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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2008-09-19 TOHANAKOHALA PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAII HEARING TRANSCRIPT SEPTEMBER 19, 2008 OHANA KOHALA TRUST (REZ 552) A regularly advertised hearing on the application of was called to order at 9:10 a.m. in the Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel, Hau Room, 62-100 Kaunaoa Drive, Kohala Coast, Hawaii, with Chairman Rodney Watanabe presiding. PRESENT: Lani Bowman ABSENT & EXCUSED: C. Kimo Alameda Takashi Domingo Andrew Iwashita Frederic Housel 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 eight people from the public in attendance. APPLICANT: OHANA KOHALA TRUST (REZ 552) Amendment to Condition C (Final Subdivision Approval) and Condition E (Access) of Ordinance No. 95 119, which rezoned 24.9 acres of land from an Agricultural 20-acre (A-20a) to an Agricultural 3-acre (A-3a) district. The property is located along the south side of Ala Kahua Drive, approximately 7,650 feet east of the Ala Kahua Drive-Akoni Pule Highway intersection, st Kohala Estates Subdivision Unit 1, Kahua 1 and Waika, North Kohala, Hawaii, TMK: 5-9-7:3. WATANABE: The first agenda item of today is Ohana Kohala Trust, REZ 552. It is a request for an amendment to Condition C, Final Subdivision Approval. With that, I’ll turn it over to you, Mr. Darrow. DARROW: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning, Members of the Planning Commission. We’d like to welcome our newest Planning Commission commissioner, Frederic Housel. Good morning, Fredric. HOUSEL: Thank you. DARROW: The application before us is Ohana Kohala Trust. They are requesting an amendment to Change of Zone Ordinance 95 119. The amendment requests are for Condition C EXHIBIT A 1 to secure final subdivision approval and Condition E, which limits access from Ala Kahua Drive. Originally the property was zoned Ag-20, and the Ordinance changed it to Agricultural 3 acres for the property so they could further subdivide. The location of this application is within the North Kohala district. More specifically, we are looking at the Kohala Estates. We have the Akoni Pule Highway running in a semi-north-south direction. We have the ocean. You might recall, previously we had the Kohala LLC application in this area. The subject property is identified in black. This is on Ala Kahua Drive located within the Kohala Estates Subdivision. The light blue indicates the zoning of Agricultural 3 acres. We do have an aerial photo. Unfortunately, with the lights and everything on it is dark. But again, we have the property identified in black. And you can see the surrounding properties there is scattered single family dwellings that have been constructed as well as a quite bit of open space vacant land. The applicant is requesting a 5-year time extension for Condition C. This Condition has to do with the timeframe to submit and receive final subdivision approval. The request for the 5-year extension is to secure final subdivision approval. They are also requesting an amendment to Condition E. Condition E limits the access to Ala Kahua Drive to one access only. They are asking that this requirement be deleted because there is a problem with one of the lots that prevents access to that lot as well as the other lots together. So they may have to require an additional access for one of the lots. The Planning Department recommendation is recommending approval, or a favorable recommendation be forwarded to the Hawaii County Council with conditions. Are there any questions? WATANABE: Fellow Commissioners, do we have any questions of staff or Mr. Darrow? Yes, Mr. Domingo. DOMINGO: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Jeff, what additional access request, was it made because of the topography of the land where they cannot use just one access? DARROW: Correct. There’s, on the first lot that runs next to Ala Kahua Drive, there is a drainage way that runs through that lot. And the applicant’s proposal is to be able to put in a road that runs along the mauka side of the property and so they would be accessing to the lots from this particular roadway. The problem is that when an applicant comes onto this roadway to access the first lot, it’s blocked by a drainage way, and so they are asking to be able to access that first lot from Ala Kahua Drive in a different location than the other lots