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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2010-12-15 TCAITANOexhibitA LEEWARD PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAI‘I HEARING TRANSCRIPT DECEMBER 15, 2010 TYSON AND SANDRA CAITANO (SPP 10- A regularly advertised hearing on the application of 109) was called to order at 9:55 a.m. in the King Kamehameha's Kona Beach Hotel, Ballroom I, 75- 5660 Palani Road, Kailua-Kona, Hawai‘i, with Chairman Frederic Housel presiding. COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Frederic Housel, Brandi Beaudet, Lani Bowman, Geraldine Giffin, Thomas Hickcox, Wayne Iokepa and Richard Nelson STAFF PRESENT: Brandon Gonzalez (Deputy Corporation Counsel), BJ Leithead Todd (Planning Director), Daryn Arai (Planning Program Manager) and Jeff Darrow (Staff And approximately 30 people from the public in attendance. APPLICANT: TYSON AND SANDRA CAITANO (SPP 10-109) Special Permit to operate an automotive maintenance shop on approximately 0.5-acre of land situated within a larger 2-acre parcel located within the State Land Use Agricultural District. The property is located along the northwest corner of Highway 19 (Mmalahoa Highway) and Alanui nd Ohana Place within Pu‘ukapu Homesteads, 2 Series, South Kohala, Hawai‘i, TMK: 6-4-17:portion of 19. HOUSEL: I’ll go ahead, Jeff, with our next agenda item, is the applicant is Tyson and Sandra Caitano –I hope I said that right. This is a special permit to operate an automotive maintenance shop on approximately half an acre of land situated within a larger 2-acre parcel located within the State Land Use Agricultural District. Now, if anyone would like to provide testimony on this item, please fill out one of these forms that the staff will give you, and we’ll give you the opportunity to testify. Allen, are you doing the job? Let me introduce you. This is Allen Salavea. I didn’t introduce him at first –because I didn’t know you were going to be the man – but he is a planner with the Planning Department. So please proceed. SALAVEA: Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good morning, Commissioners. COMMISSIONERS: Good morning. SALAVEA: Please bear with me. I’m sorry, I’m getting over a cold. So if I sound a little hoarse this morning, I’m doing my best. This is a special permit application, SPP 10-0000109, Tyson and Sandra Caitano. This is a location map. The subject property is located along in the same area as the previous application. In the blue area, you can see lands designated as County zoning Ag-40, and the light green, Ag-5, and the subject property is located on approximately two acres, two-acre parcel,within the Ag-40 designation. Running east to west, view. As you can see, all adjacent parcels are zoned Ag-40. Its access is onAlanui Ohana Place. An aerial photo of the area shows the subject parcel with a single-family dwelling with a detached garage. 1 EXHIBIT A The applicant is requesting a special permit to legitimize an existing automotive repair business within an existing 1,768-square foot detached agricultural storage building on approximately half an acre of land situated within a larger two-acre parcel. Their driveway access from Alanui Ohana. This is the residence here and the detached garage. Site anui Ohana Place. The detached garage, the interior. Another perspective within the garage area. Planning Director has determined the proposed request will adversely affect surrounding properties and substantially alter or change the essential character of the land and is in conflict with the General Plan goals and policies and is in conflict with the South Kohala Community Development Plan. Planning Director is recommending denial of this special permit application. Just to clarify for Commissioners, we did receive a communication from the applicants’ representative stating that the second paragraph of the recommendation was incorrect, where it stated that the applicant was requesting to legitimize an existing automotive repair business. The applicant did not, was never served with a notice of violation, and was only served with a warning; so therefore, the Department concurred with that assertation by the applicant. And this communication was circulated to all of you. General Plan LUPAG Map –it’s designated as Rural. And the South Kohala CDP Conceptual Map – the subject property is located in this area. Although it is surrounded by the small farms and ranches program area, it is not located within that – it’s right in this little sliver of yellow. BOWMAN: I’m sorry, and what is that little sliver? SALAVEA: During the -. BOWMAN: I mean, what’s the designation? SALAVEA: The designations for the yellow during the South Kohala CDP development was these yellow areas were identified where residential development had already occurred, and so the likelihood of -. Basically, these lands were parceled; so they weren’t of the scale in size to be able to adequately support large scale agriculture. BOWMAN: So, the same for that little sliver then. SALAVEA: Yeah, here. BOWMAN: And that -. SALAVEA: And in here, here, here, so these are all the parceled lands -. BOWMAN: Parceled lands. SALAVEA: Yeah, into smaller than what the community considered to be, you know, agriculturally viable. 