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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2012-08-02 Windward Transcript Regency PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAI‘I HEARING TRANSCRIPT AUGUST 2, 2012 REGENCY SOUTH, INC. (USE 12-34) A regularly advertised hearing on the application of was called to order at 10:07 a.m. in the Hilo State Office Building, Conference Rooms A, B & C, 75 Aupuni Street, Hilo, Hawai‘i, with Chairman Zendo Kern presiding. COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Zendo Kern, Dean Au, Ronald Gonzales, Wallace Ishibashi, Stephen Ono and Raylene Moses STAFF PRESENT: Ivan Torigoe (Deputy Corporation Counsel), B. J. Leithead Todd (Planning Director), Daryn Arai (Planning Program Manager), Phyllis Fujimoto (Staff Planner), Maija Cottle (Staff Planner), Jeff Darrow (Staff Planner), and Sharon Nomura (Secretary) And six people from the public in attendance. APPLICANT: REGENCY SOUTH, INC. (USE 12-34) Use Permit to allow the establishment of a 100-bed skilled nursing and rehabilitation center and related uses on 17.61 acres of land situated within the Single-Family Residential (RS-15 and RS-10) district. The property is located on the east (makai) side of Kaūmana Drive between ‘Aipuni Street and Luana Way, Ponahawai, South Hilo, Hawai‘i, TMK’s: 2-5-006:012, 2-5-007:001, 008, 046 and 047. KERN: Moving on to Application No. 3, Regency South, Inc., Use Permit 12-34. Use Permit to allow the establishment of a 100-bed skilled nursing and rehabilitation center and related uses on 17.61 acres of land situated within the Single-Family Residential (RS-15 and RS-10) district. The property is located on TMK’s: 2-5-006:012, 2-5-007:001, 008, 046 and 047. Maija, staff presentation. COTTLE: Thank you, Mr. Chair. KERN: Thank you. COTTLE: This next application is a request for a use permit. The subject property is located in the South Hilo district in the lower Kaumana area. You can see Kaumana Drive running through this, this slide along here; and then you have the Mohouli Street extension; and it turns to Ainako Avenue, heading off towards the west. The subject property is shown, outlined in red. It actually is made up of five parcels. There are three parcels that front Kaumana Drive, and then there's a sliver up towards the top, and then the bulk parcel, the larger parcel is shown here. The property is zoned Single-Family Residential - 15,000 square feet, and then the three lots adjoining Kaumana Drive are zoned Single- Family Residential - 10,000 square feet, which is shown in the light yellow. The Alenaio Stream runs along the east edge of the property. The topography of the property actually is higher along Kaumana Drive, and then it drops off towards the stream on the east side of the property. There's also some agriculturally-zoned properties shown in the light green to the northeast. And then just to the south is the Luana Gardens Subdivision, in this area here along Luana Way. The General Plan designation for 1 EXHIBIT B the property is Low-Density Urban, that allows for single-family residential and some convenience type commercial uses. This is an aerial view of the property. These are the three lots that adjoin Kaumana Drive. You can see Kaumana Drive running through the middle of the slide here. And this general area is the location of the property that I am outlining. Again, you have the Luana Gardens Subdivision to the south of the subject property. This is Luana Way that joins up to Kaumana Drive. The applicant is proposing to establish and operate a 100-bed skilled nursing and rehabilitation center. It's a 17.61-acre parcel. They are planning on using about 5 acres of the parcels at this time for the facility. This center will consist of a single-story wood frame structure approximately 48,000 square feet in size. And it will operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in three shifts of skilled nursing staff. This is a site plan that the applicant submitted. You have Kaumana Drive along the left edge of the slide, and it shows their proposed access, and then a loop driveway. And you can see the single-story facility in the middle of the property here. Again, the Alenaio Stream runs along the east edge of the property. And this is, I’m not sure if you’re all familiar with Kaumana Drive, but it’s a fairly winding road in this area. The proposed driveway is actually on a curve off Kaumana Drive. So the applicant is proposing to construct some extensive improvements. They are proposing to install a left-turn lane into the property, that’s shown here. So they’ll need to widen Kaumana Drive in order to do that. And they’re also proposing to have a separate left-turn exit and a right-turn exit onto Kaumana. And then there’s also a left-turn refuge for vehicles turning out of the driveway, turning left, heading Kaumana Drive up towards the Saddle Road. This is a view of the property from Kaumana Drive looking across the street to the east. So you can see the property sits just a little bit below Kaumana Drive, and then it drops off pretty significantly towards the Alenaio Stream down below. The properties just west of Kaumana Drive actually have a pretty decent view of Hilo Bay and out, out towards Puna. This is a view of the existing drive way shown here on the right side of the slide. Looking down Kaumana Drive you can see the curve in the road. There is some limited sight distance in this area. This is looking towards Hilo. And then this view is looking towards, if you’re going Kaumana Drive up towards Saddle Road, you see the driveway here. The Planning Director is recommending approval of the permit with some conditions. And I just want to add a few things. The applicant’s representative met with neighbors in the surrounding area, neighbors that have homes along Kaumana Drive, here, here and then the Luana Gardens Community Association, which again is this area down here. He met with them in May of this year to get their feedback on the application and any concerns that they have. They did have concerns about sight distance on Kaumana Drive, they had concerns about drainage, just visual screening of the proposed center to their properties. So at that meeting and at subsequent meetings after that with the community these issues were worked out, and the applicant and community worked out a mitigation program. That’s included in one of your exhibits. And the Planning Department did try to incorporate as many of the conditions that were in that mitigation program into our conditions that we are recommending. So if you have any questions about those, I can expand on those, those conditions more. 2 EXHIBIT B I also do want to bring your attention to a recent letter that we received from Stafford Oyama, that's a th letter dated July 25. And that should be the only other letter we’ve received, other than the background and recommendation report. Are there any questions? KERN: Are there any questions for staff? Commissioner Ono. ONO: Yes. Could you go back to the pictures of the curve. I just want to see -. How will that, are they going to straighten out the curve? That’s this one. How will the -? COTTLE: Let me see. I believe what they are going to do is -. ONO: Excuse me. I guess