will be getting access from. WATANABE: Thank you. Any further questions? Yes, Ms. Bowman. BOWMAN: I’m looking at the conceptual subdivision map. And at Lot 8, it looks like there is a cul-de-sac right before Lot 8, so there will be like a, it looks like it ends. Maybe I just don’t understand it. EXHIBIT A 2 DARROW: That’s correct. Oh, you mean -. They would still receive access off that cul-de-sac for Lot 8. BOWMAN: Okay, so the only one in question is Lot 1? DARROW: Lot 1 is the one, if you look on the map, you’ll see what looks like a drainage way that’s identified on that lot, and it cuts, it traverses Lot 1 and Lot 2. Let me -. BOWMAN: So the access would be on the makai, or -? DARROW: This would be on the makai side of, well, actually, I guess, the north side – right here. So the drainage way actually, if Lot 1 was to access from that roadway lot, they would be prevented because of the drainage way. So they are just asking to be able to have an additional access to access the first lot, and then the remainder of the lots would be accessed from the road lot. BOWMAN: And they don’t say where? I mean, would it be like -? DARROW: It appears to be very close to the road lot. It might actually, it appears to be identified on that map being very close to the roadway lot. So it would be right in this corner right over here. BOWMAN: Okay, thank you. DARROW: We can ask the applicant’s representative to clarify. WATANABE: Just for clarification, though, Jeff, essentially we are talking about single- family residence driveway as access for only one lot, right? DARROW: Correct. WATANABE: Okay, great. May I have the applicant and their representatives come up, please. Okay, just you are going to, okay. May I swear you in then? 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. Then before – of course you are familiar with the procedure – so would you state your name and address before you provide your testimony? MOORE: My name is Bill Moore. My address is 159 Halai Street in Hilo, 96720. I’m the agent for Ohana Kohala Trust. I have with me here Bob Acree who is one of the members of the Trust. EXHIBIT A 3 WATANABE: Okay. Mr. Moore, have you had a chance to review the recommendations by the Planning Director, as well as the conditions? MOORE: Yes, I have. WATANABE: And do you have any objections, or are you in agreement to the conditions that were set forth? MOORE: Yes, we are in agreement with the conditions. WATANABE: Do you have anything else you’d like to add? MOORE: Yes. In terms of the question with respect to the access, the driveway access to Lot 1would be somewhere probably closer to the makai boundary of the property about as far from the road as we can get. That is where it’s levelest, there is a nice building site there, and we would avoid then having to deal with the drainage way. For the record we are still going to have one access to the original parcel; the road access is going to be on an adjacent road lot basically. But because a subdivision condition says one access for the subdivision even though we have two lots, we felt we needed to amend this condition. WATANABE: Thank you. MOORE: And, excuse me, it would be a driveway lot and we know we need to meet all of the driveway access viewplane requirements of the Department of Public Works. WATANABE: And I noted that it seems the frontage along that roadway is about 130 feet. Is that correct? MOORE: I think it’s more than that but I don’t have the exact dimension; it’s a pretty major frontage there. WATANABE: Thank you. Do we have any questions for the applicant or their representative? Fellow Commissioners, any questions? Seeing none, then, would that be it for your presentation? MOORE: Yes. Again, we have no objections. We understood the requirement for affordable housing; we actually proposed that as part of our application. The other conditions, we are agreeable. WATANABE: Are you going to provide any testimony, sir? ACREE: No, no need. EXHIBIT A 4 WATANABE: No? Okay. Well, I guess you may be seated then. Thank you. Well, we have before us recommendation to provide a favorable recommendation to the County Council. Oh, excuse me, I’m getting ahead of myself here. I do have three members from the public that signed up to testify, so maybe I can call those three up: William Dunhour, Symon Metson and Richard Prohoroff. Right hand, please. