Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2008-08-22 TYERLICK PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAII HEARING TRANSCRIPT AUGUST 22, 2008 TRINA AND SHAI YERLICK (SPP 08- A regularly advertised hearing on the application of 000060) was called to order at 10:00 a.m. in the Waikoloa Beach Marriott Hotel, Alii III Room, - 69275 Waikoloa Beach Drive, Waikoloa, Hawaii, with Chairman Rodney Watanabe presiding. PRESENT: C. Kimo Alameda ABSENT & EXCUSED: Rene’ Siracusa Lani Bowman Takashi Domingo Andrew Iwashita (from 10:15 a.m.) Shelly Ogata Rodney Watanabe Rell Woodward Ivan Torigoe, Deputy Corporation Counsel  Christopher Yuen, Planning Director Norman Hayashi, Planning Program Manager OgxkkhrEtihlnsn+Rs`eeOk`mmdq Jeff Darrow, Staff Planner Maija Cottle, Staff Planner Deanne Bugado, Planner, Kona Office And approximately ten people from the public in attendance. APPLICANT: TRINA AND SHAI YERLICK (SPP 08-000060) Special Permit to allow the establishment of a 4-bedroom Bed and Breakfast operation within an existing dwelling situated on 2.686 acres of land in the State Land Use Agricultural District. The property is located east (mauka) of Mamalahoa Highway between mile markers 6 and 7 near Komo Store, Holualoa, North Kona, Hawaii, TMK: 7-5-001:038. WATANABE: Agenda Item No. 1, the applicant is Trina and Shai Yerlick. This would be Special Permit 08-000060, and it’s a Special Permit to allow the establishment of a 4- bedroom bed and breakfast operation. So with that, I’ll turn it over to Maija. COTTLE: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning, everybody. COMMISSIONERS: Good morning. COTTLE: The first application is for a Special Permit. The applicants are Trina and Shai Yerlick, and they are proposing to establish a 4-bedroom bed and breakfast within an existing 2-story, 5-bedroom dwelling located on 2.686 acres of land. EXHIBIT A 1 If you look up at the screen, the property is outlined in black, and I’m just going to put a red dot over it, so that you can identify it. It’s located near Mamalahoa Highway, which runs north- south, and there is a private road off of Mamalahoa Highway that leads up to the property. The property is zoned Agricultural, and all of the surrounding properties on the slide are also zoned Agricultural. The General Plan designation is Important Agricultural Lands. And this is an aerial photograph showing the property, again, outlined in white, and Mamalahoa Highway running north-south. And it’s very hard to see but their private road comes off, I believe, right about here and curves up to the property. This is a close-up of their property showing the existing dwelling and there is a driveway right off of the private road. Most of the property is developed with coffee trees. This is a site plan that the applicant submitted, again, showing the road, the private road, and the dwelling, and coffee trees on most of the property. The bed and breakfast use is going to be in two bedrooms on the first floor – those are shown outlined in red – and two bedrooms on the second floor, which is also the main living area where the applicants will reside. And I just wanted to mention a changed condition, Condition No. 7. This slide shows the previous condition, but we have modified it and you should have a yellow handout. And I’ll read the changed condition to you. It’s been modified just to make it read a little bit more clearly. Hold on just a second. Okay, it says, “The applicant shall reconstruct the existing private road approach from Mamalahoa Highway to 40 feet mauka of the Highway by widening the existing pavement to a minimum 24-foot width and providing 5-foot minimum paved flares.” And then the remainder of the condition is the same. We also just received a food establishment permit from the applicant – I don’t believe you have a copy of this. And the permit is for Lilikoi Inn; it was issued to the applicants, and it says, to engage in the business of a restaurant, a sit-down restaurant. So I just wanted to clarify and add one more condition to the permit, and it will say, “The applicants shall be limited to providing breakfast only to the guests.” Our Zoning Code only allows breakfast-only service to the bed and breakfast guests. Then we also wanted to modify one other condition, Condition 2. This is regarding Plan Approval. We want to remove, “landscaping shall also be indicated on the plans for the purpose of mitigating any adverse noise or visual impacts to adjacent properties in accordance with the requirements of Planning Department Rule No. 17.” We are removing this one because it’s an existing dwelling and just a new use within the existing dwelling, so they shouldn’t need any additional landscaping. The Director recommends approval of this application to establish