2 EXHIBIT A BOWMAN: Thank you. HOUSEL: Any other questions, Commissioners? Allen, could you go back to the Land Use map? Now, are these colors consistent with the previous line, too? Are they the same, or are these different? SALAVEA: No, these are different colors from the zoning map. HOUSEL: Okay. What do these colors mean? SALAVEA: These colors represent the future land growth patterns for the area. So this is Intensive Ag designated lands and this is Rural. And so the future plans for this area is to keep this area in the Rural designation and not to develop. HOUSEL: Okay, so the gold would be Rural and the light green would be Intensive Ag, is that correct? SALAVEA: Sorry, Important Ag. HOUSEL: Important Ag, okay, okay. BOWMAN: And the reason being that they are parceled lands. SALAVEA: No, this LUPAG designation map has to do with the General Plan and not the Community Development Plan. LEITHEAD TODD: I might add. During the last round of the General Plan amendments, the Department and the prior Director looked at existing uses, and many lands that were in Agriculture through various prior actions, had been subdivided into smaller lots. And so, in kind of recognition of the residential nature of those areas, but wanting to keep them somewhat consistent with anon- urban area, the decision was to classify a lot of them as Rural to kind of designate them as a combination of residential with maybe small-scale agriculture on those lots. HOUSEL: Okay, thank you. GIFFIN: Mr. Chairman? HOUSEL: Commissioner Giffin. GIFFIN: Allen, could you go to the next slide? Yeah, okay. On that map, is it possible for you to indicate areas that are in receipt of special use permits currently in relationship to the subject property? SALAVEA: I’m sorry, Commissioner Giffin, we don’t have that map available to overlay against this map. GIFFIN: Okay. 3 EXHIBIT A HOUSEL: Thank you, Allen – unless we have other questions. Anyone? Okay. We have seven people who would like to testify. I think perhaps before I call the applicant, it might be appropriate to have public testimony and perhaps if any questions arise, maybe the applicant can help us understand those. So I’d like to – if we can have the lights back up –call the first, it looks like we have four microphones available at the table: Norris Gonsalves, Arte McCollough, Cheryl Fujioka and Marlene Correia-Martinez. If you could come forward, please. Thank you. If each could use the microphone – I need to swear you in. Please raise your right hand. Do you swear to tell the truth before the Planning Commission today on this matter? TESTIFIERS: Yes, I do. HOUSEL: Thank you. I guess we’ll start on this side, if you’d like to -. We have to limit your testimony to three minutes because we’ve got a tight schedule today. But please state your name and address, please. CORREIA-MARTINEZ: Okay, my name is Marlene Correia-Martinez. And I’m a resident in Kamuela on Alanui ‘Ohana Road for ten-plus years now. The reason I’m here, and I’d like to share a little bit about my thoughts with this automotive shop, is we feel, all the residents on our street, feel that it’s, there will be no problem, you know, it wouldn’t be a problem to us, as far as the noise factor, anything like that, because there’s cows, there’s horses, and we don’t think that the automotive shop would be even close to the cows and horses and all of that as far as the sound goes. And lastly – let’s see – we welcome this business on our road. And nothing, I don’t know of anything that really is consistent. And so if there is an approval on this automotive shop, it will be welcomed. HOUSEL: Thank you. Could you state your name and address, please? FUJIOKA: Hi. I’m Cheryl Fujioka and I’m also from Waimea on McMillan Subdivision, a little bit down the road. I’ll be honest. I don’t know a lot about the legalities of Ag lands special use permits. But while I was receiving my education here in Hawai‘i with children, I heard that local kids have just as much talent and are as just valuable as any other kids from around the world; but in my experience I’ve seen many of my peers leave the islands for lack of opportunity and lack of support. But here I see someone who has the opportunity and has ample support to build his dream. When I look at these maps, I’m naïve and I don’t understand the Ag zones, the colors; but I see someone who has a dream and who can make it possible with the okay of this. So I’m asking if you can please grant him the special use permit, and not only to serve it to him as to build his dream but also as a reminder to future generations that it is possible to be successful in a place that we love, doing something we love, surrounded by the people we love. HOUSEL: Thank you. GONSALVES: Good morning. HOUSEL: State your name and address, please. GONSALVES: Norris Gonsalves. I live on Nani Waimea Street, adjacent to this property. I agree with what they have been saying. It’s a two-acre parcel. The residence has been there for a while. They have raised cattle, pigs, nothing could make a go. I think if they were planning for a tractor repair shop in this ag, which I think they are going to be doing some of that work, so I think maybe 4 EXHIBIT A we should look at not only automotive but what else they are going to be providing for this neighborhood. So maybe the approval should be not only for automotive but for tractor repair, because there are adjacent farms right next to it. So I approve, and I see no reason why you should say no, because it’s for the community and the area. Thank you. HOUSEL: Thank you. MCCOLLOUGH: Good morning. My name is Arte McCollough and I live in Waimea where I’ve been since 1979. I noticed that Commissioner Giffin asked where some other special use permits are in the area. Less than a eighth of a mileaway, there is a special use permit for an automotive business;it’s on Kauakea Street – if you can get closer, it’s a next street over to the left on the second lot back, the five-acre parcel – that business is Tow Guys. And there’s also Arte Service. Arte Service was formed in the early ’80’s; one day while I was sitting down, saying what am I going to name my business, and my first name is Arte, so it became Arte Service. I’ve since retired – my son has taken it over. He operates the business by a special use permit. He has eleven employees. It is a service to the community. I also feel that Mr. Caitano and his son can offer the same type of service with the same type of integrity, I think which is really important. So I highly approve the request. And as many of you know, there’s a lot of places around here that people will not come and apply for a special use permit but will operate without integrity. I think the Caitanos have integrity. I know their history. So