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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2008-09-19 TGREENWELLFARMS PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAII HEARING TRANSCRIPT SEPTEMBER 19, 2008 GREENWELL FARMS, INC. (SPP 08- A regularly advertised hearing on the application of 000061) was called to order at 9:45 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: GREENWELL FARMS, INC. (SPP 08-000061) Special Permit to allow the establishment of seasonal farm worker housing for up to 50 workers on 2 acres of land situated within the State Land Use Agricultural District. The area involved is a part of the existing Greenwell Farms located along the makai side of Mamalahoa Highway, approximately 2,500 feet south of the Mamalahoa Highway – Halekii Street intersection, Kealakekua, South Kona, Hawaii, TMK: 8-1-4: Portion of 75. WATANABE: Agenda Item No. 2 is Greenwell Farms, Inc., Special Permit application, SPP 08-000061. Greenwell Farms is requesting a Special Permit to establish a seasonal farm worker housing for up to 50 workers. I guess, Maija, are you going to be the presenter? COTTLE: Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good morning, Commissioners. COMMISSIONERS: Good morning. COTTLE: The next permit is a request from Greenwell Farms for a Special Permit to establish seasonal farm worker housing for up to 50 workers on 2 acres of land within a 104.8- acre parcel. The property is located about ½ mile south of Kealakekua, and it’s a fairly large parcel; it extends from Mamalahoa Highway to the future Mamalahoa Highway Bypass. And EXHIBIT B 1 the 2-acre permit site is shown on the slide in black. The lot is actually zoned Agricultural 5 acres, and there is a portion that is zoned Single-Family Residential closer to Mamalahoa Highway. Most of the area is zoned Agricultural as well, surrounding the property, but there is a Village-Commercial zoned area to the northeast. This is an aerial photo of the site, and it shows the three existing structures that were permitted in 2007 under a Farm Employee Housing Agreement between the County and the applicant. The location of the additional farm dwelling structures would be just to the east and to the south of the existing three structures. Let’s see, this site also shows the location of Pualani Terrace Commercial Center and that is this area here to the northeast.That’s the closest neighbor that would be affected by this project. As I mentioned before, in 2007 the applicant and the County entered into the Farm Employee Housing Agreement to allow three structures to house up to 20 workers, but the Agreement limited the workers to only work on the subject property. So the applicant is now coming in for the Special Permit to allow ten more structures that would total 13 and house up to 50 workers. The Special Permit would also remove the restriction of the workers only working on that property and they would be able to work at other coffee farms throughout Kona that the applicant has contracted with. And then the Farm Employee Housing Agreement, if the Special Permit is approved, would be severed because it would no longer be relevant. This is a site plan that shows the three existing farm worker housing structures in orange, and then the ten additional structures are shown here in green. The yellow areas are old existing farm dwellings, carport and a shed that would be removed in order to accommodate the new structures. The Planning Director is recommending approval of this Special Permit request with conditions. Are there any questions? WATANABE: Fellow Commissioners, do we have any questions? Mr. Housel? HOUSEL: Yes, I had a question. From the area where the housing will be built, what is the route to the access to the highway? COTTLE: There’s a farm road that comes off of the highway right about here, and then there’s actually several farm roads on the property. One main access goes towards the coffee mill processing facility and then it wraps around towards the employee farm housing here. There is also another road that drops down closer directly to the farm employee housing structures. HOUSEL: Will the residents there, the farm workers, use both of the accesses to the highway? COTTLE: I don’t know that that will be limited. It’s actually one main access off of the highway and then it branches out on the property to two other roads. So they would be using EXHIBIT B 2 the main access at the highway. And I don’t know that the applicant or the Planning Department would limit them to using one farm road or the other. HOUSEL: I see. Okay, thank you. WATANABE: Any further -? Mr. Domingo. DOMINGO: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I see that there’s an agreement in September 2007. Do they have employees currently housed in the buildings? Or do we have to wait until the applicant or the representative comes up? COTTLE: I think the applicant would be better able to answer that. From talking to them I believe they were this season starting to house the workers; so they haven’t actually had workers in those three structures yet. WATANABE: Mr. Woodward. WOODWARD: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The question I have, if they are planning on trying to expand their special permit so that they can work on other farms, is all of the coffee that is going to be harvested on those other farms going to be processed here, or are we creating a labor camp? COTTLE: Again, you may want to directly ask the applicant that, but I believe they are processing the coffee from those other farms on this lot. WOODWARD: All right. Well, I think strongly that that ought to be added as a condition if, you know, rather than to create a labor camp where they can farm out, essentially, labor to other growers. I think that would be a really bad precedent. Now, if they are planning on just sending their workers out to harvest coffee that they are going to process, I have no problem with that. But if it’s anything other than that, I do have a problem with that. WATANABE: Do we have any further -. Mr. Yuen. YUEN: Yeah, if I can discuss that. I think it is their intent to have what you call a labor camp in that they would have workers there that would be taken to other people’s farms and pick coffee and they could leave the coffee in a bag and other farmer could take it wherever they want to process it. And what you’re