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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2005-09-30 TDELUZ PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAII HEARING TRANSCRIPT SEPTEMBER 30, 2005 EDWIN DELUZ TRUCKING AND A regularly advertised hearing on the application of GRAVEL, LLC (SP 70-85) was called to order at 11:00 a.m. in the Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel, Hau/Lehua Room, 62-100 Kaunaoa Drive, Kohala Coast, Hawaii, with Vice- Chairperson Hannah Springer presiding. PRESENT:C. Kimo AlamedaABSENT & EXCUSED: Fred Galdones Hannah SpringerRene€ Siracusa Rodney H. WatanabeJeffrey McCall AllenSalaveaAndrewIwashita William R. Graham Chris Yuen, Deputy Planning Director Norman Hayashi, Planning Program Manager Phyllis Fujimoto, Staff Planner Jeff Darrow, Staff Planner Ivan Torigoe, Deputy Corporation Counsel And approximately 10 people from the public in attendance. APPLICANT: EDWIN DELUZ TRUCKING AND GRAVEL, LLC (SP 70-85) Request to amend condition number 2 of Special Permit 70-85, which allowed the operation of a quarry on approximately 63,648 (sic) acres of land situated within the State Land Use Agricultural District. The property is located approximately 4,600 feet south of Waikoloa Road and 1.3 miles southeast of Waikoloa Village, Waikoloa, South Kohala, Hawaii, TMK: 6-8-2:Portion of 16. SPRINGER:I€d like to call this meeting of the Hawaii County Planning Commission back into order. We€re now on agenda item number 4. The applicant is Edwin Deluz Trucking and Gravel. The request is to amend condition number 2 of Special Permit 70-85, which allowed the operation of a quarry on approximately 63,648 (sic) acres of land situated within the State Land Use Agricultural District. The property is located approximately 4,600 feet south of Waikoloa Road and 1.3 miles southeast of Waikoloa Village, Waikoloa, South Kohala, Hawaii, Tax Map Key: 6-8-2:portion of 16. Mr. Hayashi? HAYASHI:Thank you Madam Chair. The subject property, if you look at the Planning Commission€s overall location map, is indicated by this red dot. This would be the Waikoloa Road hooking up with Queen Kaahumanu Highway and this would be the old Mamalahoa or mauka road. Waikoloa Village is located in this general configuration. It€s basically the yellow shaded area as well as some of these areas indicated in green and brown. Coincidentally this is the Bridge Aina Lea Project, which is being discussed next door by the EXHIBIT C 1 Land Use Commission, that€s located here, which is north of the Waikoloa Road. The applicant is requesting a time extension to the special permit, which was granted by the Land Use Commission. Condition number 2 basically states that the operation shall terminate by th December 11. In this particular case the condition states the operation shall be terminated by December 11, 2005 or prior to final subdivision approval of the increment adjacent to the RA zoned lands. And the adjacent RA zoned lands are these lands shaded in this mustard-, designated in this mustard shaded area. And those are the proposed Waikoloa Highlands subdivision. That development has not occurred yet. There is a pending subdivision approval. As the Commissioners will recall earlier this year the Commission had heard a time extension request for that Waikoloa Highlands subdivision, that was a rezoning application. And that has been pending with the Planning-, excuse me County Council. Initially the special permit number 70-85 was granted for 2 quarry sites. Quarry site 2 was located south of the Waikoloa Village at this general location. And the second site, noted as or referred to as site number 2 excuse me I believe that€s-. The area in consideration is located by this red dot so there were 2 sites that were approved by the Land Use Commission. The site that is located south of the Waikoloa Village has terminated operation and was abandoned back in December of 2002. So the existing special permit only applies to the property that is being used by Edwin Deluz Trucking. Basically this area, the materials are obtained from this site are basicallyredandblackcinders.Andaccordingtotheapplicantthisistheonlycinderpitthat services the Waikoloa area. There are previous, 5 previous time extensions to this particular request. The permit was originally granted back in 1970, so this would be the, I believe the th 5 time extension request. The Planning Director has recommended approval of the 5-year extension. Are there any questions at this time? SPRINGER:Commissioner Graham? GRAHAM:Just for record. I know that Commissioner Springer read accurately from our notice today63,000 acres but I think its really 63 acres is what our material says. Is that correct Norm? HAYASHI:That€s correct, 63 acres. GRAHAM:Thank you. SPRINGER:Sixty-three would that be a point (.) instead of a comma (,) then? HAYASHI:Yes that would be 63.648 acres. SPRINGER:Thank you. HAYASHI:And, just to correct the record there were 5 previous time extension th requests so this would be the 6 request. SPRINGER:Commissioners any other questions of Mr. Hayashi? Seeing none I€d liketoinvitetheapplicantortheirrepresentativetocomeforward.Mr.Limyou€vealready signed in. Mr. Balog will you be testifying? Could you raise your right hand please? EXHIBIT C 2 BALOG:Sure. SPRINGER:Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth on this matter now before the Hawaii County Planning Commission? BALOG:I do. SPRINGER:Thank you. Could you please give us your name and address for the record? BALOG:Kevin Balog. My address is P.O. Box 368, Paauilo, Hawaii, 96776. SPRINGER:Thank you. Mr. Lim will you be leading the testimony? LIM:Yes I will. Steven Lim, P.O. Box 686, Hilo, 