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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2013-11-07 Windward Transcript - PD Ocean View WINDWARD PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAI‘I HEARING TRANSCRIPT NOVEMBER 7, 2013 PLANNING DIRECTOR INITIATED ACTION A regularly advertised meeting on the REGARDING SP NO. 653 ISSUED TO OCEAN VIEW INVESTMENT COMPANY, INC., was called to order at 12:19 p.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, and Stephen Ono STAFF PRESENT: Margaret Masunaga (Deputy Corporation Counsel), Duane Kanuha (Planning Director), Daryn Arai (Planning Program Manager), Maija Cottle (Staff Planner), Jeff Darrow (Staff Planner), and Sharon Nomura (Secretary) And four people from the public in attendance INITIATOR: PLANNING DIRECTOR (SP NO. 653) Assessment and appropriate action on applicant’s response/action regarding Condition No. 10 of Special Permit No. 653 issued to Ocean View Investment Company, Inc., on December 8, 1987 which allowed a variety of commercial and industrial uses and a farmers’ market on 14.75 acres of land within the State Land Use Agricultural District. The property is located at the western corner of the Hawai‘i Belt Road-Prince Kuhio Boulevard intersection and includes the existing Ocean View Store complex known as Pohue Plaza, Kahuku, Ka‘u, Hawai‘i. TMK: 9-2-l85:094, 095,096 and Portions of 092 and 093. ISHIBASHI: Okay, Commissioners, the next item on the agenda. Okay, we have Item 5, the initiator Planning Director (SP NO. 653). Maija. COTTLE: Thank you. The next item on the Agenda is a little bit unusual and unique. This is for a special permit that was approved many years ago. It has been amended several times since then. And the Planning Director is bringing this back to the Commission since they originally issued the permit, because we’ve received a public complaint that it appears the applicant has not been able to resolve. So the Director is asking the Commission to assess the situation and the complaint and to recommend action as to how the Department should handle this, this issue. The property is located in the Kau district in the Hawaiian Ranchos Subdivision. You can see ‘ the Hawai‘i Belt Road running throughout the middle of the slide, and then you have the HOVE (Hawaiian Ocean View Estates) Subdivision to the north, mauka; and that’s Agricultural 1-acre zoning shown in the light green. 1 EXHIBIT B And then the Hawaiian Ranchos Subdivision is shown in the light blue. You can see the subject properties are outlined in red. So they’re located just off the Hawai‘i Belt Road. And Prince Kuhio Boulevard comes off of the highway right here. This is a close-up view. This is a little bit better. So, again, you can see the highway and the Prince Kuhio Boulevard, and Maile Drive. So the permit area consists of three entire parcels and then portions of two, and I didn’t put lines between so you could see where each of the parcels are. But there are three adjacent to the highway, and then two along Prince Kuhio Boulevard. This is an aerial photo of the property. And if you’re familiar with Kau, you’re probably very ‘ familiar with this property, because it’s the location of the Malama Market Store. The store is located right here, and there are other businesses and other structures on the property. But the area the farmers market is occurring on is in this location right here. Let’s see, just to give you a little bit more context, this area across the street is the location of a County Hele On park and ride lot. And the, this entire area here is all owned by the applicant, Ocean View Partners LLC. They actually also own the park and ride lot, the property across the street, and they’re leasing that to the County of Hawai‘i. So Condition 10 of the permit says that if the applicant fails to comply with conditions of approval or is unable to resolve any public complaints, the Planning Director shall investigate and if necessary enforce the appropriate conditions. The Planning Director may as part of any enforcement action refer the matter to the Planning Commission for review. That’s why we’re here today. Upon appropriate findings by the Commission that the applicant has failed to comply with conditions of approval or has caused an unreasonable adverse impact on surrounding properties, the permit may be suspended or revoked. So at this point I’d like to turn, conclude the Department’s presentation for now and allow both of the parties, the applicant as well as the representative from the Road Association, they’re the ones that made the complaint, to kind of lay out their concerns. And then if the Commission could give the Department a chance afterwards to follow up on any questions or concerns. ISHIBASHI: Any questions, Commissioners? If not, we would like to call up the applicant. And -. COTTLE: I’m sorry, Mr. Chairman. I just realized the applicant actually sent a letter to the st Commission dated October 31. You should have that in your package. And it says that they will not be able to attend this hearing because they’ve made prior commitments. We did notify them that their attendance here was required, but they submitted this letter instead. ISHIBASHI: We have Don, Don Nitche. Okay, Don, if you could raise your right hand. And do you swear and affirm to tell the truth before the Windward Planning Commission over this matter? NITCHE: I do. 2 EXHIBIT B ISHIBASHI: Okay, thank you. Your name and address for the record. NITCHE: Shall I go ahead and start? ISHIBASHI: Yes. NITCHE: Oh, okay. I’ve been on the Road Maintenance Corporation in the Ranchos for -. ISHIBASHI: Name and address for the record? NITCHE: Pardon me? ISHIBASHI: Your name and address. NITCHE: Oh, excuse me. I’m Don Nitche and I’ve been on the, I’ve lived in Ranchos for 23 years, and I’ve been on the Road Maintenance Corporation for 23 years. And I have a special permit myself that my wife and I have Bougainvillea Bed and Breakfast, which we’ve had for 23 years. We’re very concerned about the, we’re not against the swap meet, or they call it a farmers market. It’s just really a swap meet. And all we’re concerned about is the safety of the parking. They take over the whole roadway coming in; and they were required to provide off-street parking, which they did, but it’s a half a block around the corner and down the street. And they haven’t even put up a sign with an arrow pointing to it, and they don’t do any supervising. Well, we’re very concerned with the heavy parking and kids running in and out that somebody is going to get seriously injured or worse. So it has been a concern for a long time. And we’ve met with them a couple of times and we thought we were making headway, but they’ve never carried through with what we’ve asked them to do, which was to provide supervision of the parking. We did hire a couple of guys a couple of different Saturday mornings to do this, and it worked very well, and they solved the problem. But they have refused to do that. They charge a fee to come in and use their property for the swap meet but then they don’t want to spend any money to supervise it. So this has frustrated us immensely. Our experiment worked very well. But they didn’t seem to want to carry through with it. They did provide a lot to park on and then most we ever see there is one car down around the corner. People don’t seem to realize that there’s off-street parking available. The park and ride lot that they rent to the County for a fairly good fee is where the people end up using until it’s full, and then they even vend things there on that property. So that when the bus comes in on Saturday mornings it can’t even pull in there. It has got to go clear down around the block, around to our, where that breakfast is, because they can’t even turn around or park in their own property. It’s all hogged over by the swap meet. So we’re very concerned about it. And the safety issue is our big concern. So all we wish is that they would be required to supervise, 3 EXHIBIT B hire people to supervise the parking. It works very well. And that’s our main request that we’d come up with. It has expanded now and they’re even coming in there during the week and vending on this property. People come in and it’s unsupervised, and it’s just set up and sell things, various things on there, and it’s not farm products. It’s just various products that you sell at a swap meet. So that’s my main input. We’ve done a very good job of, and we’ve even gone in and painted “No Parking” on the parking strips after we resurfaced them and put up signs, and people park right on top of it. There has to be some kind of direction. When there’s no direction it just goes crazy. Thank you. Do you have any questions? ISHIBASHI: Thank you. Any questions? NITCHE: Oh, here’s some pictures we’ve taken that I brought along with me that kind of show the heavy congestion that we get and the problems. That’s showing where we painted on the edges there and put no parking. But they’ve, see, there’s the no parking signs that we put along there, but this was taken when it wasn’t going on. This shows they’re vending right along side of the road. And people pull in and park along on top of our, the road shoulders. Sometimes the traffic comes through here very rapidly. And when they step out from between the parked cars, that’s what we’re concerned about. On the left side is where the swap meets take place. On the right side is where the park and ride lot that the County rents from the owners of the property. COTTLE: Mr. Nitche, do you want me to go to the next slide? NITCHE: Oh, yeah, go ahead, please. These are still pictures. It’s too bad they’re