suggesting on a limitation, it’s similar to the limitation that we believe a law has on what the Department can do administratively. Administratively we allow employee housing; so we allow the farmer’s employees with this Employee Housing Agreement to have more employees and house them on their property without going through the scrutiny of a special permit. However, we do support having a special permit for farm worker housing to allow farm worker housing through the special permit process that can be used generally. And the purpose of that is to deal with potential impacts. So I think, you know, we can all see that there are a lot of potential impacts. We just say establish whatever level of farm worker housing without going through this kind of review. For example, we had a situation where a farm contractor wanted to put 30 people into a home in Ocean View, and we said you EXHIBIT B 3 can’t do that without – 30 agricultural workers in a home in Ocean View – we said you can’t do that without getting a special permit. And you know, the special permit might have been denied due to not really being suitable for the neighborhood area. But I do think we, and there is a need for this kind of agricultural housing in Kona.They would have to be their employees but they could be used by other farmers on a contract basis to pick their coffee. WATANABE: Mr. Woodward. WOODWARD: I might ask the Director another question then. If they are going to essentially hire out their workers, this is a contract labor business. Correct? I mean, I’m sure they are going to make a profit; they wouldn’t do it if they couldn’t. So we are essentially giving them the right to have a contract labor business. Is that correct? YUEN: Yes, you can say that. And another agricultural property that dealt with the impacts that potentially would be created and brought a special permit forward would have the same opportunity. WATANABE: Any further questions for staff? Yes, Mr. Domingo. DOMINGO: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Yuen, then these people will be governed under the same provisions of the other law which governs contract labors that we have, essentially only contract labors or employees, for various employers in the County? YUEN: I’m not sure what laws -. Are you talking about overall labor laws? DOMINGO: Labor laws and -. YUEN: Like minimum wage -? DOMINGO: And requirements like, for instance, I know of several so-called agencies, which people would go to and apply for jobs and they would place them in various locations depending on their skill and the need for their skill. YUEN: All other normal laws apply, like minimum wage, OSHA, sanitation; all those kinds of laws still apply to these workers. There is also a federal program that authorizes visas for agricultural workers and they would have to follow the terms of that program. I know that one of the things they want to do, if they go into that program, the federal and state governments have certain requirements; they have minimum standards for housing. So that’s the housing requirement that we have here is if they meet those minimum standards. DOMINGO: Since we are discussing this issue, as you mentioned, the standards by the federal government provides for 50 square feet for a bedroom space and they would have a centralized kitchen and bathroom facilities -. YUEN: Yes, that’s allowed. EXHIBIT B 4 DOMINGO: Yeah, I can see that’s allowed. You mentioned they have to meet the OSHA standards and everything. Now, I’m looking at this picture here with the three – I don’t know what you call them – living quarters, which is not totally completed, because there’s some open trench and I see the plumbing that seems like only a PVC pipe. I only ask these questions because I read about this program and it brings me some memories of what our sugar industry embarked on many years ago when they needed labor for their sugar plantations; and they were brought here probably under similar conditions. And you know, I don’t know what the scale of their wages would be like and what kind of benefits, if ever they are going to have, or how they would actually recruit these individuals and find out if they are really healthy and strong to perform the labor that would be required of them. And then in the event any of them get sick, what would then cover the cost involved? Those are the kind of issues that run through my mind as I think about this. And my whole concern is to see that these individuals who come with some definite guarantees, that their needs would be met and they would be living in quarters and living in areas and be treated in a way so that, you know, at least there’s some dignity in their lives. Those are my concerns at this time. And I guess when the applicant comes up, I can further ask them those questions. Thank you. WATANABE: Do we have any further questions for staff? If not, may I have the applicant and their representative come up, please? May I swear you in then? Would you 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. Mr. Melrose, are you going to start? MELROSE: Yeah, I’ll start, yes. WATANABE: Okay. Have you had an opportunity to review the Director’s recommendations and the conditions that were set forth? MELROSE: Yes. My name is Jeffrey Melrose. I live at 1405 Waianuenue Avenue. And I’m representing Greenwell Farms, with Tommy Greenwell beside me, who is the general manager of the Farms. Yes, we’ve had an opportunity to review the recommendations, the staff and Director’s recommendations, and don’t have any particular problems with them. I mean to make a little introductory remark. And I appreciate the wealth of the conversation here, and I really believe Tommy can provide a lot of insight to that. First off, the Greenwell family is, I mean, I’m glad to be here with them. I think they’ve been in the farming industry in Hawaii since the mid-1800s and have been in a continual use of this particular property in an agricultural way and have been farming coffee on it for well over 30 years or so. So they really are a player in the coffee industry, and have been for quite some time. As you know, labor is a big part of any agricultural activity. And certainly the coffee industry in Kona has some significant seasonal labor needs that, at least when I was growing up, that was reflected in the school system and they had a summer break during this period in time now and