my concern -. It seems to me that the road is going to be widened, doubled its width? COTTLE: I don’t believe it’s double its width. It would be widened just enough to install a left-turn lane. So it would be widened in this area, because the left-turn lane would be in this general area here. The applicant can probably, or maybe if they brought their engineer, they can tell you exactly what this would look like. But I believe they’re going to cut a little bit of the curve here and also build up the road on their portion of the property. ONO: On that side, I see. I see. So the other wide will not be affected as much or will not be affected at all? COTTLE: They’ll also have to build up the road here in order to create an apron, like a transition apron. And I’m not certain what improvements will be done in this area, but the road will need to be widened in this area here. ONO: Widened but the curvature would remain the same, about? COTTLE: I believe it would be pretty much the same. The applicant has an engineer that worked with our Department of Public Works on how to achieve minimum sight distance. ONO: Yeah, no, I live up that area so I guess my concern is that it’s really a blind curve. So I was kind of wondering about the width of the road. Thank you. KERN: Planning Director would like to make a comment on this? Madam Director? LEITHEAD TODD: Yeah. Despite the fact that there’s this favorable recommendation with conditions, I am interested in hearing from the engineers. You see the driveway on the far, right there, Maija, across the street? COTTLE: My other right? LEITHEAD TODD: Yeah. 3 EXHIBIT B COTTLE: Here. LEITHEAD TODD: Yeah, sorry, your other right. That’s my driveway that, I grew up on that property, cause all the land on the mauka side was owned by my great grandfather. The land on the makai side that they purchased was all the Mattos family; and then that, just a little bit further down from there is where Ono Poultry was, and some of the property that they’re developing was the old poultry farm. The biggest question I have is to the side of that driveway. I saw some plans here that said they’re talking about removing some rock outcroppings. And so I wondered is it within the right- of-way that they’re going to remove some of that so that the sight distance is improved? And there were some plans -. Do you have them on the screen, Maija, that shows the intersection, the proposed intersection, the drawings? COTTLE: Yes. I believe we have that right here. LEITHEAD TODD: Okay. That’s the one where I want some questions answered about exactly what’s going to be done. Because what you’ve got is just, you know, mauka of that you’ve got Mrs. Hasegawa, you got the Mattos family, I can’t think of the name of the family that bought the Bright’s house, and the Aguiars are down below, Chun Akanas and Onos. So that stacking lane is right on that curve, and sight distance -. The way we used to get out of our driveway was to roll down the windows and listen for cars coming around the curve and then hit the gas pedal real fast. So that intersection is really important. KERN: Okay, we’ll pose that, those questions to the applicant or representative when they come forward, and we'll get some detailed answers. Do you want to add to that, Maija? COTTLE: I just want to add a couple of things. The conceptual layout that’s shown there is in your Exhibit 15. So when the applicant comes up, he can refer to that. It's a, it's a large copy. And then the Department of Public Works memo on, as Exhibit 4 just indicates that they have worked with the applicant's engineer, they’ve reviewed this layout, and they concur with it. KERN: Any other questions for staff? Seeing none, thank you, Maija. Can I get the applicant or the representative -. AU: Mr. Chair? KERN: Oh, excuse me. Commissioner Au. AU: Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’d like to make a statement before we proceed. I believe it is public knowledge that I am the Big Island field representative for the Hawaii Regional Council of Carpenters. Although I don't believe it is required or necessary, in order to air on the side of caution, I would like to disclose for the record that the carpenters union has met with the applicant. I do not know the details of this meeting, nor was I involved in any way. Although the meeting is certainly a benefit for the union since it could possibly create jobs for our members, there's no direct or indirect financial benefit to me or members of my immediate family. Furthermore, the meeting with the union does not affect my ability to be impartial. We’ve all known that along, that a project like this could create jobs. Although I am pleased that some of these jobs could possibly go to union construction workers, I 4 EXHIBIT B understand that in every application that comes before us there are numerous considerations that are relevant and that the benefit of job creation has to be properly weighed against other issues. I will be guided on this matter by the criteria set forth in the law, just as I am in any other matter before the Commission. I am confident that I can uphold the oath I took upon my appointment on this Commission and perform my official duties in a fair and impartial manner. KERN: Thank you, Commissioner Au. On that note we will call the applicant or their representative to come forward. Good morning. Can I get you both to raise your right hands. Do you swear to tell the truth today before the Windward Planning Commission? FUKE: I do. STROUD: I do. KERN: Okay, very good. And just before you begin, name and area in which you live. STROUD: My name is David Stroud. I live in Ellinsburg, Washington. FUKE: Good morning, Mr. Chairman and members of the Commission. My name is Sidney Fuke. I’m a planning consultant assisting the applicant on this important project. My business address is 100 Pauahi Street here in Hilo. I’d like to also acknowledge the presence of Greg Pyle who’s an employee and the project manager for this project, also based in Washington state. And the architect is also here if there are any specific design questions that Commissioners may have. His name is JohnLeuck. Before, if the Commission, you know, would bear us, we’d like, we have a power point presentation. And a lot of it is duplication, but we’ll kind of like run through it very quickly. KERN: And just for my housekeeping, you did receive the background report and recommendations? FUKE: Yes. The staff’s background report and recommendation were reviewed by myself and also Mr. Stroud. By the way, Mr. Stroud is president of the Regency Pacific, and he has concurred with both the recommendation, recommended conditions, as well as the background report, the accuracy of it. KERN: Very good. And, yes, please do your presentation. STROUD: I’ll do this quickly. I won’t take the Commission’s time, basically just a quick note here. We’ve got a rendering of the site and what it will look like as you approach coming down the hill. And it’s significantly down the hill, part of it is. It shouldn’t impact the neighbor’s views or the visual corridor there. So, and we worked on that to make sure that’s not the case. A little bit about Regency Pacific, real quickly. We’ve been in operation -. Currently