HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007-07-20 TRS10KALAOA
PLANNING COMMISSION
COUNTY OF HAWAII
HEARING TRANSCRIPT
JULY 20, 2007
RS10 KALAOA, LLC (REZ 854)
A regularly advertised hearing on the applications of was
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called to order at 3:13 p.m. at the Waikoloa Beach Marriott, Naupaka III, 69275 Waikoloa
Drive, Waikoloa, Hawaii, with First-Vice Chairman C. Kimo Alameda presiding.
PRESENT: C. Kimo Alameda ABSENT & EXCUSED: William Graham
Takashi Domingo Alvin Rho
Andrew Iwashita Rodney Watanabe
Shelly Ogata
Rene’ Siracusa
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Ivan Torigoe, Deputy Corporation Counsel
Brooks Bancroft, Deputy Corporation Counsel
Chris Yuen, Planning Director
Phyllis Fujimoto, Staff Planner
Jeff Darrow, Staff Planner
And approximately 15 people from the public in attendance.
APPLICANT: RS10 KALAOA LLC (REZ 854)
Request to amend Condition D (time to secure Final Subdivision Approval) of Change of Zone
Ordinance No. 97 56, which rezoned approximately 10.283 acres of land from an Agricultural 5-
acre (A-5a) to a Single Family Residential 10,000-square foot (RS-10) district. The property is
located on the makai side of Mamalahoa Highway, between Kona Coastview (Nana Street) and
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Kona Palisades (Holoholo Street) Subdivisions, Kalaoa 4, North Kona, Hawaii, TMK: TMK: 7-
3-28:82 through 102 (formerly 7-3-10:37).
ALAMEDA: Agenda item No. 5, which is Rezoning 854. Mr. Darrow.
DARROW: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. If I can direct your attention to the location
map, the area of this application is very near the area of the last application. Again this is in the
North Kona District of Hawaii. More specifically we are looking at the Kona Palisades area.
The particular application we are looking at is the small red dot. Just for reference purposes, this
is Kaiminani Drive. Access to this particular subdivision, which is called Kukuinui Subdivision,
is through Holoholo Street from the Kona Palisades side, and it is from, looks like, Nana Street
from the Kona Coastview side of the subdivision.
This particular application is a time extension request. The applicant, RS10 Kalaoa, LLC, is
requesting a five-year time extension to Condition D of Change of Zone Ordinance 97-56.
Condition D is the timeline to receive final subdivision approval. The applicant originally was
approved for a 34-lot subdivision. The zoning at this time is RS-10 zoning.
EXHIBIT D
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This is a map that the applicant has provided for us to be able to show this particular subdivision.
Again just for reference, we have Holoholo Street coming from the south side of the subdivision
and Nana Street from the north side. Right directly in the middle of the subdivision is Kukuinui
Street. The darker shaded area is the area that we are looking at today for the time extension.
It’s not very much darker, but it’s this low portion here. The upper portion has been developed,
and you’ll be able to see the pictures that have been passed around. Originally, the first
increment of this subdivision was for 20 lots; again that part of the subdivision has been
completed. The applicant had one water commitment for both lots, and now he’s in need of 13
additional water units to be able to complete the subdivision.We did have a comment letter
from the Department of Water Supply stating that the applicant will need to come up with an
additional source to provide those water commitments. The applicant has submitted as a
response to that letter, and that’s been passed out to the Commissioners.
The Planning Director is recommending that a favorable recommendation be sent to the Hawaii
County Council by the Planning Commission. Are there any questions?
ALAMEDA: Any questions? Commissioner Domingo?
DOMINGO: Where is the access or the ingress/egress for the particular development
going to be?
DARROW: This particular -, most likely, to access this particular subdivision would
be from Holoholo Street; that Holoholo Street enters from Kaiminani Drive.
ALAMEDA: Commissioner Siracusa?
SIRACUSA: Yes. I see in my file that they were supposed to submit final subdivision
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approval – they had an extension that brought them up to April 5, wait a second, yeah, ’cause it
started April 7, ’97, that was the effective date of the Ordinance, and then they have five years to
submit final plan approval (sic) that brought them up five years more to April 5, 2002 – and so it
would appear that they are not in compliance. And somewhere in here I also read that they had
not satisfied Condition K, which was the affordable housing requirement. So when you add that
to the fact that there isn’t a water commitment yet for Increment 2, and the Water Department
doesn’t even consider that they will be providing it, but saying that the applicant has to provide
their own source, it seems that this is -, in a sense part of it was about the water appears to be
premature, and yet the other part -. Here we are once again looking at Conditions that have not
been met in a timely manner, and yet they could have applied for an extension of time, and did
not.
DARROW: The -, Commissioner Siracusa, the application was actually received on
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April 5, so this particular application has been with the Planning Department since that time.
SIRACUSA: Two thousand and two?
DARROW: No. Two thousand and two was the end date of the original rezoning.
SIRACUSA: Right.
EXHIBIT D
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DARROW: They submitted for a time extension request of five years, which brought
them up to -.
SIRACUSA: Oh, with the second -.
DARROW: Two thousand and seven.
SIRACUSA: Okay.
ALAMEDA: Any other questions for Mr. Darrow?
DARROW: Just for clarification to -.
ALAMEDA: Sure.
