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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2014-03-06HEARINGTRANSCRIPT-AT&T MOBILITY USE 13-044 WINDWARD PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAI‘I HEARING TRANSCRIPT MARCH 6, 2014 AT&T MOBILITY (USE 13-044) A regularly advertised hearing on the application of was called to order at 9:33 a.m. in the Hilo State Office Building, Conference Rooms A, B, & C, 75 Aupuni Street, Hilo, Hawai‘i with Chairman Ronald Gonzales presiding. COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Ronald Gonzales, Charles Heaukulani, Gregory Henkel, Wallace A. Ishibashi, Jr., Stephen Ono, and Raylene Moses. ABSENT AND EXCUSED: Myles Miyasato. ALSO PRESENT: Duane Kanuha (Planning Director, from 9:32 a.m. to 10:27 a.m.), Margaret Masunaga (Deputy Corporation Counsel for the Windward Planning Commission), William Brilhante (Deputy Corporation Counsel for the Planning Director), Daryn Arai (Planning Program Manager), Jeff Darrow (Staff Planner), Maija Cottle (Staff Planner), and Sarah Hata-Finley (Secretary). And approximately 8 people from the public in attendance. APPLICANT: AT&T MOBILITY (USE-13-044) Application for a Use Permit to allow the construction of a new telecommunication facility, including a 185-foot tall steel monopole with 8-foot tall panel antennas and related facilities within a 10,000 square-foot portion of a 785-acre parcel situated in the State Land Use Agricultural district and the County’s Agricultural 3-acre (A-3a) zoned district. The property is located on the south side of the Old Volcano Highway in the proximity of the 25 mile marker on the Hawai‘i Belt Road (Highway 11), Puna, Hawai`i, TMK: 1-1-004:Por. of 010. GONZALES: Good morning. I guess we’d like to get right to applicant number one, AT&T Mobility. DARROW: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning members of the Planning Commission. We apologize for such tight quarters this morning. You get to know your neighbors pretty well. I’m going to try to do this from here, so if I’m in your way, I apologize. Our first applicant this morning is AT&T Mobility. They’re requesting a Use Permit for a telecommunication tower in, up in the Volcano area. This is our location map. Just for reference, coming through the middle of the map, we have Volcano Highway or Highway 11. Volcano Village is in this general location. You have the National Park on the lower left hand side of the map. Just for reference, the subdivisions we have in the area are Mauna Loa Estates on the, to the west of the subject property, and on the east side, we have Royal Hawaiian Estates as well as Hawaiian Orchid Isle Estates Subdivision. The subject property is outlined with a black outline, and it’s quite large. It’s approximately seven hundred and eighty five acres. 1 EXHIBIT A This is a closer view which also identifies the current zoning, County zoning in the immediate area just for reference. The subject property in blue represents Agricultural – 3 acres. The green represents Agricultural – 1 acre to the east of the property. To the west where we have Mauna Loa Estates Subdivision is single family residential. This is our State Land Use Boundary Map. There’s several different colors on this map. We have green which represents Agriculture; the pink represents Urban; and the blue on the bottom portion and the upper portion of the map represent Conservation. And this is our General Plan Land Use Pattern Allocation Guide Map. This represents the subject property again identifying two different designations. One is green which is Conservation, and the other is white which represents Extensive Agriculture. This, the actual area of where the tower is going, is going to be located in the Extensive Agricultural area. This is an aerial photo. Just for reference on the upper portion of the map, we have Volcano Highway. This property is accessed from Old Volcano Highway which runs parallel with the new highway. And it’s accessed in this general location. The actual tower is going to be in this general location on the subject property. And again, for reference, you can see that the surrounding areas are made up of smaller, single family residential as well as agricultural lots used mainly for single family dwelling purposes. The applicant is requesting a Use Permit to allow the construction of a new telecommunication