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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2013-08-01 Windward Planning Commission Transcript Kuwahara ĪīWINDWARD PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAI‘I HEARING TRANSCRIPT AUGUST 1, 2013 B.T. KUWAHARA, LLC (SLU 12- A regularly advertised hearing on the application of 033/REZ 12-155) was called to order at 9:38 a.m. in the County of Hawai‘i, Aupuni Center Conference Room, 101 Pauahi Street, Hilo, Hawai‘i, with Chairman Wallace Ishibashi presiding. COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Wallace Ishibashi, Ronald Gonzales, Charles Heaukulani, Gregory Henkel Myles Miyasato, Raylene Moses, Stephen Ono STAFF PRESENT: Margaret Masunaga (Deputy Corporation Counsel), Duane Kanuha (Planning Director), Daryn Arai (Planning Program Manager), Phyllis Fujimoto (Staff Planner), Maija Cottle, Jeff Darrow (Staff Planner), and Sharon Nomura (Secretary) And approximately 16 people from the public in attendance APPLICANT: B.T. KUWAHARA, LLC (SLU 12-033/REZ 12-155) Applications for a State Land Use Boundary Amendment from Agricultural to Urban and a Change of Zone from Agricultural – 1 acre (A-1a) to Village Commercial - 10,000 square feet (CV-10) for approximately 9.93 acres of land. The property is the location of Bryson’s Cinders and is located west of Pāhoa Village Road, just south of the Pāhoa Village Road-Kahakai Blvd intersection, Pāhoa, Puna, Hawai‘i, TMK Nos.: 1-5-007:006, 069, 070. ISHIBASHI: Moving on to Item No. 4, Kuwahara, LLC. COTTLE: The next item on the agenda is a request for a State Land Use Boundary Amendment and a Change of Zone. The applicant is B.T. Kuwahara, LLC. The subject property is located in the Puna District in the town Pāhoa. And if you look at the slide you have the Pāhoa Bypass running through the middle of the slide here. And then Pāhoa Village Road runs just west of that. This is the old Pāhoa town here. And then this is Apaa Road that goes out to the Pāhoa transfer station. So the subject property, actually let me orient you a little bit more as well. This property here that’s shown in purple is known as the Pāhoa Market Place that has Malama Market in it. The property shown here in pink is known as Woodland Center. That’s the location of the new Longs Drug Store in Pāhoa. And then this little pink rectangle here is Pāhoa Auto Parts. That has been there quite a while. So the subject property is outlined in red, actually consists of three lots in this area right here. It’s located south of the Kahakai Boulevard extension which is shown here as a white outlined parcel; and it’s located just west of Pāhoa Village Road. The properties are currently zoned Agricultural-1 acre, which is shown in the light green. And as I mentioned Malama Market property is zoned Industrial/Commercial mixed; and the Woodland Center and Pāhoa Auto Parts properties are zoned Neighborhood Commercial. And then you have a very large State parcel, I think it’s over 2,000 acres, that backs up to the applicant’s 1 EXHIBIT A property that’s zoned Agricultural-20 acres. This is the State land Use District designation for the property. The light green is Agricultural, so the properties are currently in the Agricultural District. And the pink is Urban. So you can see Pāhoa town is primarily Urban, as well as those commercial uses that I mentioned before. So the applicant is requesting to change the State Land Use District for the properties to Urban. This is the General Plan Map for Pāhoa. You can see that the properties are in an area designated Medium Density Urban that’s shown by the orange color. And that allows for Single- Family Residential, Multiple-Family Residential, as well as Commercial uses. This is the Puna Community Development Plan map for Pāhoa. It shows the regional town center in two separate areas that are outlined by these little circular dash marks. So you have old Pāhoa town on the right side of the slide and then, which the Community Development Plan designates this area mostly for community uses that serve the people living in Pahoa. And then you have a regional use town center out near the Bypass that is intended to serve the greater lower Puna area for commercial uses. And the subject property is outlined in green here; and it’s not in the town center but it’s just adjacent to that area. So as I mentioned before the applicants are requesting a State Land Use Boundary Amendment from Agricultural to Urban for 9.93 acres; and a Change of Zone from Agricultural-1 acre to Village Commerical-10,000 square feet. And the reason they’re requesting these changes is because they plan to develop a commercial center consisting of about 104,000 square feet of leasable space. The applicant, in order to serve the commercial development, will need to extend Kahakai Boulevard over a State-owned road lot; and that will serve as the primary access. They’re currently proposing two driveways off of the Kahakai Boulevard extension. They’ll also have a secondary access off of the Pāhoa Village Road. And I believe now they’re also proposing two driveways off of Pāhoa Village Road. Other