Jim Clay, my partner, and Bart Bretto, and myself are owners of this project. But Jim started in the sixties. We’ve been in health care, long-term care, since that period operationally. We own and operate 50 plus of such facilities in Oregon, Washington, Hawai‘i, California. We have currently three communities in Hawai‘i. The first one was at Waimea on Kauai, a nursing home there, later an assisted living near Lihue, and most recently an AL in Kona. I was the administrator of the facility at Kauai back in the 5 EXHIBIT B early nineties. I’m pretty familiar with the health care here in the islands. We have been excited about this project. And this is, we completed this same building in Puyallup, Washington just recently, just a quick shot of what it looks like; another one, very, very similar in Monroe. And so what we do is this is a skilled nursing, 24-hour a day facility, very, very similar to Hale Anuenue across from the hospital. It provides licensed care as well as a, there’s more and more moves toward therapeutic rehab. And so a lot of times when people hear the word “rehab” they think a drug and alcohol rehab or something like that, not the case here. This is a medical rehab. We see both short- and long-term stays. And our goal is really to provide much needed health care to the community. We’ve been through the Certificate of Need Process, which is first and foremost. And that allows us then to know that there is a market and a need. We’ve worked extensively beginning in 2007 with the hospital and with different folks in the health care community, as well as with the State, to make sure that this was a benefit to the community. And that’s our goal. Some elevations which are not very easily seen, but the building is a relatively low profile. We have a lot of experience in putting facilities within residential communities. And so we work to make sure that they blend with the community and aren’t a monolith out there. We understand that people live in their homes and want to be comfortable there. We know, based on our feasibility demand, that there’s a great need for additional health care here in Hilo. And eventually this project could increase in size, but it would be only with the improvements in water systems, in sewage systems, etc. So we view that as quite some time down the road, if at all it occurs. You know, we’re trying to provide increased access to health care here in the community, and as well as the job creation 24 hours a day. So you’re looking at about 150 direct jobs, and then many, many indirect jobs. The facility will start construction as soon as we get approval from you folks. We’ll begin the process, and begin the submission process. We’ve been in design development for some time, working both with the neighbors, with the community, and just trying to get through that initial process. So we’re hoping to open by the last quarter of 2013, first quarter of 2014. Typically once we get through the permitting process, etc., the building itself is a pretty easy thing to do. They’re simple and repetitive, so that makes that part easy. The project, as I said, is on Kaumana Drive. I think everybody has a good sense of where it is at this point. But, again, to just reiterate, the ground falls off a lot right there. So we have about an 80-foot drop from the road to our site location. That should keep everything out of the neighbors view. In terms of the roadway, I'm not an engineer, I have the folks that can work on that. And then the site plan here which you've already seen, I won't bore you with that again. We got our Certificate of Need approval in 2009 and we’re here asking you guys now for approval for the use permit. And we certainly want to work with the community needs, and we've done a lot to work with the neighbors, the neighborhood. And at that point I'm going to turn this over to Sidney who has really done all that for us. So thank you very much. KERN: Thank you. FUKE: Thank you very much. Prior to the submittal of the application, what we did was we conducted a community meeting initially just to get some generalized feedback, you know, from the 6 EXHIBIT B community, as well as to share what this project was all about with the community. It was very well attended. And as a result of that meeting we kind of went back to the drawing board, made some adjustments to the basic application, and then filed the application. But we know that subsequent to filing the application there was still a lot of work that needed to be done. So we then actively met with different members of the community, people who would be directly affected, especially by the driveway, and came up with some different mitigations which we’d like to then kind of share with you. Most of these mitigations have been incorporated into the Planning Director's recommendation, and there were others that were not. But, nevertheless, the applicant has already made representations to the Community Association that whether applicable or not, I mean, incorporated or not, that it is something that they will nevertheless adhere to. During the course of the meetings with the community, as well as their representatives, some of the things that they brought up -. And Mr. Ono you are correct. You know, you live in that area, I live in that area, so we all, and the Planning Director also lives in that area. We drive there up and down, you know, so many times. So we are very familiar with a lot of the traffic safety-related issues associated with Kaumana Drive, particularly like, not necessarily only in this area but many areas along Kaumana Drive. So some of concerns that the community had raised was that how do you address like preconstruction, construction, and after it is done. So like what we had agreed to do is, okay, like, you know, during the preconstruction, before we actually have, mobilized the equipment on the property then we would have a meeting with the community to essentially let them know that, look, it is going to start a certain, certain time and this is how are going to address like the interim drainage issue, these are where the signs are going to be put up, what are our hours of operation, so on and so forth. So we will give the community at least that opportunity to kind of weigh in, be aware of what is going to have happen, you know, rather than just the next day seeing a bulldozer on the property. The other thing we wanted to do is to make sure that, you know, if the community had raised it and said like, well, you are going to have a lot of trucks going in and out of the property, then at the same time, they're going to try to negotiate a left turn into the property traveling mauka, then, what do you do? And so we said, okay, this is what we’ll do, we will address the off-site infrastructure work as a first priority. So we would do the left turn lane and all of the other mitigations, which I'll discuss later, initially, and then we'll have to have that done before they start working on the vertical. The reason why we said that before they start working on the vertical is that that's, you know, when you have the carpenters and those technical people coming in, then that is where you're going to have more and more traffic, employee traffic, coming