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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2014-04-03HEARINGTRANSCRIPT-ASHLINJARVISSPP361 WINDWARD PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAI‘I HEARING TRANSCRIPT APRIL 3, 2014 Ashlin Jarvis (formerly Charles Wittig) A regularly advertised hearing on the application of (Amend SPP 361) was called to order at 9:55 a.m. in the County of Hawai‘i, Aupuni Center Conference Room, 101 Pauahi Street, Hilo, Hawai‘i with Chairman Ronald Gonzales presiding. COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Ronald Gonzales, Charles Heaukulani, Gregory Henkel, Wallace A. Ishibashi, Jr., Myles Miyasato, Raylene Moses, and Stephen Ono. ALSO PRESENT: Duane Kanuha (Planning Director), 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 21 people from the public in attendance. APPLICANT: ASHLIN JARVIS (formerly CHARLES WITTIG) (Amend SPP 361) Amendment to Special Permit No. 361, which allowed the expansion of an antique store on 8,337 square feet of land situated within the State Land Use Agricultural District. The amendment is to allow the former Tinny Fisher Antique Shop to be used as a retail shop selling a variety of items including food and beverages prepared on-site. The property is located on the south (makai) side of Volcano Highway approximately 360 feet west of Kukui Camp Road, ‘Ōla‘a Reservation Lots, Puna, Hawai‘i, TMK: 1-7-010:011. GONZALES: All right, Item No. 2 on the agenda. Applicant Ashlin Jarvis, formerly Charles Wittig, for amending Special Permit 361. COTTLE: Good morning, Planning Commissioners. The next item on your agenda is a request to amend Special Permit No. 361. The location of the property is in the Puna district between Kurtistown and Mountain View communities. And you can see the property identified on this map by a red dot. It’s located just makai of the Volcano Highway. And this is a closer view of the property. It’s very small. It’s just over 8,000 square feet in size; however, the zoning for the property is Agricultural – 20 acres, which is shown in the dark green color. This road running in a north-south direction just a little ways to the east of the property is Kukui Camp Road. And then you have Ala Loop off the map here further to the east. The General Plan designation for the property is, if you look at the map, it’s Important Agricultural land, but when Special Permit 361 was first issued back in 1977, they designated that area Low Density Urban, and I think that they did that because it was such a small property, and there was already a pre-existing use, the store, on the property at the time. 1 EXHIBIT B This is an aerial view of the property. Again, it’s very small. You can see most of the property is covered with a structure. And there’s a large property surrounding it with mostly trees, overgrown with trees, and one dwelling that you can see just to the southwest. Again, Volcano Highway runs through the middle of the slide, and Kukui Camp Road heads of towards the north in this direction here. Just for a little background, the property is the site of the former Black Coral Gift Shop. This store operated from 1948 to the 1960’s within a 1,248 square foot building. It’s on the Hilo side of the property. And then, in 1977, the owner at the time, Charles Wittig, requested to amend, I’m sorry, requested a special permit to allow the expansion of the shop to another building or an addition to that building where he established the Tinny Fisher Antique Shop. That operated from the 1970’s to the early 2000’s. So, the applicant is requesting now to continue to use the shop or the building as a retail shop. She’s basically just wanting to expand the uses that are allowed there. So she would sell a variety of items. It wouldn’t be just limited to the sale of antiques which is what it was before. And she’s also requesting to sell, to prepare and sell food and beverage items, in the food preparation area in the building for take-out. So you can see, she is proposing to sell a variety of items—jewelry, potted plants, cut flowers, clothes, books, art, packaged tea and honey, some local products. This is a plot plan of the property. You have Volcano Highway on the bottom, and then you can see the access driveway off of Volcano Highway. This is the old structure that was probably built in the 1940’s or maybe even earlier. It was built prior to needing a building permit so we don’t really have a good record of when that structure was constructed. So, this is where the old Black Coral Gift Shop used to operation. And then, in 1977, Charles Wittig requested the Special Permit to expand and build this structure on the Volcano side and use it as the Tinny Fisher Antique Shop. So, at this time, the applicant’s currently leasing from the owners just the Hilo side structure. And that’s where she wants to start her business. If the business does well, she wants to expand it over to the Volcano side of the structure as well. And this is a site plan of the building, and you have the entrance doors on the bottom of the slide, and then she has display tables set up throughout to sell her products. And then in the back here, she’s proposing a little food preparation area. And there’s a bathroom, just for in-house use, not a public restroom, off of the kitchen area. This is a photo of the building from across Volcano Highway, and again, she’s gonna, she’s proposing to start her business on this side and then expand it over to the Volcano side if the business does well. This is a view of Volcano Highway looking towards Mountain View, so the driveway is on the left side here. And then a view of Volcano Highway looking towards Hilo, and the driveway is on the right side. And you can see the structures are pretty close to the highway. 