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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2005-04-22 TInnovations PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAII HEARING TRANSCRIPT April 22, 2005 A regularly advertised hearing on the application of INNOVATIONS PUBLIC CHARTERS SCHOOL/IPCS FOUNDATION (SPP 05-002) was called to order at 2:35 p.m. in the King Kamehameha's Kona Beach Hotel, Islander Room, 755660 Palani Road, Kailua-Kona, Hawai i - with Chairperson Fred Galdones presiding. PRESENT:Fred GaldonesABSENT & EXCUSED:Jeffrey McCall C. Kimo AlamedaRodney Watanabe Hannah SpringerAllen Salavea WilliamGrahamRene€Siracusa Andrew Iwashita Ivan Torigoe, Deputy Corporation Counsel Christopher Yuen, Planning Director Norman Hayashi, Planning Program Manager Phyllis Fujimoto, Staff Planner Jeff Darrow, Staff Planner Kiran Emler, Representing the Department of Public Works And approximately 60 people from the public in attendance. INNOVATIONS PUBLIC CHARTERS SCHOOL/IPCS FOUNDATION (SPP 05-002) Special Permit application to allow the establishment of a public charter school (elementary school - grades 1 to 6), including limited before and after school care program, and related facilities on 5 acres of land situated within the State Land Use Agricultural District. The area involved is located along the east (mauka) side of Queen Kaahumanu Highway, approximately rd 1,500 feet north of the Queen Kaahumanu Highway ƒ Hualalai Road intersection, Puaa 3 , North Kona, Hawaii, TMK: 7-5-10: portion of 1. GALDONES:Will the Hawaii County Planning Commission be back in order. Commissioners we are on agenda item Number 5, Innovations Public Charters School/IPCS Foundation SPP05-002. This is a Special Permit application to allow the establishment of a public charter school, elementary school, grades 1 to 6, including limited before and after school care program and related facilities on 5 acres of land situated within the State Land Use Agricultural District. Jeff. DARROW:Thank you Mr. Chairman. If I may direct your attention to the location map. The area of this location is in the North Kona district of Hawaii; more specifically this white line that€s traveling in a north-south direction across the middle of the map is called the QueenKaahumanuHighway.Thissmallerwhitelinethat€stravelinginamakai-mauka direction is the Hualalai Road. The location of this application is identified by a blue dot. The 1 EXHIBIT D Applicant in this case Innovations Public Charter School are requested a Special Permit to allow the establishment of a public charter school, elementary school grades 1 through 6 including a after school program, before and after school program, as well as related facilities. The Applicants previously submitted this representation with the application. In their original representation of the school it identified a one way traffic flow from Queen Kaahumanu Highway into the driveway area and then out on an easement access that they have acquired from the adjoining property owner which happens to be the same landowner as the parcel. The parcel in itself is a 5 acre parcel. I mean a 5 acre piece of land located on a larger 15 acre parcel. Within the proposal they are recommending or proposing to convert an existing dwelling into an administrative office and related facilities located here. They€re proposing to renovate an existing garage structure to classrooms and then also proposing to construct 6 hale type structures for classrooms as well as a bathroom. In the future they were proposing to build 2 more hale structures to allow for the increase of the students from 120 students to 200. More recently the applicants have submitted a revised plot plan. This plot plan again identifies the one waytrafficpattern.ThisisgoingtobearightinfromQueenKaahumanuHighwayontothe property. There€s going to be a turnaround area that allows students to drop, be dropped off as well as a parking lot area and allow the patrons of the school to be able to exit one way traffic flow and a right onto Queen Kaahumanu. Again they are proposing to convert the existing dwelling into administrative offices as well as other related facilities. The existing building in this location to classrooms and instead of the hale structures they€re proposing to build 2 conventionally framed structures that will include classrooms as well as lanai areas within each. They€re also proposing an open pavilion located approximately here as well as a bathroom area. The conditions to mention if I can bring those to your attention. Condition Number 7 requires the Applicant to make a good faith effort to be able to try to establish an access easement to the north and this would include traversing over this property owned by the same landowner that it owns the parcel that the school is proposing to operate. As well as this parcel here, which is owned by Bishop Estate. To try to connect to Kailua View Estates on either Welo Street or Kakalina Street. If the Applicants are able to receive approval for this access easement a requirement is placed in the condition to have them come back before the Commission and to notify all properties that are bounder- that are going to be located along the boundary of this access easement and have them an opportunity to come before the Commission. Another condition to mention is Condition 9, which requires the school to implement a carpooling policy and this again is to minimize traffic impacts in the area. We€ve passed out to the Commissioners a new Condition Number 10. Each condition after this condition will be subsequently renumbered in order. Condition Number 10 is requiring the Applicants to place a no left turn sign facing north at the front of the property so that traffic traveling south on Queen Kaahumanu Highway will be prevented from turning left into the project. The other sign will be placed facing mauka for the people that are coming- that are going to be exiting the project to prevent them from turning left onto Queen Kaahumanu and again establishing a right turn in, right turn out traffic flow pattern. And lastly, Condition Number 11 which was 10, now it€s renumbered to 11. This conditions states that if the speed limit is required by the Department of Transportation to be lowered from anywhere below 45 mph, the Applicants will be required to not have direct access onto- they will be restricted from direct access onto the Queen Kaahumanu Highway. They will be required to place a gate here and to find an alternative access to the project. That could be either from the Kailua View Estates as we spoke about earlier, possibly from Hualalai 2 EXHIBIT D Road or possibly from mauka coming down from Hienaloli Road. But whatever if the Applicants are able again to receive approval for any of these access easements they will be required to return to the Planning Commission giving notice to all those properties that will be affected along the boundary of the new access easement. Lastly, just for your information we€ve received numerous letters of support. This morning we€ve received several new letters, one that€s been passed out to the Commissioners from Councilperson Virginia Isbell. And then we€ve received 3 letters that have not been passed out and if I could just pass them out to the Commissioners to have them look at. Thank you. The Planning Director is recommending that this request be approved by the Planning Commission. Are there any questions? GALDONES:Commissioner Springer? SPRINGER:I€m wondering, should there be south-bound traffic coming to access the school site how much farther south will they need to go either to make a u-turn or how would theyaccomplisharightturnentryifcomingoutofthenorth? DARROW:Therewereseveraloptionsavailabletopatronsoftheschooltobeableto- if they were north of the project and be able to travel south. Number 1 they would be able to come down Nani Kailua to Hualalai Road and then at the intersection take a left and then enter into the project. Another possibility is turning left onto Hualalai Road from Queen Kaahumanu Highway and doing a u-turn and basically coming back out as well as within the Puulani Subdivision. In the future Puulani Subdivision is going to be- there€s going to be a light at Puulani Subdivision Road and at that point there€s a possibility that if Puaa or Suffolk Development are approved by the County Council that will possibly open up another mauka- makai to allow people that are traveling in this area to turn left at a stoplight and then travel to the project area. GALDONES:Commissioner Springer? SPRINGER:On another matter- Councilperson Isbell while writing a letter of support for the project also requests that this item be postponed and continued to our next meeting as we- and I imagine she€s speaking with the County Council are working on an amendment to the County Code that may impact on this project. Can you give us some information on that? DARROW:If I could defer that question to our Planning Director. Thank you. YUEN:I believe that was in relation to the Huggett SMA application. (Inaudible) does it say on- I believe Soto. SPRINGER:Okay, they came out together thanks. DARROW:Thank you. GALDONES:Any further questions Commissioners of Jeff? Hearing none. I believe the three of you are the Applicant€s rep- or you would be the representative for the Applicants? Okay, I need to have you sworn in. Could you please raise your right hand? Do you swear or 3 EXHIBIT D affirm to tell the truth on this matter now before the Hawaii County Planning Commission ma€am? TESTIFIER:I will do so. GALDONES:Sir? TESTIFIER (male):I do. TESTIFIER (female):I do. GALDONES:Okay. I need to have you state your name and your residence address for the record. MS.WOERNER:MynameisBarbaraWOERNER.Myaddressis77-6430PualaniStreet, Kailua-Kona, 96740. GALDONES:Sir? MR. WOERNER:My name is Bill WOERNER. My address is 77-6430 Pualani Street, Kailua-Kona. GALDONES:Ma€am? JACOBSON:My name is Kate Jacobson. My address is 78-6966 Walua Road, Kailua Kona. GALDONES:Okay. Have you folks received a copy of the Background Report and the Recommendations and do you have any comments to them? MS. WOERNER:We have received that but before we proceeded we were hoping to that we could do a quick presentation to the Commission. GALDONES:Proceed. MS. WOERNER:Thank you. First of all I wanted to thank you for having us here today. It€s a very exciting day for our staff, our parents and our students. I hope that their rousing cheer out front didn€t bother you but they waited a long time in the lobby to come and show their support for our school. And quite a few of them have managed to get back here so thank you for your patience with all of the students that we had out here this morning. First we would like to share with the Commission some visual images that will help convey the essence and culture of our school. Kate will share insights about the proposed site and well it is well suited for a school. And Bill will present the technical details of the project. It is our hope that after this presentation you€ll be ready today to approve our permit that is critical to the sustainability of our award winning school. 4 EXHIBIT D So if I could direct you up to our slide show. Innovations is West Hawaii€s first and only public elementary charter school. We opened in August of 2001. Innovations has 120 awesome students in grades 1 through 6. Our mission is to educate the whole child, body, mind and spirit. Innovations provides parents a choice of free, quality public education in a safe and personable small school environment. Using innovative and meaningful teaching techniques while developing positive character traits and promoting family values. IPCS is dedicated to helping students develop creative talents, academic excellence and a sense of ohana. Our learning is authentic- it€s a picture of the kids at PAWS, learning how to give dog commands. Taking students beyond classroom walls, to new experiences. Students are challenged to think and they€re given choices about their learning. Learning is relevant and it€s fun. Our curriculum is balanced providing students opportunities for creative self expression through the arts. Weekly resource classes include music, cultural arts, visual arts and drama. Innovations is best known for its multi-age groupings. We have multi-age classes rather than the traditional graded classrooms. We€re an inquiry and project based. We have an abundant and daily use of technology. Our curriculum is student centered and it€s challenging. This is a first grader who decided to do a report on animal rights. We have master teachers and we€re a team based school as opposed to having a Principal and telling the staff what to do. Our team makes all the decisionsfortheschool.Wehaveacaringandlovingstaff.Withlotsandlotsofparent participation. And we€re an outstanding academic achievement school. Innovations was 1 of 32 schools in the state recognized for the 2004 Hawaii Distinguished School. This was based on our student€s test scores for the Hawaii State Assessment. So, it€s quite an honor and it is West Hawaii€s only elementary school to receive that distinction. We have excellent parent-student satisfaction rate. We have a 100% of our students returning to the school next year. We just had our lottery for next year. We have over 150 applicants and we only had 24 openings because of the return rate. We have a long wait list for each of our grade levels. Our biggest challenges, these may be a little out of order, are funding, we have difficulty with our funding. Innovations has been fiscally sound all 4 years despite the fact that Charter Schools receive less than half of the funding given to regular public schools and we receive no funding for facilities. Facilities is also another issue. Obviously we€re here today because we need a campus. Kahakai our host school has growing enrollments and they want their classrooms back. We must relocate. After exhausting searches for 2 years we have found a site. And this is an aerial photo that gives you an idea of where the school will be located. The area up- the green area leading up to our central area, Bill could you go? You can see that the school site will be quite a distance from the highway; we€re not located right on the highway. It€s about 500 feet from the entrance up to where the proposed development will be it€s all up in that area that Bill is showing right now. There is an existing house on the property that will be converted to offices for the school. The garage and workshop will be converted into 2 classrooms which will not be enough for our 120 students so we propose to build 2 additional classroom buildings, a bathroom building and a multi-purpose pavilion. And all of this needs to be done before August 1 when school begins. So before I end my presentation I just wanted to take a minute to share with you one of our educational programs that emphasizes service to our community. I want to show you the variety of ways that our students have enriched their own lives and the lives of others in our community through their participation and the service learning. These are the same students that are same students that are here today asking for your assistance so that they will a school ready for them in August. 