I highly recommend approval. Thank you. HOUSEL: Thank you. Yeah, if you’d like to be seated. We have three more people who would like to testify. It looks like, sorry, if I get it wrong, Kevin Kim, Terrence Ishikawa and Alika Lincoln. Would you come forward, please? Would you please use the microphone and raise your right hand, please. Do you swear to tell the truth now before the Planning Commission on this matter today? TESTIFIERS: I do. HOUSEL: Thank you. If you could start on my left here, your right. If you could give your name and address, please. ISHIKAWA: My name is Terrence Ishikawa. I live on Nuuanu Street in Waimea. And I’m here to testify in favor of granting the special use permit. Waimea is a growing community. And at the present time the only facility that we have, you know, legal facility, is the Lex Brodie Tire Center in the Parker Ranch Shopping Center, and they are mainly a tire dealer doing repairs on the side. And I think our community needs more businesses such as this automotive repair business, because if you choose not to goto Lex Brodie, you need to drive to Hilo or you need to drive to Kona, and you know that’s a long drive. And another plus that I see because I live on the Honoka‘a east side of town, is that the business would be on our side of town, so you don’t have to go into town, you know, something close by. And from what I understand, part of their service will be to pick up and deliver cars, you know, say, in proximity, certain proximity. And I think this would be an advantage for the elderly, the senior citizens, you know, whereas you don’t have to take your car into town and either wait around or find a ride back home;someone will come pick up your car, they repair, then bring it back. I see no downside to this facility, and I urge that you approve the request. Thank you. HOUSEL: Thank you. 5 EXHIBIT A LINCOLN: My name is Alika Lincoln. I’ve lived in Waimea for the last 32 years. I’m not a public speaker, so please bear with me. What I am happy about is most of the points that I had on my mind have been said already. So I’d like to talk a little bit about my experience with mechanics in Waimea. In the period of time that I’ve lived in Waimea, I must have had twelve different mechanics. It seems that there’s a lot of people that come and try to get into business but they don’t stay long. It’s either because – of the twelve mechanics I’ve had, maybe a half of them were great, some of them were very bad – but it’s not because they were bad that they lost business but a lot of people went out of business because their rent kept going up on them. I have two mechanic friends of mine – that is exactly what happened to them. And for those who had no roots, they weren’t even here for a short time and they moved on. This family has been in Waimea for a long time. Tyson Caitano, Jr., born and raised in Waimea – he is a wonderful young man. He decided to go to school, become a mechanic. That was his love. He graduated as the top of his class. He did such a good job there that I already picked him up in a first choice to take a location, and he ended up in a prime spot of Las Vegas. As we all know, Las Vegas is not doing well; he ended up coming home. So now here we have a young man born and raised in Waimea, his roots are here. He’s not going to be leaving like a lot of the mechanics that we have all known in the past. He’s going to be here to stay. He has high work ethics. He is an outstanding young man. He was a swimmer in high school, which takes a lot of dedication, as it is a single-man sport. He has also accomplished a black-belt martial art status, and that all takes determination and humbleness. So I think that he will be an asset to our community. And I hope that you’ll all consider that it will be good for us – not only for him, for the wide community at large. I have personally had to take a 120-mile trip to take my car to Hilo to get it repaired. That’s when you can drive it. When you can’t drive it, you have to have it towed. So it will be a great asset to our community. Please support him. Thank you. HOUSEL: Thank you. KIM: I’m Kevin Kim. I own the property right next to Tyson on the second lot in. And I think, well, for me, I totally agree with all the testimony that was previous to me. And the one thing that I want to address: If there is concern about traffic, I don’t think traffic will be at all negative because of this shop. If you take a look at the road, you can probably see a half mile east or west on that road; so as far as safety-wise, it’s a great location for turning in and out of Alanui ‘Ohana Road. And as far as noise, I live right next to him and I live in agricultural land, although it’s two acres on a 40-acre lot that was subdivided prior to me buying it. But I’ve been there 27 years. And I really think that the noise level will not be as loud as the cattle, as my horses or as the chickens. There are about 100 chickens right across the street. So these sounds, of course, I like, that’s why I live out there. And I don’t see the auto shop, being that it operates during the day,being any inconvenience to anyone on our strip. Of course, across the street is all, if you look real closely, it’s ag land almost all the way around. And I hope that the Commission will approve this application for the automotive shop. Thank you. HOUSEL: Thank you for your testimony. Is there anyone else who would like to testify today on this issue? If you would like to return to your seats, go ahead. Thank you. Planning Director. LEITHEAD TODD: Commissioners, I do want to bring your attention to the letter from the Waimea Community Association in support of the application, and just make a comment that if there was not a South Kohala CDP, the Department’s recommendation would have been favorable for the special use permit. And I think the Commission could take a look at whether the Waimea community which -. You know, the process of adopting CDP’s tends to be, it’s an attempt to try and place where you