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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023-04-06 Windward Exh D (Item#3 Ke'aloha Lani PL-SPP-2022-000031) WINDWARD PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAI`I HEARING TRANSCRIPT APRIL 6, 2023 A regularly advertised hearing on the application of KE`ALOHA LANI LLC (FORMERLY HAWAI`I BREWERY DEVELOPMENT CO.,INC.) (PL-SPP-2022-000031) was heard at 11:25 a.m. in the County of Hawaii Council Chambers in Hilo, 25 Aupuni Street, Hilo, Hawaii with Chair Dennis Lin presiding. COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Dennis Lin, Louis Daniele, Lauren Balog, John Cross, Wayne De Luz, and Chantel Perrin. ALSO PRESENT: Sinclair Salas-Ferguson Esq. (Counsel for the Commission), Zendo Kern (Planning Director), Jessica Andrews (Planner), Alex Roy (Planner), Christian Kay (Planner), Janice Hata(Zoom Host), Maija Jackson Planning Program Manager), and Melissa Dacayanan- Salvador (Windward Planning Commission Secretary). And three members from the public were in attendance. KE`ALOHA LANI LLC (FORMERLY HAWAI`I BREWERY DEVELOPMENT CO., INC.) (PL-SPP-2022-000031) Application for an amendment to Condition No. 4 of Special Permit No. 842 for a 5-Year time extension to construct and occupy on one lot, and a 10-year time extension to construct and occupy the remaining lots. Special Permit No. 842 was approved in 1993 to allow the establishment of a brewery, water, and soft drink bottling facility and related improvements on 14.5 acres of land (including the subject parcels which total 7.829 acres of land) situated within the State Land Use Agricultural District. The subject properties are located on Shipman Road, east of Highway 11 (Volcano Highway), west of Railroad Avenue, and north of Highway 130 (Kea`au-Pahoa Highway), Kea`au, Puna, Hawaii, TMKs: (3) 1-6-141:024, 027, & 028. Secretary's Note: [indecipherable] indicates that there were technical and/or internet difficulties, which made the conversation inaudible. LIN: Next agenda item is Ke`aloha Lani LLC (formerly Hawaii Brewery Development Co., Inc.), PL-SPP-2022-000031. Application for an amendment to Condition No. 4 of Special Permit No. 842 for a 5-year time extension to construct and occupy on one lot, and a 10- year time extension to construct and occupy the remaining lots. Special Permit No. 842 was approved in 1993 to allow the establishment of a brewery, water, and soft drink bottling facility and related improvements on a 14.5 acres of land (including the subject parcels which total 7.829 acres of land) situated within the State Land Use Agricultural District. The subject properties are located on Shipman Road, east of Highway 11 (Volcano Highway), west of Railroad Avenue, and north of Highway 130 (Kea`au-Pahoa Highway), located in Kea`au, Puna, Hawaii, TMK: (3) 1-6- 141:parcels 24, 27 and 28. At this time I do not see any testimony in-person. Is there anything on Zoom Janice? 1 EXHIBIT D HATA: No, we don't have any testifiers on Zoom. LIN: Okay, thank you. All right, I will then move on to the staff presentation. Go ahead Christian. KAY: Thank you,just real quick Janice. Can you confirm that you see the slide show? HATA: Yes, we're good on the Zoom end. Thank you. KAY: Okay, thank you. Thank you, Chair Lin, members of the Windward Planning Commission. Good morning. As the Chair stated, this is an amendment to Special Permit No. 842. Here is a location map. The subject properties are located in the Puna District of Hawaii Island. More specifically in the Kea`au area, makai of Highway 11. The applicant is requesting an amendment to Condition No. 4 of Special Permit No. 842 for a 5-year time extension to construct and occupy on one lot, and a 10-year time extension to construct and occupy the remaining two lots. Special Permit No. 842 was approved in 1993 to allow the establishment of a brewery, water and soft drink bottling facility and related improvements on 14.5 acres of land(including the three subject parcels which total 7.829 acres) situated within the State Land Use Agricultural District. The permit was later amended to also allow a distillery use. The requested amendment would allow the applicant until October 18, 2028, to complete construction and obtain a certificate of occupancy on one of the lots and until October 18, 2033, to develop and obtain certificate of occupancy on the remaining two lots. The stated reasons for the request is since acquiring Parcels 24 and 27 in 2021, the applicants have diligently worked securing the necessary permits to develop a water bottling facility on Parcel 24 with the intent of moving its existing water bottling facility from Hilo closer to the source of the water proximate to the project site. The applicant anticipates construction to be complete within 18- 24 months, which