5 EXHIBIT D (Long pause) Sorry, technical errors, excuse me. (Video presentation) We just wanted to be sure that we put into context what it is we€re talking about today. We€re talking about the children- 120 children from Innovations Public Charter School. I€m going to turn the mike over to Bill. Uh, excuse me, over to Kate. JACOBSON:Good afternoon Commissioners. First I€d like to take the opportunity to just say thank you to the Planning Staff, in particular Chris Yuen, Norman Hayashi and Jeff Darrow. We are grass roots volunteered driven effort to create a safe learning environment for children. And the County Staff has at all times been helpful and professional and courteous as westrugglethroughthecomplexissuesofLandUsePlanningGrowthManagement.Thanks guys. I serve on the Innovations local school board. I€m a mom and I have been working on the relocation effort for 2 years. Through networking with other Statewide Charter Schools I€ve been able to talk to other organizations that have built facilities and benefited from their prior experiences. One of the things I€d like to share with you today is why- the reasons why I think this campus is an ideal location for a small school. As the search began we established the following parameters, we needed 3 to 5 acres, we wanted close proximity to Kona in order to retain our current parents and families, we needed access to existing infrastructure such as roads, water, utilities and we were hoping for a little bit of grass for the kids to play on too. All the properties that we looked at had several challenges. Many of them had excessive CC & R€s, inadequate surface roads, were far too distant from our current location, were way out of our price range. It was a long search. Our proposed site is designated as medium-density in the current General Plan so therefore it€s an appropriate land use and entirely compatible with growth management. Quality planning is essential for the creation of livable sustainable communities. However the planning process should never become an impediment to creating important and necessary public amenities. Good government facilitates the development of infrastructure when it meets the needs of the community. Commissioners the community needs this school and we need this particular site. Please know that we have the support of many elected officials including Congressman Ed Case, Governor Linda Lingle, Senator Paul Whalen, House Representative Josh Green, County Council members Virginia Isbell and Angel Pilago, most of which have written testimony on our behalf. We are honored by the community leaders and parents and teachers and children who came today, this morning to support Innovations. So on behalf of them and for future generations I thank you for your consideration and I urge you to approve our Special Permit Application as quickly as possible so that we can begin construction and have the classrooms ready for the children by the next school year. Mahalo. MR. WOERNER:I€m Bill WOERNER. I€m founder and former Director of the West Hawaii Explorations Academy Public Charter School and I€m currently volunteer project manager for Innovations€ relocation. I think you€ll find that most everyone agrees that it€s, with the wisdom of supporting the Innovations Public Charter School. It€s an award winning 6 EXHIBIT D community asset. Your decisions today will be based in part on that but also on how well the school has addressed a host of community issues, historical preservation, water availability and in particular highway access. I will explore those- some of those concerns shortly but first I would like to present 4 points that I think are worthy of reflection during these deliberations. Number 1, the students attending Innovations are public school students. The new site will not create more students, it will redistribute students. Secondly, Innovations family is not a land developer. It is a group of teachers, parents and students seeking a site for their public school. A new school campus will not generate a need for additional infrastructure as might a new housing development. It will lessen the burden on already busy school campus. A new site will not require adding government infrastructure, it is additional infrastructure. Thirdly, this is a small school. It is not 1500 students, it€s not 800 students, it€s not 550 students, it€s a 120 students. And it will be so next year. Though the waiting list is long and the teachers and the local school board have chosen to support an atmosphere that nurtures deep and rich student success and that can best be accomplished in a small school. Finally, it is important to look at the long term- say 10yearsdowntheroadwhenyou€reconsidering,aswellastheshortterm,whenyou€re considering the impact of today€s decision. How well does this school fit into the long range plans of Kona. Viewed in that way the wisdom of approving this application appears even more evident. Now I€d like to address specific concerns. Historical preservation- we are working on a site and you saw it in the picture which has been previously bull dozed and is currently lawn, cattle pasture and land that€s underneath existing structures. Wastewater management- we have a wastewater engineer who€s designed a septic system that will take care of our needs on site. Domestic water- the Water Department has enough water available for us. We will need to upgrade the existing system of water on the site but we are willing to do that. And last and most critically as everyone has agreed is the traffic issue, ingress and egress. What will be the impact on the highway traffic? There have been some expressed concerns. What about through traffic will it be a 25 mph school zone? It€s currently 55 along that stretch of road. Will there be 80 more cars on the highway slowing traffic? How will South-bound parents get turned around? That even got asked earlier. And, so I€d like to take a look at some maps and talk and discuss a few of these issues with you. (Long pause) Okay, is it okay if I just? Are we still okay over here? I€ll do the best I can turn it part way. Okay this is- as pointed out before this is Queen Kaahumanu Highway. This is Hualalai Road. This is Kailua View Estates. And the property is the green property- this is the current location of the school on the Kahakai campus right here. So the school is moving from approximately 1 to 1 and 1/3 mile in a straight line. It€s about a mile north and about a third of a mile to the east. The property is located on the Queen Kaahumanu Highway and I- this is essentially a blow up of the same thing but I wanted to get you oriented for where we were. So the property is a 5 acre piece and you can see from the picture that€s up there that the infrastructure that€s in is right up here at the top and it is approximately 600 feet up the driveway or 500 feet/550 feet in a straight line. I€m going to come back and use this in just a minute. 7 EXHIBIT D Okay so the- let€s take these questions one at a time because I think they deserve some looking at cause I think that€s what- ultimately this is what€s gonna-your decision is likely to hinge on the traffic issues. So, will there a 25 mph zone. It is possible that HDOT could say this is a school zone and you have to put a 25 mph- but let me say that 25 mph zones on State highways are used in some situations but it is exceedingly unlikely that it would be recommended here for several reasons. There will be no children walking or biking to school. The school buildings are located at least 600 feet off the ingress road. There are no play fields closer than 600 feet from the road. The drop off and pick up area is at least 500feet from the entrance. It is possible and even probable that the Hawaii Department of Transportation will recommend a 45 mph speed zone. And I would like to speak real quickly to that issue. We worked with the engineer when he was doing his traffic study and took measurements of the car speeds in addition to the other measurements were taken. The average speed going through that area during busy times and slow times is 45 mph. There are a few cars that get up to 50 but they€re mostly around 42, 43, 46, somewhere right in there. So, according to Mr. Witcher, the Traffic Engineer and from what weobservedtherewillnotbeasignificantimpactonthethroughputonthehighwayifthespeed limit is set at 45 mph. The second issue is will there be 80 more cars on the highway? This number has surfaced from various places and been reported in the paper. The fact is that in the absence of anything else, if you counted up the cars you could say yes, there will be 80 cars coming to the site. But really, if you look at the statistics, we surveyed the parents and almost all are already using the highway in the morning and in the afternoon. So, about a third of them live north and they already travel on the highway both up and back to drop their kids at the current location. The ones that live south most of them, all but 4 in fact that we surveyed which was 78% of the parents, they drop their kids at the school and then they go into work or they go into shop or whatever else they€re going to do, they use the highway already so it is not changing that, it€s not changing that pattern. I have done some massaging on the map and I do know that there€s lies, darn lies and statistics but I would like to assure you that- about and when you consider the parent cars that will be added there are going to between and 8 and 10 additional cars added to that traffic stream. There will also be about 10 additional staff cars so we€re talking about 20 more cars on the highway in the morning and in the afternoon. I ask you to compare that to 2200 cars per hour that are currently going past the location. It is not a lot of additional cars. And that€s assuming no carpooling which is estimated by the traffic engineer at perhaps as much as 20 or 30% and if the carpooling factor is accurate there could be a reduction in the number of vehicles that actually travel through that intersection. To be fair, many of the carpooling families will probably also use the highway so it€s probably not a fair number but I can say unequivocally that there is not going to be an impact to the throughput of traffic at that intersection if you lower it to 45 and you add those vehicles. We€re only talking about a very small number of vehicles. So the next issue would be how do the southbound parents get turned around and that was answered earlier. I would be happy to revisit that if the Commissioners felt it was necessary. You want me to do that? Okay. GALDONES:Mr. WOERNER? MR. WOERNER:Yeah? GALDONES:Would it be better using the slide? 8 EXHIBIT D MR. WOERNER:No. I need this (inaudible). GALDONES:Okay. MR. WOERNER:Thank you. Itis an (inaudible) that there are a number of ways that the cars can end up coming back, coming from the south, coming north on the highway to get into the site. There is a- as you can see in the photograph if you look carefully, there is a simulated or painted island in the middle which is not legal to cross over there and turn left. One of the nice things about Charter Schools that you can invoke rules that you cannot invoke in a traditional public school. We can tell parents you cannot cross there and if you do your child cannot go to school here. So, when somebody asks well how are you going to control the parents? Well, we can do it; we can make them, force them, to go only from this direction and into the site and come out and turn this direction. Now let me go over the different, some of the different variations there are probably more than I€m going to show you but I€m not trying to hide any, it€s justthatthere€salwayslotsofconfigurations.Butabout1/3ofthoseparentslivetothenorth from a survey we conducted. About 2/3 live south. If parents are coming from the south, they€re going to turn a right turn into this property, go up drop their child or children off, come back out on this road and make a right turn and go this direction. Now if they need- normally they would probably go on into town because that€s what most people do. But if they need to turn around, they only need to turn at this lighted intersection. They can turn left, go down Nani Kailua, this is a stop sign here. They€ll turn left on Hualalai Road and there€s a merge lane to get back in, a high speed merge lane to join back into the traffic going south. So those parents would have no problem doing that. They can either go straight on through into town or turn and come back and go to the south if they needed to do that. For parents coming from the north the easiest way is probably to make a right at Nani Kailua, come down to the stop sign at Hualalai Road and by the way Hualalai Road is not heavily used. It is a road that moderate, very moderate traffic. As does Nani Kailua. They could come up here and where, right here they will need to make a left turn onto the highway and that is the most difficult part and was identified in the traffic study as the one that was most impacted. As it turns out, almost all the people who will make that turn will be parents who are going to the school. Because there is no reason for someone to come down here and make this left turn because there€s nothing in here that they will be going to. So the only people, virtually, only people who would be making that turn would be the parents of the school. They will be impacted. It€s going to take them quite a while to get across here in a safe manner. So, they could do that and then by the same reasoning they