transportation improvements that they will implement is to signalize the Kahakai Boulevard/Pāhoa Village Road intersection, provide four crosswalks and dedicated turn lanes, as well as widen the Village Road fronting the property, provide turn lanes there, in and out of their driveway accesses, as well as curb, gutter, sidewalk and drainage improvements. They’re also, as I mentioned, going to construct the Kahakai Boulevard extension to County dedicable commercial standards that would include curb, gutter, sidewalk and drainage improvements. And they’re also proposing to install a bus stop along the west side of Pāhoa Village Road fronting the property. So these improvements will make a little bit more sense once you see the map. This is an aerial view of the property. You have Malama Market Place here, Woodland Center here. Pāhoa Auto Parts is this building. And then the subject property, I’m just going to run along here with the outline, is in this area here. The Kahakai Boulevard is in this location here. So the Kahakai Boulevard would be extended to the rear property line in this direction here. And then you have Pāhoa Village Road running in a north-south direction. This is the applicant’s preliminary site plan. If the zoning were to be approved, they would be allowed to establish any of the uses that are in the Village Commercial Zoning District. At this time though they’re proposing a supermarket, and a paint and hardware store, a garden center, a 2 EXHIBIT A medical clinic, I think they’re proposing three restaurants, as well as some specialty retail, and a dental clinic. So, again, this area here is the Kahakai Boulevard Extension. You can see they would improve that and have two driveways; and then Pāhoa Village Road they’re proposing a driveway in the middle, and a south driveway. This property currently has an easement from Pāhoa Village Road that extends to the rear to provide access to this lot back here which I believe has currently a house and a baseyard operation. So the applicant would have to preserve that easement so that this lot owner could continue to get access to Pāhoa Village Road. This is a site photo that shows the property. I don’t know if any of you are familiar with Pāhoa. But if you’ve heard of Bryson’s Cinders operation, this is the Bryson Cinder’s property. So you can see the warehouse for Bryson’s Cinders. There’s a little, a little sign here that’s hard to read. The property also has two houses on it. There’s one here, and I’ll show you another one in a minute. And then there’s also a telecommunication pole on the property that was permitted quite a few years ago with a special permit. The warehouse will be demolished and one of the houses will be demolished. One of the homes at this time they’re proposing to convert into a restaurant. And then the telecommunication tower will also remain on site. This is, again, the warehouse. And then you can see a picture of the other house over here. Again, Pāhoa Village Road, and this would be the south driveway entrance. This is the current easement to that property in the back. This is looking towards Pāhoa Village. And then this is a view standing on Kahakai Boulevard near the Longs Drug Shopping Center looking at the, where the Kahakai Boulevard extension would be built. So this area here would be improved and extended. This is Pāhoa Village Road running across the middle of the slide. So this intersection will also be signalized. And then this is a view standing on Kahakai Boulevard looking down Pāhoa Village Road towards Pahoa; and the subject property is on the right side of the slide in this area. And a view of, standing on Pāhoa Village Road looking out towards the Pahoa Bypass. You’ve got Longs Drugs here, Kahakai Boulevard, the applicant’s property on the left side, and then the extension would go in this area here. The Planning Director is recommending a favorable recommendation be sent to the Council for both the State Land Use Boundary Amendment and the Change of Zone. And I want to bring your attention to two recommendations that were in your folders this morning; and I also want to apologize for giving those to you so late. We also did receive a letter that should be in your folder from the Department of Transportation. We invited them here today to answer any questions you may have; but the letter states that they were not able to attend today’s hearing. And then you also have three letters sent from Drs., one is from Dr. Nakamura, Dr. Arakaki, and Dr. Kobayashi. These are in support of the project. Are there any questions? ISHIBASHI: Any questions, Commissioners? GONZALES: I have a question, Mr. Chairman. 