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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023-01-19 Leeward Exh A (Public Testimony re Agenda Items 1, 2 & 3) LEEWARD PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAI`I TESTIMONY TRANSCRIPT JANUARY 19, 2023 Public testimony regarding the applications of AHU POHAKU HO`OMALUHIA LLC (FORMERLY ROBERT WATKINS AND JEAN SUNDERLAND) (PL-SMA-2022-000018 AND PL-SPP-2022-000018) AND CHARLES STEVENSON,ANN STEVENSON & JOHN FUMO (PL-REZ-2022-000035) was heard at 9:38 a.m. in the West Hawaii Civic Center, Council Chambers, Building A, 74-5044 Ane Keohokalole Highway, Kailua-Kona, Hawaii,with Chairperson Barbara DeFranco presiding. COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Barbara DeFranco, Michael Dela Cruz, Zaheva Knowles, Mahina Paishon-Duarte, and Michael Vitousek ABSENT AND EXCUSED: Clement"CJ" Kanuha III ALSO PRESENT: Sinclair Salas-Ferguson, Esq. (Counsel for the Commission), Jean Campbell, Esq. (Counsel for the Planning Department), Jeffrey Darrow(Deputy Planning Director), Maija Jackson (Planning Program Manager), Christian Kay (Planner), Clinton Mercado (Planner), Janice Hata (Zoom host), and Noriko Sauer(Commission Secretary) And approximately ten public members in the audience. APPLICANT: AHU POHAKU HO`OMALUHIA LLC (FORMERLY ROBERT WATKINS AND JEAN SUNDERLAND) (PL-SMA-2022-000018) Application for an amendment to Special Management Area(SMA)Use Permit No. 417 to increase the number of guest rooms from 16 to 36 by constructing 20 additional guest rooms at Hawaii Island Retreat, on an approximately 5.0-acre portion of a 14.5-acre parcel of land situated in the Special Management Area. The subject property is located at 54-250 Lokahi Road, approximately 1.2 miles northeast(makai) of Akoni Pule Highway, Hanaula and Honopueo,North Kohala, Hawaii, TMK: (3) 5-4-009:014 (por). APPLICANT: AHU POHAKU HO`OMALUHIA LLC (FORMERLY ROBERT WATKINS AND JEAN SUNDERLAND) (PL-SPP-2022-000018) Application for an amendment to Special Permit No. 1117 to increase the number of guest rooms from 16 to 36 by constructing 20 additional guest rooms at Hawaii Island Retreat, on an approximately 5.0-acre portion of a 14.5-acre parcel of land situated in the State Land Use Agricultural District. The subject property is located at 54-250 Lokahi Road, approximately 1.2 miles northeast(makai) of Akoni Pule Highway, Hanaula and Honopueo,North Kohala, Hawaii, TMK: (3) 5-4-009:014 (por). 1 EXHIBIT A APPLICANT: CHARLES STEVENSON,ANN STEVENSON & JOHN FUMO (PL-REZ- 2022-000035) Application for a Change of Zone from an Agricultural-20 acres (A-20a) to an Agricultural-10 acres (A-10a) zoning district for 22.665 acres of land. The subject property is located at 73-4375 Haleamau Street, approximately 570 feet northeast(mauka) of its intersection with Kaloko Drive, Kaloko Mauka Subdivision, Kaloko,North Kona, Hawaii, TMK: (3) 7-3-027:003. DEFRANCO: Okay, so, in-person testifiers, do we have any people here that want to testify now or wait for your agenda item? You are going to all wait? We have two that want to testify now, is that right? JACKSON: Chair DeFranco, the pink sheet that you were provided has the testifiers that would like to testify at the beginning of the agenda. DEFRANCO: Okay, so we are going to have Clare Loprissi [Loprinzi]. Yeah, if you want to come up here. You can both come up,why don't you both come up? Okay. And—Cindy Freitas? Okay, great. Please come up, ladies, and sit down, make sure you turn the mic on, and you put it near your voice. We are going to start with Cindy then? And I'm going to swear both of you in—however you want to be sworn in, if you want to stand up, if you want to raise your arm, your hand, or not—hello? LOPRINZL [Inaudible] DEFRANCO: Go ahead and, but we just need to affirm with both of you that you are going to tell the truth today. [Inaudible affirmation] Great,thank you. FREITAS: He mele komo a he mele aloha no na kupuna i ka au i hala. Aloha mai kakou. DEFRANCO: Aloha no. Thank you. FREITAS: Okay, I'm testifying for Item 1, 2, and 3. I'm going to do Number 3 at this moment. Aloha,my name is Cindy Freitas, and I'm a native Hawaiian, descendant of the native inhabitants of Hawaii prior to 1778, born and