could either continue on into town to go to their jobs or to the store or home. Or, if their job happened to be mauka they could make the same loop come back and then they would merge back into the traffic on Queen Kaahumanu. Yes? GALDONES:Commissioner Springer? SPRINGER:After that left turn is made off of Hualalai Road onto Kaahumanu Highway is there already a merging lane there? MR. WOERNER:Uh, no. Any other questions? Yes. 9 EXHIBIT D GRAHAM:Any alternatives to the one you€re describing right now? MR. WOERNER:There are a number of alternatives. I would say involve more driving and might be easier in some cases. For instance you can go down lower and come up on Kuakini Highway. You could also go all the way to where they currently go and come up a road up in there and come to a signalized area and turn the left but I don€t think most people would do that, think most of them would probably do this even if it takes them 15 or 20 seconds to make that turn. They€re going to take the time to do it because it€s much less than trying to go elsewhere. The driveway entrance off of Queen Kaahumanu Highway is, as I said it€s approximately, up to the existing buildings is approximately 650 feet and the turnaround that€s being designed and the drop off area right in here that we will merge. Not merge, come out on an access road that is already there on the property that is immediately to the north and is owned by the same owner as was pointed out earlier. Okay, in the traffic report there was a mention in the conclusions that there will be an impact. Butifyoudigdowninsidethatreportitstatesthattheprimaryimpactwillbeonparentsofthe school. That is, those areas that were degradated by this situation are the parents and the parents are willing to take the additional time to make the turn. And it also said in the report that the 45 mph speed limit which we kind of anticipate is what is going to happen will not effect the through traffic rate. We appreciate the concern for traffic woes in Kona. We drive in it everyday, we know it€s there. The traffic situation is not Innovations doing and the school will not impact significantly on anyone except the Innovations parents. I have a couple of comments about specific things in here but I thought I€d stop in case anybody has traffic questions or other technical questions you would like me to address. GALDONES:Commissioner Springer. SPRINGER:I understand there€s an existing building on the property and that would be renovated for your purposes. And you mentioned constructing 2 buildings? Will those be portable buildings or will be architect designed and? MR. WOERNER:They€re architect designed and they€re 2, 2 classroom buildings, standard construction. SPRINGER:And the approximate building time? st MR. WOERNER:We€re going to try to do it by August 1 . I know that€s awfully ambitious. st We think we can probably get it up by August 1. I€ll say. I think it€ll take a little longer. We do have a lot of support from the community, from the parents. We also have- we€re discussing thingswith-somedevelopersthatarewillingtohelpus. GALDONES:CommissionerGraham? GRAHAM:BillIjustwanttotellyouthatIamconcernedabouttrafficissuesandI appreciate you dealing with them straight on and reading a lot of this material. I mean I can see 10 EXHIBIT D how under a tight timeframe now you guys are being really diligent about trying to get everything dealt with and all that. So I appreciate that but I still have a lot of concern and you know like Kate said just a few minutes ago, the planning process should never become an impediment, da, da, da , da, well- I can€t buy into that at all. I think the planning process is real important and you know when I come in here; planning is the hat I wear regardless of my other stuff. Linda Lingle€s letter and Virginia Isbell€s letter and Angel€s letter, they all talk about the value of the school and I think you folks showed the values there but nobody is saying here€s how we€re going to help you solve the problem with the traffic. So, I don€t know what to say, other than, I feel like you€ve hit all the important issues and the important concerns but I feel like a traffic point of view it€s a poor location in the way it is right now. From land use point of view it€s fine. From wanting you guys to have the school its fine. And I know the timing is real important, so for myself or anybody else here to say no today, you get another chance next meeting and all but there€s only 5 of us so you€re going to be pushed back a month and so it€s easy to see it€s a decision that weighs heavy on us so please understand that. But, it is a real concernforme.Idon€t-giventhetrafficsituationinKonaIfeellikeeventhoughyoupaintas nice a picture as possible as well as an honest picture. You know, it€s still a real concern for me that€s all. MR. WOERNER:Can I respond to that? GALDONES:Yes Mr. WOERNER, go ahead. MR. WOERNER:I understand what you€re saying. I firmly believe that I have represented it fairly and I believe that if the school€s there- once it€s there people will not even- it€s not going to be an issue. It will not- it will not cause concern. I have been working on that prop- on that site for the last month and a half and it is not a problem to turn into the right and to turn out at the right. It does take sometimes, 10 or 15 seconds to wait for a break. There is a natural break in traffic caused by the turn down from going north on Queen Kaahumanu Highway. The cars turn onto Hualalai Road going down into town and when the cars peel off for that there€s a natural break. So that makes it fairly easy. I€m- I€m really, I can€t tell you that it has not been a problem for me and I€ve been going there everyday up to the property to work on the property. So I€m- I know that there€s this concern out there; that there€s a kind of a fear that€s been set up. I don€t think it€s going to be there. I mean I just I really don€t. And then, I think if you read the engineering study it really says that the problem is going to be for the parents. GALDONES:Ms. Jacobson. JACOBSON:I€d like to respond to Mr. Graham€s comment. I€m sorry if I wasn€t clear that what our position is is that we support land use planning wholeheartedly. And we believe that we are part of the infrastructure, we believe that we are part of the solution to- to some of the planning issues that are in front of the entire community. GALDONES:Mr. WOERNER are there- is there anything more that you would like to present before we open up for further questions? 11 EXHIBIT D MR. WOERNER:I did have 2 concerns that I wanted to address. But maybe I should preface that with to let you know that we consider this to be a temporary solution. We believe that the best access, we agree completely with the best access being from Kailua View Estates or coming across from Hualalai Road. As a practical matter it is not realistic and will put the school in jeopardy if we have to wait until all those pieces are put together. I don€t think it€s going to come down to being a serious traffic concern. But, I know people are out there saying it is a serious traffic concern. I don€t believe- the engineering report doesn€t seem to say that and I just don€t think it will be that. I did have a couple of questions. The first is there is a request- not a request there€s one condition, Condition 3 states that- and it€s not really clear but it sounds like we€re being asked to put in a paved parking lot. It is permissible to do gravel parking lots on agricultural land. And for a very good reason we€d like to clarify that and hopefully get your okay on that. And that is that we€re trying to establish an alternate route and if we put a paved parking lot in and later have to tear the parking lot pavement asphalt out in order to put the soccer field in it seems like it wasn€t probably very good planning. So, we don€t know where the accessroadiscomingfromsowewouldaskthatwebeallowedtoputinagravelparkinglotat this time. We have no problem with putting in a paved parking but want to wait until we get established roads so we know where the roads coming in. Yeah, a permanent road. GALDONES:Well Jeff is this public works or is this the Department€s requirement. DARROW:This would be the Planning Department€s review through the Plan Approval process. Just looking up in our zoning code what the requirement would be whether paved or if they could put gravel. GALDONES:Is Mr. WOERNER€s concern, can that be addressed? DARROW:It€s been brought to my attention that as far as the condition states, at this point it is required to be paved unless changed at this time. GALDONES:Mr. WOERNER? Was there something else that you wanted to? MR. WOERNER:Yeah, there€s a second request. Do you want me to wait until you finish with this matter? GALDONES:If there€s no- Commissioner Alameda? ALAMEDA:Just following up on Mr. Darrow€s comment. If it€s required to be paved unless changed at this time, what would be the protocol to change it at this time? DARROW:By deleting the word paved in the condition. It looks like under Condition 25-4-54, Standards in Improvements to Off-Street Parking Spaces for any permitted use in the residential, residential agricultural, family agricultural and agricultural districts the pavement of parking spaces is not required and any material may be used for the parking spaces that will eliminate erosion, mud and standing water. 12 EXHIBIT D YUEN:As a general rule, for uses in- for Ag uses and single family residential uses the code doesn€t require pavement. Now schools would normally be located in a commercial zone. The public school can be located anywhere but I believe the standards for public school would be a paved parking lot, the normal public school. I don€t want to change the recommendation right now. There€s some safety aspects to the maintenance of an unpaved parking area. As far as- this is the kind- the Commission can change the recommendation if they want. GALDONES:Seeing no further questions. Mr. WOERNER? MR. WOERNER:Okay the second- GALDONES:Hold on, there€s a question. Commissioner Springer? SPRINGER:Thankyou.Intheconclusionofthetrafficimpactanalysis,page8of8, there€s a sentence which reads that However, by changing the school hours so that the arrivals and departures at the school are during non peak hour traffic periods, traffic congestions particularly at Hualalai Road can be reduced.‚ Is the school anticipating adjusting their school hours? MS. WOERNER:Our school is willing to do whatever it takes to make this work and I€m sure we€ll be happy to adjust our hours. YUEN:We- we didn€t put that in as a condition. It would be nice if the school did adjust its hours to whatever is best. I€m not convinced that it makes that much difference. And I€m not convinced that in a few years it€s going to make any difference at all. And I€m surprised to see- I think the traffic does taper off considerably now a bit later in the day but as I say I€m not- I wasn€t, I didn€t want to lock the school into a- I didn€t want to put a particular condition in right now that locks you into a certain time because it may not make much- in a few years it may not make much difference. There may be a better time in a few years. GALDONES:Mr. WOERNER was the possibility of bussing the students to school considered and was it cost prohibitive to do so? MR. WOERNER:I would defer to the school administration. MS. WOERNER:Charter Schools are treated a little differently than regular public schools and they do not- only not receive facility funding but they don€t receive bussing either. So, if we wanted to bus our students we would have to provide the transportation ourselves. It€s a possibility but it is very expensive and as I mentioned before the budgets for charter schools are about, right now they€re at about 50% of what a regular public school is. So, it would put a burden on us but it€s something that could happen. GALDONES:Any further questions of Mr. WOERNER regarding the traffic? Commissioner Graham? 13 EXHIBIT D GRAHAM:Not directly on traffic but for any of you- I do remember reading, I can€t find it when I look for it right now but I remember reading your material the 2003-2004 Annual Report. And it says in the Annual Report that you folks were- or the Directors, the Board spent the majority in your effort trying to get a good site cause you knew you were going to have to move and it also indicated that you thought you had a site and you had agreements on going and it was about to be finalized. But obviously it didn€t work out so, since you all are being very candid can you explain a little more about- it feels to me like you€re kind of caught in a time pinch. You got a situation which obviously has a big traffic problem and you€re really giving it the best shot you can to try to make it work. MS. WOERNER:Exactly. We had a site picked out south of the school again about a mile and a half south. It was the former Fuku Bonsai Center. That property is owned by John Kobayashi and he also has a permit before you for a storage facility. And his storage facility permit has been I guess contested. So he has sort of put our project on hold. We noticed that we havebeenonholdforabout6monthsfromhimandwemadethedecisionthatifhehadnot signed our lease that we had drawn up and the Special Use Permit that we prepared for that property, if he- cause we needed his signature to turn that in. If he had not signed by December of 2004 that we must begin our search again because we knew that we had to leave the Kahakai campus by school year 05-06; that would be August of 2005. So we had no choice. We had to walk away from that project. He has never refused us nor has he said that he doesn€t want us there but he will not move forward on that project until his storage facility has been resolved and that doesn€t appear to be happening. So that€s why we again, set out to find another site and quite frankly as Kate said it was exhaust to search. We have a lot of parents here that spent many hours out there going to every realtor; they called every realtor in town. We went and looked at multiple properties. Kona is not like some communities where there are empty buildings that are not in use. So, it is very difficult to find a suitable site that is safe for children. Even though we are only 120 students you still need a suitable site for the children. And, when our community benefactor I guess I would call him came forward and