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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPD Recommendation Report (PL-SPP-2025-000097) -1- RLudricksSPP.9.3.2025 COUNTY OF HAWAI‘I PLANNING DEPARTMENT RECOMMENDATION VINCENT LUDRICKS SPECIAL PERMIT APPLICATION (PL-SPP-2025-000097) Upon careful review of the request against the guidelines for granting a Special Permit, the Planning Director is recommending that the request for a Special Permit to allow to operate a garage to store work vehicles and equipment used for a plumbing business (contractor storage yard) on an approximately 0.5-acre portion of a larger 1-acre parcel in the State Land Use Agricultural District be denied. Since this recommendation is made without the benefit of public testimony, the Director reserves the right to modify and/or alter this recommendation based upon additional information presented at the public hearing. The denial recommendation is based on the following findings: The applicant is requesting a Special Permit to establish a garage to store work vehicles and equipment used for a plumbing business (contractor storage yard) on an approximately 0.5 acre portion of a larger 1-acre parcel in the State Land Use Agricultural District which consists of the following: ▪ Detached Garage: Use of an approximately 2,400 square foot detached garage, including a full bathroom, for storage of two work vehicles and plumbing-related equipment, such as pipes, fittings, saws, drills, hand tools and a dump trailer. PVC primer and cement would also be handled and stored in compliance with their Safety Data Sheet. The garage is under construction and received building permits in conjunction with a new dwelling that will house the applicant’s mother. ▪ Access/Parking: Access to the property is from 9th Avenue, a privately owned gravel roadway maintained by the Hawaiian Paradise Park Homeowner’s Association. Two parking stalls will be available inside the garage after the work vehicles have exited, and two additional stalls are available in the front of the garage. All parking stalls meet or exceed the County’s standard stall size requirement of 18 feet by 8.5 feet, and sufficient space is available in the garage to accommodate one (1) ADA-accessible stall if required. -2- ▪ Employees/Hours of Operation: The applicant is proposing four (4) full-time employees for the business. Business operations would occur Monday through Friday, with vehicles leaving the property no earlier than 7:00 a.m. and returning by 5:00 p.m. No vehicle trips are proposed on weekends. Daily activity will be limited to two (2) trips in the morning and two (2) trips in the afternoon, for a total of four (4) trips per day. The applicant is the owner of a family-run plumbing business in Pāhoa. He lives near the subject property which he purchased with the intent of constructing a dwelling for his mother. The applicant seeks to provide secure storage space for vehicles and equipment for his plumbing business. The grounds for approving a Special Permit are based on Rule 6-7 in the Planning Commission Rules. It states that the Planning Commission shall not approve a Special Permit unless it is found that the proposed use: (a) is an unusual and reasonable use of land situated within the Agricultural or Rural District, whichever the case may be; and (b) the proposed use would promote the effectiveness and objectives of Chapter 205, Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS) as amended. In addition to the above listed criteria, the Planning Commission shall also consider the criteria listed under Section 6-3(b)(5) (A) through (G). The proposed use does not meet the following criteria for approving a Special Permit shown in bold print: The proposed use will not promote the effectiveness and objectives of Chapter 205, HRS, as amended. The State Land Use Law, Chapter 205, HRS, established the State Land Use Commission and created four land use districts, Agricultural, Rural, Urban, and Conservation, to guide long-range land use planning across the State. The purpose of these statutory provisions is to preserve, protect, and encourage the development of lands for those uses to which they are best suited in the interest of the public health and welfare of the people of Hawai‘i. For the Agricultural District specifically, the intent is to preserve or keep lands of high agricultural potential in agricultural use and to prevent the encroachment of uses that would be more appropriately located in urban or industrial districts. While Chapter 205 does allow certain “unusual and reasonable” uses within the Agricultural District through the Special Permit process, such permits are intended to accommodate limited exceptions where the proposed activity is consistent with the -3- objectives of the law and does not compromise the agricultural character of the land or surrounding community. In evaluating Special Permits, decision-makers must consider whether the request is truly an exceptional case that balances community needs with the long-term protection of agricultural resources. In this instance, the proposed contractor storage yard does not qualify as an unusual or reasonable use, as it is fundamentally industrial in nature and bears no functional relationship to agricultural activity on the property. Although described as a “garage,” the activity involves the long-term storage of commercial vehicles, materials, and equipment for a plumbing business with multiple employees, on a parcel where the applicant will not reside. The proposed use is considered a contractor storage yard, which by its nature, is an industrial land use. The County Zoning Code places contractor yards in the industrial category alongside warehouse and storage operations, and they are only permitted within industrial zoning districts. These uses involve the long-term storage of vehicles, equipment, and materials that are unrelated to farming activity, and they often generate traffic, noise, and visual impacts incompatible with agricultural and rural subdivisions. Approval of this request would permanently commit agricultural land within a residential subdivision to industrial use, effectively bypassing the intent of HRS Chapter 205. The proposed use neither sustains agricultural activities nor provides a community- serving benefit that might otherwise justify an exception. Instead, it would introduce industrial operations into an area intended to remain primarily residential and agricultural in character. Accordingly, the proposed use is inconsistent with the objectives of the State Land Use Law and the purpose of the Agricultural District. While unusual in that it is not agricultural in nature, it is not a reasonable use of agricultural land. Contractor storage yards are an industrial use that belong in industrial districts, not within residential subdivisions in the Agricultural District. Approval would introduce