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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2012-10-18 Leeward Exh A - Bonk LEEWARD PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAI‘I HEARING TRANSCRIPT OCTOBER 18, 2012 FUMIE BONK (SLU 12-034/REZ 12-156) A regularly advertised hearing on the application of was called to order at 9:39 a.m. in the West Hawai‘i Civic Center, Community Center, Building G, 74-5044 Ane Keohokālole Highway, Kailua-Kona, Hawai‘i, with Chair Pro Tem Richard Nelson, III presiding. COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Richard Nelson, III, Brandi Beaudet, Thomas Hickcox and Wayne Iokepa ABSENT AND EXCUSED: Geraldine Giffin, Lani Bowman and Thomas Whittemore ALSO PRESENT: Ivan Torigoe (Deputy Corporation Counsel), BJ Leithead Todd (Planning Director), Daryn Arai (Planning Program Manager), Jeff Darrow (Planner), Maija Cottle (Planner) Kiran Emler (Department of Public Works, Engineering Division) and Noriko Sauer (Commission Secretary) And approximately 18 people from the public in attendance. APPLICANT: FUMIE BONK (SLU 12-034/REZ 12-156) Applications for a State Land Use Boundary Amendment from Agricultural to Rural and a Change of Zone from Agricultural-40-acres (A-40a) to Residential and Agricultural-0.5-acre (RA-.5a) for approximately 1.0046 acres of land. The property is located at the northeast intersection of Māmalahoa Highway and Kakanihia Place, Pu‘ukapu Homesteads, Waimea, North Kohala, Hawai‘i, TMK: 6-4-001: 099. NELSON: The first item on the agenda is Fumie Bonk, a State Land Use Boundary amendment application, as well as a change of zone application. The applicant, Fumie Bonk, SLU 12-034/REZ 12-156, applications for a State Land Use Boundary amendment from Agricultural to Rural and a change of zone from Agricultural-40 acres, that’s A-40 acres, to Residential and Agricultural 0.5-acre for approximately 1.0046 acres of land. The property is located at the northeast intersection of Māmalahoa Highway and Kakanihia Place, Pu‘ukapu Homesteads, Waimea, North Kohala, Hawai‘i, TMK: 6-4-001: 099. Staff? DARROW: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning, Members of the Planning Commission. As our new Chairman had mentioned, our first applicant is Fumie Bonk. If I can direct your attention to our presentation screen. The area of this application is within the District of South Kohala. More specifically, we are looking in the Waimea area. Just for reference, you’ll see the subject property identified in a black outline. This would be the Mokuloa Subdivision to your right, or to the east. A well-known area is the Hawaiian Homes Administration Office that’s located just to the east of the subject property. Through the middle of the map, we have Māmalahoa Highway. Access to the subject property is from Kakanihia Place, which is from Māmalahoa Highway. You’ll see the different colors on the map; these represent different zonings. Just for reference, the darker green to the right is the Agricultural 1-acre, the dark blue is Agricultural 40-acres, the lighter green down below identifies Agricultural 5-acres in zoning. On the far left side, those are more the commercial and urban designations. 1 EXHIBIT A This is a little closer-up of the area. Again, we have Māmalahoa Highway running through the middle of the map, Mokuloa Subdivision just to the right of the subject property, and the subject property identified in a black outline. And, again, we have Kakanihia Place running north-south that provides access to this property, as well as a few smaller properties to the north. This is the General Plan for the area. The yellow is identified as Low Density Urban. On the lower portion of the map is Important Agricultural Land, and on the upper portion of the map is Extensive Agriculture. This is the Waimea Town Conceptual Plan; this identifies the plan for the Waimea Community that was established in 2008 through their Community Development process. The subject property is in the area identified with a circle, it is identified for Urban Development. This is an aerial photo of the subject property. Again, you can see Māmalahoa running in an east- west direction through the middle of the screen. You have the black outline of the subject property. Currently, there is a single family dwelling that’s constructed. It’s hard to see, but there is a little shed on the lower portion of the property. And, again, we have Kakanihia Place that’s running in a north-south direction that provides access. The applicant is requesting a State Land Use Boundary amendment from Agricultural to Rural, and a change of zone from Agricultural 40-acre to Residential and Agricultural 0.5-acre for approximately 1.0046 acres of land. The applicant plans to subdivide the property into two Residential and Agricultural lots and convey the new lot to her son. This is the submitted site plan, submitted