not moving pictures, because that would show the people going in and out from between the parked cars and the safety issue that we’re very concerned about. This is down beyond the area by the concrete batch plant, and that’s looking up the hill from where we just saw to where the swap meet takes place right at the entrance to the Rancho Subdivision. There is a lot that they cleared but it’s to the right down Maile, a side street, about a half a block; and there’s, these people don’t even realize that there’s an off street parking area down there. I guess that’s about it. If you could show that, the overall layout that you have, I could explain that a little. Okay. Yeah, that’s good right there. Let me get up there and point it out on that. This is the area where they have the swap meet. And this is the park and ride area here. And this is where the main entrance comes off the highway. And this is our concern, this area over here. It’s heavily parked and traffic comea in, and the water trucks or whatever. It makes a very dangerous situation. The area they’ve dozed off is down Maile here, it’s way over here. And there’s a bluff here and it drops down so it can’t even been seen from here. So really if they had some signage along here with an arrow, that parking is here, it would help a lot. It would make the situation much safer. And then when we hired people to come here and just direct the traffic when it got a little heavy, and explain that there’s parking down here, it worked very well. Thank you very much. 4 EXHIBIT B ISHIBASHI: Any questions, Commissioners? ONO: I have several. ISHIBASHI: Commissioner Ono. ONO: You mentioned that you did the no parking sign, you labeled the parking area? You labeled the parking area that says no parking on the shoulders? NITCHE: Yeah, we painted on the shoulders no parking signs, and we have no parking, no vending signs up, on regular signs that we bought and mounted. And some of those have been taken away and stolen. But we did put them up and tried to put those fixed signs on. But we do have the painted signs on the road. It’s still existing. ONO: I’m a lay person but I think I need clarification on this. Did you get the Police Department’s okay on that, or the County? NITCHE: Well, the problem is being private roads we’ve gone to the Police Department to have them try and enforce parking, and they say, I’m sorry, it’s private roads and we don’t have any jurisdiction. So the Police Department doesn’t help us at all; and it’s very frustrating. ONO: Yeah, but, see, your sign is not legal. NITCHE: Not legal? ONO: Yeah, your no parking sign is not legal. NITCHE: Well, we have, we did put up some on post, legal no parking signs that we purchased.\ ONO: No, it’s not legal, it’s recognized. NITCHE: Well, not recognized by whom? ONO: The Police Department. NITCHE: Well, yeah, the Police Department don’t recognize it because it’s a private road system and they say they have no jurisdiction over a private road system. ONO: Yeah, so I guess I’m saying to you because it is not recognized by anyone, no ordinance on this, no one needs to pay attention to that sign. NITCHE: That’s correct. 5 EXHIBIT B ONO: The other one that I have is that you did mention that you met with the owners to -? NITCHE: Yes. We’ve had several meetings with them. ONO: Because you’re asking the Commission to take a position on this, do you have any records of this, correspondence, minutes that you did meet and this was an understanding? NITCHE: Yes, we do. We have records of the correspondence and the times and places of the meetings. And I’m surprised they aren’t here this morning stating their part of the case. I thought they were going to be here but, I guess, I’m a little discouraged that they’re not here to discuss the situation. ONO: Okay, but you do have the letters, correspondence and the minutes, not on you, but you have -? NITCHE: Yeah. I’m sorry I don’t have them with me. The lady that, our secretary is on the mainland and had to have an operation, and they wouldn’t let her fly so she couldn’t make it back in time for this meeting. And she has all those, the correspondence. We do have it in hand. And the other fella that was going to come and present this couldn’t make it either. So I am the only one, I’m sorry to say. ONO: The other, I guess my other concern is that the farmers market, the swap meet activity itself is a commercial activity. NITCHE: Yes. ONO: Don’t they need a permit from the County or the State for such an activity? MOSES: They have one, my understanding is they have a special permit, which is Special Permit No. 653. And do we have a copy of that as to what the conditions were in that special permit? COTTLE: Yeah. MOSES: I don’t have a -. COTTLE: You should have gotten the background and recommendation report from the Planning Director. No? If you look Exhibit No. 3, that is a copy of the current permit; and that contains the conditions. ISHIBASHI: Excuse me, Maija, how many times have we communicated with them and met with this -? COTTLE: Communicated with the applicant? 