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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2009-12-04 THI BREWERYrez 09-000107 WINDWARD PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAI‘I HEARING TRANSCRIPT DECEMBER 4, 2009 HAWAII BREWERY DEVELOPMENT A regularly advertised hearing on the application of CO., INC.’s REZ 09-000107 was called to order at 12:07 p.m. in the County of Hawai‘i, Aupuni Center Conference Room, 101 Pauahi Street, Hilo, Hawai‘i, with Chairman Rell Woodward presiding. PRESENT: Rell Woodward Takashi Domingo Andrew Iwashita Zendo Kern Wallace Ishibashi Brandon Gonzalez, Deputy Corporation Counsel BJ Leithead Todd, Planning Director Warren Lee, Director of Public Works Norman Hayashi, Planning Program Manager Phyllis Fujimoto, Staff Planner Jeff Darrow, Staff Planner Maija Cottle, Staff Planner And 15 people from the public in attendance. APPLICANT: HAWAII BREWERY DEVELOPMENT CO., INC. (REZ 09-000107) Change of Zone from an Agricultural 5-acre (A-5a) to a Family Agricultural 2-acre (FA-2a) district for 7.829 acres of land. The property is located east of Highway 11 (Volcano Highway) and north of Highway 130 (Keaau-Pahoa Highway), Keaau, Puna, Hawai‘i, TMK: 1-6-141:24. WOODWARD: We will go right on to the second part of this. Applicant, Item No. 7, change of zone application. DARROW: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. If I can direct your attention to the presentation. Again, the applicant is Hawaii Brewery Development Co., Inc. They’re requesting a change of zone from Agricultural 5 acres to Family Agricultural 2 acres for approximately 7.8 acres of land. Again, the location is in the Puna District, Keaau area.This is directly next, directly south adjoining the parcel that we had just deliberated on under the special permit. And it is, again, identified with a black outline. I won’t go into great detail. Again, sorry, about the darkness, but this is the particular area. It’s undeveloped at this time. It’s directly next to the water bottling facility. This does show the area of access. They’re identified with the road line. 1 EXHIBIT D The applicant is requesting the change of zone from Agricultural 5 acres to Family Agriculture 2 acres for 7.8 acres of land. The reason for the request is that the parcel is too big for the proposed brewery and soft drink bottling facility. The applicant is proposing the change of zone so they could subdivide this into three lots. This would allow different operators for the brewery and the soft drink bottling facility. They are considering that the brewery could be split into two components. One would be a micro brewery for beer and the other could possibly be for sake. The Planning Department is recommending that the Planning Commission send a favorable recommendation with conditions to the Hawai‘i County Council. Are there any questions? WOODWARD: Thank you. Any questions for Jeff? No. Seeing none, okay, Mr. Fuke. FUKE: Mr. Chairman, I guess I’ve stated it earlier by way of -. My identification, again, Sidney Fuke, Planning Consultant representing the applicant. My only request is that the testimony provided in the previous application be applied to this as well because I understand that the hearing transcript (SEE EXHIBIT 1) gets transmitted to the Council. So in the interest of brevity I would just not say anything more and just leave it that. WOODWARD: It shall be done. FUKE: Thank you. WOODWARD: And do we have any questions on this issue? DARROW: Mr. Chairman? WOODWARD: Yes. DARROW: I’m sorry. Just one matter of clarification. We did send a new set of conditions. WOODWARD: Yes, I saw it, cause you had to cross, that’s on the other one -. Yeah, we got it. DARROW: Thank you. WOODWARD: Okay. And nobody from the public has signed up to testify. Do I hear a motion? Commissioner Domingo. DOMINGO: Mr. Chairman, regarding Hawaii Brewery Development Co., Inc., Change of Zone Application 09-000107, I move that we send a favorable recommendation of approval to the Council with the attached conditions as recommended. KERN: Second. 2 EXHIBIT D WOODWARD: All right. It has been moved and seconded. Any discussion? Commissioner Iwashita. IWASHITA: Yes. My standard community development plan concerns arise here. And I guess I’m joining together with the Director’s raising the question about, you know, doing the Industrial change of zone. Because in my mind, you know, this is really what, it’s either Commercial or Industrial, really is what it should be. And, you know, we’re basically, I guess as I see it we’re creating this little kind of Commercial/Industrial area here; and then if that’s going to be the case then it should be done in a more proper fashion, I guess. And by that I mean incorporate with the community, in the community development plan, and that the proper General Plan changes be made. You know, Mr. Fuke correctly points out that that would be the process that’s necessary in order to get to Commercial or Industrial zoning that would allow these uses. And, basically by coming in with an over -, in at this point, it appears an overbroad special permit application getting, you know, the approval for the 17 acres, and then now come in after-the-fact and subdividing, doing an ag subdivision that allows Commercial/Industrial use - it doesn’t sit well with me in terms of how our planning process is supposed to work. So I have reservations. Okay, those are my reservations. And I really think that, you know, we do want to, I do want to encourage good development. And it should be done, in my mind, in the proper way, so that is my concern. I mean the business plan sounds great, you know, in terms of dividing this up and getting venture capital to support these different businesses. It’s just that from a public policy perspective in terms of land use planning this is a sort of a, well, never saw it done this way before. Okay? That’s my main concern. And so that’s my caution and reservation. Thank you, Mr. Chair. WOODWARD: Okay, thank you, Commissioner Iwashita. Any further comments? All right, seeing none, Jeff, we’ll take the vote, please. DARROW: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The motion before us is to send a favorable recommendation to the Hawai‘i County Council for this application. With that I’ll take the roll. Commissioner Domingo? DOMINGO: Aye. DARROW: Commissioner Kern? KERN: Aye. DARROW: Commissioner Ishibashi? ISHIBASHI: Aye. DARROW: Commissioner Iwashita? IWASHITA: No. 3 EXHIBIT D DARROW: Mr. Chairman? WOODWARD: Aye. DARROW: The motion passes four to one. WOODWARD: All right, thank you. FUKE: Thank you. WOODWARD: We will give a favorable recommendation. You’ll receive a letter in the mail about the other issue, the amendment to your special permit. FUKE: Thank you. The discussion ended at 12:14 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Sharon M. Nomura, Secretary Windward Planning Commission 4 EXHIBIT D