by the applicant. Again, we have Māmalahoa Highway on the lower portion of the map, Kakanihia Place, or Road, running in a north-south direction, and the subject property identified as one acre, approximately one acre. And, again, you can see the proposed subdivision that would create two separate lots. And this particular map identifies these structures on the property. These are some site photos. This is looking towards Waimea on Māmalahoa Highway. The subject property would be to your right. This next picture is looking towards Hilo, and the subject property is just to your left. And this is the entrance to Kakanihia Place, and this is actually looking from Māmalahoa down Kakanihia Place. The subject property would be on the left, or on the right, I’m sorry. The Planning Director is recommending that the Planning Commission send a favorable recommendation for the State Land Use Boundary amendment and the change of zone request to the Hawai‘i County Council. Before I conclude my presentation, I would like to bring to your attention the yellow insert that was submitted to the Council, I mean, to the Commission. The request is that we add this insert to the change of zone recommendation on Page 2, and it identifies exactly where. And this speaks to the Community Development Plan for South Kohala. Lastly, we have received, which are part of the background and recommendation, two letters from the general public: One is identified as Exhibit 9 and one is identified as Exhibit 10. Exhibit 9 is from Monique van den Hurk, and Exhibit 10 is from Nancy Jones. And just for reference, I was able to look at where these properties are; I believe these properties are located, I believe – let’s see here – Exhibit 9, Monique van den Hurk would be the owner of this property in this location, and the Exhibit 10, Nancy Jones, the property that she is residing, or owns, is identified as this property 2 EXHIBIT A here. There may be other properties that they own, but these are the ones that I believe have been the properties that were able to be notified as being within the 300, or the 1000 feet, for notification. With that, that concludes our presentation. Are there any questions? LEITHEAD TODD: Mr. Chair, may I ask -? NELSON: Yes. LEITHEAD TODD: Jeff, we didn’t receive any opposition from the actual properties that use Kakanihia? DARROW: Not to my understanding. The Exhibit 10 does state on the first sentence that their property borders this parcel, but it clearly does not border this parcel. I had spoken to Nancy Jones on the phone, and she had said that she accesses this property via a private road, which is not Kakanihia Place. And I believe she is present and signed up to testify. Any other questions? Thank you. NELSON: Commissioners, any questions? Will the applicant please step forward, please. Please raise your right hand. Please get the microphone. Thank you. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth on this matter now before the Hawai‘i County Planning Commission? BONK: I do. MOORE: I do. NELSON: Thank you. Please state your name, the area you reside, and then you can proceed. MOORE: My name is Michael Moore. I’m an attorney from Hilo. I live in Hilo, and I’m representing the Bonk family. BONK: My name is Keiko Bonk. I’m representing my mom today because she is, she couldn’t make it; she is undergoing medical treatment today. And she resides in Kamuela on Kakanihia Road. NELSON: Thank you. BONK: Thank you. NELSON: Go ahead, proceed. Did you receive the Planning Department’s background report and recommendation? MOORE: Yes, we did. NELSON: Thank you. Do you have any comments to make at this time? MOORE: Not particularly. I think that the Planning Department did a good job in terms of reviewing the application, and we are pleased that they gave a favorable recommendation. But I don’t have anything specific at this time unless there are questions or there are comments that come up that need to be responded to. 3 EXHIBIT A BONK: I would like to speak to why we are doing this. My mother is applying for this application to give her son, Seizen Bonk, the use of the land that’s in front of her, or her house, basically, which has been farmed by my brother, both my brothers for over 30 years. My brother, Seizen, lives on the same road; he has the lot directly across from my mother’s house, and has a house there. So he is one of the only, of two produce farmers that goes to the farmers market, which is in the Hawaiian Homes parcel right next door. And he leases about 20 acres of land in the lighter green area down here from a family for his Kozen Farms. My brother has been a truck farmer for over, oh, for four decades now. And he tried to get a lease land in Waimea and then couldn’t get it in the 70s, so he went to Moloka‘i and farmed State land. And about, a little over this past decade, he moved back to farm in Waimea. So he has