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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023-05-04 Windward Exh C (Item 3 Punalei Makai Living Trust PL-SMA-2023-000026) WINDWARD PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAI`I HEARING TRANSCRIPT MAY 4, 2023 A regularly advertised hearing on the application of PUNALEI MAKAI LIVING TRUST (PL-SMA-2023-000026) was heard at 9:44 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, John Cross, Louis Daniele III, Wayne De Luz, and Chantel Perrin. ABSENT AND EXCUSED: Lauren Balog. ALSO PRESENT: Sinclair Salas-Ferguson Esq. (Counsel to the Commission), Suzanna Tiapula Esq. (Counsel to the Planning Department), 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 (Commission Secretary). And three members from the public are in attendance. APPLICANT: PUNALEI MAKAI LIVING TRUST (PL-SMA-2023-00026) Application for a Special Management Area(SMA) Use Permit to demolish an existing dwelling and construct a new single-family dwelling, a first farm dwelling and related improvements on 9.51 acres of land situated in the Special Management Area. The subject parcel is located at 36- 2676 Old Mamalahoa Highway, approximately 1,000 feet south of Stevens Road/Hawai`i Belt Road intersection on the east(makai) side of the highway, Waipunalei Homesteads and Portion of Kahoahuna Homesteads, North Hilo, Hawaii, TMK: (3) 3-6-005:002. Secretary's Note: [indecipherable] indicates that there were technical and/or internet difficulties, which made the conversation inaudible. LIN: Okay, we'll now move on to agenda Item No. 3. Applicant is Punalei Makai Trust, application number PL-SMA-2023-000026. Application of a Special Management Area (SMA) Use Permit to demolish an existing dwelling and construct a new single-family dwelling, a first farm dwelling and related improvements on 9.51 acres of land situated in the Special Management Area. The subject parcel is located at 36-2676 Old Mamalahoa Highway, approximately 1,000 feet south of Stevens Road/Hawai`i Belt Road intersection on the east(makai) side of the highway, Waipunalei Homesteads and portion of Kahoahuna Homesteads, North Hilo, Hawaii, TMK: (3) 3-6-005 parcel 2. At this time, are there any testifiers for this agenda item? Okay, seeing none, anybody on Zoom? HATA: No testifiers on Zoom. LIN: Okay, thank you. We'll move on to staff presentation by Alex. Thank you. 1 EXHIBIT C ROY: Good morning, Commission. I'm presenting today the Punalei Makai Living Trust Special Management Area Use Permit application. Here's a location map showing the project site. You can see it's on the makai side of Hawaii Belt Road, old Mamalahoa Highway just north of Laupahoehoe Point and the beach park. The applicant is requesting to first demolish an existing single-family residence and shed that was built in 1936. They want to construct a two (2) story, 3,788 square foot interior with 2,593 square feet of exterior single-family residence. We're going to call that Dwelling 1. Construct a one (1) story, 1,574 square foot interior and 794 square foot exterior first farm dwelling and we're going to call that Dwelling 2. And then also construct a 1,000 square foot stand-alone garage approximately 28-feet from Dwelling 2. Additional work includes a construction of 2 separate individual wastewater systems. The first one will service Dwelling 1 and the second one will service Dwelling 2 and the garage. They are going to install retaining walls and of course driveways and access and then landscaping. Potable water is provided by 2 existing Department of Water Supply water meters and Board of Water Supply has already commented that they are available and can be used for this project. Here's a map of the County zoning. The project parcel is zoned A-20a so, Agricultural 20-acres. Just to the north is 2 separate parcels that are zoned A-5a so, Agricultural 5-acres. So, the majority of the area as you can see is A-20a. State Land Use for this parcel is Agricultural with a small sliver of Conservation land along the coast. I just want to note that most of that land is eroded away as it's common in this area. So, this is a shoreline parcel now and the shoreline is actually the top of pali for this parcel. Just to the south is a small area of Urban where there's a small subdivision. LUPAG has the entire area as Important Agricultural Lands with of course the coastal area which is common to be in the Open zone. But the majority of the parcel or what we're calling the entire parcel pretty much is Important Agricultural Lands. Here's an aerial photograph of the site. You can see that it's fairly clear with some trees along the periphery coast but undeveloped other than the existing single-family residence and shed. Here's another shot, I kind of wanted to show this in the next slide to give some indication of the shoreline area. A very steep cliff area and no access down there. Most folks in this area would access the shoreline or the water via Laupahoehoe Point Park and then I just added in the contours again to give you more clarity on the steepness of that. It also kind of shows that the project property is actually sloped about 35 degrees, no, 35 percent slope. So, it slopes down pretty significantly from the road, Old Mamalahoa Highway down to the shore. This is part of the reason they're actually building retaining walls because they'll need to accommodate that slope. Here's a site plan. I marked out the 40-foot shoreline setback. As you can see, they're a significant distance back, 120-130 feet back from the top of pali and then well outside the shoreline setback area. So, we're happy with that. I've marked Dwelling 1, the main dwelling and Dwelling 2. They had first applied for the Ohana, they had an approved Ohana as I stated in the background recommendation. The Director, and Deputy and myself decided that it would be more conducive to put the first farm dwelling as this parcel is pre-1976 agricultural lot and so the first farm dwelling is actually more appropriate and still gives them what they're asking for. If the Commission would like we can put a condition in the approval that would rescind the old Ohana permit from 1987. That's kind of up to you guys if you want to do that. 2 EXHIBIT C On the bottom left-hand corner of the site plan, you see that there's kind of a blue dashed area. That's