want things in the future, but frequently in that process it reflects the people 6 EXHIBIT A who show up to work on it, and it doesn’t necessarily always reflect the wishes of smaller communities. In this case, you have the neighbors, you have a petition, I think, which has been submitted, and you also have the Waimea Community Association in support of that. The difficulty for the Department was that there was inconsistency with the South Kohala CDP. So those are the things that you need to weigh. HOUSEL: Okay, thank you. Could we call the applicant, please? Good morning. Could you please use the microphone and raise your right hand? Do you swear to tell the truth now before the Leeward Planning Commission on this matter today? APPLICANTS: I do. HOUSEL: Thank you. Have you received the background information and the recommendation from the Planning Director? CAITANO SR.: Yes, we have. HOUSEL: Okay. Would you like to comment on, or add any detail to your plan? CAITANO SR.: Yes. I’m Tyson Caitano, Sr., requesting a special use permit. I’m grateful for all the testimony that came in. And you do have a copy of our petition that we pursued. In pursuing this petition, we just got a notice that they may, land use recommended a denial, so we said, okay, let’s go talk to the neighbors. And the first thing we did was walk down our street, Alanui ‘Ohana Place. We went to every single neighbor and got overwhelming approval; they were all in favor of us doing the business. We said, well, let’s go to the neighbor subdivisions, see what they think. We started pounding doors in a neighbor subdivision – same response, overwhelming approval, they want to see us in this venture, they need it. I hope you had a brief chance to read through the comments of the petition. But they were, like,ecstatic. We had people driving to our house and saying, can I sign your petition. And we put this together in about three days. Had we had more time, we would have ventured further; we only covered like a mile radius from our property. All that said, I want to address the ag use thing that seems to be a real hang-up in our area. My wife and I have lived there for over 31 years, have never pursued an active ag venture, not in farming or live stock. We tried and it didn’t work; the lot is way too small to sustain live stock. We didn’t know too much about farming. Ironically, the meeting with Waimea Association and Design Committee suggested and recommended that if you get approval, we would like to see you landscape your frontage in order to break up the looks of a commercial building. My wife says that if we’ve got to plant, why not plant something we can market. So she says why not plant ilima, we can sell it for leis. Bird of Paradise, everybody takes that to the supermarket, you know, other flowers, some trees. If we’ve got to spend the energy, the time and the money to water these plants, let’s sell it, and let’s make a little bucks on it. So if, it looks like, if we get approval, you guys are going to turn me into a farmer basically, because I’m going to basically start planting the frontage of my property with something other than just shrubs and bushes to hide behind; I would rather make an income, if I’ve got to spend for the water. That’s my thoughts on the ag versus commercial setting. We had comments: Why don’t you move your operation to Kawaihae, they’ve got commercial space there available. Kawaihae will not service our community; if the people go and drive to Kawaihae and leave their cars there, they might as well go to Hilo or Kona –at least they are 7 EXHIBIT A shopping in Hilo or Kona. Kawaihae will not suit our purpose, because it wouldn’t help our community in any way. There is West Hawai‘i Concrete area; they have commercial space out there – the dust, the noise. The type of work my son does, he details cars, and he needs a clean environment, which we built on our property that would be sufficient, for West Hawai‘i would be way too difficult to run his kind of operation. A security thing is a big deal with my son – security of the customers, cars and security of his equipment. Auto shops around Waimea have been shutting down for one reason or another. My son wants to try and provide this service to our community. We think it’s a very needed service within our area. He is qualified. He is confident. He has expertise. He can do this, given a chance. We ask for your approval. Thank you. HOUSEL: Thank you. Would you like to make a comment? CAITANO JR.: Yes. Some of the things in the County’s recommendation for denial was about rural-ness, keeping the area rural. As you can see in the pictures on the slide show, we’ve constructed the building, or our shop, to mimic or duplicate our existing dwelling; it’s not a metal structure with heating and A/C. There are no huge exterior lights. A lot of the vehicles that pass by ask what it is, because they can’t tell if it’s, you know, a shop. So as far as keeping the area rural and, how do you say, un-urbanized, I think that’s not an issue here, because the building itself is very aesthetically pleasing compared to a lot of commercial buildings that you see. Like my dad was saying, the reason that I’d like to be a home-base business is because security is a big factor for me. The type of vehicles that I’ve been working on in the past few years, are usually higher-end European or Asian, even domestic vehicles. And the commercial areas that are available to us within the reasonable radius don’t have the security measures that I would need to lock up not only my equipment but especially our customers’ property; some people, you know, I have customers that drop off their cars with purses still in them, you know, all their belongings, and that’s the trust that they put into us as a family to take care of their things while their vehicles being maintained or serviced. As far as noise – I’d like to thank all my neighbors for testifying that – as far as noise levels, we have animals all four sides of our building to the west, east, there’s live stock, across the street is live stock, all open. Within an aerial map I took last night, within 500 feet, there’s only five houses within 500 feet, within 1,000 feet is eleven buildings. So as far as noise and traffic, the effect will be very minimal, you know, to our area, our surrounding area. Like my dad said, as far as being agricultural land, we plan on, if we do get approved, on planting marketable produce and floral to even make this piece of property more agricultural-oriented. That’s all I have to say now. Thank you. HOUSEL: Thank you. Would you like to make a statement? MIKKELSON: Iwould just stay here to answer questions, if there are any, if they’d like me to help. HOUSEL: Okay. Commissioners, do you have any questions of the applicants? GIFFIN: I do. HOUSEL: Commissioner Giffin. 