been farming pretty consistent with his wife. But my mom wants to make sure that he has the land in perpetuity so that he can do seedlings; it’s kind of a small parcel to actually do larger truck farming. So he wants to do seedlings and packing, and get it out of his garage, which is right across the street, so that he can come home from the farm and pack for the farmers market and do all his like smaller work around closer to his house. He is getting a little older and that would be a lot easier for him. And he wants to start training his oldest son to farm with him, and his name is Noah, and so he’s been farming with him since he was a kid. But he needs more room in his house. So that’s why my mom decided to subdivide. NELSON: Thank you. Commissioners, any questions? LEITHEAD TODD: In the interest of full disclosure, just as Ms. Giffin mentioned, Seizen Bonk, who would be the recipient of the new parcel that’s created that has the little shed on it, is my high school classmate. And I’m very familiar with his farming activities since I’ve gone to buy squash and other stuff at the farmers market from him, and remember when he was growing sweet potato on Moloka‘i, because Keiko ended up giving away sweet potato when she went door to door. But, you know, I’ve known the family for a very long time. He is one of the few classmates I know who’s still farming and, you know, didn’t leave farming to go and seek other work because it’s a hard life. I’ve been to the house where he does do the packing, and, you know, he chose, he could make more money working construction, but he is committed to agriculture. And it’s, when we reviewed this, I tried to, you know, make sure that I wasn’t reviewing it in terms of people I knew but in terms of the CDP. And we did send it out for comment, you know, from other agencies and the Waimea community, and we felt that it was consistent with the CDP. And one of the critical issues in making our recommendation is although it’s zoned Ag-40, this is not a 40-acre lot; this is a one-acre lot. And if I remember the history of the lot correctly, during the World War II, this was, one of the reasons these are smaller lots is, this was barracks for nurses. And, in fact, Fumie’s home utilized the existing structures and incorporated the nurses’ barracks into the home that she built there. Currently, her other son lives with her. And, you know, this has kind of been a family compound. But the bottom line is when we did review it, we reviewed it in terms of consistency with the General Plan. You noticed that the General Plan is Low Density Urban. You noticed the Community Development Plan actually has this for some urban development. Rural is consistent with the neighbors in this area. And you can see from this aerial photo; this is not a 40-acre lot that, you know, is surrounded by other 40-acre lots. It’s a small lot. And directly in that area you see other homes in the area. So it’s very consistent with what is in this area. And if you noticed, just below Seizen’s lot, Seizen has the two little houses directly across from his mother, there is another home directly down there. So this is very consistent with this small area. And so it kind of met all 4 EXHIBIT A the issues that you look at: Is it consistent with the General Plan, is it consistent with the Community Development Plan? And it hit all of those right on the nail. NELSON: Thank you, Madam Chair (sic). I note that we have two signed up for testimony. So if we could have Niki van den Hurk, please. Please come up, come forward. The applicants, if you could sit back while she is testifying. I’ve been instructed to ask Nancy Jones to come up since there is just two to testify. You can sit up front. Thank you. Both of you, please raise your right hands. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth on this matter now before the Hawai‘i County Planning Commission. VAN DEN HURK: I do. NELSON: Thank you. Please state your name and where you reside first. Thank you. VAN DEN HURK: Niki van den Hurk, and Kamuela. JONES: Nancy Jones, and Kamuela. NELSON: Okay, Niki, you first. VAN DEN HURK: While I have respect for what the Bonks are trying to do and I have empathy for them, my concern is basically three levels: density, congestion and precedent. And my property runs along the highway. I have 15 acres. In two years my fence has been crashed into three times. When I try to leave my property in the mornings and at night, often times if somebody doesn’t let me out, it could take ten minutes for me to get across the highway. Adjacent to my property is a, I think it’s a 20-acre parcel that’s been subdivided into five-acre parcels. And my concern is not this one issue; it’s on a going-forward basis, if we’re going to be setting a precedent and allowing other people to subdivide their properties because the Bonks have done this and changed the zoning. Just down