6 EXHIBIT B ISHIBASHI: Yeah, with the applicant. COTTLE: When you say we, do you mean the Association or the Planning Department? ISHIBASHI: Not what they had on their own. It’s where they had with us, the Planning Department? COTTLE: We met with their representative one time back in December of last year. ISHIBASHI: So most of the meetings took place with this group? COTTLE: Most of the meetings took place between the applicant and the Road Association. NITCHE: My understanding is that they, quite a few years ago they got the original special use permit for the shopping center, and then they modified it for a farmers market. And the farmers market didn’t do much for a long time and then all of sudden it developed into a swap meet, and then it has gone very well. So I don’t think they have one for a swap meet. I believe they only have it for a farmers market, the special use permit, if I’m not mistaken. I believe that’s the way it sits. COTTLE: Mr. Chairman, if I may just clarify for Mr. Nitche the swap meet use. The permit was amended back in 2002. And at that time the Commission approved the addition of a farmers market as a permitted use, as well as any uses that are permitted in the industrial/commercial mixed zoning district. And that zoning district allows a variety of commercial uses. So the swap meet would be permitted as of 2002. When the Commission amended that permit it allowed the swap meet. ISHIBASHI: Commissioner Moses. MOSES: Being from Kau I’ve been to the swap meet. I know exactly what you’re talking ‘ about. And I think that the concerns that you raised are not unreasonable at all. And I think that it should be presented to the Ocean View LLC that they have responsibility to and for providing signs so that the public knows where to park and then have somebody supervise Saturdays from, I believe it’s, I don’t know from what time to what time it is. According to this it was in the morning to noon, I believe it is. And I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask them to do that on Saturdays. I can’t say for the rest of the week and what happens there, but that would be my suggestion. NITCHE: And that’s all we’re asking, is that they supervise it. They did provide the lot, but they didn’t provide how it, where it is or how to get to it. It’s hidden. MOSES: And it has grown considerably. The swap meet has grown considerably. So I do see that and I do see the safety issue; and I think it’s not unreasonable to ask that of them. 7 EXHIBIT B NITCHE: Thank you very much. ONO: I have a question. ISHIBASHI: Commissioner Ono. ONO: The road that he has indicated where the farmers, the vending program takes place, is that a private road? COTTLE: Yes. ONO: That is a private road. COTTLE: Yes. ONO: Can we really tell them how to use their road? GONZALES: It’s not their road. ONO: I mean can we set conditions on the use of that, that road itself? COTTLE: We can, the Commission require that Ocean View Partners LLC provide all parking for this use, which you’ve permitted -. ONO: Which they have. COTTLE: On site. ONO: They have though. That’s the parking lot that he’s complaining about that is not being properly supervised. COTTLE: The parking lot that Mr. Nitche brought to your attention is another lot -. ONO: Right below that. COTTLE: That the applicant owns; but that lot is not part of the special permit area. ONO: I see, I see. NICHE: They own this lot, this lot, including here, all -. COTTLE: Yes, so as Mr. Nitche pointed out they own this entire property which is made up of six lots. They own this lot here, and I believe they own one more lot next to that. So the County is using this as a park and ride lot; and this lot next to it the applicant leveled to create more 8 EXHIBIT B parking for the swap meet. The problem with that is that this property is not included in the special permit area. So even though they own land they just, it’s not actually considered on-site parking because it’s not a part of the special permit. ONO: And the rental property that the County is using for their parking lot, is that the area where the customers use during the weekend to park their cars? No? Is that fenced in so that it’s not accessible or is it open to the public on the weekends? COTTLE: I believed the park and ride lot is not fenced. ONO: So it is open to the people that want to -? COTTLE: Access to it is not restricted. Anybody can access it. ONO: Okay, I guess I need a little bit more direction on this. So that parking lot is available to the customers over the weekend? NITCHE: Except there’s no direction, they don’t know -. ONO: I understand that, yeah. But the customers use that as a parking lot? NITCHE: They don’t use it as a parking lot, unfortunately. You mean the other parking lot? NOMURA: Microphone, please. NITCHE: The parking lot down on Maile Drive, the one that they provided and dozed off is not used because they don’t, the people cannot see it from the main -. When they come in they just park where it’s convenient. They need some direction. And by having some, we proved this out by hiring somebody to direct the traffic, which we don’t feel is our responsibility. But we did it to show them. And they don’t seem to want to do what we request, that they supervise the parking. ONO: My question is, the County parking lot that’s available across the street, during the weekend is that vacant? NITCHE: The County pays rent on that to, for people to park and then ride the bus. It’s a park and ride lot. And then so when they overflow, they take over the park and ride lot on Saturday mornings unfortunately. Then the County, it’s not being used as a park and ride lot. When the bus comes in, it can’t even get on the lot. So that they take it over, that’s correct. ONO: I’m sorry. I missed your earlier explanation. I appreciate it. Thank you. MOSES: And to add, Commissioner Ono, that vendors also take over that lot and sell things there, which is across of the swap meet, the lot. So what he is saying is that all of the people who come in and because there’s no direction, there’s no supervision, there’s no signage, people are 9 EXHIBIT B parking on the side of the streets on either side and also overflowing into that County leased lot. ISHIBASHI: Commissioner Henkel. HENKEL: Yeah, I agree with Commissioner Moses that it’s the responsibility of the people running the swap meet to police the whole thing. What I’m wondering is what can we do as a Commission to make that happen. COTTLE: I can try to respond to that. If you look at the last page, let’s see, pages 2 and 3 of your background report. It says that upon reviewing the record and hearing public testimony today the Commission may modify, add, or delete conditions of the permit. You also have the authority to suspend or revoke the permit upon finding that the applicant has still to comply with conditions or has caused unreasonable, adverse impact on the surrounding properties. So you have quite a few options today. ONO: Mr. Chair? ISHIBASHI: Commissioner Ono. ONO: The way I’m reading what you just read, they are complying with all of the conditions, except that we can further modify. But the conditions at which it was established, they are following. COTTLE: The Condition 10 says that the applicant needs to comply with all the conditions, or if they are unable to resolve public complaints the matter is referred back to you. So it’s an “or.” They have to comply with the conditions plus they also have to resolve any complaints. ONO: With the community at large? COTTLE: Right. ONO: Okay. COTTLE: Which is where your authority lies that you can add, or modify, or delete conditions in order to help the applicant resolve the community complaints. ONO: Thank you. ISHIBASHI: See, my concern is how actively they’re trying to resolve the issue. How, how much time are they really putting into trying to resolve this parking and -. That’s my concern. MOSES: Yeah, could we ask that the applicant come and respond to the concerns that have been brought? 10 EXHIBIT B COTTLE: Absolutely. MOSES: We’d like that. COTTLE: You can continue the hearing until another date to allow them to come and present their side. MOSES: Thank you. That’s what I want, yes. ISHIBASHI: Commissioner Henkel. HENKEL: It seems to me that this is their opportunity to respond to it, and that maybe we should enact a condition that they either comply with the parking regulations, or if they don’t then, you know, the suspension might happen in the future. And that might motivate them to do something about it. But I’ll defer to Commissioner Moses cause it’s her kuleana. ARAI: I don’t believe you need a condition. Conditions are usually incorporated within permits to mitigate impacts, for example. I think the Commission could make a motion simply to direct the Planning Department to do certain things, whether it’s to demand them to appear at the next meeting, demand them to comply with one of the conditions in the permit. You can just simply make a motion to direct the applicant, and we will then follow up on your behalf. So that’s an option. MOSES: I make a motion to demand them to appear at the next, at our next meeting. th ARAI: December 5. th MOSES: December 5. ISHIBASHI: Okay, there has been a motion by Commissioner Moses to demand that they attend. GONZALES: I’ll second. ISHIBASHI: Seconded by Commissioner Gonzales. Maija? COTTLE: Okay, so the motion is to continue the hearing on this matter