3 EXHIBIT A ISHIBASHI: Go ahead, Commissioner Gonzales. GONZALES: Maija, the Malama Market, the Woodland Center and the Auto Parts Store, were those, would you even know, were they once agricultural lots too that were permitted? COTTLE: Yes, they were, yeah. I believe Malama Market property was rezoned back in, I think Malama and Woodland were both rezoned back in the early 90s. Pāhoa Auto Parts may have been the late 90s. GONZALES: Okay, thank you. ISHIBASHI: Commissioner Henkel. HENKEL: What’s the timeframe of this construction? COTTLE: The applicants are proposing to start construction upon approval of the zoning and receiving any permits that they need. Right now their timeframe I believe is, let me check here, they’re estimating completion of construction as soon as early 2015. GONZALES: Okay. And off-hand do you know the timeframe of the construction of the roundabout that they’re going to be building on the Bypass Road? COTTLE: The most current information we have is fiscal year 2013, which for the State runs from August of this year to July of 2014. GONZALES: Okay. COTTLE: So it is possible that the two projects could overlap a bit. We’ve actually included a condition in the Change of Zone to account for any overlap that may occur so that the applicant can coordinate with DOT and Department of Public Works to ensure that the traffic flow isn’t hindered during construction. And that would be Condition O. The background report also refers to that. The top paragraph on page 6 mentions that the applicant has agreed to do the following as needed to reduce traffic impacts due to the State’s roundabout project, that would be delaying construction of improvements on Pāhoa Village Road. So the applicants propose to just do the work on Kahakai Extension so that traffic won’t be affected on Pāhoa Village Road, or expediting the installation of a traffic signal. DOT has informally told us that it would be beneficial to them to have the traffic signal installed because they need to detour traffic through Kahakai Boulevard. So they were planning on installing a temporary traffic signal. And also, the applicant may have to detour their construction traffic, so either use the Pahoa Village Road entrance, or the Kahakai entrance, depending on how traffic is being detoured through that area at the time. GONZALES: Thank you. ISHIBASHI: Okay, thank you. Any further questions, Commissioners? We have two public testifiers. Should we do them first? Okay, we can have the Max Newberg and Mark Hinshaw. 4 EXHIBIT A If you can come up, please. Good morning. If you could raise your right hand. I’ll swear you in. Do you affirm to, do you swear to tell the truth before the Windward Planning Commission over this matter? TESTIFIERS: I do. ISHIBASHI: Okay, thank you. You can go first Max. Can you use the mike please. If you could state your name and address for the record. NEWBERG: My name is Max Newberg. I live in Waikoloa, Hawai‘i. I am representing the Hawai‘i Regional Council of Carpenters. We’re better known as the Hawai‘i Carpenters Union. We’re in support of responsible community development. We feel this project falls within those guidelines quite well; and I think it would be good for Pāhoa and the surrounding area. More so, we also advocate for area standard wages. Area standard wages is not a catch-phrase. It’s a livable wage for trades people to be able to build up family/community and also give back to the community. It creates a level playing field within the building industry for things like unfair trade practices, misclassification; and, you know, sometimes it gets to a point where it’s a race to the bottom. A tradesperson sometimes has to sacrifice the welfare of the family to try and compete in sometimes unfair practices in the labor industry. More so, we advocate for this development within the community as it builds and grows to become part of the community. I think it will be good for people to have options in the area with the commercial areas that will be developed; and we’re looking forward to the project. And we support your Commission allowing them to move forward with this project. Thank you. ISHIBASHI: Thank you, Mr. Newberg. Any questions for the testifier? Okay, thank you. Mr. Hinshaw, please state your name and address for the record. Thank you. HINSHAW: Good morning. My name is Mark Hinshaw and I live in Pāhoa. It’s Rural Route 2, Box 4585. I am the chairperson of the Pahoa Regional Town Center Steering Committee. We are a subcommittee of the Puna Community Development Plan’s Action Committee. At our meeting this morning, at 8 o’clock this morning, we voted unanimously in support of this project. We actually look forward for construction to begin, and looking forward to the new shopping center. So that’s all. Any questions? ISHIBASHI: Thank you. Any questions, Commissioners? Okay, you may be seated. Thank you. If we can have the applicant come up, representatives. Is there anybody else from the public who would like to testify? I’ll give you an opportunity now. Okay. Raise your right hand, please. Do you swear and affirm to tell the truth before the Windward Planning Commission over this matter? MCELVANEY: I do. KUWAHARA: I do. ISHIBASHI: Thank you. You can state your name and address for the record. Go ahead. 