EXHIBIT B 5 so that kids could go pick coffee. But kids don’t pick coffee anymore. That hasn’t stopped the need for seasonal workers, and the estimation is that there’re probably more than a thousand seasonal workers who are brought into Kona on an annual basis to pick the Kona coffee crop. What the Greenwells are trying to do is really step out in front of this issue. They’ve managed with seasonal labor for some time, and I think what they realize is, part of their business plan is that in order to be successful at it, you have to be good at the seasonal labor business and you have to provide the kind of housing that people expect. As Taka was suggesting, Commissioner Taka Domingo, that to provide the quality of housing necessary, there is standards set in this issue. And I think that’s what they are attempting to do today. We did get permission to do three of these units. They are in place. They are 40-foot extra height containers that have been wrapped with timber and put windows and kitchens and doors, and there’re fully permitted septic systems in them. But that we are only allowed to use 35 acres that, to have those workers work on the 35 acres that Greenwell owns right there. The business plan for Greenwell Farms requires, or leaves them to wanting to serve and provide services to other farmers. And I think they pick and manage as many as 25 to 30 farms in the Kona region, assisting other people who aren’t as capable of managing their own farms and they’ll choose to pick it. So that’s, and for the most part that picking happens and then the crop comes back to the Greenwell Farms for the purpose of running and building their retail and processing capacity, so -. What I’d love to do is just to have you guys ask questions, and then I think Tommy is just willing to have any kind of questions asked. But I know this is an interesting topic to you, so please. WATANABE: Well, we have Mr. Greenwell. Do we have any questions for Mr. Greenwell? Yes, Mr. Woodward. WOODWARD: I’d like to ask, where do the seasonal workers come from when they come in, and where do they go back to, or do they go back when they leave? GREENWELL: Yes. WATANABE: Mr. Greenwell, could you, I swore you in, but just for the record, your name and address, please. GREENWELL: My name is Thomas Greenwell. I live at 81-6581 Mamalahoa Highway. WATANABE: Go ahead. You may respond. Thank you. GREENWELL: For the last 15, 20 years, a lot of our – a lot, and more and more every year – seasonal workers, coffee pickers are coming in from Mexico basically, some from, I mean Latin America, also Panama, Guatemala. We’ve been hiring them slowly a few more every year, and this is what comes up to the need of the housing. They fly in on their own, they get here, they come down, they apply for a job; that’s been the way Greenwell Farms has hired our seasonal workers. They bring down their documentations, what have you. I provide them rooms or a house where four or five guys are living in one until I have no housing. Then I tell them I’ll EXHIBIT B 6 hire them but I can’t put them up. So then they go down the road, looking for somewhere else most likely to work, or they go and rent a house; five, eight, ten of them get together and they actually rent a house. At the end of the season they prune coffee for us, and they leave. Some stick around, some stay around. Some of them get into the construction business, and usually when that happens, we don’t see them again in the harvesting business. WOODWARD: If I might -. WATANABE: Follow-up question? WOODWARD: Yeah, if I might follow up. So you know how many are coming in, you don’t know how many are going out, is basically what you are telling me. Is that right? GREENWELL: I personally, you mean, the ones that come to our farm and live on the -? WOODWARD: Right. The ones that, your seasonal workers that come from Central America, you know how many are coming in but you don’t know how many leave the country legally, right? GREENWELL: Yeah, I have, I mean, of everyone that comes into Kona to work, the total picking force, no, I have no idea. WATANABE: Ms. Bowman, it looked like you had a question earlier, no? BOWMAN: Not right now. WATANABE: Okay. Mr. Domingo. DOMINGO: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. You check if they meet all the immigration requirements and laws upon hiring them? GREENWELL: Yeah, we have the procedures that were set forth to hire legal immigrants. DOMINGO: How long have they been working for you as farm labors? I know you mentioned the once they get out and taste the, go into the labor market for construction, then they never come back because there’s no comparison between what you can get as a labor, union worker and a farm labor. GREENWELL: I’m sorry, I -. DOMINGO: How long do they remain with you before they change to other jobs? GREENWELL: A lot of the construction workers also like to do the picking; a good coffee picker can make good money. And normally when they are -. See, I don’t bring them in. I’m not calling them up and bring in people; and they actually come in on their own. We are trying to change that. We are trying to follow a different program. But the ones that come in usually EXHIBIT B 7 stick out the season. Sometimes I find out they’ve been somewhere else in Kona, but they are not, you know, living with us, or in our current housing. MELROSE: Was the question really how long do they stay with the, working for Greenwell Farms has something to do with the extension of the season. So the season will be shorter or longer, kind of depending on what, when it rained and how often it rains, how many fruitings you have. So that this season, for instance, is going to be a fairly long season just based on the continuous rainfall they’ve had this year there. There are other seasons that are much more compacted. So you pick only red and you pick it when it’s ripe, so they stick around for that period in time. One of the things that Greenwell Farms is trying to do is, their buildings are going to be built to what’s called H2A standards – and you’ve seen those standards in the application. That program is really a response to and a method to, after the 9/11 issue and the difficulty in moving people in and out of the country from other places, it seems to be a way that people looking for labor can find labor sources and not have to run a lot of immigration, kind of get