8 EXHIBIT A GIFFIN: First of all, I’d like to say that I really appreciate the people who testified. Some of you I know, some of you I don’t know even though I’ve lived in the community for over 40 years. But I do appreciate your comments and they are really well taken, in particular, Mr. Kim’s comments. The reason I bring him up is because -.Mr. Caitano, you said you received the background report and the recommendation? CAITANO JR.: Yes. CAITANO SR.: Yes, the recommendation for denial? GIFFIN: Yes. CAITANO SR.: Yes. GIFFIN: I wondered if you would take out the goldenrod copy that I have in front of me, which is the recommendation, and turn to Page 2. MIKKELSON: We actually received ours by email -. GIFFIN: Oh, so it’s not color, okay, I get it. If you turn to Page 2, Mr. Caitano, you’ll see midway, or maybe from the beginning, you’ll see, “The use would adversely affect surrounding properties and substantially alter or change the essential character of the land and the present use.” The next paragraph below it, there is a summary of why the Director has recommended denial, and there were specifically three that she brings up. The first one is the increase of traffic. And I think that Mr. Kim said something about traffic and he pointed out that the road where it was in relationship to that road has traffic, especially during peak traffic time. The second reason that the Director mentions is, creating noise. And in addition to the traffic, Mr. Kim did mention noise, and I think your son mentioned the surrounding animals and those things making more noise, they felt, than your proposed business. The third reason was what was described in the paragraph above, which is in essence substantially changing the rural character of the land and its present use. I wondered if you could go into more detail about those three reasons and why those reason are not such big reasons for denial in your opinion. To me, that will really help us in making the decision. Not that I’m minimizing anybody else who gave public testimony prior, but we need to go back to the reasons why the Director is recommending denial. CAITANO SR.: Yes. Noise level, the biggest thing about automotive shop is a compressors running, impact tools going off all day long. Our compressor is situated in an enclosed structure. It’s brand new, so it’s not a clunker compressor. It’s on demand use, on and off switch, in other words, when he needs the air, he turns it on; the rest of the day it’s off and it doesn’t run. Typically, he would charge his compressor in the morning. The compressor is big enough to sustain his work throughout the day. The compressor would not be running after that. That is the biggest noise that he would be making in the shop. I would be more worried about his radio, but that’s another thing. I can get him to turn the volume down on the radio. CAITANO JR.: I’d like to extend on that a little. My dad doesn’t know that there’s a few technical things about, as far as the compressor. I researched quite a bit before purchasing the compressor. It’s a two-stage pump unit cast iron which -. In the olden days the single-stage units were the ones that you hear as you pass commercial buildings that are really, really loud –they often shake metal structures just charging up. This two-stage unit creates less than 69 decibels. With the surrounded 9 EXHIBIT A enclosure that it’s in, once the doors are closed, even when I’m inside the building and – we’ve needed air, you know, for nail guns for construction of this building – you can barely hear it even from inside of the building. So as far as being in another house, let alone ours, the noise is very minimal. I’ve stated to the Waimea community that I can limit my use of impact tools, if it was necessary. Nowadays, for a lot of vehicles, it’s often impossible, or not allowed to use impact tools on the vehicles. I don’t do any bodywork at all whatsoever; so there are no grinders in my toolbox, there are no sanders, as far as pneumatic noise. Any other shop noise that would be heard by our neighbors would only be bringing in and out the four vehicles a day, you know, if even that – that’s a maximum I’m allowing, you know, if I do get granted, to move through the shop per day. CAITANO SR.: That addresses the noise factor. The traffic, yes, there is a concern about traffic. There is no left-turn lane over there. So exit and entry of our street, traffic would increase definitely – but by how much? I mean he is a one-man operation and he’s maxed out at four cars a day to do service. So he can work on, say, maximum four or five cars a day, going in and out our street, which I think might add like ten minutes maximum to the traffic level going in and out. Chances are he won’t even do four cars a day, but -. CAITANO JR.: I’d like to add to that again, really quick. Another service to help, prevent added traffic to the road – me and my dad working together on this construction of the building, have come up with a few ways to limit the traffic;we would create pick-up and drop-off of customer vehicles. So, whereas a lot of shops will have constant traffic coming in, riding up and exiting, customers picking up their vehicles, we would