5 EXHIBIT A MCELVANEY: I’m Jon E. McElvaney, Post Office Box 1080, Volcano, Hawai‘i. KUWAHARA: Bryson Kuwahara, 1142 Kaumana Drive. ISHIBASHI: Go ahead. You can say whatever you want. MCELVANEY: Okay. I’m, when we started this project a couple of years ago one of the things we were concerned about was the health, safety and welfare of the people in the region. That’s why we really concentrated on the traffic situation. Studying all four intersections, could you put up a map of the site plan? As you can see, the main intersection we’re concerned with is right there where we offered to put in the signal light. The next one is Malama Market Intersection, which is going to be changed now. And the other one is the Bypass Road and Old Pāhoa Village Road, the most dangerous intersection. Then coming down here that’s the Kahakai Boulevard Bypass Road Intersection which there have been no accidents in the last couple of years. But all of these intersections needed to be studied; and we actually revised and studied this for the last two years. That’s how we ended up with the idea of supporting a signal light there. And this is before we knew the roundabout was going to go in. So we had tried to figure out how to mitigate each one of these intersections prior to the roundabout. Luckily the roundabout came along because that really took care of the problems that we saw on those two intersections. So, I don’t know if you saw the roundabout diagram. No? No? Well, I don’t know if we need to bring that out. But up in the north part, the curve there by Longs, oh, okay -. Okay, on the north part of the diagram, actually the Bypass Road and Old Pāhoa Village Road, that is where the roundabout is going to go. It actually is going to leave a portion of the palms. I don’t know if you’re familiar with that area, but when you turn there’s some beautiful palms right there before you go into Malama market. That portion is going to be left. And so just to, almost parallel or just north of Longs there will be a roundabout there. So traffic will come, when they’re coming from Hilo now, they will be able to turn, go straight, and turn right into Malama Market without going -. It’s just a straight right-turn in. Coming out they’ll have to go up on the roundabout, or they can turn right and go straight down into Pāhoa town. So all of this has been -. HEAUKULANI: Excuse me. This is important enough –. Could you use the pointer so that everyone could track where you’re -. MCELVANEY: Okay. HEAUKULANI: What you’re talking about, please. MCELVANEY: Okay. HEAUKULANI: Thank you. MCELVANEY: How does thing work. Okay, yeah. So the roundabout is going to go right about there. This has never been opened before. Usually the traffic had to come and turn right here to get into Malama Market, which required two intersections to go through, which was 6 EXHIBIT A where all the accidents happened. Now they’re going to come straight in and turn right into Malama Market or Pāhoa Market Place. But when they come out they can only turn right to go into Pāhoa town or they can go up on the roundabout, and they can go this way or that way. So that saves a whole lot of accidents. And if you combine the roundabout -. Now what happens in a roundabout, it slows the traffic down to about 25 miles an hour. That’s why they are so safe, actually more safe than an intersection with a signal light. But, so they’ll come down and they’ll hit a signal light. So the combination of the signal light and the roundabout is going to make this area more like a hub. I think everybody will benefit and everyone will be much safer. So I just wanted to -, that’s really important. We put four crosswalks. And we have a new covered bus stop right here so people can come in, get off the bus, walk easily into the area. And I suppose, we talked about photovoltaics on the roof. We’re doing bio-swales in the ground in terms of trying to, you can get less drywells. We’re going to compost all the waste from the restaurant; and that compost will go back on the property on the landscaping. The new design which is not here, we have street trees and sidewalks all the way around every building. They’ll have a 12- foot overhang when you come out of any building. So if you’re shopping you’re not going to get soaking wet when you come, try to get to your car. So these are just some pluses that I think are really important. Any questions? ISHIBASHI: Thank you. Job well done. Any questions, Commissioners? Commissioner Ono. ONO: Yes. I’m not, I’m not following you in the sense of what the traffic patterns that you’ve introduced have to do with the request for the development? MCELVANEY: Up here you mean? ONO: Yeah, the development is on the lower half of the -. MCELVANEY: Right. Oh, the development right here? ONO: I’m sorry, what? MCELVANEY: This is the development. Right? Right here. So coming in, this whole section has been, we’re going to extend Kahakai Boulevard by 830 feet this direction. So the main entrance to the Center will be right here. So you’re coming in and come in this way, or you can come in and come in this way, or you can come in this way. So this creates a real nice circulation pattern. So you can get in and out in three different, actually three different directions. So if it’s too crowded to go in this way, you can go this way or come this way. And people who drive will find their best solution. Right? Oh, any other questions? Does that make sense? ONO: I’m not very good at