in, as opposed to the site work. We know that there is a lot of time that is going to be needed associated with the site work, and so we’re saying, well, that can be done concurrently. So there is a condition that the Director had incorporated which was our representation to the community that we will have all of these things done before they start on the vertical. In addition to that, we talked about other things dealing like how to increase traffic safety in this area by installing like traffic calming device, whether it's a, you know, the speed radar signs, signs we see, or flashing lights, or whatever have you. But over and beyond that we were talking about also like making improvements to existing driveways in that area. I will discuss it more deeply but –. The other thing that we talked about with the community and which they had agreed, the applicant had agreed to do is that, you know, you have a lot of employees so is there a way that you can kind of stagger their shifts so that it doesn’t conflict with the a.m. and p.m. peak hours. So what they’ll do, they’ll adjust it so that their schedule will be like their a.m. peak will be at 6 a.m. in the morning. 7 EXHIBIT B LEITHEAD TODD: Okay. FUKE: So that’s how they’ll work it out. So this is, you know, you can't really see it in detail although it’s kind of a little bit more clearer in your packet. But, see, some of the things that we talked about was like, I guess the direct answer to Commissioner Ono’s question is that presently the road right now is not really within the center of the road right-of-way. It's kind of like more skewed on the mauka side or on Ms. Leithead Todd’s former residence area, okay, on that side. It's on the, this side here. So the idea is to make considerable expansion on, like essentially like a new lane on the makai side, and a portion of which may incorporate the applicant’s property. So where you have currently, if it’ s like you're looking at “U”, that the current, you know, the curve, then what happens when you expand it, then the “U” becomes a little bit wider. So you increase visibility that way. But over and beyond that, what we did was we worked systematically with a number of the property owners on the mauka side. And Mr. Purcell who’s here in the audience will probably, hopefully, favorably testify on that matter. He lives directly across of the proposed driveway. And so on, you know where Commissioner, I mean Director Leithead Todd referred to the Bright’s property, it’s like . where it's now owned by Mr. And Mrs. Pirie So we had met with them, Mr. Purcell, Mrs. Tatsutani who lives over here, Ray Hasegawa’s mom lives over here, and right at this corner this is, I think that street is called Ekena Place, and there's this gentleman over here, Mr. Maruyama. And so we had met with all of them to figure out like how best to improve their sight distance. And what it amounted to is like a shaving of the banks. A good portion of this mauka area, the banks will be shaved. And all of the improvements would be done within the existing road rights-of-way, road rights-of-way, with the possible exception of Mr. Tatsutani’s property and, cause some of the embankment occurs on his property. But he basically already said just go ahead and do it because for him safety was much more important, not necessarily only for him but for, you know -. This is his property here, but there are other residents that come off of this Ekena Place. And so what it does is it increases the visibility basically all around over here. So on the makai section what we did was -. This is the Ono’s property over here. And, as you know, people who travel up in there, they know that Onos have, basically they have two driveways, you know, maybe like one way in and one way out. So we had communicated with them and ask them, said like, look, if you want then Regency would provide a dedicated driveway access from over here going over to your existing driveway and, you know, we’ll provide an easement and we’ll provide the improvements so you have the option. And the owners graciously accepted that. As far as on the property on the mauka side, which is owned by the Mattos family, we did not have any direct contact with them, but through Mr. Pakele who had made some contacts. We had also written the same, you know, provided the same invitation to Mattos family over here. But we understand that they were more concerned about extending an existing rock wall to provide some physical separation between the property and their property, to provide like a rock wall, extending the rock wall, you know, heading this direction and also heading mauka/makai; and which is something that the applicant has also agreed to, to which we had also communicated with Mr. Mattos. So a lot of these are kind of like restating. Again in relation to the Luana Gardens Community Association, we also talked to them about creating some buffer, you know, landscaped buffer, between 8 EXHIBIT B their subdivision and the property. It's all bush right now. And then so we kind of said that, well, we’ll kind of like remove the lower brush; and if they are some large trees that you don't mind having retained, for example there are some mango trees in that area and also there are some invasive species plants like the gunpowder tree, you know, there are certain things that they want to have retained, we’re saying then, fine, we’ll retain it, we’ll work out with you guys what needs to be retained. And I think that you will also notice on the site plan there was a, on the makai side there was like the drainage, that Alenaio Stream. So we’re saying we will put up a chain-link fence along that area for security; and there is some added reason why there is a chain-link fence, which I think kind of addresses some of the Luana Gardens Community Association’s concerns. But they are all kind of like expressed as conditions. If you look at your, I think they're all found on, there are about five or six different conditions that the staff had stated that is going to be incorporated as the representations, they are incorporating the representations that we’ve made to the community. One of the things which, well, was not incorporated was they were saying like, well, are you folks going to put a photovoltaic system. And we said, well, you know, at this point in time no. But, you know, you can never dismiss the possibility given the, you know, increasingly high cost of electricity and trying to be more green friendly, you know, whether you’re going to have photovoltaic. So they wanted to retain that option. But we all know that there is like a cap. So what we then agreed to do is say, okay, look before they file, this is a condition that’s not incorporated, by the way, but before they file, you know, with the HELCO, they will inform the Community Association 60 days before they file to say, look, we’re getting ready to file. So if you as a property owner you’re getting ready, you don't want to, you want to make sure you get on there quick, then you've got to just do it quickly. So at least we thought that would be fair, you know, rather than totally ban them from having a photovoltaic system. So essentially, I guess, like from a, our standpoint, you know, we feel like