a bed and breakfast within the exiting dwelling. And I forgot to show you just a few more photographs. These are of the roadway leading up to the bed and breakfast.This is the reason for Condition No. 7; our Department of Public Works recommended that the applicant improve or reconstruct the road approach here. And this is Mamalahoa Highway shown at the bottom of the slide. The road approach is here coming off of that. You can also see there’re some pavement markings where vehicles have scratched the pavement going up to the road. Here is another view. And this is a little bit dark but it’s Mamalahoa Highway looking south, and the private road is to the left; you EXHIBIT A 2 can see a little bit of the grade here and also a utility pole. This is looking north; again, you can see the private road coming off from the right. And those slides are very dark, but -. And this one here you can see some waterlines that are existing on the side of the road that would need to be relocated and there’re also water meters off to the right side. Are there any questions? WATANABE: Maija, may I, you indicated that we have a new condition regarding the breakfast-only limitation for the kitchen, but you didn’t indicate the number, do you -? COTTLE: The number of guests? WATANABE: No, no, no, no, the number of that condition. COTTLE: Oh, I’m sorry. WATANABE: For summary purposes, you know. COTTLE: We could call that No. 5, and then renumber everything down from there. WATANABE: No. 5, and renumber. Okay, great, thank you. Fellow Commissioners, do we have any further questions for Maija Cottle? Yes, Ms. Bowman. BOWMAN: Quick question. Pardon my ignorance. But you need a Health permit then, if you have a bed and breakfast? COTTLE: You need a Health permit to allow serving a hot breakfast. BOWMAN: Okay. But if it’s just cold breakfasts, they don’t need a -? COTTLE: Correct. BOWMAN: Okay, thank you. WATANABE: Any further -? Mr. Domingo. DOMINGO: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Again going back to that Health permit from the Department of Health, that would enable them to serve breakfast, lunch and dinner? COTTLE: The applicant has indicated that this is a code that the Department of Health used, restaurant sit-down, but the Department of Health received application stating that it was a bed and breakfast establishment serving just a warm breakfast; and the applicant says they are not sure why they used this code. So that’s why we added the condition limiting them to breakfast only. DOMINGO: So it is a standard code of the County that whoever has a bed and breakfast that they can serve, like, for instance, continental breakfast in the morning and that would be all. That’s the interpretation of a bed and breakfast? EXHIBIT A 3 COTTLE: That’s correct. The Zoning Code allows continental breakfast in the morning. DOMINGO: Okay. With regards to a number of, you know, there’re a number of residences above going through that road, that road services a number of residences, and that road’s ownership is divided among those who own properties up there. Now, does each individual home have a meter down at Mamalahoa Highway, or is there one meter with a larger transmission line to provide water for all residences up there? COTTLE: I believe there are individual meters and one line within Mamalahoa Highway. DOMINGO: Would you know – as I read that there is one pending building permit – would you know what the nature of work that permit enables them to do on the property? COTTLE: Yes. Let me just go grab that, just -. DOMINGO: Yeah, it’s an outstanding permit. I’d just like to know what that permit provides for. COTTLE: This was a permit to add a pocket door into the wall between an existing kitchen and pantry, and adding a sink along the side of the pantry. DOMINGO: In my opinion, just minor -. WATANABE: Satisfied, Mr. Domingo? DOMINGO: Yes, I’m satisfied. WATANABE: Okay. Does anyone else have any further questions for staff? DOMINGO: Mr. Chairman. WATANABE: Yes, Mr. Domingo. DOMINGO: If I may. You know, the presentation indicates that there is off-street parking and that would be within the property itself to provide for the owners of the residence and the people who come there. It doesn’t mention anything about requirement for a paved parking. Is that standard also that you don’t have to pave your parking for bed and breakfasts? WATANABE: I don’t believe we have in the past required that. I’m seeing that the Director shaking his head, so I guess I’m correct in that in the past we haven’t. COTTLE: I believe in the Ag District, if it’s zoned Ag, they are allowed to do gravel- type parking. EXHIBIT A 4 DOMINGO: Okay, thank you very much. WATANABE: Okay. If there are no further questions of staff, then may I call up the applicants, Mr. and Mrs. Yerlick, to come up. And may I swear you in first. So would you both raise your right hand, please. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth now before the Planning Commission? APPLICANTS: I do. WATANABE: Thank you. Before you begin your testimony, could you both state your full name as well as your address, yeah? T. YERLICK: My name is Trina -. WATANABE: Could you use the mike, please. You may be seated also. I’m sorry. T. YERLICK: Is it on? WATANABE: It’s pretty informal here. T. YERLICK: Okay. My name is Trina Yerlick, and I live at 75-5239C, Mamalahoa Highway, in the neighborhood of Keopu in Holualoa. Is that enough? WATANABE: Mr. Yerlick? S. YERLICK: My name is Shai Yerlick. I’m Trina’s husband, and we live together at the same address off Mamalahoa Highway. WATANABE: Okay, thank you. I guess you’re going to be the spokesperson -. T. YERLICK: I am. I’m a teacher and I’m used to talking, so -. WATANABE: Okay. Then, have you had a chance to review the recommendation from the Planning Director? Obviously, he’s recommending approval of this. And have you also had a chance to review the new Condition 7 in particular, because I noted where you had some objections to the original Condition 7? And do you have anything additional to add? T. YERLICK: Yes. I do want to thank you for planning this meeting on a Friday, the only day of the week I don’t teach so I could come. And I did want to express some concern with your condition of the road. I have a few points I’d like to bring up. And I thank you for your time to listen. We are aware that our road is less than perfect. It’s a private road built by our neighbors. And it was build originally by Mr. Yakamoto who owned this property with the Komo family, and he built evidently stone by stone, path by path, this road up the hill. They have recently in the last EXHIBIT A 5 four years renovated it and put tar on top of it. And I spoke to a resident, Gerry Adams, who is on the top of the hill, he’s lived there for 30 years; he said every time they make them improve the road, it’s actually gotten worse, and in his estimation gotten more slanted and less attractive. But it works just fine for all emergency vehicles, cable vehicles, fire trucks, water vehicles – things that need to get up there get up there. The scratches on the road, I would like to point out, is due to construction work; they are currently building a house, renovating an old rental, on the top of the road, that my neighbors, Deborah – I can’t remember their name – have purchased, and there’s a lot of trucks. The traffic is, only comes very, very seldom. There’s only four of us who actually live on the road. Two of the residents are retired, and that is one of my major concerns of any construction. One of them had a stroke last year, and if we close the road, it would be tremendous hardship for them to get in and out of their home; it’s the only road there. And another resident is retired and not in good health. But they do drive up that road everyday. And they have expressed no problem with our bed and breakfast idea that we discussed with them in the past, but they are concerned with any road changes because it will affect their ability to get in and out of their homes. And they in their 70s have no problem using the road, getting up there. And I feel that the damage, slight scratches are due to big flatbed trucks and not the kind of traffic we are planning to have at a B&B, which is nothing more than an extended- family-type house. And I have two college sons and when they are home, there’s two more cars; they just come to visit, but when they are here, there’s two more cars sometimes, and that’s the kind of traffic we are expecting when we have guests. Bed and breakfast guests are not the type of people who stay in resorts; they go out and explore the island all day long and they are not hanging out there, so they leave in the morning and come back at the end of the day. The other thing I would like to point out about our bed and breakfast is we have a unique, about the kitchen; the reason we built a Health Department approved kitchen is so that we can cook hot breakfast legally – some bed and breakfasts do it without permission – and we didn’t want to just serve rolls. We want to give them eggs from our chickens and local vegetables from the farmers and we have an organic garden; we want to give them really good food to start their day on the island. And so we made sure we could provide hot food by getting that permit from the Health Department. I don’t know if I’ve addressed all those issues. I’m a member also of the Jewish community, Kona Beth Shalom. I’m on the board – it’s a small Jewish community in Kona – very proud to be accepted on the board this year. And we also are the only Jewish