the street, literally 30 or 40 feet I would guess, near Mānā Road, we had a family, I think two or three young children were killed in a car accident because of that highway. And my thing is that it’s already so busy and congested, I don’t want to see it get worse and have other people or attorneys use this subdivision as a way to then subdivide other properties in the surrounding area and then increase more and more housing and more and more congestion. It’s not to me about the Bonks; it’s about the future of Waimea and the congestion of our city. That’s all I have to say. NELSON: Thank you. JONES: In the -. NELSON: Commissioners, do you have any questions? Excuse me, I’m sorry, okay, continue. JONES: In the slides that you showed earlier of the entrance to Kakanihia Road, what you did not show was the entrance to the farmers market. And adjacent to this -. NELSON: Excuse me, please state your name. JONES: Oh, I’m Nancy Jones. NELSON: Thank you. I’m sorry. 5 EXHIBIT A JONES: So right next to where the shed is located is the entrance to the Hawaiian Emersion School and the farmers market. And you can’t see it from this perspective. But on Saturdays there is a huge amount of congestion of people coming and going into the farmers market. Now, I have talked to some of the people who live on Kakanihia Road, they are my neighbors as well, the Bonks are loved in the community, they are a highly respected, loved family. And just this morning we’ve seen that two people who are on the Planning Commission who know the Bonks. The neighbors don’t want to interfere with Mrs. Bonk’s wishes. And as long as the Bonk family stays intact, and the Bonk’s sons are alive, the chances are this is not going to change; those two pieces of property will be the same, they won’t be overdeveloped. But, as we all know, life changes, financial crises happen, and then those two pieces of property may be put up for sale. Families will build homes on there. Each family will have a minimum of two cars, and maybe four cars, and kids and dogs, and that whole area is going to become a cluster of congestion. And we can sit here and say, oh, no, this will not happen, but we don’t know the future. That’s one of my concerns. And then I share the concern of Niki. I bought agricultural property. I’m a horse rancher. I raise chickens. I raise koa trees. They are all sensitive to air pollution, noise pollution, light pollution. And you would be surprised at the people who come up Kakanihia Road, climb my fence, and think they are going to hike into some wilderness area. And so that’s another concern of mine. The more commercial the street becomes, the more people are likely to wander up the path and enter my property. So I’m concerned about that. And like Niki, I’m concerned about the precedent. Because – and I know there are some attorneys in this room, and I love attorneys especially if it’s my attorney – but if in the future down the highway people want to start subdividing into half acres, they are going to get a sharp attorney and they are going to come right back, and they are going to say people on the Planning Commission knew the Bonks, they set the precedent. And they will fight and they will get their zoning into half acres, too. Yeah, and then we already have five acres where we saw this happen with another prominent Hawaii family. So if you all could sit here and assure me that this is all going to be a once-in-a-life-time thing, it’s not going to set a precedent, and some smart attorney is not going to come in five years from now and do these other precedents, I would be more comfortable with it. VAN DEN HURK: I just want to make one other comment. Right next to Nancy’s and my property, an older gentleman owned -. Was it 20 acres? JONES: Yeah. VAN DEN HURK: He owned 20 acres. Same thing – he wanted to, he wanted to subdivide the property so he could will it to his children. The children don’t want to move here, so now they are selling those parcels off. This will set a precedent that those five-acre parcels can now be subdivided into perhaps one-acre parcels or half-acre parcels. And now a beautiful, lovely agricultural area where I bought to have that horse property and my mules and things is now going to have, right now four houses on it, that could then have eight houses on it. And these people drive up and down our private road, they get lost, they go on my property. We all have the same problems. I just, it’s not about the Bonks because, and I feel bad because they are nice people and I’ve heard they are nice people, but it’s about the future of our agricultural area in Kamuela. Anyway, thank you. LEITHEAD TODD: I ask -. 