pre-cleared folks. It may not, you know, their buildings are built to their standards because we want to make sure that the standard and the program is available. Whether the program actually generates the kind of people you are looking for is another challenge.And right now a lot of the workers are coming from Central America and Mexico and also folks coming out of Southern California and other places, rotating as they move through other seasonal crops. But there is a good chance that some of those workers start coming from Thailand or other parts of the world that are in seasonal labor markets. And that was one of the reasons why we kind of created these little clusters of three or four units of what’ll amount to about 18 workers in each of the clusters. Because you could actually be getting labor from a variety of different locations, and almost in the camp history traditions where you have a Japanese camp and a Chinese camp, they actually get along better if they are working and staying within their own units. So those are things we are just prepared to deal with in the future. DOMINGO: I can see the present existing agreement. So the practice relieves the applicant of certain obligations to its employees, whereas, again referring back to the plantation days where they used to go to Philippines, Japan, wherever, and recruit workers and bring them in and establish them in different places and organize their whole life entirely and take care of them. But in these cases, he indicated, you know, they come up to him and apply for jobs, and that certainly does not obligate him to anything; his only need is supervise jobs for them and to take care of his needs on his farms. And I think, but what ought to be concerned is that, you know, those structures and those living units, as you indicated, will be up to standards and everything. Now, the picture that you have here in your application, the three structures, they are not totally completed yet. They are in a phase of building completion? MELROSE: I believe they have been fully permitted and the first set of workers moved into them last week. Right? GREENWELL: Yeah. DOMINGO: Last week. So then -. EXHIBIT B 8 GREENWELL: The permit has been finaled. They are fully operational. MELROSE: The pictures are a little old, from the time we sent the application in. DOMINGO: I would think so because, you know, in my opinion it’s not totally completed because you have trenches in the back and those PVC pipes hanging and whatever, so. GREENWELL: No, no, they are completed. Everything has been filled in and the power’s hooked up. The yard is totally established in the front. MELROSE: Tommy, what was your workers’ first reaction when they showed up at the units the other day? GREENWELL: They came in about 11:00 at night. And we forgot to leave the keys, so I got a phone call. I ran up, and as I was showing them where everything was, two of them sat there and were talking, and one guy goes, “Yeah, looks like a hotel, yeah.” DOMINGO: Okay. You provide air-conditioning, too? GREENWELL: Pardon? DOMINGO: You provide air-conditioning? GREENWELL: Actually, there are two fans in each unit. WATANABE: Okay. Mr. Woodward, do you -? WOODWARD: I would like to ask, now, the three existing structures that you have, is that sufficient to support enough seasonal workers for the acreage that you have, the 35 acres? GREENWELL: If they only pick coffee on that farm -. No, probably not. MELROSE: Let me just go back. There are three units that were approved because we requested three units. What we ended up building, though, were units, one of those units is entirely dedicated to kitchen, bathroom, laundry, shower. So one of those units is kind of centrally used unit with a dining area. The other two house six a piece. So you can put -. Six, right? Six a piece? GREENWELL: Yeah, you can put twelve employees in that structure. WOODWARD: All right. Well, how many does it take to pick your 35 acres? GREENWELL: Well, I mean, probably you could get away with twelve fast, good pickers, yes. They would be continually working that farm, which, yeah. EXHIBIT B 9 WOODWARD: Well, the question I have then, it sounds more like this is a business arrangement than it is an arrangement for your farm, to be quite honest with you. And it seems like you are getting into the business of supplying Central American labor to other farmers in the community, making a profit from it. And you don’t really know how many of those people that may come in legally don’t leave. So there’re several problems I have. Maybe you can address that. GREENWELL: Okay. You know, actually, Greenwell Farms in the last two years started – or prior to that, we’d help other farmers pick their coffee. But we started a farm management program, and it kind of started accidentally; a lady from, a local lady, moved to the mainland, her farm was not being taken care of, and she asked us if we’d help her, a 14-acre farm. And so we started going there, we cleaned it up, and she’s very pleased with it. Since then we have about, off the top of my head, I think 15 active farms that we are maintaining. For Kawakami’s – he’s 85 years old, you see, he no can already – that’s seven acres. We have a gal that’s up in the Honaunau area; she is physically impaired, we are taking care of her farm. We have some elderly people up in the other side of Holualoa area. Basically, we saw a need here. If we are going to keep ag really going, we have to keep these people farming their land. Otherwise, they are going to turn into just waste. So we decided this is the reason why we are going for the Special Use Permit (sic), so we can work these other farms that we are managing. WOODWARD: So you’ve created essentially a farm management corporation. Is that right? GREENWELL: Yeah, I guess. MELROSE: Just let me add another element to that. And that is that the real core business of the Greenwell Farms is to have their own farms and their own family farms that they do manage and manage others, but the core business is in the processing of coffee; they are not unlike a number of other sizable coffee processors who take and buy cherry from lots of other farmers, provide that market collection place, and then they dry, roast, and deliver and market that product under the Greenwell Farms name. So a big portion of the business model is in taking that coffee both what they manage and what