raised in Hawaii. I'm also a practitioner who still practice the cultural traditional practices that was instilled in me by my grandparents at a young age from mountain to sea. I oppose Item Number 3 for the following reasons. The area consists of federal endangered Hawaiian hoary bats, Hawaiian hawks, `akepa, and Hawaiian creepers above the 3,000-foot level, an essential habitat which falls under the Endangered Species Act. There is no archaeological and cultural studies was conducted of the property due to previous impact by ground disturbance activity associated with the residential development. No archaeological inventory survey has been conducted within the subject parcel, and no historical properties have been previously identified; however, State Historical[sic] Preservation Division request the opportunity to review future permits for the subject property. "Hawai`i Revised Statutes 6E-42 Review of proposed project. (a) before any agency or officer of the State or its political subdivisions approves any project 2 EXHIBIT A involving a permit, license, certificate, land use change, subdivision, or other entitlement for use, which may affect historic property, ... artifacts, or a burial site,the agency or office shall advise the department and prior to any approval allow the department an opportunity for review and comment on the effect of the proposed project on historic properties, ... artifacts, or burial sites, consistent with section 6E-43, including those listed in the Hawaii Register of Historic Places." Now I'm going to Item 1 and 2, applicant Ahu P6haku Ho`omaluhia LLC, SMA Permit No. 417 and SPP No. 1117. My name is Cindy Freitas. I oppose Item I and 3[sic] for the following reason. The fauna study of the project was not done; however, the applicant stated that over the years cultivating sugarcane had degraded the project area and destroyed native habitat. But yet, in the past 20 years there has been noted a return of the Hawaiian hawk, or `io, and native owl, or pueo, which is on the endangered list, which falls under the Endangered Species Act. And I want to mahalo the applicant for upholding the Constitutional law, Article 12, Section 7. Mahalo. DEFRANCO: Thank you. LOPRINZL Aloha. DEFRANCO: Aloha. LOPRINZL My name is Clare Loprinzi and DEFRANCO: Speak right into the LOPRINZL What did you say? Oh, okay. I don't want to get thrown out to doing anything wrong, so I'll obey all rules. Okay, so I would, I'm, I'm opposing these develops, and I'm speaking in general for all three. When you look at the eyes of indigenous peoples from here and from wherever we are from, that has been my life, my whole life has been that. We preserve water, land, the rights, R-I-G-H-T and R-I-T-E-S of not just the people but of the land. When I look at how much water, for example, and I look at what's the development in Kohala, and I look at they already have [to Ms. FreitasJ How many places?—and they are already going to make 16—and they are going to make [to Ms. FreitasJ How many more? 20. And I look to see, well,who is that helping? I mean if, if the `io and the pueo come back andI was taught by people, since I was young, to listen to them, to watch them how they fly,the positions they fly, they are talking to you, the clouds, they are talking to us. We are all of that. We are made of their ingredients, and they are made of ours; basically, we are made of theirs. But when you look at the, them coming back, are they coming back for more development? How many people in Hawaii have the koko that come from here have land? And, and if you are going to have this corporation or this, coming out of Delaware that's, that's behind all of this,who is getting the money? And, so you employ the local people as the help? So if you study history,you know, in the transatlantic slave route, then you had that the next generation, which is where my people came from. And if you know their story, it's not easy. And it's not easy for what happened to people here, even if that did not happen to Hawaiian people, it's still, they took away their land, they took away their water. So, how much water, and who owns the water, and who owns the land? Is that a concept of Hawaiian people? Who does 3 EXHIBIT A this land go