6 EXHIBIT A NELSON: Go ahead. LEITHEAD TODD: I ask Jeff to put up the General Plan. So this area that is kind of a mustard green, I guess, on the GP is Low Density Urban, and Low Density Urban can be RA, it can be 10,000-square foot lots. Now, go to the Community Development Plan, for the plan for Waimea. Now this is to try and implement the General Plan, and so this is currently what we try to work with when we are looking at Waimea proper, as well as some of the specific language. And so you’ll see that -. Can you show where Māmalahoa runs through there, Jeff? DARROW: The red dotted line. LEITHEAD TODD: Okay. So you can see that it has designated certain areas for small farms, it has certain areas designated for other areas, commercial, and then -. Where is the other one that we had where it shows Urban? DARROW: The yellow. LEITHEAD TODD: Okay. So one of the issues here was that, because that Urban goes out to the Bonk’s property, that it’s consistent with the Community Development Plan, which was recently adopted. This would be different for other areas. But this is the context with which we work under. And as time goes by, yes, you know, other people may ask, I mean I can’t guarantee that nobody ever comes in and asks for a rezone or to change it. But the existing language -. Go to -. I think the yellow sheet that we have, which we added, and I don’t know if you have copies of it, directly quotes the South Kohala. We have said on Page 70 of it, it says to “MODERATE THE PACE OF GROWTH AND CHANGE IN WAIMEA,” and it says to, while we are trying to, you know, implement some more of this, it says basically “private lands that are currently zoned A-5a, A-10a, A-20a, or A-40a should retain their current zoning.” The exceptions are for “affordable housing, agricultural cluster subdivisions, and small-scale rezonings of 4 lots or less that may assist families in allowing their children to obtain individual properties.” Now I understand your individual concerns. But when we are reviewing these, we review them in terms of what was adopted with community input, and adopted by the County Council. And so this particular rezone fits in. And on top of that, it’s actually set for Urban, which is not true of the other properties or yours. JONES: Would you, could, would you mind going back and showing the map where the Urban is -. Well, this Urban map is going right through Niki’s property, and it’s not touching my properties, but it’s -. This is the first time I’ve seen this map, and it’s the first time I’ve known that we were in an Urban zoning area, and I’ve owned my property since 1996. So, obviously when this zoning was done, this map wasn’t made available to all the people who lived in that area. LEITHEAD TODD: Can I clarify? This is not zoning; this is the General Plan, which kind of sets out the parameters for future growth and development on the island. And by, and “General” means exactly that. So this was designed to kind of incorporate where you had existing one-acre subdivisions and lands. If you look at this, it’s kind of a strip along the Māmalahoa, because the intent is that, you know, that’s where you would concentrate future low-density urban as opposed to designating low-density urban further out from Māmalahoa. But the next step in that Plan is the Waimea Community Plan, which specifically tries to identify in greater detail how they want Waimea developed. And so to a great extent, this becomes the document that has the greatest weight in terms of how we interpret rezoning applications. And the other consideration for this one was that it is a one-acre parcel despite the zoning of Ag-40 and it’s on a small street where there are 7 EXHIBIT A existing small lots. But it was also that it’s surrounded by buildings, so it’s not specifically adjacent to agriculture, you know, like between Mrs. Bonk’s house and this lot and parcels to more Waimea Town, there are existing homes. Between this lot and, if you are going back towards Hilo, it’s already one-acre lots, and it’s already got the Hawaiian Homes Commission building there; so it’s not immediately adjacent to large agricultural parcels. So those are some of the considerations that kind of make this a little bit different than other applications that might come in. But I can’t guarantee you that other people won’t come in and seek rezoning and, you know, because they come in and they are a case-by-case basis. But generally speaking, you know, most rezonings in this area are not going to fly unless they are consistent with this Community Plan. VAN DEN HURK: Can you take me back to that other, the one before? Does this rezoning -? Now, my property is the kind of big square one that’s, right there, that one. The property to the left, if you see, there’s one, two, three, four, those are five-acre parcels, originally that was a 20-acre parcel. You’ll notice that to the left of me that bottom half of that subdivision, if you will, is this green color. Does this rezoning allow that person to then subdivide that five-acre parcel? LEITHEAD TODD: Not necessarily. And there are a couple of considerations. If you move