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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2014-04-03HEARINGTRANSCRIPT-OPENARMSCOMMUNITYCHURCH SPP14-158 WINDWARD PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAI‘I HEARING TRANSCRIPT APRIL 3, 2014 Open Arms Community Church A regularly advertised hearing on the application of (SPP-14-000158) was called to order at 10:18 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 16 people from the public in attendance. APPLICANT: OPEN ARMS COMMUNITY CHURCH (SPP-14-158) Application for a Special Permit to establish a church and related improvements on approximately one acre of land situated in the State Land Use Agricultural District. The property is located in Hawaiian Paradise Park Subdivision at the southwest corner of Maku‘u Drive and th Koali (12) Avenue, approximately 3 miles makai from the Kea´au-Pāhoa Road intersection, Kea´au, Puna, Hawai´i, TMK: 1-5-026:117. GONZALES: Get back to business if we could. The next item on the agenda is Open Arms Metropolitan Community Church, Special Permit Application 14-158. Mr. Darrow. DARROW: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. If I could direct the attention to, the attention of the Planning Commission to our next application. As mentioned, this is the Open Arms Metropolitan Community Church. They’re requesting a Special Permit. The area of this subject application is within the Puna district of Hawai‘i. More specifically, we’re looking in the area of Paradise Park. Just for reference, running on the left side of the map is Highway 130 or Kea‘au- Pāhoa Road. The application (sic) receives access from Maku‘u Drive which is in this general location. The subject property is identified with a black outline. This is a closer view. For reference, running in a north-south direction, we have Maku‘u Drive. The subject property is located on the corner of Maku‘u and 12th Avenue. Just for clarification, the different colors on the map represent zoning. Paradise Park is mainly made up of Agricultural – 1 acre although there is some Open portions within the Park. The subject property is approximately one acre in size and is zoned Agricultural – 1 acre. The entire subdivision is within the General Plan Rural designation as well as the State Land Use Agricultural District. This is an aerial photo. I apologize for it being so dark, but basically again for reference, th Maku‘u Drive running in a north-south direction. And then we have 12 Avenue with the 1 EXHIBIT C subject property identified with the red outline. There are scattered single family dwellings in th the area. There is a dwelling, there are dwellings located on 12 near the subject property. Currently, there are no uses or structures on the property except for rock walls that are along the perimeters of the roads, and we’ll see that in the site photos. The applicant is requesting a Special Permit to establish a church and related improvements on approximately one acre of land within the State Land Use Agricultural District. They are proposing to include special events on-site including fundraisers, rummage sales, ensemble music practices, potluck dinners, memorial services, weddings, funerals, baptisms, and similar activities that are associated with churches. The applicant is proposing to construct the project in two phases. First phase will consist of the main church building as well as a lobby, lanai, and restrooms. Also, paved—a, the parking will be part of the phase, first phase. Second phase will consist of an addition to the first phase structure of a—you’ll see on the site plan it will be identified as the future building, and basically, it’s going to be an extension of the church building. This is the applicant’s site plan. Just for reference, on the left, right side of the map, is the actual th site plan. So this would be 12 Avenue. Maku‘u Drive would be on this area. So you can see th access from 12. There will be no access from Maku‘u. You can see the structures on the property as well as the parking that’s identified. If you look to the left side of the map, this is actually the representation of the building. The church, the original first phase of the church, will be in this area, and you can see you have the additions that are identified as future building in the, for phase two. This is a site photo on Maku‘u Drive looking mauka. Maku‘u Drive is in this general location. Twelfth Avenue is in this general location. Subject property is straight ahead. And again, you can see the rock walls that have been