bed and breakfast owners. And there is a certain rule to the way guests eat – kashrut, it’s called – and so we can accommodate them and not serve things that they wouldn’t eat. And the president of the Kona Beth Shalom, Shirley Berman, would love very much to have a place to recommend to her guests when they come, where they can stay and know that we will abide by the Jewish rules so that they don’t have to worry about the food and the driving and things like that. So that’s a little niche on the island. And it’s actually a big community on the mainland, and a nice group of people to get to this island. At the moment they go to Oahu and Maui where it’s a little more accommodating for their needs. And I know that because we used to travel to Maui. And we really liked the Big Island better, so we came here. I think that’s it. WATANABE: Okay. But then before I open it up to questions, because we will open it up to questions from the other Commissioners, I just want to make sure that aside from the EXHIBIT A 6 revised Condition 7, you are comfortable with all of the other conditions inclusive of the new condition which states that you can only serve breakfast, no other meals, and -. S. YERLICK: Yeah. T. YERLICK: Right. WATANABE: So all the other conditions are fine. The only one that troubles you at this point still is Condition No. 7. T. YERLICK: Yes. WATANABE: Okay. T. YERLICK: I’m wondering, I brought some pictures – I’m sorry I don’t have slides – but I brought some pictures to show you. Because I used to stay at bed and breakfasts when I came to the island, so I’m quite aware of what they serve and the roads they are on. And one of the reasons we stayed there was because we liked the little roads and we liked being around the coffee and being around the trees and being around beautiful birds, the cardinals, and even the wild turkeys that are annoying are fun to hear sometimes. And I took some pictures of a plantation bed and breakfast in Kealakekua that was granted a permit last year, and they have a very steep road entering onto Napoopoo Road. And there’s actually not even a place to pull over; if you got stuck here, you’ve got to pull backwards onto Napoopoo Road where there is no side spot, whereas our road has lots of places to pull over. The people who built it were really considerate and made a lot of pullouts so that we can properly pull over. There is very rarely another car coming, but if there is, you can pull over very comfortably in many places. So that’s what these pictures are for. WATANABE: Yeah, I believe we have those in our submittals -. T. YERLICK: Okay. WATANABE: That we just received today. Thank you. T. YERLICK: Thank you. WATANABE: Does that conclude your -? T. YERLICK: I think so. Thank you very much for hearing me. And we are very comfortable with the other conditions. WATANABE: Thank you. Fellow Commissioner, do we have any questions? Yes, Mr. Woodward. WOODWARD: How far is the entrance to your parking lot from Mamalahoa Highway? EXHIBIT A 7 S. YERLICK: The parking lot -. T. YERLICK: That’s our driveway, Shai. WOODWARD: Yeah, driveway, yes. S. YERLICK: It is quite a walk up the hill. T. YERLICK: It’s about a quarter of a mile, maybe, or -. WOODWARD: A quarter of a mile, okay. T. YERLICK: And the neighbors that I’m talking about who are elderly actually live on the top of the hill, and they would not be able to walk when the road is closed. WOODWARD: Okay, thank you very much. WATANABE: Do we have any further questions, Fellow Commissioners? Seeing none, I’d like to point out for you, though, Mrs. Yerlick, that Condition No. 7 really came about from a recommendation from Public Works, and as you are well aware, the original condition was much more stringent, yeah, requiring like a two-lane road all the way up and, you know, that’s quite extensive. Obviously, the scale of your project is rather small, and so I think the Planning Director took some liberties to try and scale that request down from Public Works. I’m not sure that he would be as comfortable simply ignoring the recommendation from Public Works, though. I’m just trying to help justify the revised Condition No. 7. So I think your concerns help address to a degree or at least to the degree that the Director is comfortable in light of Public Works’ recommendation. I hope that explains the situation to you. So if we have no further questions, is there a motion? Just for the record, we do not have anyone who signed up to testify on this application. BOWMAN: I have a question -. WATANABE: Yes, Ms. Bowman. BOWMAN: For the Department. Being that I’m fairly new, my question is how do the other, why didn’t Public Works comment on the other bed and breakfasts and make changes on those roads? Was that prior to something? I mean, I look at the