people sell to them and putting it into other places in order to secure that flow of coffee, being able to create the relationship and secure the farms, you know, farming of the other farmers that that’s what makes this business plan work for them. And I think they’ve done so in a very responsible way as a partner and brought the industry an understanding that really this is about taking responsibility for labor circumstance that, one, already exists; there are 1,000 people in this region today coming in and doing that. Greenwell has simply stepped forward and said, well, we want to do it the right way, we want to be responsible in the way we are doing it, and we want to go through the rules and get the permits and do things that are necessary. So under the general tone that no good deed goes unpunished, I can imagine there will be things we have to deal with as a result of that. But there’s a lot of intention to try and do it in the right way, and that’s what this is an effort to do. WATANABE: Mr. Housel. EXHIBIT B 10 HOUSEL: Thank you. I had a few questions. You mentioned that some of the workers choose to work other jobs besides farming. Is a condition of living at this housing that they work on the farms? For instance, if they take a job in construction, will you still allow them to live there? GREENWELL: No. What we currently do is if, when they choose to go work another job, they leave our structure. HOUSEL: When they – well, I guess I go back a step here. The existing permit that you have for the three buildings and 20 workers, those are dedicated to your property. Is that correct? GREENWELL: At this current time, yes. HOUSEL: If you added the additional 50 workers, would you still consider those first 20 workers dedicated to your property? GREENWELL: If we get the Special Use Permit (sic), no; I mean, that’s why we are applying for it. HOUSEL: So all 70 would be able to work at all farms? GREENWELL: Oh, yes. HOUSEL: Okay. MELROSE: Excuse me. The number, 70, is incorrect. There are, we have our -. It’s a little complicated, but all we are asking for is a total of 50 inclusive of the existing ones. HOUSEL: That includes the first 20. MELROSE: Right, exactly. HOUSEL: I see, I see, okay. Now, in the, well, another question -. These 50 workers that may or may not work on your farm and may work on other farms, how do they get to other farms? GREENWELL: We provide transportation, vans, trucks to haul the cherry back to the mill. We have a small van, a small 4-wheel drive vehicle, and we pick up the cherry twice a day. HOUSEL: Do they also have personal cars? Do you allow that? GREENWELL: What we’ve done on the personal vehicles – I really can’t stop them if they want to purchase one, so – but they do have to have all legal documentations to be able to park it on our premise. EXHIBIT B 11 HOUSEL: I see, okay -. MELROSE: As the application reflects, the intention of the farm is to provide, as it grows, to provide that transportation for the farm throughout, so that they are not expecting anybody to show up at their farm at their remote farms in their own vehicle, so that the traffic impact is consolidated around the vans that they purchased to move people around. HOUSEL: I see. Now, you currently have with the three existing buildings one cooking facility? One building is a kitchen and laundry facility? GREENWELL: Yes. Right now the one on the mauka side is a dining room, kitchen, laundry room and two bathrooms – full baths. HOUSEL: Do the residents cook their own food? GREENWELL: Yes. HOUSEL: How do they acquire their groceries? Do they have access to transportation to go shopping? GREENWELL: Yeah, actually, we are pretty fortunate because we have Kamigaki Store right across the street, and they can do that. Yes, they do have access to the vehicle. That is a mandatory thing. HOUSEL: So besides the vans going to the farms there will be some personal access by the workers. Is that right? GREENWELL: For them to pick up food for themselves, yes. HOUSEL: Right, right, okay. The new dwellings that you are proposing, are they connected to a common septic system, or do they have individual septic systems? GREENWELL: There is only one building and, if you look over on the right hand side of the mauka building, you’ll see where the septic system is, because it only comes off the, that’s why, the way it was built was to really consolidate the building to make the building more affordable. HOSUEL: So they all share the same septic system. Is that right? MELROSE: No, each of those, there will be three septic systems in each of the complexes – one a piece, yeah, one a piece. HOUSEL: I see, okay, okay. EXHIBIT B 12 MELROSE: Yes. There is one septic system, you know, there’s a limit to the number of people that can be served on a septic system. And so the flow will allow for that we have 18 people on that unit, and there will be other septic systems located on each of the others. HOUSEL: Is there an on-site manager or someone who is in charge of taking care of things at all time? GREENWELL: Yeah, we have a, he is basically the foreman. He’s worked for us for ten, twelve years, I think, now. He does live in a building at the very top end of that dotted line for the Special Use Permit (sic) – he and his family. HOUSEL: And he lives there fulltime? GREENWELL: Fulltime. HOUSEL: About how many of the residents or the housing workers stay there? Full year around? GREENWELL: We now probably have four fulltime. Because of the farm management program, they no longer pick coffee except on their, you know, day off; we encourage everybody to pick coffee. But as the program grows and it’s – you know, we had to turn away farms this year because we don’t have housing for people – and we’ll probably have a few more. MELROSE: There are already several farm dwellings on the property that aren’t within the Special Permit area. Some are in the urban area above, within RS-15 zone, and that’s where their existing sustainable staff exists because they have a roasting operation and ongoing operations that are associated with the processing. So those folks are there at whole time. They will need to keep the capacity to swell; that’s what really these units are about. And if there are, they really haven’t had the experience yet because they are just getting their first users in these other units to know what the long-term of year-round occupation, but