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth now before the Planning Commission? TESTIFIERS: Yes, I do. WATANABE: Thank you. William Dunhour is? Okay, would you state your name and address, and you may begin your testimony. DUNHOUR: Good morning. My name is Willy Dunhour. I live at 5 Waihona Place, just mauka of this project. WATANABE: Thank you. You may begin your testimony. DUNHOUR: What’s that? WATANABE: You may begin. You wanted to testify, yeah? DUNHOUR: Okay, thank you. I’m a retired fire captain from Honolulu. I moved over here 15 years ago, and I bought three acres of land up in Kohala Estates where I built my home. This project is fronting my lot and I have no problem with this project. In fact, I embrace this project mainly because it will give families an opportunity to buy their land and build a dream home just like I did in my lot. So as far as I’m concerned, I’m right next to them, and I approve, I have no regrets for having this project.In fact, I think it’s a good idea. Thank you. WATANABE: Thank you. Fellow Commissioners, do we have any questions for Mr. Dunhour? Yes, Mr. Woodward. WOODWARD: I don’t really have a question, but I would just like to thank you for taking this time to come and give testimony today because it does make a big difference. And we do like to hear what the neighbors have to say. So thank you very much. DUNHOUR: You’re welcome. WATANABE: Yes, Mr. Domingo. DOMINGO: Thank you, Mr. Chair. You mentioned that it’ll provide opportunities for people to buy the lots. I’ve been familiar with this development from the very beginning. What are the costs of the lots right now, 3-acre lots? DUNHOUR: I’m not sure what the costs of the lots are right now. I’m happy that I got my lot and I’m not worried about anything else. EXHIBIT A 5 DOMINGO: You’re lucky. DUNHOUR: Yeah, I’m fine. I don’t know, to answer your question, I don’t know what the going prices for lots are right now. DOMINGO: Probably somebody can tell us before we take action on this. Thank you very much. WATANABE: Thank you. Mr. Dunhour, you may be seated then. Thank you. Symon Metson? METSON: Yes. WATANABE: Yes. Name and address, please. METSON: My name is Symon Metson. My address is P. O. Box 384141, Waikoloa. I’ve just purchased a lot. It’s actually No., I think it’s Lot 13, on Waihona Place. I was obviously aware that there was going to be, you know, there’s a subdivision in front of me; and so basically when I bought the lot, I knew there was something that could happen. And basically I bought it knowing this, and I don’t have a problem with somebody else building in front of me. WATANABE: Okay, great. Fellow Commissioner, anyone has any questions for Mr. Metson? Yes, Mr. Domingo. DOMINGO: How much you said -? METSON: It’s a 3-acre parcel and it was $320,000. DOMINGO: Thank you. WOODWARD: Are you looking to buy land up there, Taka? DOMINGO: I’m just wondering, you know, how much its value has increased since, I guess, about 15 years ago. Just about that. Good. WATANABE: Do we have any further questions besides price? Seeing none, you may be seated. Thank you for your testimony. Richard Prohoroff? PROHOROFF: Yeah. WATANABE: Yes. Name and address, please, before you provide your testimony. PROHOROFF: Richard Prohoroff, 59-227 Kahua Place, which is in the subdivision, more in the lower section of the subdivision. I bought my property, like, 18 years ago, and it had been subdivided into a 3-acre parcel; and there would have been no way for me to afford one of the larger parcels. So I’m supportive of this kind of project cause it’ll give an opportunity maybe for EXHIBIT A 6 friends and families someday to be able to afford to buy a piece of property in our neighborhood. And I’ve actually lived in the subdivision since – over 30 years, I think – since the subdivision was built, as a renter and now as a property owner. And that’s about it. WATANABE: Ms. Bowman. BOWMAN: I have a question of you and maybe the applicant, being that we just received something from the, I guess, Community Association. They talk about postal delivery. As a resident there, do you have any opinion about mail delivery to your home? PROHOROFF: You know, I’ve heard this idea passed about. But I’ve had my post office box in Kawaihae for 37 years now, and I’m perfectly happy with that situation. So I’m not really interested in the security problems or whatever that could be involved without boxes. BOWMAN: Do you, the reduction of, again, traffic to mail