said I have a piece of property that might be able to work for you, we were ecstatic. Because it is located where our parents are currently traveling. It would fit our needs. It€s in the right land use area. It€s a safe place for our children and it€s- right now it€s our only hope. GALDONES:Commissioner Alameda? ALAMEDA:I just wanted to follow up again on that pavement issue. I€m just curious would that condition limit you or prevent you if this gets approved, from moving forward with the project? MR. WOERNER:No. GALDONES:Seeing no further questions from the Commissioners, Mr. WOERNER are there any other testimony that you would like to present to us? MR. WOERNER:I have one other condition that I would like to talk about and this is also not a deal breaker for us. But, in Condition 7, there€s a condition to pursue an easement to build an alternative access road and the recommended road is from Kailua View Estates. And we have 14 EXHIBIT D no problem with that, with meeting all of those conditions. There is one concern and that is- one of- part of that condition is that if we were able to get an easement that we build a road. And, oh God that€s the obvious next step and our concern is that we€ve had it costed out and it€s in- somewhere between 500,000 and a million dollars to build that road. So, we would like to possibly tweak the language, we€re not against the intent but we would like to work with landowners to make that happen and we believe we can do that. But if the strict letter of the- and if push comes to shove we will do everything we can to build that road but I have to say that it would really put a crimp on the school because it means it€s 2 years of their budget, their operating budget for 2 years just to put the access road in. They€re not opposed to that. They€ll do whatever they have to do as they€ve already said. But when you consider doing a third of a mile of County road with putting in curbs and all of the things that are needed, it could be- even getting help from the parents it could be very tough for them. So I guess I would hope that you could tweak the language just a little bit to say the Applicant shall cooperate, the part under Number 7. If the approval for the necessary easements is received the applicant shall cooperate withlandownersinbuildingaconnectorroad.We€rethinkingaboutbeingpartnerswithpeople that are up there in order to build that road as opposed to doing it all ourselves. I don€t know if that€s adding fuel to the fire but I really think that would help the school. And that€s all I have. GALDONES:Jeff on that- Number 7 is put together and addressing the concern raised by Mr. WOERNER, was it the intent that they had to build that? Could they not go the route of working with the other landowners to build a road? DARROW:If I could direct this question to our Planning Director. Thank you. YUEN:Well its fine and it€s nice if they cooperate with other landowners. The difficulty is if the landowners will give them permission to build a road across but don€t want to help pay for it. And, the intent of this condition is that then the school does have to build it. I don€t know how else to word that. As far as the standard of the road, it€s not a County road. There is a condition that you consult with the Department of Public Works as to the quality of the road but it would not have to- it would be a private road. It would not have to be a County dedicable road. So, there€s no question that it would be expensive whether county dedicable or not to have a safe, paved, two lane road, 1300, 1400 feet is an expensive condition. We€re going to have a lot more testimony and I€ll try to think of something in the meantime. There might be a timeframe to this that we can talk about. And, we can try to word it in such a way that, if landowners, if intervening landowners get land use approvals that they should work the road design in with those approvals. Without them having- without them coming to the County for some kind of land use change like a rezoning, we don€t really have a handle on them to say won€t you be nice to the school and share the cost building a road. And in fact if they don€t- if they€re not asking for anything, if they€re just taking the use as it is then they probably don€t have much use for a road that runs across their property either. So, let me- we are going to have some time and before the Commission takes action we will try to come up with something that may work especially if somebody else, one of the intervening landowners has some other, some kind of application in front of us. MR. WOERNER:Okay. 15 EXHIBIT D GALDONES:Mr. WOERNER anything further you€d like to present? MR. WOERNER:No. GALDONES:You don€t want to press your luck huh? MR. WOERNER:No, I don€t have anything else. GALDONES:Just being (inaudible). YUEN:No please understand. You can- there€s a line in a country western song something like, it€s too much to expect but it€s not too much to ask. So if you want to ask for something the worse thing you would do is make us mildly irritated but it won€t hurt your overall chances. GALDONES:Commissioners do you have any other questions of Mr. or Ms. WOERNERorMs.Jacobson?Ifnot,Iwouldliketogothroughthelistofpeoplewhohave signed up to testify. We have to relinquish the chairs to them. I would like to start with these individuals, Nicole Nakakura, Kristi Lovell, Luke van der Spoel, Nick Loera. First of all I would like to commend the 4 of you for spending the time to be here to testify before us in support of the project that is before us. And, you probably are nervous but we are just as nervous as you folks are so you€re not alone okay. Now, in proceeding forward in the testimony I need to have you folks sworn in and you need to speak in the microphone because your voice needs to be recorded. So first of all could you please raise your right hand. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth on this matter now before the Hawaii County Planning Commission? And I shall start with you first sir? LOERA:I do. GALDONES:Ma€am. LOVELL:I do. VAN DER SPOEL:I do. NAKAKURA:I do. GALDONES:Well starting with you sir, I would like you to state your name, your address and then you may begin your testimony. LOERA:My name is Nick and my address is 77-6367. And I€ll be talking about why we need this campus and why it€s important to approve the Special Use Permit. Here are some reasons why IPCS is so important to the community. 1 - We make learning fun. 2 - We get to pick our favorite sports and activities. 3 - Our school believes in the arts. We study cultural arts, music, drama and visual arts. I feel that the school should get this new site because we have 16 EXHIBIT D limited space for our classrooms and to do projects. So please approve this permit for our new site. Thank you. GALDONES:Commissioners any questions? Ma€am? LOVELL:My name is Kristi Lovell and my address is 73-4158 Kaala Place. I would love the Planning Department to approve the permit for IPCS because it is- our school is special and if we didn€t have anywhere then we wouldn€t have a place to play (inaudible) and no one would like that very much. Our school is special because we are all one big family and no one can change that. Please help give our family a home. Thank you. GALDONES:Thank you Kristi. Are there any questions of Kristi? By the way, Kristi seems like you did your homework well yeah? IWASHITA:Ihaveaquestion. GALDONES:CommissionerIwashita? IWASHITA:Howoldareyou? LOVELL:Eight. IWASHITA:Thank you. VAN DER SPOEL:Dear Planning Commission members. I am a student at Innovations th Public Charter School. I am 9 years old and in 4 grade. I think you should let Innovations have the permit to go to the new school site because Innovations is a wonderful school and we need to have our own school property. The school is wonderful because the teachers make it fun to learn and I love going to school. You learn a life lessons that you will need when you grow up, for example you learn how to work in groups and do chores. We learn everything through one subjectlikethemiddleages.Welearnspelling,math,writingandwhilewestudyabout medieval knights and castles. The best is when you do field trips. When you are studying about medievalknightswewenttoastableandgottoridesomehorses.Weneedanewplaceforour school because Kahakai cannot have us on their property anymore. They need the classrooms that we are in because there is not enough space in Kahakai for the amount of students they have. If we do not get this new property we will be a homeless school and we will have to hang out in people€s houses for our lessons. In summary, we need this permit desperately because we need our own school property and Innovations is an excellent school. Yours sincerely, Luke van der Spoel. GALDONES:Thank you Luke. Are there any questions of Luke? Ma€am? NAKAKURA:Hello my name is Nicole Nakakura and my address is 77-110B Kalaniuka Street, Holualoa. I am a student at Innovations. It€s a big honor to have the privilege of being able to speak for my school. I have so much to say in 3 minutes but what I will say is that Innovations is a great school. I have gone to other schools and its all worksheets. At 17 EXHIBIT D Innovations its like they€ve developed a whole different way of learning. I actually look forward to going to school. I have been at Innovations for a year and I have learned about Egypt. I have done independent studies and right now I am learning about DNA and forensic science. That€s not all that makes Innovations so special. There are hard working teachers and great kids. Our teachers and parents have worked extra hard to get this move going so please allow us to have the permit. Thank you. GALDONES:Thank you Nicole. Commissioners any questions of Nicole? Okay. Continue the good work that you folks have been doing and continue to support the efforts that the administrators and your parents have been doing to get you a new facility. Thank you for being here. We have others who have signed up. I would like to call upon Joel Gimpel, Ann Peterson, Kanani Leanio and Jennifer Hiro. Okay I need to have you- all of you be sworn in. Please raise yourrighthand.DoyouswearoraffirmtotellthetruthonthismatternowbeforetheHawaii County Planning Commission? Sir? GIMPEL:I do. GALDONES:Ma€am? PETERSON:Yes LEANIO:I do. HIRO:I do. GALDONES:Thank you. Sir I usually start from my left but you relinquish it to the ladies? GIMPEL:I€ll be happy to. I don€t want to follow those kids anyway. GALDONES:Shall we start to my right please. Please state your name, your resident address and you may begin your testimony. HIRO:My name is Jennifer Hiro. My address is 73-1342 Kaiminani Drive, Kailua-Kona. My name is Jennifer Hiro. I€m a lifetime resident of the Big Island. I grew up on the Hamakua sugar plantation. I went to school in Hilo. I went away for college and have come back to my community to serve as an elementary school teacher. I thank you for this opportunity to address the Council regarding the Special Permit Application for Innovations Public Charter School. After teaching 10 years in the public school system here I along with a group of my peers founded Innovations Public Charter School. I currently hold a teaching position there, teaching fifth and sixth graders and I am also the Student Support Services Coordinator at the school. In addition, probably most importantly, I am a parent of a first grade student at Innovations. I am a parent that lives north of the school. I promise not to pass over that yellow striped area and to go around to get into the campus. And I already use that stretch of road to get 18 EXHIBIT D to our current location, as we all do. As you can see by the tremendous support of our parents and members of the Kona community our school is quite a success story. In a time when public schools are at risk of being put under Federal restructuring for unsatisfactory student achievement levels, Innovations student€s performance on statewide testing out performs both district and state scores. As we see more and more public school students transferring to home schools, private schools and out of the state for their education, Innovations has a waiting list at every single grade level of families hoping to enroll their children. As the welfare of our children and our community continues to be a concern satisfaction rates among our students and their families are very high with students excited to come to school and eager to learn. While many public school teachers send their children to private schools for their education all of the members of our teaching staff with children of elementary age choose to send their children to Innovations as do many teachers in the public schools here in Kona. Innovations must continue to be allowed to provide the excellent academic program it offers to families in the Kona community. With its well rounded approach to education focusing on integrating the arts into its academicprogramInnovationsisprovingthatstudentscanachieveexcellenceacademically, take risks and enjoy learning. It is a model for the education system and an asset to the Kona community. I urge you to support this vital part of our community and education system. Everyone is looking for ways to improve the education system for our children. Innovations is proving that positive change can take place. You can support Innovations efforts and encourage its continuance by approving this Special Permit Application before you. Without a location Innovations will have to close its doors. The Kona Community cannot afford to lose such a vital asset. Our children, our families and our community needs Innovations Public Charter School. The families we serve and the staff that work to provide this amazing learning environment to our students already travel the Queen Kaahumanu Highway on a daily basis. We are already there. I do not believe that relocating our school to the proposed site would negatively impact this stretch of road. The benefits provided to these families and students as well as to the community at large far outweigh any of the concerns regarding traffic. We are all members of this community. We are all frustrated with the traffic woes we face. But the relocation of Innovations Public Charter School should not pay the price for our infrastructure concerns. I urge you to accept this Special Permit Application and I also invite you visit Innovations Public