it meets the tests for the issuance of a use permit. We have tried as best as we can to address all of the concerns that the community has raised. It will provide much-needed and immediate construction and long-term employment, it provides much-needed health care services, and besides they have the funds and they’re ready to proceed. It’s not like something that we need to get funding. You know, they do have the funds in place. So we are here asking for your favorable consideration of this application. KERN: Thank you. Are there any questions for the applicant or their representative? Commissioner Ono? ONO: I’m sure at it, yeah, today? KERN: Yeah, good. ONO: I’m just curious. Sidney, you know, the alignment on the mauka side of the Kaumana, I guess, yeah, where those dark lines are, those, I really can’t point to specific resident’s lots, but it’s a drop into Kaumana It’s not a gradual sloping thing, it’s a drop into. So as Bobby Jean says it’s a blind, there are a lot of blind spots. So when you do a grade, are you going to grade it so that the residents can see traffic better or is it going to be, just, you know, cut into the -? FUKE: Are you referring to those properties on the north side? 9 EXHIBIT B ONO: Yeah, those. FUKE: The north side being like Kaumana Terrace side? ONO: Yeah. FUKE: Okay. What we did was we went to each of those driveways and then tried to figure out like what was the solution to improve their visibility; and that’s how we arrived at the solution. ONO: Oh, I see. Okay, that’s fine. I’m not an engineer either so I wouldn’t know what I’m talking about. The other one I have though as a question is in the newspapers there have been questions about the readily available medical services, the doctors are not coming to the islands -. STROUD: Oh, staff, staffing issues. ONO: So staffing. STROUD: Sure. ONO: So is this part of your development? Not for, in your whole total program, throughout the nation, how do you provide for that? STROUD: We bring, we can bring staff, if we need we can bring staff in. We also train, and so we do our own training in-house for the majority of our staffing. We have licensed staff and then we have certified nurses aids, and we do our own in-house training. So we train a lot in terms of making sure that we have adequate staff. I would say prior to 2008 staffing was a much more difficult issue, everywhere, than it is today. We found that we’re more readily available. We’re not seeing a real issue within any of our facilities within the islands right now. And because we have enough of a presence, oh, within the islands, we feel that we can continue to adequately staff if there’s an issue. We also have limitations imposed on us. So it’s not like if I had 100 people in the building as residents but I can only staff for 50 that we could do that. We tend to ramp up as staffing is available. And so it’s something that we work with on an ongoing basis. We have a full-time employee generally who deals with staff development and staffing, like Hale Anuenue, or the Hospital, or anyone else would. So we’ll work within the community to get the staffing that we need. So that’s something at least we’ve looked at preliminary and don’t have a great concern about. We know that there’s multiple options. So I don’t know if that answers it but -. I’m not a staff developer either, but -. KERN: Thank you. Any other questions for the applicant or the representative? I’ve just a quick one. It’s not a land use issue. In regards to staffing, do you folks generally try to hire locally within the community first -? 10 EXHIBIT B STROUD: Oh, yeah, absolutely. That’s what we’re hoping for. We have, we’ve already been looking, and we also, we have right now employees on staff with us on the mainland that were from Hilo. So we’re, some of them are interested in coming back so -. KERN: Thank you. Any other questions? Seeing none -. ISHIBASHI: I get one quick question. KERN: Commissioner Ishibashi. ISHIBASHI: Thank you, Brother Chair. In regards to your resident census when you’re comparing with, how are you going to get these people? They’re coming from the hospitals or Hale Anuenue? STROUD: Generally from the hospitals, a normal referral. Hospitals, it kind of depends on what happens. If they’re, there are different sources of payment. You have Medicare, Medicaid, private pay, HMO. So they come in various ways. But the mix of this building you’ll see a Medicare mix, which are people that tend to be in the hospital, they come out, they need rehabilitation services. We have visited other facilities, we know that there’s a lot of rehab need; and that’s a growing area right now. So after a three-day stay in the hospital, people become Medicare eligible. For Medicaid that would be the State program, and those folks are eligible as they come in. They’re just need assessed. So we normally look at a fill-up period on a building like this of anywhere from 12 to 18 months. So we figure within that, and that has been our experience with other new facilities, they just gradually fill in and absorb. When you see occupancies as high as what you see here on average, which are some of the highest that I’ve seen any where we’ve ever looked at markets, it just shows that there is a real need. Our early assessments were telling us that people were being sent off island for care. They’re being sent to the mainland for care, because there’s only so much room. And so based on that, based on guys that are smarter than I am that do all this market feasibility stuff, the determination was made that the need was very, very strong. And we’ve seen in strong market need areas buildings fill up in as little as two or three months. And that’s a risk we take. I mean that’s, and we really believe strongly that this is a good healthy market. FUKE: You know, just to add to that, you know, for example, if a person is hospitalized and is never going to get, basically you need like palliative care. You know, what happens sometimes is that if they’re in a hospital they just occupy a bed; whereas ideally would be a facility like Hale Anuenue, or Life Care, or taking that person home. But if they occupy a bed then you don’t have the necessary bed for people who really need that; and so it creates a backup. And so that’s one of the reasons why they needed to initially get a Certificate of Need from the State, SHPED.It’s an acronym for State Health, whatever. So they needed a Certificate of Need before they can even proceed. So even if, for example, a use permit was issued for this and they didn’t have a certificate of need, they would not be in a position to proceed. But I guess the State felt like there was already this backup and it’s clogging up the hospital system, so -. KERN: Thank you. Any other questions for -? Did you want to add to that? STROUD: I was just going to comment certificate of needs are not very easily obtainable in any location. So in order to receive one, there’s a pretty high standard based on the market study need by 11 EXHIBIT B the State and their observations, as well as independent. And so it’s a license to operate, and they are relatively limited in number. KERN: Thank you. AU: Mr. Chair? MOSES: Mr. Chair? ONO: Mr. Chairman? KERN: Commissioner