will not meet the October 2023 deadline to construct and occupy on Parcel 24, thus requiring the time extension. Additionally, while the applicant and Bender Consulting, who is the owner of Parcel 28 are considering options to construct beverage-related facilities for example a brewery or distillery as permitted by the Special Permit, neither owner has any firm plans or specific development timetable to complete the project. Thus, they are requesting the flexibility of a 10-year time extension to develop and occupy on the remaining two lots. Here is the zoning map for the subject properties and surrounding area. Again, for reference you've got Highway 11 (Volcano Road) running generally on the left side of the slide here. The subject properties are outlined in red here. The subject properties are zoned Family Agricultural-2 acres as indicated by the teal color. Surrounding zoning includes Industrial zoning, General Industrial- 20,000 square feet here indicated in gray which is the site of a solar array and was a subject of an amendment to that zoning district last year for those of you who were on the Commission at that point. Other zoning in the area is Agricultural-5 acres. This was part of the original 14.5 acres which is the Ag-5 zoning here and this is the location of the Hawaiian Springs watering bottling facility. Other zoning in the area across the highway is Commercial Industrial Mixed Use. 2 EXHIBIT D The State Land Use Designation for the subject properties is Agricultural as indicated in the green color. The Industrial zoning area to the north is also Urban as well as Urban indicated in the red color across the highway. The General Plan Land Use Pattern Allocation Guide Map designates the subject properties as Medium Density Urban. Other designations in the area are Low Density Urban, Important Agricultural Lands, Extensive Agricultural and Industrial as well as some Conservation along the highway and Urban Expansion across the highway to the west. Here is the applicant's proposed site plan for Parcel 24, which is the parcel closest to the highway showing the proposed bottling facility, parking, and related improvements. Also, the applicant has secured a well permit for a well on Parcel 27 which in the near term will help support water for the facility. In addition, the applicant is proposing another well permit on Parcel 24 and once that is approved and developed then both wells will support the facility. Here is an aerial photograph of the subject parcels. Again, for reference we've got the highway running here on the left-hand side of the screen. As you can see there are other industrial type uses, most of which were approved by Special Permit in the area. This is again the Hawaiian Springs water bottling facility here, solar array in support of those projects and again the subject parcels are outlined in red here. You can see here is the location of the shed that is covering the well that was developed on Parcel 27. Here are some views of the roadways within the project area. View of Shipman Road looking mauka, the subject parcels are on the left-hand side and a view of the roadway looking makai. Again, subject parcels are on the right-hand side and the solar array that I mentioned here is on the left. Here's a view into Parcel 24 from the roadway and a view into Parcel 27 from the roadway. Again, showing the location of the shed that's covering the water well. I couldn't get a very good view of Parcel 28 as it's behind these and undeveloped. The Planning Director is recommending approval of the amendment request with conditions. With that I'm happy to answer any questions the Commission may have. LIN: Thank you Christian. Any questions for staff? Okay, seeing none. We'll move onto the applicant and the applicant's representative. [Male from audience went to the testifier table] Okay. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth on this matter now before the Windward Planning Commission? MALE FROM AUDIENCE: Yes, I do. LIN: Please state your name and who you represent, and you may go ahead. FUKE: Sure, good morning, Mr. Chairman, and members of the Commission. My name is Sidney Fuke and I'm a Planning Consultant and I'm here assisting the applicant Ke`Aloha Lani, Inc. and with me today is the Vice President of Operations, Kyle Emmer. He's sitting over there. Your staff has always give a very comprehensive report, which kind of like makes me shame because like I don't know what else to say. But we've had a chance to review the proposed conditions and the background report and found them to be acceptable. Since again the staff has 3 EXHIBIT D provided most of the information maybe I just kind of want to provide some history behind the whole project. But being behind this whole development in this particular area. So, it was