to? There is—I've done a few births recently out in that area, and it's, it's sad and it's shocking. For me, I walk on that earth, and you can hear that earth talk to you. And so you are looking at lands, you are looking at the gulch, you are looking at the, the place where Kamehameha had his, his kalo, you are looking at—who, who are these workshops for? For more New Age people of Caucasian descent, or whatever descent they are, that have their problems, coming over here to now, now get healed from this land? Is that what this land is about? Is that what, is that what the water is about? How much water they can use? When you do cultural impact assessments and when you look at the environmental impact, who is giving that? Is it, who are the archaeologist? Are they from here? Or do they know? Do they, can they hear? Can they feel? Can they see? So, when I, I look at these, these three items, I just go, whether it's up in Kaloko or whether it's in Hawi, it's like who are the ones that are making these decisions on these places? I called several people from Kohala this morning to try to—you know, Cindy and I, this is almost like a fulltime job for us,but we have our other many jobs. So we try to step it up because that is my kuleana. So my koko doesn't come from here, but it does at this point, and my, my kuleana is to do that as helping all these babies and all these, mostly Hawaiian descent, that is my job now is to take care of the land and the water. So when I look at the archaeologists, I know that if they don't decide the right way, they get fired, and I know that straight from them. So how do we get justice on these things? How do we, who is the land being sent, given to? You know,who is the land, or who owns this land? And then, is that going to go back into, ever back into the people? Because how many Hawaiian people don't have land? And so, who is this healing, and who is this destructing? The more you want to put up all these other New Age little spaces for people to come and heal, but what about the people? Oh,yeah, that's right, they come in and clean up, do the laundry, make the food, you know. But, so in all of these places, who isI ask the Leeward Planning Committee[sic] to not have invested interests in any of these projects. Because I know that for myself or anybody that sits on boards—I've sat on boards—you have to recuse yourself. And so when you look at those things that you don't, that you really look at the people, you look at the land,you look at the water, and you look at the cultural impact, not just from what's on the paper or what's been agreed upon, but what the heart and soul of this. How many people? When you—the way I was taught by, and these were, these were,they told me back way back that the land and the water was much stronger, but now you look at the, at these people, who is it affecting? When you rape the land,when you take that water, when you poison it—is that, do I have, I have three minutes? DEFRANCO: Yeah. LOPRINZL Okay. I mean, I, I have three things I'm talking about so that's DEFRANCO: You are on your last three minutes. LOPRINZL Oh, I'm on my last three, okay, okay. I didn't know if that was piece or three or what. DEFRANCO: Okay. LOPRINZI: So when you look at, when you look at those, those factors, look at it, step back, and imagine that you were back here hundreds and thousands of years, from the beginning. Kohala is 4 EXHIBIT A the beginning of these islands is what I have, you know, of their website. But look at each place, you know, we are those places. We feel their pain. So, I ask all of you to not let these things go through. There, it's, it's not done well enough, you know, no matter what lawyer they have. So, thank you so much and big mahalo-s for letting me speak and for the work you guys are doing. DEFRANCO: Thank you. But hold on just a second. Are there any questions for the testifiers from the Commissioners? [None] Okay, thank you so much for your testimony. Okay, are there any more testimony,testifiers? No, okay. So, and Zoom, we are waiting for the agenda. Public testimony in this section of the agenda ended at 9:54 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Noriko Sauer, Secretary Leeward Planning Commission 5 EXHIBIT A