Charter School. It€s a great place to be. Mahalo. GALDONES:Commissioners any questions of Ms. Hiro? If not ma€am? LEANIO:Aloha my name is Kanani Leanio. My address is 75-149 Lunapule Road. I€d like to take this time to thank you for listening to my testimony. I am a parent who values education and two of my children attend or still is attending Innovations Public Charter School. My children€s experiences at Innovation has surpassed my expectations. I have seen my first child a shy boy who hated attending school, who hated attending regular public wanting to drop out of school at the age of 8. He turned into a young man who loves school. In the regular public school I was told that my child read well but yet across the room I could see that my son€s book was upside down. What was I, a loving mother to do? My second child did well in the regular public school but was missing that self motivation that he can do it attitude. After attending Innovations Public Charter School both of my children are doing better than I expected. They have the same love for education attitude their mother has. And I know they will succeed because of the guidance the staff at the Innovations Public Charter School has given 19 EXHIBIT D them. And will continue the next students that enter their doors. The door they will have once you approve this application. I ask, I beg that you pass this Special Permit Application today, right now. You have the power to help the future of tomorrow, our children. Thank you. GALDONES:Commissioners any questions of Ms. Leanio? Ma€am? PETERSON:Aloha. My name is Ann Peterson. I live at 77-180 Kekai Place, Kailua- Kona and I am here representing PATH. PATH is a non-profit organization formed in 1986 to provide a safe environment on roadways and trails. In 1999 we started our safe roads to school program in 3 schools around the island and that was in Pahoa, in Hilo and in Kona. The school in Kona at that time was Kahakai School. We have since gone back to Kahakai School 2 times in 2003 and 2005. We€ve also done safe roads to school studies in Kealakehe, in both the 3 public schools in Kealakehe and we€re currently in Waikoloa and Waimea. We€ve done a lot of- we€ve spent a lot of time looking at the environment and how kids get to school. And especially, particularlyinKahakai.We€veseenitbeforetheInnovationswasthereandduringthetimeit was there. And I support this move 100%. There€s only 1 school in Kona that€s not built on a dead end road and I don€t know why schools get built on dead end roads but it is a mess. And the- I€m really surprised that there€s even concern the school being located on Queen Kaahumanu Highway. This in and out just seems perfect. You should see what happens now with the way it is on a dead end road. Off Royal Poinciana, it€s a mess for kids trying to walk to school and bike to school. It€s a mess for parents trying to get to school on time and then get to work. I- again, I just think that this is a no brainer. You should definitely support this move. I do want to address just one other thing and that is a paved parking lot. This is kind of an aside but if there€s a product Oyl that could be put on gravel to help it be somewhat- and it€s environmentally friendly, to be somewhat stable. And if you could consider that instead of having them pave something and then try to rip that out later for as he said a soccer field. I think I said all I wanted to say. I hope you support this move. GALDONES:Thank you Ms. Peterson. Questions Commissioners? None? Sir? GIMPEL:Thank you. I€m Joel Gimpel. I reside at 73-4686 Hinalani Street and I€m here representing the Kona Traffic Safety Committee. I serve them as the Chair of the Public Affairs Committee. We looked carefully at this application and especially at the obvious impacts on traffic and traffic safety. And we applaud the school€s intention to encourage carpooling therefore reduce the number of cars on the road. We know however that with the 2 driveways both with the right in and the right out requirement that as you€ve already recognized and has been talked about quite a bit today this presents a problem. Because drivers wanting to go south when leaving the school would first have to go north on Highway 11 and find a convenient and safe turn around which would probably entail making a left turn on Nani Kailua Drive, which is a signalized and channelized intersection but then making another left turn on Hualalai and then flow south. Drivers coming from the north want to- should go into the school would of course have to do the same thing but then they have the dangerous left turn onto Queen Kaahumanu Highway at Hualalai Road. And that presents a traffic safety concern if nothing else. We also note that, we think there are probably a lot more cars using this section of Queen Kaahumanu Highway because those cars, 2/3 of the students don€t forget have already- we understand will be coming from the south to go- presently go to Kahakai School. They€ll turn off at Lako Street to 20 EXHIBIT D get to Kahakai School. So they never get this far north on Queen Kaahumanu Highway. Another issue, because Highway 11 is a state route we asked Mr. Morioka who is Deputy Director of the Department of Transportation several questions. Those questions and his responses were: 1 ƒ Does the school have to be granted new access rights to enter Highway 11 based on the new type of usage and increase to traffic flow? And his answer, it appears that the school will need to come into the State DOT for an access relocation and modification request. Furthermore, the parcel will likely require additional mapping and documentation in accordance with Land Court requirements. HDOT will then have to designate the legal access opening. Question - Will this portion of Highway 11 have to be reduced to a 25 mph school zone? Answer - The DOT follows works on rule of thumb for school zone speed limits, the posted speed will be reduced by 10 mph for school zones that brings it down to 45. Question - If they used entrances and exits to the school from another location instead of from Highway 11 will the speed limit have to be reduced anyway regardless of whether there were driveways because this is a school? And the answer was this would depend if the school perimeter will have any access controlssuchasfencingorwallsforthehighwayfrontageportions.Wedon€tseeanyofthose on the plans. In view of these issues we suggested that the applicant and the county be required to explore establishing access to the property from Hualalai Road or preferably, from Kailua View Estates via an extension of Welo Street. The former would entail obtaining an agreement with the owner of the property on the southern boundary of the applicant€s property. While the latter would involve crossing property owned by several owners including Bishop Estate, I understand that a lot owned by the owner of the 5 acres and two lots owned by another common owner on the northern boundary. Both or either alternative would entail construction of a road less than 1/3 of a mile long. We prefer to access from Kailua View Estates because: 1) the Highway 11/Nani Kailua Drive intersection is already signalized; and 2) most importantly it would afford non-motorized access to the school for the many children who might attend the school residing in the Kailua View Estates subdivision and Kona Heights subdivision. If such other access is possible, it might be acceptable to also allow right-turn in and out, right-turn out from the driveways on Highway 11. But whether or not access from Highway 11 is allowed, the speed limit will probably have to be reduced because it will be a school zone and access controls aren€t possible. So, one of the testifiers earlier today said that none of the students presently walk to school. By permitting and getting them to work on this alternate access we might have a number of students walking to school and that is a good thing isn€t it. We get rid of some of the cars on the highway. Thank you. GALDONES:Commissioners any question of Mr. Gimpel? Commissioner Graham? GRAHAM:Joel, I appreciate your comments on a lot of applications we get so in a sense this gives an opportunity to discuss my concerns with you- a knowledgeable on this and still gives the Applicant a chance to come back and make comments later about what he hears. So, can I try a few things and see what you think? GIMPEL:Shoot. GRAHAM:Okay. First off to all of you, the overall concern is not- to me, is not more traffic on Queen K Highway. Like you say, most of you are already using it. It€s the fact that you got 2 new intersections, you know, I mean they€re not full on intersections but they€re 2 new 21 EXHIBIT D traffic getting-on and getting-off. And that is a big part of the problem that what goes on with Queen K Highway so that€s the key I think more than any additional traffic on the highway. When we look at the traffic flow in the impact report the traffic flow is really bad and slow you know like from- I think its 7:15 to 8:30 in the morning. And so my first thought was maybe different hours of operation would be helpful in some way but I kind of I can feel it cuts two ways. If the traffic is slow then it seems much safer getting in and out even though maybe you€re holding things up a little. If the traffic is fast then it seems a little more dangerous getting in and out. Do you see any way that hours of operation is of value to deal with on this application? GIMPEL:We didn€t discuss hours of operation on purpose for- that was one of the reasons. In my mind that obviously the slower the traffic the fewer the accidents or at least the less serious the accident that might result. What our concern is, is that the right-in, right-out only will require cars to, that want to go back the other way or approaching from the north to go aroundandthenmakeanextratripsomewhereonsidestreetsineffect.Someonemightbe trying to u-turn somewhere which is not a good idea but even if they go throughout that we€re suggesting on Nani Kailua and then around it creates more opportunity for accidents. Going down Nani Kailua Drive through the Pines, that€s a semi-residential neighborhood anyway so I don€t think it€s unnecessarily a good idea to- unnecessarily add traffic there. I€d much rather have it go to signalized intersection at Nani Kailua, go mauka one block or so and then go to Welo Street and right into the school. GRAHAM:When Bill was talking about that turnaround issue both coming one direction and coming the other, the one turnaround way which seemed rather benign would be for parents who drop off kids and want to go back south afterwards so they can come out, go to the Nani Kailua intersection, shoulder left across and come back and do a merge. One thing came to my mind then, given 120 students and it€s going to be starting school and any school a certain time of day, is that left turn lane at Nani Kailua Drive long enough to handle the amount of traffic that€s going to want to stack up there and wait for the light? GIMPEL:It channelized now. GRAHAM:Is it long enough for all this channelized? GIMPEL:I€m not a traffic engineer so I can€t tell you it€s long enough but my sense is that that isn€t a serious concern with regard to the number of cars that will be wanting to make that left turn. I€m not sure. It may well be that many of the cars that are coming from the south will continue to go north after that. I don€t know. We don€t know and- GRAHAM:Like go shopping after school or something like that, yeah. GIMPEL:Go shopping after school or going to work when they drop the kids off, I don€t know. GRAHAM:Okay. Thank you. 22 EXHIBIT D GALDONES:Hearing no further questions. Thank you, you may be excused. We€re going to call for a short recess. But we would like to inform those who have signed up to testify- there are 10 more individuals that we need to take testimony from and I think you€ll be able to help all of us here if you would be able to tailor your comments to shorten it or other areas which have already been covered if you can bypass those so that we can get over these 10 more individuals as expeditiously as possible. I€m sure all of us would appreciate it. Okay. Thank you so; we€ll be on short recess. RECESSED:The Chair called for a recess at 4:09 p.m. RECONVENED:The meeting reconvened at 4:20 p.m. GALDONES:Will the Hawaii County Planning Commission be back in order. I would like to thank you for your cooperation; I notice that the list has been tapered down a little bit. Thank you very much I really appreciate that. Now we€re down to six testifiers so, I€m going to take all six at one time. These are the ones that I have listed down Monica Balanay. VOICE IN PUBLIC:No, she€s not here. GALDONES:She€s not here? Okay, we€re down to 5; Heather Nakakura, Wilbor Boyd, Len Welter, Curtis Tyler and Lorraine Maynard. Did I miss anybody? Are you going to testify ma€am? Okay, I need to have you folks sworn in. Please raise your right hand. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth on this matter now before the Hawaii County Planning Commission and I€ll start with you ma€am. TESTIFIER:I do. GALDONES:Sir? TESTIFIER:I do. TESTIFIER:I do. TESTIFIER:I do. TESTIFIER:I do. GALDONES:Thank you. I have a special request and I€m going to leave it up to the 5 of you. Mr. Tyler has an engagement that he would like to engage in so he had asked for special privilege to go on first if there is no objection from the 4 of you. TESTIFIERS:No objection. GALDONES:No objection? Okay now please state your name and your residence address.Thankyou. 