constructed. This is on Maku‘u looking makai. The thth subject property is on the left with 12 Avenue access there. This is looking at 12 Avenue on th Maku‘u. You can see that a portion of 12 has been paved, but there is still a portion that is th unpaved, and again access will be restricted to 12 Avenue, and this is looking directly at the property from Maku‘u Drive. The Planning Director is recommending approval of this request with conditions. Before we conclude our presentation, I do have some amendments that I’d like to propose. We did receive a letter from the applicant dated March 28, 2014, with some requests for some amendments after they had received the Planning Director’s Recommendation. And so the Planning Director is recommending the following amendments be proposed, and that is on Condition No. 2, 1-2-3-4- 5, on line 6, line 5 says “paved driveway access and paved parking stalls.” We’d like to change paved parking stalls to read “all weather dust free parking stalls,” so that’s one change. All weather dust free parking stalls. Condition No. 6, the applicant had concerns regarding the th requirement to pave 12 Avenue till the end of the property. It’s understandable. Those concerns can be expensive. We did speak with the Director and the applicant, and so the agreement is to re-word it to have that paving completed as part of Phase 2, and so what we’ll do is we’ll have the condition read the following, “The applicant shall provide a 20-foot wide thth asphalt pavement within 12 Avenue commencing at the intersection of 12 Avenue and Maku‘u 2 EXHIBIT C th Drive.” Let’s see, and then “along the subject parcel’s entire 12 Avenue frontage meeting with th the approval of the Hawaiian Paradise Park Assoc--, Owner’s Association.” The paving of 12 Avenue shall be completed prior to the receipt of Certificate of Occupancy for Phase 2, and then we’ll strike out for any portion of the project or conducting any special events. So that will be struck out and then we’ll add in for Phase 2. And then lastly, Condition 7, there’s concern regarding trying to determine what a special event is, and so to make this a lot easier, what we’re gonna do is delete line one, where it says special events including weddings shall be limited to 25 events annually, and then the word “these” and then for—the sentence will begin “special events shall be limited to” and then it continues on the way it is. So basically, we’re limiting the size and hours of operations for special events versus trying to determine what is or what is not a special event. Okay? Hopefully, that’s clear. With that, that concludes our presentation. Thank you. GONZALES: Any questions for Mr. Darrow from the Commissioners? ONO: Question. GONZALES: Mr. Ono. ONO: Okay, go back to the first one about the State and all—I didn’t quite understand, what’s the difference? DARROW: What’s the difference between all weather dust free? You can have different types of paved parking or dust free parking. Chipseal would be a good example. It’s not necessarily paved. Compact gravel, there’s different options. It’s not as expensive as asphalt paving, and it still allows for drainage. ONO: I guess I have a problem with this idea of dust free. With use, comes dust. How are you gonna, how would you define that? DARROW: Well, I’m not sure how to answer that. I mean, if you had paved parking, it would basically be dust free, so we’re allowing an all-weather dust free surface that may not be as stringent as asphalt paved parking, so again, there will be different options we can look at, at the time of Plan Approval to make sure, cause one of the impacts that occurs, if you would have had just a gravel parking lot, it would—it would create a lot of dust, and so we’re just trying to minimize those impacts. We could put different types of paving in there or different types of options, but this would have a choice of an all weather dust free surface. ONO: Yeah, I guess I have a difficult time visualizing. I guess a difficult time visualizing a dust free other than pavement. DARROW: Okay, yeah, well chipseal is a good example, yeah. ONO: Thank you. 3 EXHIBIT C GONZALES: Any other questions for Mr. Darrow? ISHIBASHI: I get one, Brother Chair. Thank you, Brother Chair. Question in regards to clarifying 25 events. So, how you determine, like we’re trying to determine special events? DARROW: Well, what we’re doing. That was our concerns, so we’re actually deleting that. ISHIBASHI: Oh, okay. DARROW: So, on Condition 7, we’re deleting the first sentence which at that point because