they need to create them so that they can swell during the -. If they fill them up with people, they would have the same problem all over again. HOUSEL: Are workers allowed to bring their children? GREENWELL: We have the one family that’s a fulltime employee on the farm; he’s allowed. No, we shy against that. HOUSEL: Okay, thank you. WATANABE: Mr. Domingo, you had something? DOMINGO: Yeah, I just want to -. Jeff, a state law dictates that if you work more than 20 hours, then some form of medical insurance needs to be provided for its workers. Is that right? EXHIBIT B 13 MELROSE: Let me ask, let Tommy address that. GREENWELL: Over 20 hours in one calendar week you become a fulltime employee, or it’s a part-time but actually it’s a fulltime employee and you are governed by the laws, which include health insurance. DOMINGO: So then you need to provide health insurance for them. GREENWELL: For any hourly-paid person over 20 hours, yes. DOMINGO: I see. Okay, thank you. WATANABE: Ms. Bowman, did you have something? BOWMAN: First, I want to commend you for this. I think it’s a very innovative proposal. I have lots of Central American and Mexican friends, and I have seen what they’ve had to live in, not only construction workers. And I think what we need to realize is that they are going to come regardless of if this is there or not. And I think, you know, to mitigate some of the traffic, some of the already short housing that’s available. And also I like your rules because we have some houses near us in some subdivisions with, like, 12 guys in there, they’ll drink until 3:00 in the morning. So I really hope that those rules will, you know, keep cause I know they work hard. Just a couple of things. I noticed that there is one letter of support. I think – I don’t see any others – and I think if you are in partnership with other growers, that would help to show that they are in support. So that’s just a comment. The other thing -. MELROSE: I think there are four, Lani. There are four. BOWMAN: Maybe I didn’t see them. GREENWELL: I forgot to ask them until it was pretty late. BOWMAN: Okay, I’ve got, one -. Okay, sorry, I just have the one. Okay, thank you. The other thing, just to clarify, you can house up to ten per unit. Well, that’s what it says in your Housing Agreement; it says, “…. three (3) modified” – this is on Page 2 of your Farm Employee Housing Agreement, Paragraph 3 – “…. three (3) modified trailers to provide a combination kitchen/dining area, laundry, two shower/restrooms and sleeping/living spaces for up to 20 beds total ….” I’m just reading this from your Agreement. MELROSE: You know, when we made our original application, I think we were requesting, I don’t know, it was twelve or 15, when we made the application for this, and the Planning Department actually gave us additional units. And I think probably on the basis of – and Chris could explain this – but I think that the basis really was that perhaps there would be some hangers on wives or children or some other kind of folks that would add to the worker count. But we only applied for three units. And the fourth unit, which was actually bought and EXHIBIT B 14 is parked on the property today waiting to be put into that little green spot there, is, we could not install it because we were only allowed three structures, although there are 20 allowed people. So we kind of got into a numbers trip there. But I think there are, we look at six in each of those units by square footage. BOWMAN: So if there are six in each unit and then one of the units will be for a kitchen type of thing, so you would have a total of -. GREENWELL: Eighteen. MELROSE: Eighteen in a cluster. BOWMAN: Eighteen in a cluster. Okay, so that will be maybe max 56 or whatever 18 times three is. MELROSE: Well, yeah, 54. But we are looking for a minimum number. You know, and the ten units, you know, there may be another structure that has to go in there, but what I didn’t want to do is get into a box since you can only do, you know, so many -. We’ve got into this box on the first three. We are looking for ten structures; they may not all get built. What we are looking for is there may be a need to put in some kind of a central gathering gazebo and we don’t want that to have to be counted against us in this process. The number that we are trying to create the cap at is that 50 and the maximum of 10 structures. How they are oriented, right now we are using these container structures, but it may, after a period of years, understanding and working in that context, it may be that there is another better way to do that – make them longer, wider, thicker, something, you know. But right now we are using the container approach and using that as the defining character. BOWMAN: On Page 4, I just want some clarification on Page 4, it does say, “It is Greenwell Farms intention to employ an increasing number of immigrant farm workers to serve its own farm expansion plans. The applicant also expects to enter into farm management and harvesting contracts with third party growers. These management contracts will increase the supply of coffee cherry to be processed by Greenwell Farms and provides a service to local growers. A key element in the growth of the applicant’s business is to be able to house farm laborers in a responsible and appropriate manner.” So when I read this, it appears that all the beans – whatever you call them – are going to be processed in your processing plant. GREENWELL: Yes. Everything that we are picking will be processed on the farm. Now, kind of in on the changes in the coffee industry, and if you ever read it, it’s pretty interesting, the history of it. But today what’s happening is Kona coffee is well world-known, and there is a lot of competition out there trying to get it. And you know, Farms has been providing the place for the last 20 years for other farmers to process their own, plus we purchase coffee. And also you build a business up and competition comes in, and how do you protect your business? Well, we figure we’re going to go out there and help people keep their farms farming basically, and that’s how we’re going to build up steady supply to the mill. It’s not really to build up more coffee; it’s to kind of keep a handle on the volume coming in. EXHIBIT B 15 BOWMAN: Last question. Your third unit over, I guess, is in the 100-year flood line, and I notice some comments