pickup, is that a concern for you for the future growth? PROHOROFF: Well, I really don’t see it, you know. I mean the traffic that we have already at the little crossroad at Kawaihae is going to have to be addressed, you know, in some measure in the very, probably pretty near future with the Superferry and everything coming. So I don’t see that, however many post office boxes are there. I think Kohala Ranch has a program already to have their own post office boxes. So our subdivision, I’m not so sure that it’s necessary. BOWMAN: Could I ask the applicant what their position on this is? MOORE: I’m not sure what the testimony is, so again, I’m at a loss in some fashion. In terms of the post office box, we don’t see any relationship to this application before the entity. The entity, Ohana Kohala Trust, has rights to access road; there are easements over the road. They are not the owner of the road; there’s some cross ownership there, but Trust itself is not involved in the ownership of the road. So we don’t see any linkage between this project and the mailbox issues or any other issues related to it. BOWMAN: Okay, thank you. Cause according to this testimony, I guess they had their, it says, “The major owner of Ohana Kohala Trust is also the owner of the Kohala Estates roadway and is in the unique position to allow postal delivery, thereby directly reducing the daily traffic on the Kawaihae-Waimea roadway.” So this is what I was taking from this. MOORE: Yeah, in terms of that, the owner, again, Mr. Acree, has an interest in the road and we sure are willing to work with the Community Association with respect to getting and maintaining and the ownership turning over to the Association, so it can be maintained and obtained the necessary requirements. Again, that is a separate discussion. We are supportive of that idea. Again, it should not affect this rezoning itself. BOWMAN: Okay, thank you very much. EXHIBIT A 7 WATANABE: Mr. Domingo. DOMINGO: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Are you farming in any of the lots? PROHOROFF: No. I think in our whole subdivision there has been a little bit of farming going on. The Kawamata family at one time was raising tomatoes. They have some mangos there. There’s been a couple of attempts at orchid nurseries. But it’s pretty marginal land. So, I mean, the thought of having 20 acres of desert, right, as a farming proposition is not that good. I am building a small nursery on my property with some water-wise technology that is still in the baby stages. You know, there are some fruit orchards here and there, but other than that there’s not much going on in terms of real agriculture. DOMINGO: Thank you. Mr. Chairman, you know, although the questions I ask may not be directly germane to the issue at hand, but I’m just asking this because it’s an agricultural subdivision and I think as everyone knows it’s a dry arid location. But the fact is that with water you can farm on those lands because I remember, I’d like you to remember the Lam brothers way back probably over 20 years ago. You know, they were raising cantaloupes, melons, and they were thriving on that, if adequate water was provided. And that’s why I ask, you know. It’s an opportunity for people to do that, if water is available and if the water is economical enough to provide for that. What’s the cost of water right now? PROHOROFF: I’m not really sure, but price for thousands of gallons of water is pretty expensive to consider doing any kind of simple farming -. DOMINGO: Yeah, okay, thank you. PROHOROFF: You know, like, you are not going to be raising cantaloupes at what we’re paying. WATANABE: Mr. Housel. HOUSEL: Yes. I had a question. Ala Kahua Road, is that a private road? MOORE: Yes, it is. HOUSEL: Is it limited access? MOORE: No, it’s not. HOSUEL: So is it open to the public? MOORE: Yes, it is. HOUSEL: Is traffic a consideration on that road? EXHIBIT A 8 MOORE: No, it really isn’t. The densities are pretty low and, yeah, it’s really not -. Again, the plots are big, it looks like there are a lot of houses but those are spread over several thousands, no, 2,000 acres, I think, in Kohala Estates. So it’s a big property. HOUSEL: Okay, well, what I was thinking is, wherever you are going to create the second access to that first lot, is that within a viewplane that wouldn’t be a hazard? MOORE: Yes. The area was actually a road lot when the subdivision was -. This