pictures and they look as bad as this road. YUEN: I don’t know, and I don’t know when the permits were granted. I just I can’t, and I don’t know if they made a comment and then the Department did not require it. T. YERLICK: Excuse me, can I have one more thing about the roads? WATANABE: Yes, Mrs. Yerlick. EXHIBIT A 8 T. YERLICK: Because I’m wondering myself. I currently teach at Holualoa Elementary School as well as Kealakehe Elementary School where I teach English as a second language. And this one picture is an entrance to the school; it’s a terribly steep road, it’s very dangerous. There’s, parents are driving with their children every morning and every afternoon as well as the teachers. And I took a picture just when I went at 5:00 because I also teach an evening class to adults who don’t speak English; and there were three cars that were trying to manipulate getting into that road at the time from Mamalahoa Highway. And I took a picture of another road that intersects the school; it goes right through the middle of the school. The children have to cross from one building – we are talking Elementary School – from one building to another; I find it terribly dangerous. And I’m wondering why the Public Works would have approved of a road such as that where children are involved on a daily basis. And we are talking 200 cars easily, 300, I don’t know, there’s 300-something students at that school. So I’m concerned, you know, with the quality of the roads more when it involves children and schools, and I don’t really understand the concern on the road that has three houses and very, very little traffic. So that’s my question. Why would they -. WATANABE: Thank you. I’m not sure we’ll be able to answer that on behalf of the Public Works, yeah? But I appreciate your comments, and I understand your concern. T. YERLICK: Thank you. DOMINGO: Mr. Chairman. WATANABE: Yes, Mr. Domingo. DOMINGO: How do you interpret that requirement, “reconstruct the existing private road approach?” WATANABE: No. 7? The revised No. 7? DOMINGO: Yes, yeah, because -. WATANABE: The revised No. 7 is on this light yellow copy, yeah? DOMINGO: Okay, this one here? WATANABE: No, no, we were handed a lighter yellow copy. And it’s much less stringent than the first one; the first one required that you build a two-lane road – yeah, it’s – two-lane road to replace that single lane driveway, and it was, you know, for the scale of the project, shall we say, kind of overboard. And the Planning Director has really scaled that down significantly with the, I believe, it’s the first 40 feet, minimum 24-foot width, just at the entrance to Mamalahoa Highway. And I don’t suppose that’s going to be that significant a cost, yeah? Now, granted it’s still an additional cost for a small project. EXHIBIT A 9 DOMINGO: Yeah, you know, a small project and the fact of the matter that there is hardly any continuous traffic that would necessitate such a road to be built in that condition. And that’s my concern. It just might be -. WOODWARD: Yeah, I would agree with Commissioner Domingo. I think this is, and if you look at the answers we’ve gotten when we’ve asked the questions, I think this is a classic example of government over-regulation. We can’t give them a good reason why they have to do it; it’s just what’s written down. And it doesn’t make any sense. They are going to have four guest rooms, and on the road that only has four dwellings on it. Why? Why should they be forced to pay to improve the road for that amount of traffic? As I say, you know, sometimes we’ve just got to rein it in and say, okay, government does some things well but it just does some things very poorly. And it tends to go, you know, it’s a knee-jerk reaction; well, this is what it says, so this is the way we’re going to do it. So I would move that we approve the Special Permit, SP 08-whole bunch of zeros-60, and delete Condition No. 7. WATANABE: That would include the revisions to No. 2 as Ms. Cottle indicated, which deleted the landscaping requirement, and also include the new Condition 5 and renumbering of the following conditions; new Condition 5, as she explained, was a limitation of serving only breakfasts at the bed and breakfast. WOODWARD: Right on. WATANABE: Thank you very much. BOWMAN: Second. WATANABE: So we have a motion, we have a second. Before we deliberate on this, let’s allow the Director to chime in. YUEN: As the Chair said, we had some input from Public Works that we thought was unreasonable for a project of this scale. I would want to say, though, that the condition, the driveway approach here, if somebody were building a new house, they would have to get a driveway permit to connect to a County road, this is how you would have to build the driveway. DOMINGO: So, excuse me, Mr. Chairman. WATANABE: Yes, Mr. Domingo. DOMINGO: Is there being built at the present time another new dwelling about? No? Yes? Ma’am? T. YERLICK: No, they are renovating an old house. WATANABE: Would you please use the mike, ma’am. We are -. EXHIBIT A 10 S. YERLICK: There’s a renovation being done on a house up from us. T. YERLICK: And in fact, one of the residents said if they improve the road, there’s possibility that somebody might try to subdivide, and then you would have more houses. And so they are really concerned with the change of the road size because they don’t want more houses and don’t want more traffic there. DOMINGO: Mr. Chairman. WATANABE: Mr. Domingo, follow-up? DOMINGO: I think that’s where we have a problem. If we require the applicant to build or improve the roadway up to their residence, and then in the future someone decides to sell the property and going for a rezoning and establish a number of lots and those lots are sold, how will the Public Works monitor situation and address concerns of traffic going up and down? Would they review that at the time they apply for a building permit? YUEN: No, because they have an existing driveway access, people can build more houses off of that driveway access without changing it at all in the future. Subdivision, unless there were a very substantial variance granted, a subdivision would require considerable improvement to the entire road. The only point I was, the reason I said what I said about building a house and putting in a driveway is to counter the idea that this was an arbitrary improvement that we plucked out the ear. As I said, this is, we understand what the applicant is saying and there is a point to it that it’s a small increase in the traffic of the road, it is something that, the driveway access is considerably less currently than what would be required for a new driveway. So it isn’t something that’s an arbitrary standard; this is a standard for new driveways. You could build on more houses and other things that don’t need anything beyond the building permit off of the existing driveway without ever having to come to Public Works to change the driveway because they already have one. WATANABE: Thank you. Mr. Woodward. WOODWARD: Well, I think what we are dealing with here is an existing roadway that has worked well for the four people that have properties on that roadway. An existing driveway and an existing structure that is not going to be materially changed, and the only thing that’s going to change is they are going to have four rooms for a bed and breakfast. The additional traffic, even if they are full everyday of the year, is going to be minimal. And I can’t see, as I say, I think this is one of the points where government gets a little excessive. You know, just let them do it; it’s not going to hurt anybody. WATANABE: Okay. Ms. Bowman. BOWMAN: Just to reiterate, it’s a precedent setter to me, and it’s – I have no idea, I’m not an engineer – but I’m sure a project like this would be a couple hundred thousands? I don’t EXHIBIT A 11 know, but it seems like an exorbitant amount to pay in return for a bed and breakfast, so -. Thanks. WATANABE: Yes, Mr. Alameda. ALAMEDA: Point of Order. I just want to make sure that we have a motion on the table already, yeah? WATANABE: Yes. ALAMEDA: So we’ve just got to be careful not to engage the applicant back and forth. WATANABE: Yeah, I realize that. ALAMEDA: So you could have them sit down, or -. WATANABE: I gave her a bit of leeway, I know that. ALAMEDA: Okay. WATANABE: Okay. Mr. Iwashita. IWASHITA: Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just looking at – and I don’t know if it’s appropriate to ask that to clarify this for me – but by looking at the legal description that’s part of our record for this driveway, which the applicants have a 1/10 undivided interest in, I can’t figure out or it doesn’t appear to me that this driveway lot is more than 20 feet wide, and Condition 7 is talking about a 24-foot wide pavement, so -. WATANABE: Yeah, for the first 40 feet, exactly. You bring up an interesting point, though, with regard to the ownership and it being divided, and -. IWASHITA: Well, the point I was trying to make and if staff – I don’t know if staff can clarify – but is that the revised Condition 7 as written would not, it would be impossible for the applicant to accomplish, if the width of this roadway lot is only 20 feet. WATANABE: I see, I didn’t look that part up, but I was heading in a different direction. I understand your point -. IWASHITA: Yeah, I understand about the undivided interest, but that’s another point. But my initial concern is that, you know, if the actual width of this roadway lot is only 20 feet, then I don’t see how we can require 24-foot -. WATANABE: Then you can’t do 24 because