presentation. As mentioned during the presentation, this is solely for estate planning purposes. Mr. McCullough has resided on this property for 22 years since 2000, and the Morans who live in CPR unit 1 has lived on the property shortly after 2005. So, with that, we look forward to your favorable recommendation as well. And if you do have any questions of us, we are here to answer them as best as we can. As I mentioned, we do have the owner of CPR unit 2, the applicant, Arte McCullough, and the owner of CPR unit 1, Kelly Moran and his wife Sharon. Mr. Moran is in the audience as well. So, with that, we stand ready to answer any questions you may have. VITOUSEK: Okay, thank you. Has there been any other public testimony or anyone, member of the public join at this time for this agenda item? [None] Okay. We'll ask the Commissioners to make a motion to close public testimony for this agenda item. DEFRANCO: I'll make a motion to close public testimony. DELA CRUZ: Second. VITOUSEK: Okay, motion by Vice Chair DeFranco, second by Commissioner Dela Cruz. All those in favor? COMMISSIONERS: Aye[unanimous] VITOUSEK: Okay. Are there any questions by the Commissioners for either the applicant or staff? KNOWLES: I have a question. 4 EXHIBIT A VITOUSEK: Sure. KNOWLES: Thank you, Mr. Arai and Mr. McCullough. I had a question. It came to my attention recently that you also sought input from the South Kohala Transit [sic] Safety Committee or at least brought this matter before them for consideration during the summer, and I just wanted to confirm that that was the case. ARAI: We, I'm not aware, we personally did not make a presentation between the Traffic Committee KNOWLES: Well, I was on a meeting where Mr. Hustace did make a,just brought it to the committee's attention just for awareness, and so I wanted to say thank you for doing that, giving the citizens of the community an opportunity to take a look and weigh in in advance of this. So that was my question. VITOUSEK: Okay. Are there any other questions? PAISHON-DUARTE: Sure, I have one question. Aloha. Good morning. I just wanted, if you could just share some of the agricultural or the permitted use activities that are taking place on your property. MCCULLOUGH: I'm sorry, my hearing aids are turned down. Let me turn them up. PAISHON-DUARTE: Would you like me to restate the question? MCCULLOUGH: Please. PAISHON-DUARTE: Sure, no problem. I was just wondering, could you share some of the activities that you are conducting on your property, the permitted use activities such as agricultural type activities or otherwise? MCCULLOUGH: Yes, thank you very much. We have a gardener called My Wife. We have multiple vegetables that we grow. We grow mangoes, we grow oranges, we grow avocados. We have a plumeria grove. She does all of the work; I take all of the credit. We've had a lack of rain and abundance of wind in this past season, past few weeks. We've lost like 400 mangoes, and we've donated them to people to make pickled mango, church, and so forth, like that. But she has a green thumb, yes. We also have a pet who is our occupant, yeah. PAISHON-DUARTE: Thank you. No further questions from me. VITOUSEK: Okay. Anybody else? DELA CRUZ: I just have a follow-up question. You mentioned there's two properties in the same question as my colleague here—is there any other thing that is also growing on the second property or the second unit? You said the second occupant is here, right? 5 EXHIBIT A VITOUSEK: And if you don't mind, I'll swear you in since you are joining. Would you please raise your right hand? Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth on the matter before the Planning Commission? MORAN: Yes, I do. VITOUSEK: Thank you. Would you please state your name and town you live in. MORAN: Kelly Moran, I live at 62-2225 `Ouli Street in Kamuela. VITOUSEK: Thank you. MORAN: To answer your question, Commissioner Dela Cruz, I have been growing since 2006 dwarf Julie mango, Tahitian seedless lime, tangelos, dragon fruit, Samoan coconut, bananas, papayas, various vegetables. I have a degree in Tropical Crop Production from UH Hilo, and I practice what I've learned on the property. So we have probably, I'm guessing, two to 300 trees. DELA CRUZ: Thank you. MORAN: You're welcome. VITOUSEK: Okay, any further questions? I have a question I think probably for staff. Could you explain the waterline issue, the water meter issue that was raised by DWS