parcel is at the very top of Ala Kahua portion of Kohala Estates. There is a gate there and separated from Kohala Ranch. So you know, while there is access there for fire purposes and emergency purposes, the road does dead-end just slightly above this property. So again, there really is not a traffic issue at the intersection. HOUSEL: Thank you very much. WATANABE: Mr. Woodward. WOODWARD: I would like to make a motion, if it’s appropriate at this time. WATANABE: I have another testifier that just signed up so -. WOODWARD: Oh, okay -. WATANABE: We’ll have to wait a bit. WOODWARD: All right. WATANABE: Do we have any further questions for the testifier? Seeing none, you may be seated. I have one last testifier, I believe. Susan Fischer? Would you raise your right hand, Ms. Fischer? Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth now before the Planning Commission? FISCHER: I do. WATANABE: Thank you. You may be seated, and state your name and address prior to providing your testimony. FISCHER: Susan Fischer. Residential address is 59-323 Iliahi – off of Ala Kahua Drive – Kohala Estates. WATANABE: Thank you. You may begin your testimony. FISCHER: I’m actually representing myself today, not Kohala Estates Community Association, because we did not have a meeting to gauge the membership’s votes as your procedures specify. EXHIBIT A 9 Opportunities: The Ohana Kohala Trust rezoning will impact the immediate neighborhood, as well as a large portion of Kohala Estates, and, at the same time, offers a variety of unique opportunities for the applicant, for Kohala Estates and for the County of Hawaii. 1. Fire protection. Historically, the project site, located in the eastern corner of Kohala Estates, has had the area’s poorest fire protection, with the fewest hydrants and limited access for fire equipment. Unfortunately, this corner of Kohala Estates was the entry route of our largest fire in December 1993. What was later termed a “firestorm” raged for days, was fought by fire companies from the entire Big Island, other islands, and the military, and by the time it was over, had burned several homes, thousands of acres, and cost millions to fight. As a result, the Kohala Coast Volunteer Fire Company 14 Alpha was formed by area residents, including my husband and myself. The proposed roadway and hydrants to be located on Lot 41 will greatly increase our firefighting abilities. 2. Underground utilities. The adjoining Lot 42, located directly mauka of the project site, has an overhead utility system with transformers which have caused sparks and fire hazard in high wind situations. The proposed project is planned for underground utilities on Lot 41. With some pre-planning, and cooperation amongst neighbors, the Lot 41 system could be designed to include hookup points for the Lot 42 owners, most of whom built near their makai boundaries anyway. The tradeoff would be that the Lot 42 owners would remove the mauka pole-line, thereby reducing the fire hazard. Owing to the fact that the major owner of Ohana Kohala Trust also owns the Kohala Ranch lands mauka of Lot 42, and added benefit would be restoration of the ocean views from Kohala Ranch. For these reasons, I supported this project in the past, on a non-paid volunteer basis and on the behalf of the owners, with a March 7, 2001 time extension request to the Planning Department. 3. Access over Easement 76 and Lot 41. Easement 76, running down the southeast side of Kohala Estates from Lot 40 down to the boundary with Kohala by the Sea, leads to the Kohala Estates roadway through Lot 41. Many Kohala Estates owners, including myself, have access to the Kohala Estates roadway through Lot 41, so the proposed improved access over the large gulches will increase our ability to use our access for potential recreational purposes, for example, such as a large loop trail, as well as the obvious fire protection the new road will provide for our properties. 4. Compliance with the nearly final Community Development Plan. The proposed project could demonstrate adherence to the principles outlined in the Pre-final June 18, 2008 North Kohala Community Development Plan, page 84 Strategy 4.8 Rural Infrastructure: “…. Neighborhood low speed roads with drainage down the center of previous pavement (preventing shoulder erosion), runoff routed to sedimentation ponds, road design following the contours of the terrain EXHIBIT A 10 (as opposed to ‘cookie-cutter’ layout), wide grass shoulders for walkways and trees, and underground utilities (additionally advantageous in hurricanes and storms, as well as emergency relief efforts) ….” 