forward to the Waimea Community Plan. You’ll notice that it’s in the green, which is small farms; so it’s less likely to get a favorable recommendation. The other thing is the fact that it was recently subdivided and rezoned to create those five-acre lots also makes it less likely to get a favorable recommendation, because it’s fairly recent. If they were a 20-acre lot and they were coming in and asking for the five acres today, I’d say possibly 50/50 because five-acre lots are consistent with small agricultural farms. And so they might, even if they were coming in today, get those five acres. But I think it would be less likely that they would get a favorable recommendation for that one five-acre lot to get further subdivided because of 1) it’s close in time to when the prior rezoning occurred, and 2) because the Community Development Plans have it for the small farms area. NELSON: Thank you. You can be excused now. Thank you. Commissioners, do you have any responses? Applicants, please come up again. Thank you. Do you have any responses to the testimonies you’ve heard? MOORE: Not really. I think the Planning Director has explained the situation well enough. NELSON: Thank you. BONK: I appreciate hearing from the neighbors on the 40-acre Ag lots. But all the half-acre lots on this road were established in the 1950’s, and most of the people that bought these house sites bought it for family homes and, including my parents who bought it in the 1970’s, I believe, when my dad and mom purchased their acre. But my brothers are actual farmers. And my brother, Seizen, would have loved to buy the parcel neighboring him on both sides and actually continue to farm right next door, but he cannot afford to buy land on this strip for farming; it’s been out-valued from farmers actually purchasing farm land on this road, and it’s kind of unheard of to even -. He would have loved to buy the Kerr’s lot right there that’s open pasture; it went up for sale recently, somebody bought it for the house basically and is fixing up the house. So, you know, we are out- pricing people in Waimea for actual farming. And it would be nice to have more agricultural land, of course, for farmers, but -. The best he can do is now to do seedlings and use it for storing his farm equipment and things like that to help his farm. 8 EXHIBIT A NELSON: Thank you. You may return to your seats. Commissioners, do you have any questions? Are there anybody else in the audience that would like to testify? Commissioners, a motion to close testifying? IOKEPA: Mr. Chair, I’d like to propose, first, a motion to send a favorable recommendation on the Change of Zone to applicant, Application No. REZ 12-156 to the County Council. Kala mai, I would like to do the State Land Use Boundary Amendment Application SLU 12-000034, sending a favorable recommendation for the State Land Use Boundary amendment application to the County Council. NELSON: Second? BEAUDET: Second. TORIGOE: Mr. Chair, just to clarify, you asked for a motion to close the hearing of public testimony at this time, so I assume that when this substantive motion is being made that the Commission has no objection to closing the public hearing at this point. IOKEPA: That’s correct. TORIGOE: Okay, there is no objection, so the public hearing portion is closed, and you can go ahead with the motion. NELSON: The motion is seconded. The State Land Use, we have a second, a motion and a second. Discussion? All in favor, say aye. Oh, I’m sorry. DARROW: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The motion before us is to send a favorable recommendation for the State Land Use Boundary amendment request. With that, I’ll take the roll. Commissioner Iokepa? IOKEPA: Aye. DARROW: Commissioner Beaudet? BEAUDET: Aye. DARROW: Commissioner Hickcox? HICKCOX: Aye. DARROW: And Mr. Chairman? NELSON: Aye. DARROW: The motion passes, four to zero. NELSON: The zoning motion? 9 EXHIBIT A BEAUDET: I have a motion. I would like to propose for a favorable recommendation to the change of application, REZ 12-156, for this change of zone request, that it be forwarded with a favorable recommendation to the County Council. NELSON: Second? IOKEPA: Second. NELSON: Thank you. It has been moved and seconded to send a favorable recommendation. Discussion? Staff? DARROW: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. With that, I’ll take the roll call. Commissioner Beaudet? BEAUDET: Aye. DARROW: Commissioner Iokepa? IOKEPA: Aye. DARROW: Commissioner Hickcox? HICKCOX: Aye. DARROW: And Mr. Chairman? NELSON: Aye. DARROW: The motion passes, four to zero. Thank you. NELSON: Applicants, you’ll have the decision in writing. BONK: Thank you very much. MOORE: Thank you very much. NELSON: Thank you for your testimony. The discussion ended at 10:18 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Noriko Sauer, Secretary Leeward Planning Commission 10 EXHIBIT A