23 EXHIBIT D TYLER:I will Mr. Chairman. Good afternoon. My name is Curtis Tyler. My residence address is 73-1305 Hiolani Street, that€s in Kona Acres. I€m a lifetime resident of Kona and I€m here today representing myself. Thanks to my fellow citizens on both sides for the opportunity to precede you. I appreciate that very much I have a 4:30 appointment. First of all I€d like to thank Mr. Welter sitting to my left for his generous offer to this community and to the school. Second, I would like to thank Mr. and Mrs. Woerner for their hard work along with the staff, the teachers and in particular the students who came today and testified; I was completely blown away by their testimony. The future holds very well for this community when you hear people like that. And of course the families that are sitting behind me and finally for Kahakai Elementary School for hosting this charter school for the number of years that it has. Will Rogers once said that all I know is what I read in the newspaper and I have to say in this particular case that I have spoken with, in addition to what I read in the newspaper article of th April 20, I have spoken to at least one parent who has contacted me. But that€s about it I haven€t read the back ground report but as Ms.Peterson earlier said this is kind of a no-brainer and I realize that you don€t approach your work that way as I did not when I was on the County Council but- you€ve heard from the students and really anything that I say is quite a bit in, you know in addition to what they€ve already said which is all the good reasons. Someone mentioned about overcrowding the roads. Isaw it in the paper as well. Well, if this school isn€t permitted here these folks would be going back to Kahakai or some other school. It€s not as if they€re moving into this community, they are already part of our community. If there is ever a need to address citizen€s needs, it€s to the students. They are here and we- those of us who have been in public service or are in public service, serve them but they are our future. The comments I read in the paper and heard again reiterate today about why this would be a school zone and it would have to be 25 mph. Well anybody who spends anytime on that road knows that it€s very seldomyoucandrive25mphonthatroad,especiallyinthemorning,nottomentionthe afternoon. You€d be lucky to get 10 mph. And I€m being a bit facetious but at the same time I want to be a little practical. Thomas Edison said many years ago there€s a better way, find it. And I am pleased in my lifetime to see that the Legislature and concerned citizens of this community have made it possible for charter schools to become a reality. That is the better way for many, many children in this community. And, based on what I€ve heard today and what I€ve seen in the past it just is overwhelming what can happen with innovation not to mention Innovations Charter School. And I think, lady and gentlemen you have an opportunity to foster this better way. It has been found to approve this I realize that no application and no project is perfect but in my estimation, my humble opinion the positives of this program so far outweigh the negatives that I think you have an easy decision. And as for the connecting roads that we€ve read about and heard about, these are perhaps in the future but, these young members of our society who will be our future leaders can€t wait for roads to be built. They need a school now and they need this home and its right in the middle of the urban core. It€s right where people live. I can€t think of a better location and again I would acknowledge and thank Mr. Welter sitting to my left for this gracious donation of this. Thank you. GALDONES:We appreciate the applause but if you guys can hold it to a minimum that would help us expedite this, thank you. Commissioners any question of Mr. Tyler? If none thank you very much Mr. Tyler. TYLER:Thank you all. 24 EXHIBIT D GALDONES:Ma€am? MAYNARD:This will be very brief. My name is Lorraine Maynard. I live at 73-1212 Hiolani Street, Kailua Kona. I have also lived at- off of Laaloa. I€m familiar with the congestion on the Queen and other places in town. I must tell you that I have been a recently appointed member of the local board of Innovations Public Charter School and I must further tell you that I have not been authorized by them to speak and I am speaking purely for myself. As a former educator over 23, 28 years in the public school systems in a variety of states. But what I want to reiterate is something that Mr. Tyler and I were talking about before. The vast majority of students attending Innovations come from Kahakai. Kahakai Elementary has provided a home for Innovations for the past 4 years and the reason they are no longer providing the home is that their enrollment is so large that they need those classrooms. Well if they need those classrooms for their current enrollment where are they going to put our students if we cannot continue our school on another site? They are over enrolled now. They are over crowded now. That is the reason that we have been told we cannot stay there. But if we cannot open school for this school year our students must go somewhere and since they are in the vast majority from the Kahakai district then Kahakai is going to have to find a place for them. I think the few additional people onQueenKaahumanuandIsatouttherefrom6o€clockinthemorninguntil9o€clockinthe morning doing tallies of traffic; I don€t think you would even notice additional 20 cars on that highway at that time of morning. I know that I would have trouble marking them down. They- those few additional cars will be nothing compared to the problems fostered on the present students of Kahakai with the influx of our students, on the present overcrowding of Kahakai with the influx of our students and the loss to our students of the programs that they have been involved with over the last 4 years. And, that concludes my testimony. GALDONES:Thank you Ms. Maynard. Commissioners any question of Ms. Maynard? Sir? Thank you. BOYD:Thank you my name is Wilbor Boyd and I live at 76-6336 Kololia Street. I have two reasons why I support the Innovations Public Charter School and its relocation: 1) I have a son who goes there and I€m very pleased with the results, what he€s receiving but; 2) I want to talk to you as a business man. Because I do run a business with my wife in this town and we own one. And I believe that you heard great reasons already as to why to continue with this but from the perspective of one who runs a business and needs a work force to choose quality people to work for them I think some of you on the Board probably can understand this need and some of the difficulties with fulfilling it. I believe Innovations help greatly in providing that, at lease with the format paradigm they have for education. West Hawaii Department of Education recently presented a forum which I was pleased to attend. In which the business sector and education sector met to discuss the needs to help today€s students to better prepare for entering the workforce. I€m not comparing apples and oranges, one school to the other, statistics can do that, you can find that out yourself. But I- do you know that in seeking a workforce there€s more than wanting a child or a young person to know how to read, write and arithmetic you must educate the whole person. And in this forum, it was agreed upon by the West Hawaii Department of Education that they wanted to target in the school system, the public school system more areas of the who student. So that, what they came up with was general learning 25 EXHIBIT D outcomes and these outcomes will be characteristics we would find appeasing for a business owner and be in that of the applicant for such as self directed learner, community contributor, complex thinker, quality producer, effective communicator, effective and ethical user of technology. Now, this wasn€t something I came up with or the business sector came up with but this is what the West Hawaii Education Part came up saying we need this implemented in our schools. We want to produce students who hold these qualities because at the moment we do not generally have that. It€s not a slam on any program at all, it€s simply stating the facts that the business community was saying, when they come to us they€re not qualified. Turnover in a business is a great expense, we don€t like training employees and finding out later they€re not qualified in these areas. So the school came up with, that the education part came up with that. Well I feel that what we have at Innovations Public Charter School is already galvanizing these goals and implementing them with their students. This GLO, General Line Outcome won€t be in effect till next year, it will only start with the high school students. Whereas I submit that Innovations is already doing this not only by what I see with my son but his peers and it€s startingatthefirstgradelevel.Youalreadysawsomeofthatresultwiththekidswhoarevery young who came to speak before you. It€s happening at the first grade level, it€s not having to wait till high school level and as a business man that is something that I like to see. Because that brings forth more quality workers and we all know this areas going to grow and we all know that business people are looking for quality workers. I think that IPCS is a model to be copied by its sister public schools and as a public school they are producing the kind of student necessary and appreciated by the business community and as a rule I always say if it ain€t broke don€t fix it so let€s let these guys get on with the business that they desire to do. I believe a delay in the school year will cause more damage than good. You guys do have a Solomon like decision to make but I do believe a wise one can be made working together, with all of us coming together to see this work out. I thank you. GALDONES:Commissioners any questions of Mr. Boyd? Mr. Boyd are you the one responsible for taking your child to and from school? BOYD:Am I the one doing this? Yes. GALDONES:The pattern that they have established for ingress and egress to the school, do you find that to be acceptable route? BOYD:Meaning off the Queen Highway, is that what you€re referring to? GALDONES:Yes. BOYD:I do. Now, my situation is this. I take my child down Royal Poinciana which was mentioned earlier is quite a snarl, come back out, go home pick up my back, hit Lako go back to Queen€s to go to work anyway. So, and what I€ve observed are the patterns are set. It€s not only traffic and I don€t perceive this being that much a difficulty getting on and off. I know that around 5 minutes till 8 or so everybody€s going to work. And then you got that 5 minutes everybody€s late for work and then it dies down after that. So I don€t see a problem. GALDONES:Thank you. Ma€am. Thank you Mr. Boyd. 26 EXHIBIT D NAKAKURA:My name is Heather Nakakura. I live at 77-110B Kalaniuka Street in Holualoa. I have come as a parent. I have 2 daughters at Innovations. I come as a educator, I have been a teacher in the public school system here for 15 years and I am one of the co- directors at the West Hawaii Explorations Academy which is a charter school at NELHA the Natural Energy Lab. And I come as a community member. I€m originally from Oahu. My husband and I have lived here for over 13 years and this is our home. As a parent, my oldest daughter who was Nicole sitting in this chair earlier, has been in several of the other public schools. We are in an excellent school district in Holualoa but they€re, they do not teach to the whole child. My children academically very well. I was kind of apprehensive to put them in Innovations because I knew they were at a good place but since they€ve been there I can€t even explain the change that I have seen. My second grader, who really did not like school but is bright came to me, she€s doing a report and she said- I said well you should just copy this information you know you€re getting it off the internet and she said, I can€t mom that€s plagiarism. My ninth and tenth graders do not know what that means. I cannot tell you whoever taughtherthatIwassoproudbecauseshe€sonlyinsecondgrade.Asaneducatorthefeeder schools are from the Kealakehe School district and Waimea that we get coming in to our high thth school. We€ve added on 7 grade this year, this is the first year we€ve had 7 grade and 50% of the students have come from Innovations. They are giving our high schoolers a run for their money. We have had to revise our whole curriculum because the things that we thought should thth have been taught in 7 and 8 grade are not being done. We have children, they€re great kids, they do not have- they don€t know how to do basic paraphrasing. Things like summarizing, we have had to revise everything. You need to take a look at what€s going on in this school district. Kealakehe High School did not make their adequate yearly progress. Kealakehe Middle School, excuse me Intermediate, has not made AYP they are in restructuring. Kealakehe Elementary has been reclaimed; they are now under the control of the State. Kahakai hasn€t been put into restructuring. There€s only 3 schools in this school district that made AYP and were considered distinguished schools and that€s Holualoa, Innovations and the Explorations Academy, two of them Charter schools. As a Charter School we fight for everything. Legislation is going on as wespeak.Wehavehadarallytodayoutonthehighwaybecausethefundingisgoingtobe possibly cut. We fight for everything we have and I would hope that we would not have to fight this community for a place for our children to go to school. Please look at the bigger picture here. I drive on Queen K from Holualoa to NELHA everyday. My husband is a fireman, he tells me of the traffic fatalities which have been increasing along that highway. I€m very aware of safety but I€m very aware that there€s a bigger picture here and that is do not let this shining star die. This community needs positive schools. Many people from the mainland put their schools in my school just to avoid the other public schools. We can€t stop this. You€re going to stop and not allow- you know if they don€t get this Special Use Permit, the traffic is always going to be there. It€s not going to change. But we need as Curtis Tyler stated problem solvers, critical thinkers; we need people here that can work in a job. And right now I€m not sure if that€s going to happen in the current education system. Thank you for listening. GALDONES:Thank you Ms. Nakakura. Commissioners any questions of Ms. Nakakura? If not sir? WELTER:My name is Len Welter. I live at 75-5789 Alika Place in Kailua Kona which is just a few blocks from the site actually. I€m representing my wife and myself. My wife 27 EXHIBIT D Sue and I. I€m going to come at this from a little bit different direction. I€m not going to take much of your time. But it€s- I don€t think, I think the testimony speaks for itself as to the purpose, the goals, Innovation School and so on. However, we as owners of the property acquired this property primarily for altruistic reasons. We came- we€ve lived here now for nearly 20 years, in Kona, and we wanted to give something back to the community, we