96721. SPRINGER:You may proceed. LIM:We€ve received the copy of the Background and Recommendation from the Planning Department. We have no comments or additions. SPRINGER:Thank you Mr. Lim. Commissioners do you have any questions for the applicant€s representative? Commissioner Graham? GRAHAM:A little bit off point here but as long as we€re here today so that it has someeducationalvaluecouldyoujustgiveusaquickoverviewofhowthematerialisusedso that we can kind of sense what it€s all about. I mean is this going to build roads or houses or, just for a minute or 2 if you wouldn€t mind. LIM:Sure. As you notice the length of the special permit is rather unusual. This is a large area and the primary area for cinder that is going down to various house and golf course projects. Part of the work that was done through Mr. Balog€s company was to have the PGA Golf Association recognize and accept their method of processing the cinders so that it was approved for use on the golf fairways. And so that€s part of what the use is. The special permit was-, you know they€ve only been on, the Deluz Trucking Company has only been on the quarry for the last approximately 5 years or so. Prior to that Waikoloa Development Company had used it for road based coarse, some agricultural uses, those types of uses, potting soil. And so typically what you will see today is the harvesting of the, the quarrying of the cinder and running through a crusher. After which they truck it out to various customers in the Kona, Waikoloa-Kona area. As we see Waikoloa build out I€m sure you all are aware of the pending developments both by the County and Castle and Cook and others in the area. We should see more use of the cinder directly in Waikoloa. EXHIBIT C 3 GRAHAM:Does that just mean the cinders primarily used like for fill, forgetting the proper ground elevations and things like that as well as for the golf course when you€re building a new course and you want to use it under the fairways or something? BALOG:There€s several different uses. When you excavate the raw material, we size the material and anything that isn€t grated that can be used on a golf course fairway, which grows grasses or used as a landscape material. Like nursery people use to pot their plants and what not. That gets stored and then when there€s projects that come up that require fill we take the larger material that hasn€t been processed and sell that for fill so-. We sell material to fill lots and the bulk, the rest of the material gets sold as a planting material for either a grass or nurseries, trees, mac nut trees and palm trees. But we don€t sell any of that for road base. It€s a limited resource that needs to be used, because of where it is and how much you have available for that type of operations. So the majority is sold really to get people€s yards or fairways planted out. GRAHAM:Thank you very much for taking the time to explain. SPRINGER:Commissioners other questions? I have a question at, in December 11, 2010willthiscompletelyexcavatethehillorwilltherebearemainder? LIM:Theareaofexcavationasyoucanseefromthestaffexhibithasthusfar been in that yellow area. And that is the area immediately to the south of the pu€u. So as you€re coming down Waikoloa Drive and as you look to the left to the pu€u, you€ll continue to see the pu€u and that face, the north face of the pu€u will be preserved. We have a site restoration plan as part of the requirements from this special permit that will require us to level out the benches. When they initially through Waikoloa Development or others when they previously quarried the backside of the pu€u they benched it. And these are relatively severe benches of 60 or 80 feet in height. And so what we€ll be having to do in our restoration plan is to grade from outside of this special permit area at the top of the pu€u and basically push it down and slope it down so that south side of the pu€u after the restoration is done should look very similar to the north side of the pu€u. The area that we€re coming in for 1, what we call 1-B is off and behind the pu€u at this point in time. So, I think that the current operations have pretty much exhausted the material that€s going to be taken from the pu€u at this time. Is that correct? BALOG:Yeah. LIM:Yeah. SPRINGER:Thank you. Other Commissioners any questions? I see that there is no one from the public that has signed up to testify on this matter so we€re ready to go into decision making. Commissioners if we may have a motion. Commissioner Salavea? SALAVEA:I move that the application for special permit docket number SP 70-85 to extend-. Sorry maybe I should re-word that. To extend Special Permit number 70-85 to be EXHIBIT C 4 granted as per recommended by the-, or send with a favorable recommendation to the State Land Use Commission, per the Planning Director€s recommendation. SPRINGER:Thank you Commissioner Salavea. And that, in particular those are the amendments to conditions 2 and 4, Ibelieve. Is there a second? GRAHAM:Second. SPRINGER:Thank you second by Commissioner Graham. Is there any further discussion on this agenda item? Seeing none, Mr. Hayashi may wehave the roll call vote? HAYASHI:Thank you Madam Chair. Commissioner Salavea? SALAVEA:Aye. HAYASHI:Commissioner Graham? GRAHAM:Aye. HAYASHI:Commissioner Watanabe? WATANABE:Aye. HAYASHI:Commissioner Alameda? ALAMEDA:Yes. HAYASHI:Chair Springer? SPRINGER:Yes. HAYASHI:Madam Chair motion carries 5-0. SPRINGER:Thank you. You€ll be informed in writing of this decision today. LIM:Thank you very much. BALOG:Thank you. SPRINGER:You€re welcome. This discussion ended at 11:30 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Lynette Marushige, West Hawaii Secretary EXHIBIT C 5