actually work together to, our contacted customer – and a lot of times, nowadays, people can’t, they work six days a week, it’s hard to find time to take off a full day, you know, supporting a family, half day, full day to wait at the shop and wait until your vehicle is finished – so we would actually contact the customer and pick up their vehicle from their work. So this is me driving in and out their vehicle, not multiple customers coming in and out a day; this is me myself or my dad driving one vehicle in and/or out, you know, to limit traffic on our road and on the highway. CAITANO SR.: In short, yeah, we will increase some of the traffic on our street, but traffic would be off peak hours; we wouldn’t be moving cars during the school traffic or the afternoon traffic. It will more likely be in the middle of the day, early afternoon. Third concern is the appearance of ag land. Like I mentioned earlier, if we get approved, the whole front of my property, the whole half acre in ourfront, is going to be flowers, probably. Waimea Design Committee said, you know, we suggest and we recommend you do some planting – that’s a nice way of saying you will. And I will. Thank you. HOUSEL: Thank you. Commissioner Bowman. BOWMAN: Just a quick question. I’m glad you clarified about off-peak traffic, picking up the cars. You mentioned that you may be doing vehicle checks, safety checks. That would increase the traffic, right? CAITANO JR.: Correct. BOWMAN: Do you know how many places in Waimea do vehicle checks? Just out of curiosity. 10 EXHIBIT A CAITANO JR.: I’m not exactly sure of the number. As of right now, I know for sure Shell Service Station would be the one that I know legally that does safety inspections. I know there are a few other places, but judging by the amount of community members that we literally have –we are actually still in the construction stage of the building – sometimes we have offers of ten people that we don’t even know in the community, stop by and ask if we are going to do, when we are opening, or if we are going to do safety inspections because they can’t find any place to do them. It’s in my intent to, once, if we do get legally operational, to pursue to be a legal safety inspection station on this side of town, because currently there are no known areas, you know, or stations, to get inspected at. BOWMAN: Would you, if it was a condition – I’m just saying – to do them during off-peak hours, would that be a problem for you? CAITANO JR.: Probably not. Most of, like I said, most of our repairs, maintenance or services would be by contacting a customer and setting appointments. So we can, it’s up to -. BOWMAN: But for the safety check I’m talking about. CAITANO JR.: It’s up to, you know, I’m open to suggestions as far as, you know, when would be best or -. BOWMAN: Because I do know that there is a place down in Kawaihae where they only do safety checks a certain amount of hours, I think because they are busy working on other things. So I just was, you know, asking you if that would be something you would consider. CAITANO SR.: My son is getting confused. But the safety check issue, yes, we did explore this. And if he wants to do a safety check by the book, by the laws, by the regulation, it takes an hour to do one car – this is by the book. You’ve got to pull all the tires off, you’ve got to do a lot of things in order to pass the safety check according to the regulations that they have. It takes an hour. So he doesn’t want to be a safety check station that comes in, check, check, check, check, check, check, press the sticker on, drive off. It’s not going to be that kind of station. He would have appointments. You have to come in at this, this is your hour, we are going to go through your car, we are going to make sure it’s road safety-wise according to the regulations. I don’t think we are going to have a lot of people coming to his station because of that reason. The people who are concerned and really want a true safety check will be his customers, and that would be by appointment only and only during off-peak hours. Yes, that’s what his intent is. BOWMAN: Thank you. HOUSEL: Are there any other -? Commissioner Giffin, do you want to ask -? GIFFIN: Yeah, there was some discussion, and I think that you were the ones that came out and said that you did not appreciate the comment in the second paragraph about how this business was operating illegally. Oh, I know, “The applicants are requesting a Special Permit to legitimize an existing automotive repair business …,” and I think in your comments you took great umbrage to that, is that correct? CAITANO SR.: Yes. We was never an ongoing repair shop, never. We got a letter warning us that we’d better not do this. So we was kind of taken by with the fact that we’re not doing it, how 11 EXHIBIT A come we got this letter, we’re not doing it. Well, in case you do it, you’d better not do it. We was always under the intention of first acquiring a permit to perform this business – that was our intent from the get-go, from the beginning, we’re going to get aspecial use permit; if we get approved, we are open for business. But we was never doing repairs prior to that. Some people dispute that, because we have a lift, car lift there; the whole shop is set up like a mechanic shop ready to go. Give my son a car lift, and he’s got to play with it. So he put our cars on it, he put his friends’ cars on it, he put his classmates’ cars on it, I mean, you know, so people assumed that we was doing business. But we, in fact, weren’t. He was just playing with his lift basically. HOUSEL: Any other questions? Thank you for your testimony. You can remain where you are, if you’d like. Would anyone like to make a motion? BOWMAN: I would just like to make a comment before we make a motion. And I do believe, I’m glad that the Planning Director clarified the, I guess, discrepancy with the CDP and also the Waimea Community Association; it clarified in my mind why the denial was put out. But I would like to