graphics, so thank you. MCELVANEY: Well, you know, it’s kind of, it’s a little difficult to understand unless you live out there or spend a lot of time out there. Like I, I don’t live out there but I spend a lot of time 7 EXHIBIT A out there. So I’ve watched the, I’ve had counters out there personally and done a lot of work. And I’m really happy with what’s coming up in terms of safety. ISHIBASHI: Any further questions, Commissioners? HENKEL: Chair? ISHIBASHI: Oh, Commissioner Henkel. HENKEL: I think I understand the traffic flow improvements you’re going to make. Right now it’s just a, it’s probably the, it’s known as the most dangerous intersection in the State, right there where the Pāhoa sign is. I’m okay with all the changes that you’re going to make. I really want to, you know, feel confident that both of these constructions aren’t going on concurrently and pretty much bottleneck everybody in lower Puna that’s down there. So, you know -. MCELVANEY: I agree with that, with you. HENKEL: If I have your best assurances that that’s going happen I would feel a lot better. MCELVANEY: Okay, that I agree with you. Is this off? ARAI: It’s working. MCELVANEY: Hello? HENKEL: You’re on. MCELVANEY: Okay, okay. I totally agree with you. I think even without us doing any construction, that’s going to be a mess because they’re routing all the traffic -. When they’re under construction with the roundabout, they’re routing all, coming out of lower Puna on the Bypass Road, you cannot go this way. You’re going to have to go this way and out. So that means all traffic now coming out of Hilo is going to have to come this way and go out this way -- all 16,000 cars a day, including emergency vehicles and trucking and everything. So without construction that’s going to be a mess. They’re planning that, DOT is planning to put a temporary stop light here, but we don’t think, and some of us don’t think that that’s going to be good enough. So if we possibly can get in before the DOT, we have offered to put in the signal light, a complete signal light there, to help the Department of Transportation in that whole mess, not mess, could be a mess. So we’ve agreed, the applicant has agreed that we will not do any construction in the State right-of-way and block any of the activity that’s going on. In other words, we will not be operating at the same time as the DOT. And we can accomplish that by doing interior work on the back side without having to access the intersection going north. HENKEL: Thank you. ISHIBASHI: Thank you, Commissioner Henkel. Any further questions? Motion is in order, Commissioners. 8 EXHIBIT A MOSES: I move that a favorable recommendation be forwarded to the County Council on the application for a Change of Zone (REZ 12-155), based on the Planning Director’s recommendation and proposed conditions. COTTLE: Excuse me, Mr. Chair. Is there any way we could get a motion on the State land Use Boundary Amendment first? MOSES: Yeah. COTTLE: Thank you. MOSES: I move that a favorable recommendation be forwarded to the County Council on the application for a State Land Use Boundary Amendment, Doc. No. SLU 12-033, based on the Planning Director’s recommendation. ISHIBASHI: It has been moved by Commissioner Moses and seconded by -? MIYASATO: I second. ISHIBASHI: Commissioner Miyasato. Any questions? Discussion? Okay, Maija. COTTLE: Okay, the motion before you is to send a favorable recommendation to the Council for the State Land Use Boundary Amendment. Commissioner Moses? MOSES: Aye. COTTLE: Commissioner Miyasato? MIYASATO: Aye. COTTLE: Commissioner Gonzales? GONZALES: Aye. COTTLE: Commissioner Heaukulani? HEAUKULANI: Aye. COTTLE: Commissioner Henkel? HENKEL: Aye. COTTLE: Commissioner Ono? ONO: Aye. COTTLE: And Mr. Chair? 9 EXHIBIT A ISHIBASHI: Aye. COTTLE: The motion passes seven-zero. ISHIBASHI: Thank you. COTTLE: And then the Change of Zone? MOSES: I move that a favorable recommendation be forwarded to the County Council on the application for a Change of Zone (REZ 12-155) based on the Planning Director’s recommendation and proposed conditions. ISHIBASHI: Thank you, Commissioner Moses. MIYASATO: Second. ISHIBASHI: And seconded by Commissioner Miyasato. Any discussion, questions, Commissioners? Thank you. Maija. COTTLE: Okay. The motion is to send a favorable recommendation for the Change of Zone from Agricultural to Village Commercial. Commissioner Moses? MOSES: Aye. COTTLE: Commissioner Miyasato? MIYASATO: Aye. COTTLE: Commissioner Gonzales? GONZALES: Aye. COTTLE: Commissioner Heaukulani? HEAUKULANI: Aye. COTTLE: Commissioner Henkel? HENKEL: Aye. COTTLE: Commissioner Ono? ONO: Aye. COTTLE: And Mr. Chair? 10 EXHIBIT A ISHIBASHI: Aye. COTTLE: The motion passes seven-zero. ISHIBASHI: Okay. Thank you, Maija. Thank you. You’ll be notified in writing of the decision. MCELVANEY: I would like to thank all of you for your hard work. I know it’s a busy day for you; and thank you very much. ISHIBASHI: Thank you. A job well done, important project. The discussion ended 10:12 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Sharon M. Nomura, Secretary Windward Planning Commission . 11 EXHIBIT A