noise, traffic, and safety conflicts, undermining the purpose of Chapter 205 to preserve agricultural land for appropriate uses. The Planning Director therefore finds that the proposed use is not consistent with Chapter 205 and would be more appropriately located in an industrial area. -4- The request is contrary to the General Plan and Puna Community Development Plan. The County of Hawai‘i General Plan is the long-range policy document guiding future development of the island. One of its purposes is to direct the pattern of growth based on long-term goals while preserving the social, cultural, and physical environment of the County. The General Plan Land Use Pattern Allocation Guide (LUPAG) Map designates the subject property as Rural. This designation applies to existing subdivisions within the State Land Use Agricultural and Rural Districts that have a significant residential component. Typical uses within these areas include small- scale farms, wooded areas, open space, and single-family residences. Limited community-serving facilities may also be considered, but only where compatible with the surrounding residential and agricultural setting. Contractor storage yards, however, are not considered compatible in the Rural designation. By definition, they constitute an industrial use involving the storage of equipment, vehicles, and materials for off-site business operations. The Hawai‘i County General Plan reinforces this distinction. Section 14.4 (Industrial) explains that industrial development includes manufacturing, processing, wholesaling, large storage and transportation facilities, and baseyards. It emphasizes that industrial development must be located in areas adequately served by transportation and infrastructure, buffered from residential areas, and concentrated in designated districts to avoid land use conflicts. The General Plan specifically encourages locating industrial activities within designated industrial parks or corridors, such as the W.H. Shipman Industrial Park and the 33rd Avenue corridor in Hawaiian Paradise Park, rather than allowing scattered industrial activities within rural subdivisions. The Puna Community Development Plan (PCDP) implements the General Plan on a regional scale and provides further direction. The PCDP emphasizes that commercial and industrial development should be concentrated in designated Village and Town Centers to provide residents with access to goods and services while limiting the spread of incompatible uses into residential and agricultural areas. The PCDP specifically identifies 33rd Avenue in Hawaiian Paradise Park as an appropriate corridor for industrial and contractor-related uses, recognizing the existing cluster of similar businesses in that -5- location. The subject parcel, located on 9th Avenue within a residential block of one-acre lots, is not within or near a designated village or town center or industrial corridor. In addition, the County Zoning Code classifies contractor yards as industrial use permitted only within the General Industrial (MG) and Limited Industrial (ML) zoning districts. These provisions are consistent with the General Plan’s intent to cluster industrial activities in designated areas and to prevent the encroachment of industrial operations into residential or agricultural subdivisions. Locating a contractor yard within a Rural-designated subdivision would therefore be inconsistent with both the policy direction of the General Plan and the regulatory framework of the Zoning Code. Approval of the subject request would represent a departure from the land use pattern envisioned by the General Plan and PCDP. It would establish an industrial use in the middle of a residential subdivision, setting a precedent for scattered contractor yards and similar operations. Such “spot permitting” undermines the intent of the General Plan and PCDP to create coherent growth patterns, preserve rural character, and ensure that industrial activities are directed to appropriate industrial areas where infrastructure, road access, and compatibility with surrounding uses are in place. The proposed use is not an unusual and reasonable use within the State Land Use Agricultural District and would not promote the effectiveness and objectives of the State Land Use Law and Regulations and Chapter 205, HRS, as amended. The proposed use is not an unusual and reasonable use within the State Land Use Agricultural District and would not promote the effectiveness and objectives of the State Land Use Law and Chapter 205, HRS, as amended. Although the Land Study Bureau classifies the soils on the subject property as “E” (very poor), poor soil quality alone does not justify the introduction of industrial uses into residential subdivisions designated for Rural character. The request would commit the site to an industrial-type operation that neither provides a community-serving benefit nor supports agricultural activity. Unlike other unusual and reasonable uses that have been approved by Special Permit, such as bed and breakfast operations, home occupations, or small-scale agricultural tourism, the proposed use is essentially an industrial contractor storage yard. Importantly, the Hawaiʻi County Code (Zoning Code) expressly identifies contractor storage yards as a prohibited home occupation activity. Section 25-4-13(e) of the Zoning -6- Code states that home occupations may allow certain small-scale business activities within residences, provided they are compatible with the residential and agricultural setting. However, the Code specifically excludes contractor storage yards, along with other industrial type activities such as vehicle repair shops, kennels, and uses permitted only in industrial districts. This reflects the clear policy determination that contractor yards are incompatible with residential and agricultural neighborhoods, even at the limited scale of a homebased business. Since adoption of the CDP in 2008, the Planning Commission has not approved any Special Permits for industrial uses in Hawaiian Paradise Park outside of the vicinity of 33rd Avenue near Makuʻu Street. Approval of this Special Permit would set an undesirable precedent by encouraging similar contractor yards and industrial operations scattered throughout Hawaiian Paradise Park and other residential subdivisions within the Agricultural District. Such incremental encroachment would undermine the County General Plan, the Puna Community Development Plan, and the Hawaiʻi County Code, all of which clearly direct industrial uses to appropriately zoned lands and designated growth areas. Based on the preceding considerations, the Planning Director is recommending that the Planning Commission deny this application to establish a garage to store work vehicles and equipment used for a plumbing business (contractor storage yard) and related improvements on 0.5 acres of land in the State Land Use Agricultural District.