DARROW: The applicant is working with the Office of Housing and Community
Development to comply with the affordable housing. I believe we did receive a comment letter
from them. And they do have requirements to comply with, but they are still in the timeline to
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meet those requirements. And again we do have a letter dated July 11 from the applicant
stating that he is working with the Haseko water agreement for Increment 2 for water
commitments.
ALAMEDA: Commissioner Siracusa.
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SIRACUSA: Yeah, just a follow-up. Even so, if he submitted finally by April 5 of this
year, that’s – and here we are right now – that’s three months.
DARROW: I don’t think that was his fault; I think that was just the fact that it hasn’t -,
it was actually scheduled for last month, but we didn’t have a quorum, so that didn’t make it.
SIRACUSA: Oh, okay, okay. Fine. Thank you for clarifying that.
ALAMEDA: Any other questions for Mr. Darrow? Seeing none, the applicant or his
representative, please come forward. All right. Thanks for your patience; you’ve been here
awhile. Can you please raise your right hand? Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth now
before the Hawaii County Planning Commission?
ASHIKAWA: I do.
ALAMEDA: Thank you. You heard Jeff, Mr. Darrow’s introduction of the application.
Could you also please state your -, did you state your name and address?
ASHIKAWA: My name is Gary Ashikawa. I’m the manager for our subdivision, RS10
Kalaoa, LLC. And my address is 5460 Poola Street, Honolulu, Hawaii.
ALAMEDA: Okay, thank you. Do you have anything to add regarding the introduction
of your application?
EXHIBIT D
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ASHIKAWA: Yes, I guess -.
ALAMEDA: Please speak into the mike. We’re having it recorded, that’s why; it’s
easier for our transcribers.
ASHIKAWA: Yes. To add and to clarify, we are committed to complete the project. We
are in process of securing additional water units to complete Increment 2 – and we have been for
a while – but the water units are scarce in North Kona, as you all know. And we are working
with Wainani 42 LLC developers for the Wainani Estates project; they have some units that
would be available, excess units that would be available for our project. So that would enable us
to complete Increment 2. We’ve already did the design for it; we did the construction of the
grading for Increment 2 for all of the lots, all 14 lots, when we did Increment 1. And part of the
reason for doing that was to minimize impacts to neighbors for dust and noise. So that has been
completed. The question on the affordable housing, we have entered into an agreement with the
Housing and Community Development agency, and so that’s in place. But the units that we have
committed to them are in Increment 2, so it’s imperative that we complete Increment 2 in order
to satisfy our requirement to the Housing agency also. And we are committed to complete and
we are -, well, we want to complete it as much as anyone else wants it to be completed. We’ve
been developing in Kona for many years, and we’d like to continue to be good neighbors and
good developers. So we’d like to satisfy our requirements on the affordable housing issue. So
basically the only thing that’s holding us up on proceeding and completing our project is the
water units. Thank you.
ALAMEDA: Okay. Thank you. Any questions for our applicant? Commissioner
Siracusa?
SIRACUSA: I just want to know if it’s a sure thing that you will have enough water
commitment to service the number of houses that you are planning to build in Increment 2. You
know, I have concerns about whether we should go ahead and approve, and then later on you
come back to us and say, well, I couldn’t get all the water commitment I needed.
ASHIKAWA: Well, as I said we are working with developers who have some excess
units -.
SIRACUSA: So you are sure that will be enough then?
ASHIKAWA: Hopefully we will have enough. We can’t guarantee it. We are
continuing to work with them. That’s the reason for our request for additional time. Thank you.
SIRACUSA: Okay. I think I was asking for the guarantee.
ASHIKAWA: I wish I could guarantee it.
ALAMEDA: Any other questions for our applicant? Seeing none, do we have any
testimony, staff?
NOMURA: No.
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ALAMEDA: No testimony? Okay. Is there anything final to add before we go into
deliberations?
ASHIKAWA: Not at this time.
ALAMEDA: Okay. Fellow Commissioners, what’s your pleasure? Commissioner
Iwashita?
IWASHITA: Mr. Chair, if it’s appropriate, I’m prepared to present a motion.
ALAMEDA: It is.
IWASHITA: I move that our applicant, RS10 Kalaoa, LLC, REZ 854, that we send a
favorable recommendation as to the request to amend Condition D, time to secure final
subdivision approval, of Change of Zone Ordinance No. 97-56.
ALAMEDA: Very good.
DOMINGO: Second.
ALAMEDA: Motion made by Commissioner Iwashita, seconded by Commissioner
Domingo. Discussion? Seeing none, staff?
DARROW: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The motion before us is to send a favorable
recommendation for this time extension request. With that, I’ll take the roll. Commissioner
Iwashita?
IWASHITA: Yes.
DARROW: Commissioner Domingo?
DOMINGO: Yes.
DARROW: Commissioner Ogata?
OGATA: Aye.
DARROW: Commissioner Siracusa?
SIRACUSA: Aye.
DARROW: Commissioner Woodward?
WOODWARD: Aye.
DARROW: And Mr. Chairman?
ALAMEDA: Aye.
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DARROW: The motion passes, six to zero.
ALAMEDA: Very good.
The discussion ended at 3:25 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Noriko Sauer
West Hawaii Secretary
EXHIBIT D
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