Au, Commissioner Moses, and it looks like Commissioner Ono would like to ask questions. Commissioner Au? AU: Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a question about your traffic, and maybe you might want to bring your traffic engineer up. But during the construction project, the construction phases of any project, you know, there’s substantial amount of traffic, in the beginning when they have to mobilize. And in your proposals or in the conditions you’re saying that once you go vertical -. So to me vertical is once you go, you know, your walls go up or whatever you’re using. So, you know, there is going to be site work. There will be slabs that have to be poured. There’s going to be a substantial amount of traffic during that period. And, in addition to that, once you go vertical and you start your construction, the traffic is going to be pretty bad there. And can you answer why you are waiting to go vertical? STROUD: No, I think there may be a misunderstanding in terms. What we had asked for was that we’re able to construct the road improvements simultaneously with the grading and we’re saying before we go vertical, which meant we could grade for the slab, we could begin that process. But those would be concurrent activities. Given the fact that the equipment is going to be there on site for the grading, it just makes sense to have the equipment to do whatever we need to do on the road improvements, get those in. And so from a timing standpoint, the thought in talking with the engineers and the folks involved with that was that that would make a lot of sense. We can get those improvements done. We will be at a stage where, you know, the equipment has been there, it is working on the grading, it is still not a high-traffic point, or high-traffic in terms of the Bell Curve on the project. And then as we hit that, those improvements are done, and then we can begin to go vertical at that point. But we just picked the going vertical as still on the ground, still slab, still not tremendous amounts going on. The equipment that has to be there for grading has to be there to do the road work anyway, and so it just seemed like a logical approach to it. AU: Okay, well, you know, that is my main concern. You know, traffic is going to be bad, you know, and everybody in this room can foresee how bad it is going to be when traffic, once it is mobilize. Once machines are there, it is going to be pretty bad. You know, I’d feel more comfortable about having the roadway improvements done first. And how would you feel about that? STROUD: Honestly, I would like to be able to get the equipment on and do grading and road work at the same time, just because I will be mobilizing that equipment twice. I’ll bring it in, send it out, and then bring it in again. And so –. I've built lots, and lots, of these buildings, probably 20 of them plus over the last several years. And even though it sounds like a really big project, it is a single-story 12 EXHIBIT B wood frame. And so our impact is not as great as you might think. There are not a lot of nursing homes built so people don't get the experience of seeing what happens. But 48,000 feet is a big building, but there's a lot of space in there. And in terms of real impact, talking with engineers, when we looked at the traffic impacts overall on this project, initially the traffic studies came back saying no mitigations were required. The belief of the traffic engineers who I think know more than I do about it were that we didn't really need to do anything. Our concern was I drove out some of the driveways too and I had the same feeling that they did. It’s not a safe place to pull out. I’ve pulled out of the driveways there, we had the same feeling about that. A lot of these improvements we offered up as safety measures for the residents and for our residents in the future. But in terms of what the technical guys said, they told us we didn’t need to do it at all; and I disagreed with that, honestly. So we are certainly concerned about the safety and the traffic. But I'm not as concerned with over impacting that during that process, honestly. FUKE: Commissioner Au -. AU: Go ahead. FUKE: The direct answer to your question as far as like completing the infra -, the roadway infrastructure before the project actually gets started, I think it's twofold. One is that when you do the site work of, when you do the intersectional improvements, all of the improvements in red over there as recommended, you are going to have disruption. You know, you're going to have mobilization. So they are going to need to have a staging area. So where is that staging area? The staging area has to be on this property, off of the roadway. So while they are doing the staging area and, like having, I mean while they are making all of those improvements, then it's just a question of having another bulldozer on the property to do a lot of the site work. So, you know, you're doing this concurrently. That’s one reason. So we didn't feel like it would, because there is going to be interruption already to begin with to make all of these improvements, having the site work would not really compound, compound the situation Secondly is that if you're going to defer the construction of everything until the site work is done, there is a chance that you might further conflict, or complicate, you know, the traffic situation in the area twofold. And that is one of the reasons why we wanted to have, we structured it in a manner where the improvements would be in before the vertical started. Hopefully when the carpenters or other people start coming in, then you have more, you know, traffic coming into that area at certain times, then you would have like the left-turn lane and the sight distance things all kind of fixed up. But primarily was like, we felt like doing the intersectional work and the improvements along Kaumana Drive, you know, will cause disruption, and you need a staging area. And the staging area has got to be the site. AU: So have, what is, where are you guys at with the Department of Public Works? You know, because we all know they are government. And how long is this going to take? And I kind of understand what’s going on, you want to start it right away. And if you want to start it right away, that road can be done now. So what stage are you guys at with the Department of Public Works? I mean, you must have sent them a preliminary. Did they approve this, are they looking at this? FUKE: Conceptually they are okay with all of the proposed improvements. So now it is a question of how quickly the engineers can prepare and have the construction plans approved by the County. 