2 EXHIBIT B And this is a view of the lower parking area. The property does dip down quite a bit from the highway, and there’s parking provided in the front as well as in the back. Here’s the parking area in the back, and then there’s two stalls provided underneath the building in the back. The Planning Director is recommending approval of the Special Permit with conditions, and because this permit is so old, we’ve refreshed a lot of the conditions with current requirements like upgrading cesspool to a septic system, and conditions like that. We also did receive a letter, since you received your Background and Recommendation, from the State Historic Preservation Division. They’re basically saying that no historic properties will be affected by the proposed use. And we also received three letters of support or emails of support from Easter Keil, Merrily Wolf, and Piilani Erbe, and you should have those in your folders. Are there any questions? GONZALES: Commissioners, any questions for staff? ONO: Question. GONZALES: Yes sir. ONO: I’m not sure, but in the past, it would be our approval means that the individual has the permission to pursue the expansion of the kitchen area with the Department of Health. I mean, I thought there was a relationship in terms of you know providing your preparation of food, you need another department’s approval? COTTLE: Yes, so if the Commission does approve the amendment and allows the food preparation on site, the applicant will need to go to Department of Health and get what’s called a food establishment permit, and then the inspector comes out and verifies that the kitchen meets all the Department of Health requirements for the preparation of food served to the public. ONO: So they would show that to the Planning Department, that it’s been approved? COTTLE: They would, that’s, that’s required, it’s a State law, so they have to do it regardless of whether we tell them to or not. ONO: No, no. I, I--do we have evidence that they did pursue that? COTTLE: The Planning Department doesn’t really monitor— ONO: --oh, it doesn’t— COTTLE: --conditions of or regulatory requirements of other agencies like DOT or Department of Health. ONO: Thank you. 3 EXHIBIT B GONZALES: Any other questions for staff? Thank you, Maija. Will the applicant please come forward? Will you please raise your right hand? Do you swear and affirm to tell the truth before the Planning Commission today? JARVIS: Yes. GONZALES: Okay, state your name, and go ahead. JARVIS: Aloha kakou, my name is Ashlin Kekaula Jarvis. I’m sorry, what else did you need me to state? MASUNAGA: Address. JARVIS: Address. I live in Hawaiian Acres, 16-1835 ‘Ope‘ape‘a Road. Okay, well I’d like to show you a photo, I’m sorry, I should have given that to Maija. In my application it was established that the first store that was on the property that I’m leasing was the Black Coral Gift Shop. But that photo that you’re looking it as actually from 1903 where that building that you’re looking it is the one that I am actually leasing. It was the site of a plantation store for the ‘Ōla‘a, it was a general store for the ‘Ōla‘a Plantation, so just wanted to show you that came from the owners, Peter and Debbie Lo, and they received that from Charles Wittig, who was the owner of the Tinny Fisher Antique Store. Just a quick background, I hail from the Island of Oahu, more specifically from the moku of Ko‘olauloa. My home is in Laie where my ohana are from. And before I moved here in 2005, I had an office in Kahuku, and it’s very similar, that area to the plantation towns all along the Hāmākua Coast. It was, you know, the Kahuku Sugar Mill here, and I leased a building that was part of the Tanaka Plantation Store where I practiced the native medicine. I’m a practitioner of ‘ike Haha. But anyway, when I came here in 2005, I saw that Tinny Fisher Antique Shop, and it was a dilapidated, falling apart building. The type where if more than ten people went in, watch out, because it might fall in. But since then, Peter Lo, I think at that time that I saw it, he renovated, and made it into the beautiful store front that you see now, and that is where I feel, I knew at that time back in 2005, that--that should be the home of Honi Wai, the business, my establishment to sell more than just antiques—but, prepared grab and go foods and high end Hawai‘i made products for anyone who is travelling up and down that highway. So, are there any questions for me. GONZALES: Did you receive the Planning Director’s Recommendation— JARVIS: --yes— GONZALES: --and Background Report? JARVIS: --and I agree with all of this terms— GONZALES: --you agree with all of that? 4 EXHIBIT B JARVIS: --And I can easily, yes, I don’t have any objections to those conditions. GONZALES: Very good. Any questions? Thank you. I believe a motion is in order. MOSES: I move that the amendment to Special Permit No. 361, Docket No. 77-001, be approved based on the Planning Director’s Recommendation and proposed conditions. HEAUKULANI: I’ll second. GONZALES: Okay, and I just want to mention for the record, there were no people signed up for public testimony. Any discussion, Commissioners? Okay, move to a vote. Thank you, Maija. COTTLE: Thank you, Mr. Chair. Commissioner Moses? MOSES: Aye. COTTLE: Commissioner Heaukulani? HEAUKULANI: Aye. COTTLE: Commissioner Henkel? HENKEL: Aye. COTTLE: Commissioner Ishibashi? ISHIBASHI: Aye. COTTLE: Commissioner Miyasato? MIYASATO: Aye. COTTLE: Commissioner Ono? ONO: Aye. COTTLE: And Mr. Chair? GONZALES: Aye. COTTLE: Okay, the motion to approve as recommended passes seven, zero. 5 EXHIBIT B GONZALES: Thank you. You’ll be notified in writing. The discussion ended at 10:09 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Sarah Y. Hata-Finley, Secretary Windward Planning Commission 6 EXHIBIT B