of the fact that it might be very difficult for us to determine whether or not a particular event is considered special and trying to keep a log of how many events, you know. At this point, what we’re trying to do is minimize the amount of people and the hours of operation for the events that occur. A majority of the events that were presented by the applicant appear to be events that would be considered accessory to the church itself. ISHIBASHI: So funerals would be separate or included in the twenty five— DARROW: --That would be considered part of— ISHIBASHI: --the twenty five— DARROW: --an accessory use, yeah. Weddings, churches—or funerals, those kinds of things are usually associated with a church activity. GONZALES: So, there is no more number. I think it’s unlimited, unlimited events as long as they keep it under hundred people and stay within the hours, they can have as many as they like. DARROW: Yeah, I mean, if, and again, this is just a suggestion, if there is concern, then the Planning Commission can look at a change if they’re concerned about the amount of events that could occur in the future. ISHIBASHI: Thank you. DARROW: Thank you. GONZALES: Any other questions for staff? ONO: Yeah, one more question. The church structure itself, the congregation. Will probably hold about a hundred people I would assume. DARROW: Maybe that might be a good question for the applicant. ONO: No, well my, my, my--is leading up the question of special events. DARROW: Okay. 4 EXHIBIT C ONO: If you have a hundred membership congregation— DARROW: The membership is, if I recall, it’s not very large. I think it was 30. ONO: Oh. AUDIENCE: Thirty five. DARROW: Thirty five. ONO: Thirty five. Okay, thank you. DARROW: Thank you. GONZALES: Thank you, Jeff. DARROW: Thank you. GONZALES: I’d like to ask the applicant to come forward, please? Can I get you folks to raise your right hand, please? Do you swear and affirm to tell the truth before the Planning Commission today? KNIGHT: I do. THOMAS: Yes. GONZALES: All right. State your name, area you reside in, and go ahead. KNIGHT: Good morning. I am the Reverend Dr. William Knight. I serve as senior pastor of Open Arms Metropolitan Community Church. I reside in Hilo. THOMAS: And I am Susan Thomas, and I am the chair of the building committee for Open Arms Metropolitan Community Church, and I reside in Pāhoa--so we’re having it in HPP. GONZALES: Go ahead. It’s your time. THOMAS: Okay, we are applying for this special use permit. The church has been in existence since 2005, and we’ve been renting facilities, moving here and there. We now meet in the Ainaola Longhouse, and we’ve been raising funds and looking for a place to be for several years now, and we are hoping that this will be our home. Like was stated, we have 35 members, and just look forward to having our own place to worship and come home instead of setting up and moving our little chairs around, and things of that sort. KNIGHT: Basically, what we’re trying to do is we’re trying to stop having church in a box, and having church one place. 5 EXHIBIT C GONZALES: Very good. Did you receive the Planning Director’s Background Report and Recommendation? THOMAS: We did, and from that is what the, we request that—were just stated came from. GONZALES: Okay, and those are—I saw your letter. THOMAS: Yeah. GONZALES: Okay, very good, so we’re all good with everything then-- KNIGHT: Yes. GONZALES: All the conditions? Any questions for the applicants? Ok, thank you. Commissioners, a motion would be in order. I have no public testifiers. HENKEL: I’d like to move to approve Special Permit Application No. 14-000158, with the Planning Director’s recommendations and aforementioned amendments. HEAUKULANI: I’ll second. GONZALES: All right. Moved by Commissioner Henkel and seconded by Commissioner Heaukulani to approve the permit. Any discussion from the Commissioners? Okay, Mr. Darrow. DARROW: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. With that, we’ll take the roll call. Commissioner Henkel? HENKEL: Aye. DARROW: Commissioner Heaukulani? HEAUKULANI: Aye. DARROW: Commissioner Ishibashi? ISHIBASHI: Aye. DARROW: Commissioner Miyasato? MIYASATO: Aye. DARROW: Commissioner Moses? MOSES: Aye. 6 EXHIBIT C DARROW: Commissioner Ono? ONO: Aye. DARROW: And Mr. Chairman. GONZALES: Aye. DARROW: The motion passes seven to zero. GONZALES: Thank you. We will inform you in writing. The discussion ended at 10:35 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Sarah Y. Hata-Finley, Secretary Windward Planning Commission 7 EXHIBIT C