and how that's going to be resolved? MERCADO: That one, I would like to defer to the applicant— VITOUSEK: Okay. MERCADO: if that's okay. VITOUSEK: Sure. MERCADO: Thank you. ARAI: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm not sure if one of the exhibits show the two individual driveways; the one on the left is unit 1 which is located on the south side, southern portion of the subject property— MERCADO: we can put it up on the screen. ARAI: Oh, okay, sure yeah, maybe the driveway. So the one with the dog on the left that's guarding the property, you may see on the lower left two meter boxes. One of those meters serves the adjacent property below it, and if you look on the right side of the driveway where you see what appears to be like address numbers, that's the location of the second meter that serves 6 EXHIBIT A CPR unit 2. So both meters are straddle both sides of the existing driveway on unit 1. And there is a water, there is an easement, utility easement, that runs along `Ouli Street, and from that water meter there is a long waterline [to the applicant] is it above ground or? MCCULLOUGH: [Inaudible short response to Mr. Arai] ARAI: Well, anyway, there is a long waterline that goes to serve the existing house on CPR unit 2. We understand that the Department of Water Supply wanted the applicant to relocate its meter to the frontage of its property, and I didn't, unfortunately, I didn't take the measurement, but it's quite a distance away. But the actual water main, from our understanding, is located along the southern boundary of the project site to your left where unit 1 house is located, so basically, to relocate the meter, all you are simply doing is extending the water of lateral, not the water main, but the water lateral all the way to unit 1 frontage. There is no waterline along `Ouli Street. Mr. McCullough has been speaking with a water service technician from the Department of Water Supply who works in the area, and from our indications they felt it was not practical to simply relocate a water meter by simply extending the water lateral and, which has no effect on the water main which remains on the left side of the picture. So we appreciate the Director's condition; the applicant will comply with the requirements of Water Supply whatever they may ultimately be, but the condition as written, we appreciate because it gives that deference to the Department of Water Supply and their ultimate determination. VITOUSEK: Okay. ARAI: And I should note that once the zoning is approved, the applicant will have to go through the formal subdivision process, and both Water Supply and Planning Department will chime in once again, and they will ultimately determine what is reasonable or not. VITOUSEK: Okay, thank you. [To Commissioner Knowles] Sure. KNOWLES: I also wanted to ask the Planning Department about in contemplating, you know, how frequently this seems to be happening, these conversions to smaller lots. What is your, what are your considerations regarding increased density in this area and the impact of that going forward if people continue to seek these sorts of redistricting requests? VITOUSEK: Deputy Director? DARROW: Thank you, Mr. Chair. In the General Plan update in 2005 the Planning Department and the Planning Director looked at areas around the island that were, the General Plan was identified more as orchards or agriculture in areas that really didn't have significant soil or lands to be able to produce income-producing agriculture, and so what they did was identify subdivisions around the island—I'll give you an example, Paradise Park, Orchid Land, Hawaiian Ocean View Estates, Anekona, and Kanehoa—and they changed the General Plan from whatever that was, orchards or intensive agriculture, back then to Rural, with the understanding that it would allow these, number one, to have the ability to come out of the Agricultural District so there wouldn't be this requirement of having to build a dwelling and produce agriculture. Because in this particular situation, as well as the others, the soil type is mainly E which is lava 7 EXHIBIT A or very extremely poor soil. But even with that, you can see that people still can grow agriculture. But what it does is it allows them the ability to create higher density; they could actually go to the point of 0.5 acre. So instead of—in the Agricultural District the minimum lot size is one acre, in the Rural District