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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024-04-01 PL-SPP-2024-000062 Mamolani King Opposition Testimony To: Windward Planning Commissioners c/o Planning Department. 2 East Hawaii Office C0H APR 0�'1102 40 01r122 2101 Pauahi St. Suite 3 "'"`0``2 Hilo, Hawaii 96720 From: Mamolani King RF0'0 H;AN0 0F1"IVERE P. O. Box 831093 Pepeekeo, Hawaii 96783 Re: Special Permit Application (PL-SPP-2024-000062) CC: �Lpiptestimonv__cz.Hawaiicounty.gou irrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr■ Aloha kakou! I am writing to you to express my adamant opposition to expanding the offensive, unsightly cement eyesore with storage trailer, water tank, porta-potties and a food trailer on TMK(3) 2-8-010:014 next to Akaka Falls State Park. Many of my friends in the neighborhood and acquaintances from the greater East Hawaii community are also opposed to the expansion and commercialization of this parking area and "restaurant". The Special Permit application, PL-SPP-2024-000062 being considered by you, the Windward Planning Commission, is misleading in many, many ways. The project is far from being low impact as it is claimed in the application. Nor would it "retain the essential character of the land". First, on Page 4, lines 7-8 of the special permit application references an 11,500 square foot concrete pad already developed on the property. (This is part of the eyesore mentioned in paragraph one above.) Question: How was this cement pad constructed on state agricultural zoned property to begin with? To repeat throughout the application that the soil within the special permit area is "C" (fair) or "D" (poor) is highly misleading. According to a map included in the application, the sail is rated C. The MRCS (US Department of Agriculture Natural Resourrce Conservation Service considers "prime farmland". I myself farm on soil type "C" with amazing productivity despite no additional inputs such as commercial fertilizer. Tirtha Luitel, the applicant, along with Suresh Neupane, was granted an Agricultural-Based Commercial Operation (ABCO) in August 2020, for a restaurant composed of two mobile food service trailers structurally connected with a covered platform deck. However, on Page 4 of the Special Permit application, lines 16-17 state "construction of the restaurant will likely take at least two years to complete". It seems to me strange that the linking of two mobile food trailers would take so long... unless another type of commercial restaurant is being planned by a future special permit application. Also bothersome here is that the ABC© description by Mr. Luitel anticipated 20 cars per day for 15 parking spaces, and the special permit application as written by Land Planning Hawaii LLC, anticipates only 49 cars all day for 49 parking stalls. (Note here that Land Planning Hawaii LLC is the company which the Director of the Planning Department, Zendo Kern, owns or works for when he is in private practice.) To continue: Most visitors to Akaka Falls stay for less than an hour, which could then total as many as 500 cars in a day in a 49 stall parking lot covering 16,500 square feet. (A little less if the two food trailers occupy eight stalls.) Luitel and Neupane's ABCO plan had two porta-potties for customers of 15 parking spaces. How many more would be needed for as many as one to two thousand parking clients of41-49 parking stalls, not to mention the additional restaurant clients arriving from the state parking lot or parking along the road?. Diamond Parking attendants of the state parking lot have been told that the new commercial lot on the Luitel and Neupane property will be for buses and vans which is not mentioned at all in the special permit application. The original. ABCO permit mentions 10 tables for the two food service trailers. How many more would be needed in the new commercial parking lot, along with water tanks and storage trailers? The supporting clutter of the original ABCO is already horribly visually unsightly, and will only get worse with a larger parking lot. On Page 13, the applicant claims that "the proposed action will retain the essential character of the land..." and I am wondering how this can be done by covering the land with 16,500 square feet of concrete and a mass of porta-potties, food storage trailers, water tanks, buses and vans and 500 cars per day. On Page 13, it is also claimed that the proposed parking lot would support the economy through the purchase of construction materials and labor, estimated at $500,000.... a valuable resource to the community." I would like to point out that "the community" is a large population of struggling local residents who bring their children to "Animal Falls Road" to see farm animals and for a no-cost hike to a spectacular, and to us, a sacred waterfall of overpowering mana. Locals park on the street because they cannot or will not pay for parking. I was told by a parking attendant in the state lot in December that residents had to pay $5 to park and tourists $10, despite the DLNR webste which says that resident parking at Akaka Falls is free. Therefore, my grandsons and I parked along the roadside. Hawaii residents (a.k.a. locals) will continue to park on the road despite an additional paid parking lot until the state fulfills its duty to its constituents and guests by providing proper, fee-less parking in the State Parking Lot. Pages 15 and 16 of the Special Permit application are so full of bogus claims that it is an embarrassment: "No significant visual impacts are expected to occur as the parking lot is low-lying in nature." "With regard to historic sites, although no commissioned archaeological survey of the site was conducted, it is highly unlikely that any historic sites would be found in the special permit area of the property"... because it has already been bull-dozed and partially covered with cement! "The General Plan also emphasizes that developments be mindful of an area's natural beauty"... which is true of the General Plan but not of this expanded commercial parking lot on private agriculturally zoned land. Page 19: See 3H. Valued Cultural Resources..."Specifically, there must be a discussion of the cultural, historical, and natural resources and associated traditional and customary practices of this site." I agree... let's discuss it with people of the land. To continue: "No known archaeological sites, historical, or cultural resources are known to be located on the property" [92.8 acres]. It is not known whether the subject site or immediate area was ever used for traditional and customary rights by native Hawaiians."... People of the land would know but perhaps not foreign land owners or Caucasian American settlers (a.k.a. malihini). "However, in the event of documented claims of gathering or access are made of this site the applicant will honor them." Page 19, see 31: Public Access—"The subject parcel is not adjacent to or near any shoreline or mountainous areas,..." However, it is adjacent to the most sacred waterfall in all Hawaii. To ignore that significance to the people of this land is to disrespect native Hawaiians and long time residents of the Hawaiian Islands. Ua mau ke `ia o ka aina i ka pono!