make a motion that we approve, but we need to make some conditions, so -. GIFFIN: That’s right. And so my question, Mr. Chairman, is of the staff and of the Director that if we make a motion that is contrary to what has been recommended, how do we go about including conditions that should be included, if we are going to do anything that’s contrary to what the Director has recommended. GONZALEZ: Okay, the motion, to get the discussion going, will probably be to approve Special Permit No. –whatever the number is – the grounds,because the Department has recommended denial, you’d have to supply your grounds. For example, you would probably make a motion saying, “move to approve Special Permit No. SPP 10-109 based upon the overwhelming public testimony in support of the application that the requested use may be unusual but is reasonable, is desired by the community and would serve the community, with the standard applicable conditions to apply to the special permit.” And if the staff needs time to come up with some of the standard applicable conditions, so they can read it for you folks to consider, I think they would be appreciative. GIFFIN: Okay, so maybe we should call for recess? HOUSEL: Well, I’d like to keep going, if we can. GIFFIN: Oh, I know, but if the staff needs time. We want to make sure that -. HOUSEL: Does the staff need more time to do this? ARAI: Well, I’ve been busy working away on the sidelines, but I do have some conditions that I’ve prepared. I can offer them for your consideration. And again, I’ll be just paraphrasing and summarizing, and if you allow staff the discretion, should this permit be approved, to fine-tune the language after the hearing. With that being said, some suggested conditions would be, like the first condition would be typical: The applicant, successors or assigns shall be responsible for complying with all stated conditions of approval. Condition No. 2 could be: Provide daily water use calculations as required by the Department of Public Works, and install a larger water meter, if required by the Department of Public Works. No. 3 is: Install a reduced pressure backflow prevention device as recommended -. 12 EXHIBIT A LEITHEAD TODD: Mr. Arai, you mean by Department of Water Supply on the water meters, right, instead of Public Works? ARAI: I’m sorry, I’ve been saying Public Works, you are right – Department of Water Supply for both. Condition No. 4 could be: The requirement for final plan approval of the automotive maintenance facility, and included in that is a requirement that a landscaping buffer as required by the Waimea Community Association shall be provided along the . We are looking at Condition No. 5, which is to: Secure the public building permits to convert the existing building into an automotive maintenance facility within one year from the date of issuance of final plan approval. Condition No. 7: A restriction that no more than four vehicles for repair shall be permitted at the site at any one time. Something to consider is that no vehicles shall be parked on the shoulder of the highway fronting the property, and that the vehicles in repair shall be parked within the garage after work hours – that is something you can clarify with the applicant if it’s something that can be accommodated. I was contemplating a condition that restricts exterior signs but, you know, consider that option because if you are saying that it is a proper use, you know, as a business, then a sign should be appropriate for the particular property. We also have a condition: Operation shall be limited to the hours of 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Monday to Friday, and Saturday from 8:00 to 4:00, as represented by the applicant. Condition No. 9: Comply with applicable State, County and Federal requirements. Condition No. 10, we have a condition that: Should there be a complaint, that the applicant will make their best efforts to try to resolve the complaint, and if the applicant fails, then this permit may be suspended or revoked. And finally, Condition No. 11 is your standard time extension condition. So those are some of the suggestions that we can offer to you. And the Planning Director may elaborate as well. LEITHEAD TODD: And I just want to note that you have another request after this for an existing business, which previously had a time limit, and the recommendation on the next one is that they just have, you know, an additional three years in order to move. Now, in order to have some consistency in Waimea, I think you have to take a look at not just the current application but also kind of have in mind in fairness to other applicants what you are going to do. HOUSEL: Right, right. Daryn, sorry I was trying to listen to all of those, but did you include the recommendations that regarding the landscaping from the Community Association? ARAI: Yes, I did. HOUSEL: Okay, good, good. GIFFIN: Mr. Chairman, I’d like to ask Daryn another question. So getting back to what the Director just said, would we be putting in a time in terms of the life of this permit? ARAI: It is totally at the Commission’s discretion at this point. As the Director noted, Tow Guys which is located just to the east of the property does have a term life. DeLuz which is about a mile further east also has a term life to the permit. These permits were established years ago with the intention that eventually they would, sort of like sunset, and then, you know, transition to locations more appropriate within the Waimea area, which is primarily the town center. So it’s at the discretion of the Commission; if they would like to place term limits similar to those other permits that were established, or by just not providing a term limit, then it’s a permitted use for, it will run with the land basically forever, so -. 