the location of the old residence and shed. It's right there against the right-of-way. So, they'll be removing that. Actually when I visited the site, I came across a neighbor and the only public comment was that he was happy to see that that dwelling will be removed because it's old as things get abused when they're not used. The other thing to notice too, is that there's two entrances to this parcel but it being 10 acres that seems reasonable. One entrance will take you directly to Dwelling 2 and then one entrance takes you directly to Dwelling 1. Here's a site plan of Dwelling 1. You have of course the full set of site plans, but I put this up just to show you the height. It's a subdued house. So, one of the issues may be view planes views from Mamalahoa Highway but the house itself will be pretty low and because of the slope of the land actually the view planes shouldn't be impacted at all. But again it's not really an issue because from the highway you can't see the property, but this is from Old Mamalahoa Highway. So, I'll show that in the pictures. Here's Dwelling 2. So, even more subdued, single-story, and then a site plan of the garage. Again, single-story, typical cantilevered roof. Here's a photograph of the project parcel. So, kind of standing. I walked down around the old property, old structure and then took a photograph from looking makai. It's kind of hard to tell the slope from this kind of photograph but, it's significant but you can see that it's well open. Here's the existing dwelling to be demolished. Here's the existing shed to be demolished. You can see it's really close to the road. I'm parked, right, one tire is kind of on the road so, it's pretty close. So, it's good that they're getting that out of the way. Here's a view from the entrance to Old Mamalahoa Highway. So, there's actually two entrances to this section of Old Mamalahoa Highway. But I just kind of wanted to show you the main one that's fully accessible and there's plenty of access to get to the road. Even though Old Mamalahoa Highway is kind of a one and half lane, old road as you can see here. This is the Old Mamalahoa Highway, and this is the view north. There's a red arrow that kind of shows the approximate location of the driveway to Dwelling 2 and then the red arrow here showing the approximate location of the driveway to Dwelling 1. Again, that structure will be removed, and the area will be cleaned up. So, at this time the Director recommends approval with the stated conditions. I can take any questions you have. LIN: Commissioners, any questions? DE LUZ: Alex, on the first— LIN: Commissioner De Luz. DE LUZ: — setback this is concerning. You said it's about from the 40-foot setback you think it's another 80 feet? ROY: Yes, I think from the lowest they were about 120 and then they get up to 130 or more. So, yeah, at the closest probably 70 or 80 feet. DE LUZ: Okay. 3 EXHIBIT C ROY: The retaining walls would be your closed development to the shoreline. DE LUZ: And the retaining walls is really more towards the dwelling structure. ROY: Yeah, you can kind of see them here this is one retaining wall. Right along Dwelling I and then up here, you can see a retaining wall right here along on the makai side of each of the dwellings that's it. Right there and then right there again. DE LUZ: Thank you. ROY: Sorry, it's kind of a poor copy. LIN: Any other questions? Okay, if not, thank you Alex. We'll move on to the applicant. So, if the applicant or their representative please come forward. [Two females and a male from the audience went to the testifier table] LIN: Okay, if you could please raise your right hand. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth on this matter now before the Windward Planning Commission? [Two females and a male at the testifier table] Yes. LIN: Okay, please speak directly into the microphones, state your name, the area you reside in and whom you represent. COLTER: My name is Val Colter, and I am representing the owners and applicants. VALLABHANENI: I am Geetha Vallabhaneni, and we are the applicants, and we reside in Volcano. CULLINEY: I'm Aaron Culliney, husband of Geetha. LIN: Okay, thank you. Have you received the background and recommendation reports from the Planning Department, and do you agree with the recommendations including the proposed conditions? COLTER: Yes. LIN: Okay. Do you have any further comments or statements that you want to make to the Commissioners? COLTER: No, thank you for your approval and thanks for your decision. LIN: Thank you. Commissioners any questions for the applicant? Oh, Commissioner De Luz. 4 EXHIBIT C DE LUZ: I know it was mentioned earlier that there is an existing well there was an approved Ohana permit back in 97. I guess maybe just to clear it up. Are you okay with that being removed, rescinded? COLTER: Yeah, we are. DE LUZ: Okay. That's all I have. LIN: Thank you. If there's no further questions for the applicant. I would like to entertain a motion. DE LUZ: Mr. Chair, I'll make a motion that I move that the applicant for Special Management Area Use Permit number, Docket 2023-000026 be approved based on the Planning Director's recommendation, which shall be adopted with the addition that the applicant has agreed to remove the, I believe the 1997 Ohana permit— LIN: 86. DE LUZ: 87, I'm sorry. Thank you. LIN: Okay, there's been a motion by Commissioner De Luz, is there a second? PERRIN: I second. LIN: Okay seconded by Commissioner Perrin. Any discussion? Okay, Director Kern is there any [indecipherable] about rescinding a former Ohana permit. KERN: No, they're in good shape. Thanks. LIN: Okay, no further questions. Staff roll call vote, please. ROY: Okay the vote is to approve with the additional condition that the Ohana permit be rescinded. DE LUZ: That is correct. ROY: Okay. DE LUZ: Correct Alex, thank you. ROY: Okay. Commissioner De Luz? DE LUZ: Aye. ROY: Commissioner Perrin? 5 EXHIBIT C PERRIN: Aye. ROY: Commissioner Cross? CROSS: Aye. ROY: Commissioner Daniele? DANIELE: Aye. ROY: And Chair Lin? LIN: Aye. ROY: The motion carries five to zero. LIN: Okay. Thank you and you'll be notified of the Planning Commission's decision via writing. Thank you. The item ended at 9:59 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Melissa Dacayanan-Salvador, Secretary Windward Planning Commission 6 EXHIBIT C