in there. Would that be the last unit to be built? The third cluster? GREENWELL: If I had my way, I’d like it to be the next one just because the building that is surrounding is, you know, not a great building. It’s an old, old building, I think, built in 1938. MELROSE: There is a picture of that building in the application. And it is a flat, level space. It’ll probably take awhile; we’ve got to deal with the flooding issue. There is a line there, but the fact is that’s not what it floods; and that just happens a lot of times with this flood line is that the water does actually flow off to the right side of the picture in a fairly defined channel. And a lot of that is created by how the water crosses Mamalahoa Highway above it, and that’s where the water flows. So there is some remake of some of the flood plans from the Hokukano Ranch above. And so we’ve done a survey, and that the line that you see to the right of that unit is kind of where we expect it to be, but we haven’t gone through the LOMA process of determining resetting that line. So whether you do or not, we could meet the AE flood requirements simply by an elevational issue with the buildings to meet the requirement. But the truth is that’s not where the water runs even in the worst of the flood times. BOWMAN: Thank you. WATANABE: Mr. Domingo. DOMINGO: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’d like to commend you for what you are doing. What I see is that you are ensuring that good agricultural land, especially well-suited for coffee, is going to be preserved. I understand that you mentioned that there’re some elderly people who cannot farm their land but you are providing the services to them. If those services were not provided, then the only alternative would be for them to sell it and, you know, one can never tell what plans those people may have with regards to the use of the land. But this ensures that it will be kept in agricultural use and especially preserving Kona coffee land. Now, I’m kind of visualizing your long-term planning as Mr. Melrose was describing. I hope that in that event you would consider, you know, the configuration of your units, you know, a center or a court where people can recreate and enjoy themselves. It’s not only work and work and work; it’s playing and enjoying themselves and, you know, they come here with various cultural practices and all that. So I hope that you would consider those requirements. And I hope, with the present configuration, you will not provide for families to come, you know, husbands, their wives and children, because that’s an opening for problems which you can imagine what might happen. She’s laughing because that’s true. You know, let me tell you about our plantation situation. As Mr. Melrose said, you go to the Japanese camp, Filipino camp, Portuguese camp and all those camps were situated by the various ethnic background. Now, of course we had individual homes at that time, not dormitories that you are proposing. And those individuals who come from other lands, they come as individuals. And they come here with, you know, their cultural practices and social needs and everything. And they are human beings. So I guess that’s why I’m Filipino-Japanese because, you know, my father is from Philippines and my mother was born and raised here in Hawaii – my grandfather came from Japan. But you know, there’s intermix of different racial backgrounds, and then I am proud EXHIBIT B 16 to be a part of that, you know, no question about that, I’m proud to be of that. But the fact is that people come when they come as single individuals and then you mix them with families, and I think it does not bode well. I’d just like for you to remember that. WATANABE: Mr. Domingo, I believe Condition 3 of the proposed Special Permit indicates that “The seasonal farm worker housing units shall be used only to provide shelter to person(s) employed full-time (can be seasonally) in the agricultural or farm-related activity on the subject property or on properties in North or South Kona which the applicant, its successors or assigns have contracted with to provide farm labor.” To me that reads that, you know, we have child labor law so that that eliminates children, yeah, to me, because anyone who is living within these structures has to be working, so they – I’m not saying they have to be all men, they could be women – but once they have children, they have to move out.And that I think would limit some of this. DOMINGO: I think I’m kind of aware of that Condition, but I think during the discussion when we were exchanging words, there was some mention of the possibility of having families coming. Just one more question, this Farmers Employment Housing Program (sic) between the County and Mr. Greenwell that was agreed upon last year, and now because I think the application states that if this Permit is approved, then it would sever that Agreement between the County, and therefore provide for additional condition that they would be able to go out and work in farms. Is there an agreement between the Planning Department or some other agency in the County? YUEN: No. The existing Agreement is strictly between the Planning Department and Greenwell Farms, and it’s to make sure that the employee housing is for their employees who work on their farm. This would allow them to have this contract labor business and serve other farms, and at that point we would get rid of the old Agreement because we don’t want to have 20 people that have to work on their farm and 30 people who can work on other farms; there’s really no way to keep track of that, nor is there any point in doing it once we’ve approved the Special Permit. DOMINGO: And provisions on this I was reading and the condition that a report would be due to the Department upon request by the Department. Can it be possible that they would submit a report to the County in periodic intervals? I’m not saying close intervals, but at least they would submit a report. YUEN: Well, I’m not sure what they would report. We wanted a report once they, if you are talking about the conditions of the Special Permit, they would build the buildings and they would give us a report that they’ve done that, that the building permits have been finalized. And then we would essentially be done, except for the question of violations. So if there is a violation, then we would go out and