consider this to be our home. As some of you may know, we worked on a project. It was acquired, the land acquired, intended to be used for state of the art performing arts center for West Hawaii. This started about 4 or 5 years ago. I talked with the DOT, with the State, with the County and so on. Not in great detail but quite a bit. So, I€ve been working on this project for quite some time. Through reasons beyond our control that particular project, let€s say, fell through the cracks. So I€ve been watching, waiting, in no rush to find another place to help the community. And, I don€t- you know I read the paper and so on but it was quite fortuitous and by accident that I got connected with Innovations. And at first, you know I€m very, I€m a planner also, in my own way. And at first I just, you know it was a rather interesting idea. And that night I went to a Boardmeeting.Theyaskedmetocome.Wetalkedaboutit,Isaidthisismorethanan interesting idea, this can be, this can work. So, here€s what I€m going to say to you and leave you with is the following. I€m concerned that certain things come along in life and you can€t always pre-plan them. This situation is an opportune situation now. That is, Innovations needs a site. It€s not perfect but it€s probably in retrospect, you couldn€t write the script much better. And I€ll tell you what I mean by that. Addressing the traffic and safety concerns and so on. So, what opportunity do we have here? There€s probably 2 aspects: 1) the decision, really, almost, has to be made today. We need a unanimous decision. I fully support what€s going on. I thought about it a lot over many months and years and applying this particular to this particular property, in this particular site as Mr. Yuen has summarized in the application comments that he made, I believe that this is a best use for this particular 5 acres. I believe it fits the situation in spite of some of the concerns that have been brought up in the community, in the paper and so on. Specifically, I think one has to be careful right now with all of the traffic, quote/unquote, inundation that you obviously have been hit with, not only in the last month, today, but for the last several years. You can€t solve those problems that have accumulated over 20/30 years instantaneously. On the other hand, if I were to sit back and try to design a situation, a site for a school I€m not so sure that I wouldn€t come up with this one. The proposed traffic patterns have been pointed out to you are- and I spent some time on this subject, a number of years actually. Performing Arts Centers you know, that€s not a negligible amount of traffic in and out and so on but I won€t go into those details. I€m just going to say the following that I would leave you, 1) asking you to approve this application today, unanimously because time is of the essence. I know you€ve heard it before and so on. This is a temporary solution to the traffic and so on. There are a host of other possibilities, some of them eluded to today others have not been. I€ve talked about other possibilities with DOT and so on over the years but we need not go into that, you have enough safety factors in the approval for the application. I mean you€ve got everything covered so I don€t think there€s a danger in approving it today. And the last thing I€d like to say is just re-emphasize the fact that, in spite of what you€ve had to listen to in the traffic, we know it€s bad, I mean we live here, we go through it everyday. But you have to sometimes take action a little bit as I say betting on the calm. In other words, we don€t have perfect solutions to everything instantaneously. So Commissioner Graham I heard what you said, I respect what you said and your concerns. I respect what Joel said regarding the Kona Traffic Safety, Traffic Report. But if you go at page 6 and 7 of the TAIR, you know it€s not, those- I€m sorry the TIAR, 28 EXHIBIT D it pretty much addresses those. It€s not perfect, perfectly willing to look at Bishop Estates and coming in from the north. I€ve already got an easement with Stanley Gomes coming across the south. Possibilities I mention these only in passing. We as landowners in the area are really working- we all, we as landowners, the school as a particular application and you the Commissioners, we together have an opportunity at this time I think to make some history here. And to create infrastructure before some rezoning has happens and so on, to work together on the infrastructure as opposed to- you know, working at it 20, 30 years later. So I thank you for your time and I ask you to unanimously approve this application. GALDONES:Commissioners are there any questions of Mr. Welter? Commissioner Iwashita? IWASHITA:Thank you Mr. Chair. Thinking how to put this. Mr. Welter I have a question. I€m sorry. I€m trying to- sorry for the pause I€m trying to think of the best way to put thistoyouclearly.The-Iguessyour-oneofyourlastcommentswasabouttheproposed alternate access either north or south and you did mention an easement that you- I didn€t quite understand, that you€re working on or that you- with Mr. Gomes what is that? I wanted to get a clarification on that. So you already have another easement going south to Hualalai Road? WELTER:Yes, traffic has always been a concern for whatever goes onto this property. Why because it- it€s adjacent to Queen K Highway. But remember the road goes through this property because there were 2 State authorized accesses. So I mean, that€s a fact of life, they are there and we€re not using them to the extent that even right now those accesses are permitted to be used. So, however realizing 5, 6 years ago when we acquired the property with the intention of putting a Performing Arts Center there, I was already thinking about access and high volume access. So when I bought subject property from Stanley Gomes we agreed to an easement across his property from Hualalai Road. So that- on the mauka side. So that€s in existence now but- and I have been talking not only with Stanley but with Bishop Estates because obviously I mean it may be something way off in the future, maybe 5, 10, 15, 25 years but let€s face it, that area, that 150 acres is going to be developed, it€s going to turn into something. So these are things that are actually being discussed, sometimes privately, sometimes with the powers that be. So, the alternatives that you mentioned then that are eluded to in the traffic reports, they are finite, they€re very real possibilities. Is that- does that answer your question? IWASHITA:Well, maybe more than answered but in answer- clarification and I appreciate your candor. One of the requirements or conditions of the approval is for the school to provide alternate access and one of the suggested routes that was being discussed is through Hualalai Road. Am I correct in understanding from what you just said that there is already an existing paper easement from Hualalai Road to this property where the schools going to be located. WELTER:I€m sorry but I don€t think the present document said requires to obtain an alternate access. It states that it is asked to give a good faith effort to achieve that. 29 EXHIBIT D IWASHITA:You€re correct in that, that€s Paragraph 7 talking about access over to Kailua View Estates. WELTER:But that€s just a clarification just so we€re talking on the same wave length. Now back to your question. IWASHITA:Well, let me clarify. They€re 2 requirements, 2 separate ones. One is the one you talked about to Kailua View Estates Subdivision and the second in Paragraph 10 which is the second sentence, The school will be required to establish an alternate access to the school site‚ and I- from what I understand, I just want to clarify, what I think you said is that there is existing- a paper easement from Mr. Gomes providing access from Hualalai Road to the subject property is that correct? WELTER:Right. Again I don€t mean to belabor the point but Number 10, the second sentenceonlyappliesifthespeedlimitisreducedbelow45mph.So- IWASHITA:Ithink,well- WELTER:Butbacktotheother- IWASHITA:Ijustneedtoknowifthatpapereasementexists. WELTER:There is an easement across that I have from Stanley Gomes across his property between the old Hualalai Road, the portion that€s not used right now to my property. The answer is yes. IWASHITA:So that easement provides access to a public- Hualalai Road, a public- WELTER:In effect that would yes. The easement does not go all the way to Hualalai Road because the old portion of Hualalai Road already exists there and that could be used. IWASHITA:Is there any reason that you can see today why that easement can€t be used to satisfy this alternate route access to the school? WELTER:It€s one of several possibilities in my own mind. And not just mine but talking with other people that could be used. It€s one of ƒ for some other access yes. IWASHITA:Can I ask you how wide is this easement on paper? WELTER:The easement is only- I think it€s 30 feet. IWASHITA:Thank you. Thank you Mr. Chair. GALDONES:Further questions Commissioners of Mr. Welter? Otherwise thank you very much Mr. Welter. I would like to call Ms. Woerner, Mr. Woerner and Ms. Jacobson back 30 EXHIBIT D to the table please. You have heard the testimony, you have heard the dialog, are there any closing comments? MS. WOERNER:It€s been a long day I€m sure you have lots more business to conduct for that I apologize that we€ve taken so long but this is a very important project for us. I guess in closing I would just sum up that everything that everyone has said and ask you to use your best judgment as to whether this is a project that you can support. We are willing to do as much as we can to make this a safe project for our community in terms of the ingress and egress onto the property. I would hope that as you make your decisions you would also keep in mind that we do work with a limited budget so adding on additional roadways is such a- it just puts an additional hardship on us and we will have to go out and fundraise to be able to raise the million dollars it would take to build a road of that sort. And also just to remind you that, we will work toward that end we just need to be given some time to do that. We€re hoping that you will let us get on to the property, get started and then we can build our donor base so that we can get the things builtthatweneed.Andwewillbecommittedtothat.Wewantasaferrouteintoourschoolfor our parents and for our children but we don€t feel that the current route is unsafe we just think it€s a little difficult but I guess my last thought is the people that will be inconvenienced by this route are our parents. And they are willing to be inconvenienced because they love our school. We€re a quality school that they can€t get their kids educated in any other school right now like they are educated at Innovations and so I€m sure they will be happy to make those sacrifices. But they€re the only ones being inconvenienced. GRAHAM:Question please? GALDONES:Commissioner Graham. GRAHAM:Yeah, it€s appropriate to ask you then- (inaudible) also thereafter- first off I want to say I certainly am personally sympathetic of your situation. I have been a full time th teacher myself in the past and currently I am tutoring 6 grade students in math so I understand the situation. But like I said before I do have to put on my Planning hat when I come in here and I want to do that job right. In regard to the five of us wherewe need a unanimous vote, if I were to be the only one- IF I were to be the only one to not vote in favor of thisand for were then in an upcoming meetingwhere we have more Commissioners I presume you would probably get the votes you need so consequently I want to let you know that I don€t want to play that role. So, if I am the only person that winds up having a feeling I should vote against this I will not okay. However, I think the issue that just came up from Commissioner Iwashita regarding the other accesstoHualalaiRoadisaseriousonethatwhenwecometoourowndiscussionsthatwhen you folks are finished, that we will be chewing around some. So, I would appreciate it if you all wouldbealittlemoreforthcomingabouttheparticularsofthatissueoranythingtohelpours when- if we wind up discussing that in depth. Thank you. MR. WOERNER:Okay, I have a couple of things to say. Do you want an answer directly to that?CauseI€mgoingtoprovideyouthatforyou. GRAHAM:Whateveryoulike(inaudible). 31 EXHIBIT D MR. WOERNER:First of all I want you to remember what I said earlier and I€m hoping you remember that this is a group of school teachers and parents and students. And, we know that everything is not- probably not done as smoothly as you would see if- if it was a professional development going in. But we also want you to know that all these people are part of a professional group that have been working for years and years in public education. And as you said you€re a teacher, you must know that when teachers say this is what I€m going to do, it€s what they€re going to do. Getting to your particular point we have been asked not to share all of the things that we know about developments because there€s things going on behind the scenes that we are being- we know something about but we are asked not to share that because there is bigger interest in the mix. And I guess I would let you know that yeah we know about some things that are going on and yes there are things going on up the hill that will make it possible for us to do the things that will make this thing right. And what we€re asking is- and I know you€ve got your Planning hat on but again I just think that this is really- this project will work really well and this is only- the road is only an interim solution. And, I think we can get by that and move on.Wereallydoneedtogetstartedontheschooloritwon€tbeready. JACOBSON:IjustIwouldjustliketoreiteratewhatIsaidonmyoriginaltestimony that this is a volunteer grassroots group. We were told you could save $20,000 if we wrote the Special Permit ourselves. So you know what we did. We rolled up our sleeves and got books out and we just have been figuring out as it evolves. So, we don€t have all the answers, no. But we sure have the need. So, I want to thank you for your time and your consideration today. Mahalo. And I want to thank the kids too who have sat for hours in gracious silence. Aloha. GALDONES:Thank you very much. Commissioners? Commissioner Springer? SPRINGER:Thanks. We€ve heard bandied about the notion that the speed limit might be reduced along this section of road and I€m looking at Exhibit H which is from the State of Hawaii Department of Transportation and it€s a memo dated March 9, 2005. And the first item there indicates that the State DOT will defer further comment on the traffic impacts and mitigation requirements until we have an opportunity to review the TIAR. Has that review and any comment been forthcoming? YUEN:Well since the TIAR just was submitted two weeks ago we haven€t heard anything further from DOT on this. SPRINGER:So we don€t know if the speed limit will be dropped to 45 miles an hour. YUEN:We don€t know if it will be dropped to 45 or to 25. If it€s dropped to 25 it€s essentially, it kills the project unless and until they make a connect- another connector road with the conditions. But- so, that€s still- if the Commission acts on this recommendation today that€s still floating out there. That would have been an unacceptable impact on the main highway in Kona, to see that. But no- straight answer no, we don€t have anything from DOT. SPRINGER:And if that requirement were made by SDOT, that€s when the new Condition 11 will be triggered? 