someone else owns the property, the other four feet, right? EXHIBIT A 12 IWASHITA: Yeah, in other words the adjoining owner is not even, well, there would be two adjoining owners down here on the roadway for which, you know, two feet each or -. WATANABE: Right, you still need an easement. IWASHTIA: Right. WATANABE: Right. Okay, I’m following you on that. But along those same lines, may I, while we are on this, may I, Mr. Torigoe, could I ask you to chime in on this? Since the roadway easement technically is owned by a number of people, can we, is it within our rights to say, okay, we’re going to place this improvement or requirement upon one individual, or do they have to then seek approval from the other owners because theoretically they don’t own all of the road anyway, right? TORIGOE: Generally speaking, if you have multiple owners of an easement, then anything that is going to basically facilitate the use of the easement for its proper use should be okay. You may have a strange situation where somebody just for whatever reason wants to keep it unpaved, but generally speaking if you have a roadway easement and you’re going to pave it in a way that makes it usable as a roadway easement, that should not be a problem. WATANABE: Okay. TORIGOE: By the way, I tried calling Public Works to see if Ki Emler was available, but he is not today. But I suspect that basically what they are most interested in is that the driveway approach, if possible, be paved because sometimes they have problems, you know, with cars tracking gravel onto the road and such things. WATANABE: Okay, thank you. Yes, Mr. Yuen. YUEN: I wasn’t sure, I’m not saying that it’s not correct, but I don’t have a complete, my copy of the deed doesn’t have a complete description of the road lot, so I’m not sure where you are getting the 20 feet. Do we know that? COTTLE: The right of way of the road approach at Mamalahoa Highway is 30 feet wide. WATANABE: The right of way for the first 40 feet or whatever? Does it indicate how far? COTTLE: It looks like at least for the first 246 feet. WATANABE: Okay, okay, so that takes away that issue then. IWASHITA: Where is she getting that from? COTTLE: This is a subdivision map. EXHIBIT A 13 WATANABE: Okay, that was what you were, Maija, that was what you were asking -? COTTLE: Yes. WATANABE: Okay, great. So you’ve been through staff now. Again, though -. IWASHITA: That’s in our record? WATANABE: I beg your pardon? IWASHITA: Is that in our record? Is that part of our record now or is – that map? YUEN: She said that it’s in the record. WATANABE: Nevertheless, we still have a motion that excludes Condition 7; it’s been moved and seconded. Does anyone else have any further comments on this? Seeing none, then, before I call for the vote, I’d like to throw in my two cents, if that’s okay. Originally when I looked at the Public Works request for the two-lane, I thought that was pretty much overkill. When I saw, okay, compromise to 40 feet, the first 40 feet and 24-foot wide, I thought, well, at least for compromising that’s much better. I think Mr. Yuen was trying to also seek for a compromise between Public Works as well as the Planning Department. On the other hand, within Mr. Yuen’s testimony he did indicate that you could build another home conceivably up there that only required a building permit and no further changes would be required to the driveway. And I think, with that on the record I think maybe we can hang our hat on that. So unless there are further comments, maybe, Maija, would you call for the vote? COTTLE: Sure, thank you. Commissioner Woodward? WOODWARD: Aye. COTTLE: Commissioner Bowman? BOWMAN: Aye. COTTLE: Commissioner Alameda? ALAMEDA: Aye. COTTLE: Commissioner Domingo? DOMINGO: Aye. COTTLE: Commissioner Iwashita? IWASHITA: Aye. EXHIBIT A 14 COTTLE: Commissioner Ogata? OGATA: Aye. COTTLE: Mr. Chairman? WATANABE: Aye. COTTLE: The motion passes, seven-zero. WATANABE: Okay. Well, congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Yerlick. You are not subject to Condition No. 7 now. Although, you are subject to the other conditions and you’ll be informed in writing of that, yeah? Okay? T. YERLICK: Could I ask a question? WATANABE: Yes, ma’am. T. YERLICK: When can we start having guests? WATANABE: That’s a little too technical for me. T. YERLICK: Okay. Who do I ask? YUEN: Basically you have to submit some final plans for what we call Plan Approval, and then after that’s given you can start having guests. T. YERLICK: So can Deanne help me with that? YUEN: Yes. T. YERLICK: Okay, thank you. Thank you very much. S. YERLICK: Thank you for your time. T. YERLICK: Mahalo. WATANABE: Thank you. The discussion ended at 10:47 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Noriko Sauer, West Hawaii Secretary EXHIBIT A 15