5. Traffic. Our area is projected to have a substantial increase in traffic with the arrival of the Superferry in Kawaihae Harbor in mid-2009.The Kawaihae to Waimea roadway is already clogged. Some of the present traffic is unnecessary, as many Kohala Estates residents still prefer to receive their mail at the Kamuela Post Office, due to the very limited hours and services offered at the Kawaihae Postal Substation. For many years the Kohala Estates owners have requested postal delivery within Kohala Estates. Recent surveys have shown nearly unanimous willingness by Kohala Estates owners to support the expense of construction of postal cluster boxes, to be located, in most cases at the entrances of the individual small subdivisions within Kohala Estates. These small subdivisions, long since approved, are all committed to this effort. The Kamuela Post Office is cooperative, but requires cooperation by the road owner. The major owner of Ohana Kohala Trust is also the owner of the Kohala Estates roadway and is in the unique position to allow postal delivery, thereby directly reducing the daily traffic on the Kawaihae-Waimea roadway. I would add to this in response to the last testimony is the owner, Bob Acree, also owns Kohala Ranch Water Company. So he owns three sides of this project and the bulk of Kohala Ranch and Kohala Ranch Water Company. So in conclusion, I support a positive recommendation for this project by the Planning Commission, with conditions to take advantage of the outlined opportunities. And one just note of coincidence, the Kohala Estates Community Association received their notice to a physical address where we do not receive postal delivery. So this shows that there’s -. I just happened to receive this because they knew me at the Kohala Ranch entrance. So any of our mail that’s ever sent to – and this has happened to many of us – sent to our physical address never reaches us, and we’ve had packages and such returned all the way to East Coast. So it would be very helpful to us. And as I stated earlier, there are many people – I’ve done survey through the years – many people within Kohala Estates do not trust and do not care for the limited hours of postal delivery at Kawaihae, so they still retain and drive to their post office boxes in Kamuela on often a daily basis. And in particular problem is package delivery, and many people will come home from work or having gone to the Post Office, come to Kawaihae, find they have a package delivery slip, have to go back to Kamuela; this is adding a lot of traffic. Thank you very much for your time. WATANABE: Thank you. Fellow Commissioner, do we have any further questions for Ms. Fischer? Yes, Ms. Bowman. BOWMAN: I just want to apologize because I didn’t realize that the testifier was here, so I kind of jumped the gun when it came to asking the applicant. But thank you. EXHIBIT A 11 WATANABE: Is that it? Okay, Ms. Fischer, you may be seated then. Mr. Woodward? WOODWARD: Yes. WATANABE: It’s time. WOODWARD: It’s time. I would like to make a motion. I think este caballo esta muerto. With regard to Item No. 1, Ohana Kohala Trust, amendment to Conditions C and E, Change of Zone Ordinance No. 95 119 (REZ 552), I recommend that we send a favorable recommendation to County Council. BOWMAN: Second. WATANABE: Okay. We have a motion to forward a favorable recommendation. Do we need any further discussion on this? It doesn’t look like it. Mr. Darrow. DARROW: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The motion before us is to send a favorable recommendation as recommended by the Planning Director to the Hawaii County Council. With that, I’ll take the roll. Commissioner Woodward? WOODWARD: Aye. DARROW: Commissioner Bowman? BOWMAN: Aye. DARROW: Commissioner Domingo? DOMINGO: Aye. DARROW: Commissioner Housel? HOUSEL: Aye. DARROW: Commissioner Ogata? OGATA: Aye. DARROW: And Chair Watanabe? WATANABE: Aye. DARROW: The motion passes, six to zero. WATANABE: Okay, great. EXHIBIT A 12 MOORE: Thank you. WATANABE: You’ll be notified in writing. This is one of the few times that we’ve had all positive testimony. The discussion ended at 9:45 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Noriko Sauer, West Hawaii Secretary EXHIBIT A 13