and demand that the applicant appear at the December Windward Planning Commission hearing. And if they don’t? MOSES: It is for the purpose of, what is that, to resolve public complaint, yeah, for that purpose. If they fail to do so, then we will enact additional, additional conditions, which they will need to meet. COTTLE: Okay. So let me try to just clarify the motion, and you tell me if you agree. So the th motion is to continue the hearing on this matter until December 5 and demand that the applicant 11 EXHIBIT B appear at that hearing to resolve the public complaint. And if they do not appear, the Commission is going to exercise its authority to modify, add or delete conditions, or to suspend or revoke the permit. MOSES: Yes. COTTLE: And do you agree with that motion, Commissioner Gonzales? GONZALES: Yes, I do, the second. COTTLE: Okay. All right. Commissioner Moses? HEAUKULANI: Kalamai, discussion. I just wanted, I just wanted to say I agree with the way the motion is formed but, and I’m sure that the Commission understands that we are cutting these folks a fair amount of slack here. They’ve had since the middle of September to figure out how to get a representative to this meeting. We are giving them another bite of the apple. Mr. Nitsche came all the way down here. It’s obviously a problem. It’s a big enough concern for the community that they’re coming before us. I’m okay with giving them until December. But I think if there’s a problem and they cannot get a representative here on December, we just do what we need to do. I’d maybe prep up a list of the remedies that would make this better and just amend the permit. You know, I am seriously troubled that no one is here today. NITSCHE: I certainly agree with that. I just spent three hours driving time coming and going. And while they didn’t show up, I have a hard time understanding. All we’re requesting is that they hire supervision that they don’t have. They have someone to take the money and then no supervision. So it’s a very irritating situation for us if they got away without coming to this hearing. I think, I believe it should be made, it should be a regulation that they have to supply supervision, period. And I don’t know, continuing it means that we have to send somebody over again to the next meeting, from what I understand, to make sure that our side is heard correctly. So I, I would like to have it resolved today if possible. Thank you. ONO: Mr. Chair? ISHIBASHI: Commissioner Ono. ONO: If I may address Mr. Nitsche. My, my concern is that this letter that you had written to us is addressed as a board member. Are you representing yourself as an individual or are you representing an organization? NITSCHE: Well, did they notify you in enough time that this meeting was, that they weren’t going to be here? ONO: No, no. I’m not questioning that part. 12 EXHIBIT B NITSCHE: Okay. ONO: I’m wondering your presence here, are you representing an organization or are you representing yourself? NITSCHE: I’m representing both myself and the Road Maintenance Corporation, which I’ve been a board member of for 23 years. So I’m representing the board that manages the road system, that’s who I’m representing. ONO: Okay. So can I have a further, for the sake of your arguments, have the members of your organization listed other than, I have your title as board member but is there a chairman? NITSCHE: Yes. We have a chairman. We’ve been, we just considered it at our last meeting a week ago; and so it has been before the board, and the board is the one that made the application to, for this hearing. th ONO: Okay. So prior to the December 5 meeting, would it be possible for us to have another correspondence from this organization that you represent -? NITSCHE: Yes. ONO: That the Chairman send a letter to the Commission. NITSCHE: Absolutely. ONO: I would appreciate that. Thank you. ISHIBASHI: Any further discussion, Commissioners? Okay, Maija. COTTLE: Okay. I’m not going to repeat the whole motion. Now let’s take the vote. Commissioner Moses? MOSES: Aye. COTTLE: Commissioner Gonzales? GONZALES: Aye. COTTLE: Commissioner Heaukulani? HEAUKULANI: Aye. COTTLE: Commissioner Henkel? 13 EXHIBIT B HENKEL: Aye. COTTLE: Commissioner Miyasato? MIYASATO: Aye. COTTLE: Commissioner Ono? ONO: Before I cast my vote, Mr. Nitsche? Excuse me, sir. Mr. Nitsche? I’m sorry -. NITSCHE: I’m sorry. ONO: There is a letter attached to the report, so I withdraw my request. NITSCHE: Okay. ONO: Thank you. Yes, aye. COTTLE: And Mr. Chairman? ISHIBASHI: Aye. COTTLE: Okay, the motion to continue the hearing passes. th ISHIBASHI: Okay, thank you. December 5 we’ll continue this and if they don’t show up then they suffer the consequences. Okay. The discussion ended at 12:59 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Sharon M. Nomura, Secretary 14 EXHIBIT B