facility including a 180-foot tall steel monopole with 8-foot tall panel antennas and related facilities within a 10,000 square foot portion of a larger 785-acre parcel. This is situated in the State Land Use Agricultural district, and the County’s Agricultural 3-acre zoned district. The reason for the request of the applicant’s objective for this site is to provide infrastructure necessary for wireless coverage throughout the eastern development of Volcano Village town. Currently, there is cellular phone coverage provided by existing sites in Volcano National Park and Volcano Village to the west, and Glenwood Road to the east. The proposed facility will bridge the Volcano Village and Glenwood Road coverage areas to create a seamless handoff between Glenwood Road and Volcano Village to minimize dropped calls. The new facility will also cover south, southward toward the ocean, an area with poor--poor coverage at this time. This is the site plan submitted by the applicant, again for reference. On the top portion of the map, we have Volcano Highway as well as Old Volcano Road. Access to the property will be about the middle portion of the property and, again, we identify the 10,000 square foot project area of the property. This is a elevation of the tower showing that it is a freestanding tower with the panel antennas located on the top. This is a site photo looking west on Old Volcano Highway. The property would be on your left side. The entrance right in this general location. This is looking east, again, with the property on the right side. And this, again, is on Old Volcano Highway. And then this is a view from the Old Highway looking on to the subject property which will remain gated. The actual project site will be right in that general area. The Planning Director is recommending that the Planning Commission approve this Use Permit request with conditions. With that, that concludes our presentation. Thank you. 2 EXHIBIT A GONZALES: Question, Commissioner Henkel. HENKEL: I have one question, Jeff. I didn’t get that. What’s the larger acreage. Did you say 700? DARROW: Seven hundred and eighty five acres. HENKEL: Thanks. GONZALES: Any other questions for staff? Ok-- DARROW: Thank you. GONZALES: I guess I’d like to bring the applicant up. Hi, can you raise your right hand please? HUGHES: Yes. GONZALES: Do you swear to tell the truth before the Windward Planning Commission today? HUGHES: I do. GONZALES: Thank you. Go ahead. HUGHES: My name’s Rebecca Hughes, and I’m here as representative of AT&T, consultant capacity with Cascadia PM. And we’re pleased with the support that we’ve received and look forward to bringing the better communications to the area and the community. I don’t know if you have any questions, but if anyone— GONZALES: Any questions for the applicant? AUDIENCE: Is this for us out here? GONZALES: If you’d like to testify, you have to sign up with Sarah there. No questions for the applicant? Commissioner Ishibashi. ISHIBASHI: Thank you, Brother Chair. So that property is owned by Verizon or— HUGHES: No. this is not owned by Verizon. We’re merely leasing a small portion of it. ISHIBASHI: Thank you. GONZALES: Any other questions? ONO: Question. Over the years, we’ve heard several requests for various antennas and I’m just kind of wondering. What’s the long-term plan for AT&T’s development throughout the island? 3 EXHIBIT A HUGHES: Well, we, AT&T aspires to continue to improve coverage and service as cellular technology grows so we’ll, AT&T, whenever possible, we would like to be able to co-locate with existing towers. The goal is to minimize the number of telecommunication facilities that need to be built, but— ONO: I guess what I’m, with the presentation, it was more a, ah, improvement of the facility so that we have the better, I guess signals. Are there other areas that you are looking at in terms of the island to further develop this, this kind of a situation? HUGHES: We’re always looking for opportunities to improve the coverage and, therefore, the communication. There are a lot of areas that might have dropped or missed calls or poor coverage, and we are always looking for ways to improve that coverage for our, the community and our clients. ONO: Ok, are there significant areas on the island that you can say have the similar problems? HUGHES: I would say there are many areas that have gaps in coverage because