32 EXHIBIT D YUEN:That€s right. SPRINGER:May I make a comment on the application? GALDONES:Proceed. SPRINGER:My note to self at the top of theapplication or the top of the Background Report reads, Note, we are not here to analyze academic benefit and capability but rather to analyze this application against Planning laws and physical context such as traffic‚. And we€ve had a lengthy discussion. At this point my comment, my note to self is, The acknowledged defects upon the traffic on Kaahumanu Highway is clearly outweighed by the benefits of public education, community enrichment and the compelling public interest articulated here today‚. GALDONES:Thank you. Mr. Yuen. YUEN:While the Applicants are here I have a rewording of a couple of conditions thatreflecttherequestthattheymade.And,thiswouldbeattheendofNumber7andthisis with respect- this is the connector road to Nani Kailua or toWelo Street actually, Kailua View Estates. They asked for time to do this. The condition would be that the Applicant shall complete construction of the connector road within 5 years of receiving all necessary approvals. And, our standard conditions are that you have a potential for an additional extension of time from the Director equal to the time for the first- the time that you have for a particular condition. Then it will be an additional sentence that says this condition does not prevent cost sharing agreements with other property owners. I can€t- we can€t force any agreement like that but it€s not meant to say that they can€t have a cost sharing agreement. On the parking lot, I understand the issue there and I would amend Number 3 to say that the- to add an additional sentence that the Applicant may utilize a graveled parking lot for up to 2 years. I don€t know if the Commission is ready to vote yet. I just wanted to sum up something about, a little bit about the testimony and again to- that we are recommending approval of this. A lot of what you€re hearing, a lot of what we€re going through here is due to the issue of trying to make a small school. I was amazed by the waiting list to get on this school. There is a tremendous appeal to the Charter School and a big part of that appeal is that they€re small schools. People want to have small schools. With having a small school comes difficulties of location. If this were a DOE school with a thousand students, most likely the budget would be, I don€t know 40 million dollars. Hopefully, the DOE would be establishing a full channelized intersection with full signalization. Although, I€m thinking of Kealakehe Elementary School. That€s a DOE school with probably a much poorer access situation than we have opposed to this one here. But, it€s really difficult to establish these schools. The Charter School Act was passed maybe 4 years ago. We€ve had in the Department lots of meetings with Charter Schools and we€ve had lots of discussions with them. It is exceedingly difficult for them to find locations. This location, there€s some drawbacks to it; there are also some benefits to it. If we were- if you think about it you either come off the highway, which has some drawbacks. If you go into- if you€re not coming directly off the highway then chances are you€re driving through someone€s residential neighborhood to get to the school and then you have a whole number of- you have a whole set of other objections that we€ve seen in other applications. So, there€s really no perfect solution here. 33 EXHIBIT D If you walk through what some of the parents probably do to drive to Kahakai School, you€ll have all kinds of intersection difficulties depending on what path they choose to go to Kahakai School. So, it€s not necessarily that we€re creating a problem. What we decided to do on this application is to favor the application to- and actually to give it our strong support in the sense that they€re providing a tremendous community service and benefit by having this school and to do the best that we could in making the access safe and solving problems that come up from the access within reason. So, we do strongly want to support this. And then finally I think there was a question about access on/off Hualalai Road, I think that€s something that could be explored. We looked at Nani Kailua more as being a better alternate access because it has a signalized intersection. GALDONES:Commissioner Graham? GRAHAM:Thank you. I just wanted to respond to the Planning Commissioners- excusemePlanningDirector€scomments.I€mwonderingaboutthisparticularconditionasit applies- by the condition I mean, good faith effort etc. to get an access easement. From the Kailua Village Estates Subdivision before, I remember when they came before us on something else going on up there. They€re not real prone to want to have more traffic. I remember that real clearly. The Hualalai Road one, it looks like, from what we€ve discovered here today there is an easement there. So I€m wondering how- does this Condition 7 as it is now written, play into that easement that€s now there. Essentially it says that easement does trigger Condition 7 but the Applicant has 5 years to do anything about it? Is that what it says or what? YUEN:Well, the easement to Hualalai Road is just- the first I know about it is today. It doesn€t trigger this condition. It does not trigger this condition because this only requires them to make a good faith effort to get an easement to Welo Street or I can€t remember the name of the other street but it will probably be Welo Street in Kailua View Estates Subdivision. In other words to the north. I€m not prepared to recommend a condition to make it to Hualalai Road partially cause- for the reason Hualalai Road is not signalized and is not necessarily as good an intersection. We also recognize that people in Kailua View Estates may object to this connection and that they€re not here and nobody€s told them until this condition came out that there may be an access road there. So we€re not saying that€s a done deal and it€s gotta happen. What€s likely- you know to put this into perspective on the area as a whole, it is likely that the landowners on either side, whether Bishop Estate or Gomes will come in for some kind of development, being realistic about this. This is a choice area in Kailua Kona and the Bishop Estate property for example, if it came in and were rezoned we would then- as far as what we would do in the Department, we would try to grid this out with Kailua View Estates. The roads in the Kailua View Estates Subdivision are stubbed out to create that kind of pattern. So eventually, this school which is in a little bit of an island right now with vacant land on either side of it, very likely in 5, 10, 15 years time will be more like a neighborhood school that connects to a grid of roads that goes all the way across. So what the applicant is saying about this being a temporary solution that is very likely to be true. We can€t- unfortunately we don€t have the full picture right now. They do have a need for a school. They do have a need for a site and as someone said earlier we can€t wait for everything to be fixed before moving ahead with community initiatives like this. 34 EXHIBIT D GRAHAM:Thank you for your comments. GALDONES:Commissioner Iwashita. IWASHITA:Does the Chair need a motion to make the corrections or changes that the Director just mentioned? The changes to Paragraph 3 and the other language changes. GALDONES:Those are recommendations from the Director and it could and maybe it will not be incorporated into the motion. It would be the wishes of the Commissioners. IWASHITA:Okay. I€m prepared to make a motion if the Chair would entertain it. GALDONES:Before you do that I would like to have comments from the Applicants regarding the recommended amendments. MR. WOERNER:They€re fine. GALDONES:Thank you. Before I entertain a motion, I feel compelled that I need to speaktothis-totheApplicantsbeforewegointoavoting-WhatIwillbesayingyouwillgetan idea where I€m going with my vote but I feel it€s necessary for me to say it in spite of that. First of all I would like to commend the work you folks are doing in educating the children and being able to get an award especially here for the West side for the State. That€s highly commendable for the work that you folks have done and I€d like to see that you folks do continue in educating our youngsters because they will be the future of our America. As a Commissioner I have had experienced many complaints, especially on this west side regarding the traffic infrastructure. Unfortunately on this side of the island, the traffic infrastructure has not kept up with the pace of development. So whenever we as Commissioners face future developments including more density into the community that has always been raised as a concern and as a complaint from the community. However, what is making me believe that this can work is the statement that you had made Mr. Woerner. A statement saying that you can govern the behavior of the parents as a ingress and egress to the school. So if they want to make this happen they can make it happen along with the Director that€s coming from the school. They can either be part of the solution or they going end up being part of the problem. And the reason I€m raising this right now because my vote, along with my vote there€s going to be certain expectations that I am expecting from the school and that is to make it happen if you really want to make it happen and have the parents be part of the solution. With that, Commissioner Iwashita? IWASHITA:Thank you Mr. Chair. I move that the Planning Commission recommend for favorable approval the Innovations Public Charter Schools, IPCS Foundation SPP 05-002, Special Permit application to allow the establishment of a public charter school (elementary school - grades 1 to 6), including limited before and after school care program, and related facilities on 5 acres of land situated within the State Land Use Agricultural District. The area involved is located along the east (mauka) side of Queen Kaahumanu Highway, approximately rd 1,500 feet north of the Queen Kaahumanu Highway ƒ Hualalai Road intersection, Puaa 3, NorthKona,Hawaii,TMK:7-5-10:portionof1.Togetherwiththesuggestedlanguagechanges and amendments recited by the Director earlier relevant to the parking lot and those other issues. 35 EXHIBIT D SPRINGER:Second. And for clarification Mr. Chair. Those changes are to Condition 3 I believe, 7 and 10. Is that correct? GALDONES:Yes. SPRINGER:Thank you. With a new 10 being inserted and all the subsequent conditions being renumbered accordingly. GALDONES:That is the intent of the motion Mr. Iwashita? IWASHITA:Yes Mr. Chair. GALDONES:Thank you very much. It has been moved by Commissioner Iwashita and seconded by Commissioner Springer that Innovations Public Charter Schools Special Permit application SPP 05-002 be approved by the Planning Commission. Discussion? Commissioner Graham? GRAHAM:I also will be in support of this motion as a result of what I heard here but I also wanted to indicate I don€t think we ever closed the public hearing. I think we need to do thatinsomewaybeforewehaveamotionforaction? GALDONES:Okay- GRAHAM:However we need to do that. If that€s no issue Ivan that€s fine with me. Okay. I also would with regard to Commission Chairman€s comments about your relationship with the parents- it seems to me that the most dangerous part of this whole traffic issue is the left turn on Hualalai Road for people wanting to come back north so I would request only that if it comes to your folks attention that there is a safety hazard ongoing because of those- that you use your judgment and ask the parents to refrain from making that turn if its clear it becomes a safety issue. Thank you. IWASHITA:Mr. Chair. GALDONES:Commissioner Iwashita. IWASHITA:Thank you. I just wanted to first of all I wanted to thank the Planning Department Staff, the Director and the Staff for all their hard work in working up this application and presenting it in the manner that they did and addressing the most significant issues that are raised by the action that we€re going to take today. I also wanted to make a comment that: 1) being the husband of a public school principal and having- had through that experience many, many years, more than I want to say, contact with the public school system and being an ardent supporter of the public school system I want to congratulate all of the work that you obviously have done- to make your students successful. 36 EXHIBIT D GALDONES:Thank you Commissioner Iwashita. Any further discussion on the motion? Hearing none. On the vote Jeff. DARROW:Thank you Mr. Chair. Commissioner Iwashita? IWASHITA:Aye. DARROW:Commissioner Springer? SPRINGER:Yes. DARROW:Commissioner Alameda? ALAMEDA:Yes. DARROW:Commissioner Graham? GRAHAM:Aye. DARROW:Mr. Chairman? GALDONES:Aye. DARROW:Motion passes. GALDONES:You will beinformed of today€s actions and I€d like to thank all of you here for having participated, your patience and your indulgence, it€s been a long day. Good luck in your venture. The discussion ended at 5:20 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Lynette Sanemitsu, West Hawai i Secretary 37 EXHIBIT D