13 EXHIBIT B AU: Okay, thank you. MOSES: Mr. Chair? KERN: Commissioner Moses. MOSES: I just have a quick question. Maybe you can educate me. I don't understand health care as far as Medicaid, Medicare and private insurance. But I would assume, for your facility for it to be financially sound and sustainable, what percentage are we looking at as far as the patients that will reside there? Is there a percentage that you have to have private care, private insurance versus Medicare or Medicaid, or does that not even have anything to do with it? STROUD: Normally what we find is that in most skilled facilities 90% plus of our residents are either Medicaid or Medicare, which would be the state or the counties, or state and federal funding. A much smaller percentage tend to be private pay. Usually because the cost of care, like hospital care or anything else, has become so great that the majority of people who access those services did not live and work in a time when they were able to accumulate the resources necessary to pay privately. That’s true across the country. And so it's a very, very high percentage that we would normally see with both State and Federal funding, and that's, not understanding Medicare and Medicaid is nothing unusual even for me. KERN: Thank you. Commissioner Ono? ONO: Yes. This question may be out of line but I think I'm the one with the most self interest if you look at the age of the panel. I'm about there. At any rate I'm just curious, the history of your company? My concern, is this a development thing, I guess for, I need to know more about the background of your company. STROUD: Okay, sure. ONO: Is this where you construct and sell or is this construct and, you know –? STROUD: No, no. We build, own and operate. I run the development division. I own a number of facilities myself within the group. We as a company have been around since the 60s. We retain our properties. In fact, occasionally we operate properties for other owners. But we don't build them and sell them. It is pretty hard to do today anyway. But normally in instances where, in Washington state for example, we act as a receiver for properties that are operated by an operator that maybe doesn't do a good job. The State comes in and takes over, we’ll operate for them. But as far as there, we become a part of the community. And that's, as I say, I worked as an administrator at our quaint facility out at Waimea years ago, haven’t worked in any of the others here locally. But we certainly own and operate, and will continue to do so. There is another operational model where people will go in, just build the facility almost on speculation, and then just hire someone else, but that’s not our model, no. ONO: Thank you. 14 EXHIBIT B KERN: Thank you. Any other questions for the applicant or their representative? Seeing none, gentlemen, you may have a seat. STROUD: Thank you. KERN: You’re welcome. We’ve got two people signed up from the public to testify. Can I call up David Purcell and Don Palakele, Pakele. TORIGOE: Pakele. KERN: Pakele. Good morning. You’re Mr. Purcell? PURCELL: Yes. KERN: And is Mr. Pakele available? PURCELL: Yes. Excuse me. He’s at the back of the room. He was going to ask you to let me go first. KERN: Okay, and we can do that. You’re on the first list. I will wait till Mr. Pakele sits down and I’ll swear you both in. Can I get you both to raise your right hand. Do you swear to tell the truth today before the Windward Planning Commission? TESTIFIERS: I do. KERN: Okay. And, so you’re going to have three minutes. And I just need your name and area in which you live and then you may begin. And what I’m going to do is when there’s a minute left, I’m going to waive the yellow thing just so you know there’s a minute left. Okay? So, Mr. Purcell, go ahead, give us your name and area in which you live, and you may begin. PURCELL: My name is David Purcell. Excuse me. I reside at 558 Kaumana Drive, which is on the mauka side of Kaumana. I’ve lived there continuously since January of 1970. To put this a little differently, the proposed entrance to the Regency South facility will be located 81 feet up the hill, excuse me, from the centerline of my driveway. Viewed from another perspective, the proposed entrance is going to be approximately in the middle of the long sweeping curve, which you've seen here. I am going to be very brief because Mr. Fuke already covered some of the things that I was going to bring up. But let me just hit some high points, cause if you folks are getting as tired as I am we all th want to get out of here. I attended the May 14 community meeting. And one thing was very clear, that everybody who spoke up at that meeting talked about the problem of speed on Kaumana Drive and the fact that that particular curve over the years has been the site of a large number of accidents, some of them pretty horrendous. In response to those comments, Mr. Fuke met with my neighbors and I, just to confirm what he was saying; and actually Mr. Stroud also met with the neighbors. And we talked about ways that might, things that might be done to improve sight distances and things like that. And the, all of our suggestions have been incorporated into the drawing. And let me just finish by 15 EXHIBIT B saying that short of a major realignment of that curve, which we know is not going to happen, I believe that Mr. Fuke and the representatives of Regency South have done everything humanly possible to improve public safety on that section of Kaumana Drive. And I would strongly urge this Commission to approve their request. And I hope it won't get hung up because of concerns about public safety on that road. Thank you. KERN: Thank you. You're good, really good timing. Any questions for the testifier? Seeing none, thank you. Mr. Pakele, give us your name and area in which you live. PAKELE: Thank you, sir. My name is Don Pakele. I’m a resident of Luana Gardens Community Association Subdivision. We have been in existence as a community association for about 40 years. Basically our concern as far as the roadway was we just want to leave as a condition or something that would be accepted if all of the mitigation that they are proposing does not slow down or prevent accidents. We would like to have it as a alternative condition that you look at possibly making it a three-way stop, because if all of the mitigation that we’re going to do is not going to slow down traffic, is not going to stop accidents, then we should have that as an alternative to look at also too. Whether it be directly on this property or further up at Kaumana Terrace and all, some way have it. Because we are proposing the lowest speed limit as possible. And if all of that doesn't work and we still continue to have accidents and we still continue to have, you know, Mario Andrettis coming up and down over there, then we need to look at something else other than what has been proposed. As far as the other things we have been very well received in terms of the conditions that our community association faces, because we border them directly, and they have been very, very receptive to our concerns. As a matter of fact a continued working relationship is something that we look forward to. And as a community Association we support the program and what they are proposing to do. Thank you. KERN: Thank you. Any questions for the testifier? ONO: Yes. KERN: Commissioner Ono. ONO: Yes. I’m sorry. I didn't hear your alternative suggestion. If accidents continue -? KERN: Three-way stop, or something of that nature. ONO: With traffic lights, no? How do you, how -? PAKELE: Actually, when we had our community meetings, those were all suggestions that came up from the community. But realizing that if we look at a stop light, I don't think it would work and I don't think that the County would agree to something like that also too. So the next alternative that we would think of if what they are proposing now, Mr. Ono, doesn't slow down the traffic, doesn't impede or negate additional accidents, then we are saying keep in mind a possible three-way stop, not necessarily on the intersection of the project but maybe possibly even up at Kaumana, I mean, at Kaumana Terrace to slow down the traffic. That’s what we’re saying. 