13 EXHIBIT A GIFFIN: I think it would behoove us to be consistent. And also I think that, especially in the next agenda item,there were specific reasons for the three-year extension, you know, and I think that we should be consistent. My other concern is with the applicants and whether or not they’ve had a chance to digest all of the conditions that you just went over. And so once again, I really think we should just take a little recess, maybe you can go ahead and speak to the applicants, because we are saying that they are going to agree, if this is what we vote on right now, and I don’t know if that’s fair to the applicants. I mean we get it because we do this all the time, but I want to make sure that they do and they know what they are agreeing to. BOWMAN: Just one more comment. I think if we are looking for consistency, we may want to put in the no-exterior-signs. Just a comment. BEAUDET: Comment, comment, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair? HOUSEL: Yes. BEAUDET: Would it be more reasonable to just request for the applicant to ask for a continuance so that the recommended conditions can be done sufficiently and they would have sufficient time to review and we could reconvene at a later date and time. HOUSEL: Let’s ask. Would you consider a continuance so that we can put all the conditions together so you have adequate time to review them? CAITANO SR.: Yes, sure. GONZALEZ: The other option is, if the staff can do it, they can sit with the applicant and show them the conditions in writing while the Commission takes up other business in the meantime, and then we’ll just recall their case, because they might want to take care of it today so they can start moving along and getting their business going. So that’s another option available to the Commission and the applicant. ARAI: I think usually the largest hurdle in situations like this, is for staff to clearly understand the grounds for approval of the permit. Now, your counsel spoke eloquently and offered suggestions for your consideration, and that’s something again that could help us. And again, I think we are quite far along with some of the conditions, again if you allow us the liberty of fine-tuning the language. But a lot of these languages that I cited to you were incorporated in past permits. In fact, I lifted a lot of these conditions from your next application, DeLuz, you know, so anyway -. And then to address Commissioner Bowman’s question about exterior signage, and again the Planning Director may want to jump in as well, I mean what you are approving here basically is a business, okay, so as would any other business, you know, there should be a reasonable opportunity to advertise like you would any other business. If this was being reviewed similar to a home occupation, which is something that normally you wouldn’t have sense that there was something going on inside of our residence, then I can see a restriction on signs; but everything I’ve seen to date seems to be indicating that you want to approve this as a business, and therefore as a business they should be provided an opportunity to sign their property. And, then that’s my thoughts and maybe the Director may want to jump in, if she disagrees – but for your consideration. 14 EXHIBIT A HOUSEL: Okay, well, I want to ask the applicant. Would you like to see if we can complete this today, or would you rather carry it over? CAITANO SR.: Everyone seems to be worried about us. We understand the conditions. We understand the conditions. We’ve been through the conditions several times already, so -. Water Department requirements, I was, in fact, my very good friend, Norris Gonsalves, who testified, said, you know, you’re going to need one backflow preventer, and I said okay, okay, we’ll do that. But all other conditions are acceptable. We understand them. It’s clear in my mind. Yeah, we are ready to go. HOUSEL: Okay, okay. Commissioners, are you comfortable with that? Okay. Commissioner Giffin. GIFFIN: I am definitely in favor of it. But, Mr. Gonzalez, do we need to have any kind of motion at this point, or do we wait until everything is spelled out as we go along with the next agenda item? GONZALEZ: I don’t think so, because I felt that the thrust of your concern is making sure the applicants knew what they were agreeing to. They’ve been given ample opportunity on the record, they just stated that they heard the conditions, they understand them, they agree to them, and they are ready to move on. So as long as you folks are comfortable, then you can make the motion, have the discussion and make your vote. HOUSEL: Okay, good, thank you. GIFFIN: Then in that regard, I’m ready to make a motion.I move that we approve Special Permit application – and Brandon, I’m going to need your help in terms of the verbiage, thank you – so, I move that we approve the special permit application, 10-109, based upon the public testimony, the strong public testimony in support of this application, that the requested use may be unusual but is reasonable and desired by the community and would serve our community well, with the standard, applicable conditions as stated by our staff – do I say that, Brandon? Okay. So I guess I’m waiting for a second. HOUSEL: Okay, do we have a second? IOKEPA: Second. HOUSEL: Thank you, Commissioner Iokepa. Any discussion? Okay. Daryn, would you like to take the roll? ARAI: Sure, thank you. Commissioner Giffin? GIFFIN: Aye. ARAI: Commissioner Iokepa? IOKEPA: Aye. ARAI: Commissioner Beaudet? 15 EXHIBIT A BEAUDET: Aye. ARAI: Commissioner Bowman? BOWMAN: Aye. ARAI: Commissioner Hickcox? HICKCOX: Aye. ARAI: Commissioner Nelson? NELSON: Before I make my vote, I’d just like to express how engaging in dialogue by today’s action was, something very outstanding, and I appreciate that. And I support the motion. ARAI: And Mr. Chairman? HOUSEL: Aye. ARAI: Mr. Chairman, motion carries with seven aye votes. HOUSEL: Thank you. And you will receive the full documentation in the mail, and I know Daryn is going to do a wonderful job on it. So thank you very much. Congratulations. The discussion ended at 11:00 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Noriko Sauer, Secretary Leeward Planning Commission 16 EXHIBIT A