a cell can only cover a certain, a certain area, and then it will need another signal. ONO: So, this tower would cover what extent in terms of distance to the next tower— HUGHES: It’s, it’s, it’s the towers are fairly close in proximity, but this would cover an area that is now underserved. ONO: Ok, what’s, I guess what I’m asking is so that this, the a, the strength of the tower, if I may, to the next tower, what’s the distance between Tower A and Tower B so that the signals would be strong enough. HUGHES: Well, what I do have and I’d like to bring it forward. I have propagation maps which show how the signal will be increased, and how it will be between the towers and also the locations. ONO: I guess for me the concern is that it seems to be coming in piecemeal as, over the years, and I’m just kind of wondering to what extent are we looking at a long-term development of these kinds of a— HUGHES: If there’s a master plan? That unfortunately that’s, there is no real development plan. It’s as, as a, as on an as needed basis— ONO: I see— HUGHES: --(inaudible) you know. ONO: Thank you. 4 EXHIBIT A HUGHES: Sure. GONZALES: Any other questions? Thank you. HUGHES: All right. Thank you. GONZALES: You’re welcome. We have one person signed up to testify. Mr. Strickland, you can come on up. I’m going to ask you to raise your right hand please? Do you swear to tell the truth today before the Windward Planning Commission? STRICKLAND: I do. GONZALES: Ok, please state your name and where you live, and you got three minutes. STRICKLAND: Ok, my name is Lee Strickland, and I live in Ainaloa Subdivision— DARROW: Oh, this one might be a little later— MASUNAGA: --Oh, this is a different one— DARROW: --It’s the second application-- STRICKLAND: Oh— MASUNAGA: That one is next. GONZALES: Ok, we’ll, we’ll hold on-- MASUNAGA: That was number 2 on the agenda. DARROW: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just to answer Commissioner Ishibashi’s question. The land is owned by Shipman. GONZALES: Ok, with that I believe a motion would be, oh, no? Ok, I’m sorry Ms. Hughes, can you come back up here just for a moment? HUGHES: Sure. GONZALES: Sorry to bring you back up. I just have a, one question for you. Are you ok with the conditions the Director has placed on the— HUGHES: Yes. GONZALES: Ok, that’s all I needed. Thank you. HUGHES: Ok, thank you. 5 EXHIBIT A GONZALES: Ok, Commissioners, a motion please. MOSES: I move that the application for Use Permit 14-000046 be approved based on the Planning Director’s recommendation and proposed conditions. GONZALES: Can you a— ISHIBASHI: Second. GONZALES: I think we have the wrong application number. Raylene. MOSES: The 14-000-- MASUNAGA: No, twelve. HENKEL: Thirteen. GONZALES: Thirteen. MASUNAGA: Oh boy. GONZALES: 13-44. MOSES: Sorry. Ok, sorry, 13-000044. GONZALES: Very good. HENKEL: Second. GONZALES: Discussion anyone. Commissioners, anybody have any comments? HENKEL: I do. GONZALES: Commissioner Henkel? HENKEL: I just, you know from looking at the maps, I’d like to point out that in my opinion this is a good location. They don’t have a master plan for the long range installation of these towers, but this one isn’t in somebody’s house lot. It’s in a large vacant area. It’s close enough to the community to serve them, but it’s far enough away to create a buffer zone, and I would like to commend AT&T for their choice of location. GONZALES: I agree. It looks like a nice big open area. 6 EXHIBIT A DARROW: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. If we can make one correction on the record, and that is on the recommendation? It says Use on the top of the page, on page one, it references the application number as 12-000044. If we could change that to 13-000044. Thank you. GONZALES: Ok, Commissioner Moses, you’re not losing your mind. MOSES: I am not. Thank you. DARROW: With that we’ll take the roll call. Commissioner Moses? MOSES: Aye. DARROW: Commissioner Henkel? HENKEL: Aye. DARROW: Commissioner Heaukulani? HEAUKULANI: Aye. DARROW: Commissioner Ishibashi? ISHIBASHI: Aye. DARROW: Commissioner Ono? ONO: Aye. DARROW: And Mr. Chairman? GONZALES: Aye. DARROW: The motion passes six to zero. GONZALES: Ms. Hughes, you’ll be notified in writing. The discussion ended at 9:48 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Sarah Y. Hata-Finley, Secretary Windward Planning Commission 7 EXHIBIT A