it's point, it's a half acre. But in this particular case, Anekona as well as Kanehoa, there was quite a number of CPRs that were created already, so it's not as if this is creating higher density; it's actually just trying to resolve the ownership issue, the fee simple. So instead of having one property owned by two people, it would allow separate ownership. And I'd like to acknowledge Greg Mooers here. He was instrumental in doing a majority of the rezonings that we see on the map today. But, again, it's not really increasing the density in this particular situation; it's just resolving a longstanding ownership issue. VITOUSEK: Just to follow up, I completely agree that this particular case is not adding density or anything, but I think the question was about long-term planning and seeing others coming in, and if the infrastructure improvements potentially would be needed long-term for others. So there is a big picture of planning for this type of action in the future. DARROW: Yeah KNOWLES: That's exactly right. Thank you, Chair. DARROW: And again, this, you know, as, I mean a majority of these lots, when you look at theseI'm just talking about these two subdivisions the only way that they can come in for this rezoning and be approved is if they meet those infrastructure requirements; so if they didn't have water, it wouldn't be able to happen; if they couldn't meet the overall traffic requirements, it wouldn't be permitted or they would be required to have to look at certain improvements. This particular area has improved streets, they have water in the area, and again, a majority of them already have two dwellings, so they've been in that. There are other areas that, as I mentioned, had that changed to Rural; those would have a much more difficult time coming in because of the issue of density, increasing density, the subdivisions are substandard, they don't have water, the roads are not meeting current standards, so they would have a difficulty moving forward as this application is. VITOUSEK: And are the accesses to Kawaihae Road adequate for the planned growth? DARROW: Yes. VITOUSEK: Okay. Okay, does anybody have any further questions? [None] If not, is there a motion? PAISHON-DUARTE: Yeah, I'd like to make a motion. I move that a favorable recommendation be forwarded to the Council, County Council, on the application for a State Land Use Boundary Amendment, Docket number SLU-2022-006, based on the Planning Director's recommendation, which shall be adopted. VITOUSEK: Thank you. Is there a second? 8 EXHIBIT A DELA CRUZ: Second. VITOUSEK: Thank you. We have a motion by Commissioner Paishon-Duarte, second by Commissioner Dela Cruz. Is there any discussion? No, okay, we'll proceed with the roll call vote. MERCADO: Commissioner Paishon-Duarte? PAISHON-DUARTE: Aye. MERCADO: Commissioner Dela Cruz? DELA CRUZ: Aye. MERCADO: Commissioner DeFranco? DEFRANCO: Aye. MERCADO: Commissioner Kanuha is excused. Commissioner Knowles? KNOWLES: Aye. MERCADO: And Chair Vitousek? VITOUSEK: Aye. Thank you. Motion carries. You'll be notified of the decision in writing. Appreciate it. ARAI: Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Commissioners, Planning Department, appreciate the recommendation. Thank you. MCCULLOUGH: Thank you very much VITOUSEK: Oh, sorry, I'm sorry, we have another MERCADO: Excuse me, yeah, we have to vote on the VITOUSEK: second agenda item. MERCADO: Yeah. VITOUSEK: We do a second motion for Item 3. DELA CRUZ: I move to forward, that a favorable recommendation be forwarded to the County Council on the application for a Change of Zoning, Docket number REZ 2022-026, based on the Planning Director's recommendation, which shall be adopted. 9 EXHIBIT A PAISHON-DUARTE: I'd like to second. VITOUSEK: Okay, we have a motion by Commissioner Dela Cruz, second by Commissioner Paishon-Duarte. Any discussion? Seeing none, we'll do a roll call vote on that one. MERCADO: Okay, thank you very much. Commissioner Dela Cruz? DELA CRUZ: Aye. MERCADO: Commissioner Paishon-Duarte? PAISHON-DUARTE: Aye. MERCADO: Commissioner DeFranco? DEFRANCO: Aye. MERCADO: Commissioner Knowles? KNOWLES: Aye. MERCADO: And Chair Vitousek? VITOUSEK: Aye. MERCADO: Thank you. VITOUSEK: Okay, you'll be notified of this one in writing also. ARAI: Thank you again. The hearing ended at 10:07 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Noriko Sauer, Secretary Leeward Planning Commission 10 EXHIBIT A