actually started by this guy named Marcus Bender and he had several different company names. But when they first developed Mr. Bender started, you're too young Dennis, but if you remember Blue Moon. It was in the Kakaako area in Honolulu. So, he started the restaurant brewery and then subsequently he went into the water business so he founded or co-founded the Hawaiian Springs in this particular area. He purchased the property found out that the Artesian Well is great so, that's where the first bottling plant operation came about and, in the meantime, he kind of expanded his so-called interest in a different kind of beverage product. He went to Vietnam and started the Kai Vodka. So, from bottling to brewery to distill he covers the whole gamut. So, his vision was to see this particular area because of the great water source to have like a so-called beverage community. So, he had some Special Permit approved and all that stuff and in the meantime over time he's getting older, and he say like "I cannot do it already, I'm kind of tired." So along came Ke`Aloha Lani so they bought the three, the three parcels. They currently, Ke`Aloha Lani, they now produce this water bottle it's called Waiakea. The water comes from one of the operating wells on the property. The other well is for the Hawaiian Springs and then there's another well that's adjacent to where they want to construct their first warehouse bottling facility. There's a well over there, an operating well, permitted well. So, what they're doing right now is they are hauling the water and bringing it down to their bottling plant which is located on Kalanikoa Street near the swimming pool, Edith Kanaka`ole. Particularly they right in that area. So, that's where the bottling facility is in and obviously it's not a very efficient operation. So, what they want to do is kind of construct their own bottling plant over there and harvest the water right next to it and become much more efficient. They do have plans to drill for another well on the subject, on the site where the proposed bottling plant is going to be. So, they had a permit for that, but it was since expired so they're kind of trying to renew that. But that's kind of in a nutshell the overall background of the project and again Mr. Emmer and myself are here to answer any questions you may have. LIN: Thank you Mr. Fuke. My question will be it's been taking a long time for this, and several time extensions have already been requested. As far as I understand this approval, or this recommendation has no further time extensions. FUKE: That's fine. LIN: Yeah. FUKE: Because actually they're ready to get started on the first building and consisting with the last time extension but they know that they were not going to be able to complete and operate it by March of this year. So, obviously they had to apply for an extension. So, they have the plans prepared, they're ready to submit for building permit, they already have their grading permit issued. So, with this approval and hopeful approval then their goal is to start the construction and relocate their bottling facility to the subject site. 4 EXHIBIT D LIN: Thank you. Questions, comments Commissioners? I just have a comment. I respect business but the idea of extracting our natural resources and bottling it and selling it either through Hawaiian Springs or other brands. Just doesn't feel right. But it's already operating so it's just a comment I want to throw out there because we keep moving towards to sustainability and protecting our natural resources and just seems counter-intuitive that we are extracting our natural resources and selling it off. That's just my comment. But, if no further questions or comments, motion anybody? DE LUZ: Chair, I move that the application to amend Special Permit No. 842, Docket No. 2022-000031, be approved based on the Planning Director's recommendation, which shall be adopted. LIN: It's been moved by Commissioner De Luz. DANIELE: I'll second that. LIN: Seconded by Vice Chair Daniele. Any discussion or comments on the motion? Commissioner De Luz, you have your mic on. Okay. DE LUZ: Sorry. LIN: Just wanted to confirm. All right if no discussions or comments then staff roll call vote, please. KAY: Yes, thank you Mr. Chair. Commissioner De Luz? DE LUZ: Aye. KAY: Vice Chair Daniele? DANIELE: Aye. KAY: Commissioner Balog? BALOG: Aye. KAY: Commissioner Cross? CROSS: Aye. KAY: Commissioner Perrin? PERRIN: Aye. KAY: And Chair Lin? 5 EXHIBIT D LIN: Aye. KAY: Thank you Mr. Chair, motion carries with six aye votes. LIN: Okay, thank you and our decision will be sent to you in writing. Thank you. FUKE: Thank you very much. The item ended at 11:41 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Melissa Dacayanan-Salvador, Secretary Windward Planning Commission 6 EXHIBIT D