investigate. But we don’t need to, I would prefer not to have a report that’s said we had 88 different people housed on this site over the last year; I don’t think we need to have that level of information. DOMINGO: Okay, we have not come to that point yet. I agree with you. EXHIBIT B 17 MELROSE: Let me say a quick response on Commissioner Domingo’s comment. The context for creating social buildings is, there are the buildings on the property they can do that. But you really don’t want to and we don’t want to from a neighborhood perspective become a place where that kind of partying goes on on a regular basis. Certainly it’s going to happen and there are some places, there’s some greenhouses and other things that people can gather in and hang out and talk story, you know, later into the evening that are away from the houses so you don’t disturb the workers. The other thing that Tom has allowed in that – what’s the, explain the religious ceremony. There is a religious ceremony, actually, a cross set upon the farm today that many of the workers from around Kona come to celebrate. Tom, just -. GREENWELL: It’s called Santa Cruz Day, and it’s celebrated in Mexico. And my foreman basically asked me if they could build a cross, and it’s turned into a ceremony. Every rd year they take it down on May 3. We fix the cross up. They built this little hill that they walk and pull the cross up to put it back up. And the reason, one of the reasons I really agreed to it is – other than, you know, I’m helping them out – is that the cross is there to help them, protect over the harvest of the coming year. So it kind of was real fitting. But yeah, we have now about a little over 20 guys who show up.It’s a religious ceremony, so it’s real quiet and what have you. And there is already a volleyball net in the middle of those three orange things. So they are enjoying, too. WATANABE: Mr. Woodward. WOODWARD: Let me ask Mr. Melrose. The concern I have is not that we are being asked to extend the special permit to allow 50 workers; it’s that we are being asked to – and the Special Permit doesn’t say this and it really should – we are being asked to approve a farm management corporation, because as we’ve already heard, the original three structures are enough to take care of the picking of the subject property, and the rest of this is largely going to be farm management corporation. So the special management permit (sic) ought to be for establishment of a farm management corporation with associated structures. MELROSE: I think I’d refer first to the State Land Use Law, which says that farm worker employee housing is an accepted and allowable use in the State Ag Land Use District. We were, when we took that to the Planning Director, he said, okay but only on that property. So that interpretation was an interpretation we followed for the first section of that. The Kona Community Development Plan, which you guys just passed, says very clearly, distinctly that this kind of use is an acceptable use in the Ag District because of the importance of this labor to the industry. So we are not creating a farm labor corporation, per se; this is Greenwell Farms trying to meet the needs of Greenwell Farms business plan and both their fields and the fields that they manage. So when we’re trying to provide the best kind of housing for the kind of labor that is already there, and we are just trying to make everything up and up and set a new bar in terms of how it’s done. WATANABE: Mr. Housel. HOUSEL: Mr. Greenwell, I want to commend you as a fellow Kona coffee farmer myself. One of the biggest challenges we know is adequate farmer worker housing. I’ve seen a EXHIBIT B 18 number of temporary workers work in very inadequate housing, and Lani made a very good point that providing good housing is what we should give them. And so I commend you for donating your own land to do this and for helping the Kona coffee industry. One big concern I have, though, is the traffic. Mamalahoa Highway is a busy highway; it’s a busy road. And so I’m very concerned about the access and ingress and coming out to, you know, avoid any hazards there. So if there is anything you can do to improve that, I would certainly encourage you to do it. GREENWELL: Thank you. WATANABE: Any further discussion on the matter? DOMINGO: Mr. Chairman. WATANABE: Yes, Mr. Domingo. DOMINGO: Mr. Melrose, going back to Commissioner Woodward’s comments, are you – you mentioned that that service would be extended to farmers only who’s under the agreement with Mr. Greenwell – would they have an agreement between each other, him taking care of the other farms and providing that kind of service? MELROSE: Well, it’s really providing housing for the workers that, it may be a variety of different contracts that he has with people. Some is actually managing the farm; he’s doing the trimming, he’s maintaining it on a year-round basis or seasonally as coffee needs kokua or needs tending. Then there is just the flat-out picking contract, which is just for that period of picking. But, no, workers are not going to be living in the Greenwell facilities and picking for somebody else to take, you know, they are not just available to pick anywhere; they are really available and they work at the behest and direction of Tom and the Greenwell Farms people. WATANABE: Very good. Are we pretty much satisfied? For the record, we have no one signed up to testify. Okay, we are pretty much satisfied. Then I’ll entertain a motion. Ms. Bowman. BOWMAN: I move that we approve application for the Special Permit, 08-000061, with the attached conditions. HOUSEL: I’ll second that. WATANABE: Thank you. Mr. Housel, second. There is a motion to approve the Special Permit. Any further discussion on this matter? Seeing none, Maija. COTTLE: Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’ll take the roll. Commissioner Bowman? BOWMAN: Yes. EXHIBIT B 19 COTTLE: Commissioner Housel? HOUSEL: Aye. COTTLE: Commissioner Domingo? DOMINGO: Aye. COTTLE: Commissioner Ogata? OGATA: Aye. COTTLE: Commissioner Woodward? WOODWARD: No. COTTLE: And Chairman Watanabe? WATANABE: Aye. COTTLE: The motion passes, five-one. WATANABE: Okay, so you’ll be notified in writing of the decision. GREENWELL: Thank you. MELROSE: Thank you very much. The discussion ended at 10:50 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Noriko Sauer, West Hawaii Secretary EXHIBIT B 20