16 EXHIBIT B ONO: Thank you. KERN: Okay, any other questions of the testifier? I’ve got a quick question. What would be the benchmark? How would you identify if we were to talk about that condition of a potential three-way stop? Where is that benchmark? PAKELE: I’m not sure I understand. What do you mean by what would be the benchmark? KERN: Well, you say that, you know, if the improvements are made and there are still some traffic issues, on any road there can be some traffic issues and small accidents -. LEITHEAD TODD: That, I just want to say that that decision is not something that would be within the control of the applicant. Anything doing with a three-way stop on Kaumana Drive would have to be something taken up with the Department of Public Works. And it is not a condition that you could put into this application without Public Works coming to the table. And given the configuration of Kaumana Drive, if you were going to do it, that would be the wrong place to put a stop because it is on the curve. And so the sight distance of somebody that’s inexperienced with Kaumana Drive coming down, they would not be expecting to see a stop sign there. So you have to look at other mitigation. They have tried in the past lowered it down to put those little speed bumps, those little white bumps. People didn't like it because it became noisy. So, but there are other traffic mitigation things that DPW could look at and that the community can bring up with the Department. KERN: Thank you, thank you. Any other questions? PAKELE: I just want to make another comment. KERN: Go ahead. PAKELE: We know what Mr. Thiel’s position is from DPW. But what we are saying is that if all other mitigations are put into effect and if it still doesn't curtail it, then don't leave out that as an option that we can look at in later years. I realize we can’t put it right on that curve. But maybe, like I said, further up at Kaumana Terrace, to at least slowing down the traffic in that area. KERN: Thank you. Any other questions? Seeing none, thank you, gentlemen. You may have a seat. Okay, well, motion time. AU: Mr. Chair? KERN: Commissioner Au. AU: Thank you. I move to approve Use Permit 12-34 with conditions set forth by the Planning Department. KERN: Based on the Planning Department’s recommendation? 17 EXHIBIT B AU: Based on the Planning Department’s recommendation. ISHIBASHI: Second. KERN: Discussion? Commissioner Au? AU: One quick comment about that three-way stop, yeah, our Director is very correct. You know, the applicant is responsible for the egress and ingress, they’re not responsible for speed. You know, so, yeah, I just wanted to make that comment. KERN: Any other discussion? I think this is -. Commissioner Ono, yeah? ONO: No. KERN: I’m happy to see the way that this process went. I mean, it just sounds like good planning to me. Okay, we have a project here, we know there are some issues with that, let’s go out, let’s talk to the community, let’s figure it out, let’s make sure that, you know, safety is the top priority. And it seems like there has been every measure taken to do that, get the buy-in of the community around it and do a project that’s going to fit well in the community. So I’m really pleased to see that. I think that’s the right type of planning approach model to take. And DPW can handle the three-way stop at a later date, if that needs to be done. I think this should hopefully work, and I support this. This seems like to be a good thing for our community. And with that, Madam Director. LEITHEAD TODD: Just before you folks close, I just wanted to thank Mr. Pakele and Mr. Purcell for coming out today and taking the time to come to this hearing, cause it’s very important for us to hear from the community. KERN: Yeah, thank you. Any other discussion? ISHIBASHI: Just couple comments -. KERN: Commissioner Ishibashi. ISHIBASHI: I wanted to thank the developer for taking the extra step and moving forward with this project. The need is real. We really need this facility in our community. And taking care of our elderly, taking care of the sick is real important. So we appreciate this type of project and your willingness to openly work with the community. It's a plus. It's refreshing. So we thank you, thank for that. AU: Mr. Chair? KERN: Commission Au. AU: Thank you, Mr. Chair. You know, I still have an issue with the traffic and traffic starting after construction starts. But I do appreciate the applicant working with the community. And, you know, we don't have very many applicants that will go out, and some, and do what they can to get their 18 EXHIBIT B project passed, and work with the community. As far as that, as far as the road, there's not much we can do about it as far as time. You know, the developer wants to start the job right way; and for us to put a condition for them to do that road prior, this project would just go on forever. So I just wanted to make that comment. KERN: Yeah, I think I am going to comment on that too. I think it makes sense. From what I’ve heard, I mean, it’s really a matter of grading, it’s a matter of grub work, it’s a matter of having the machines or the bulldozers, the excavators, the dump trucks to take care of both the road infrastructure improvements as well as the site infrastructure improvements which might have fill being run back and forth, you know, cut off from the Kaumana Drive. It might need to go on the lot. So I see it making sense to opening it up as a baseyard. I would hope that it would just be the grading and grubbing side of it, prepping for the pads and everything, prior to actually pouring slabs and whatnot until the actual road improvements were done. Obviously that’s a construction scheduling issue. But to me it does make sense to have the machinery there and to do it in that way. And I just pray that you folks prioritize the road. Commissioner Au? AU: Yeah. You know, and I feel very confident that the applicant from other facilities that were built in the United States, you know, I mean you have the experience. So I’m sure you’re going to keep the public safety in mind going through this process. KERN: Any other discussion? Seeing none, Maija, take the vote. COTTLE: Thank you, Mr. Chair. The vote is to approve the Use Permit as recommended by the Planning Director. Commissioner Au? AU: Aye. COTTLE: Commissioner Ishibashi? ISHIBASHI: Aye. COTTLE: Commissioner Gonzales. GONZALES: Aye. COTTLE: Commissioner Moses? MOSES: Aye. COTTLE: Commissioner Ono? ONO: Aye. COTTLE: And Mr. Chair? KERN: Aye. 19 EXHIBIT B COTTLE: Okay, the motion to approve passes, six-zero. KERN: Very good. You folks are approved. You’ll be notified in writing. Thank you. FUKE: Thank you. The discussion ended at 11:12 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Sharon M. Nomura, Secretary Windward Planning Commission 20 EXHIBIT B