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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2014-05-01HEARINGTRANSCRIPT-JASONDEPONTEREZ14-173 WINDWARD PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAI‘I HEARING TRANSCRIPT MAY 1, 2014 Jason Deponte (REZ 14-173) A regularly advertised hearing on the application of was called to order at 9:18 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., Raylene Moses, and Stephen Ono. ABSENT AND EXCUSED: Myles Miyasato. ALSO PRESENT: Duane Kanuha (Planning Director), Margaret Masunaga (Deputy Corporation Counsel for the Windward Planning Commission), Amy Self (Deputy Corporation Counsel for the Planning Director), Jeff Darrow (Staff Planner), Maija Cottle (Staff Planner), Sarah Hata-Finley (Secretary), and Melissa Dacayanan (Planning Commission Support Technician). And approximately 12 people from the public in attendance. APPLICANT:JASON DEPONTE (REZ 14-173) Application for a Change of Zone from an Agricultural-3 acre (A-3a) to a Residential and Agricultural-1 acre (RA-1a) zoning district for 3.23 acres of land. The property is located along the east (makai) side of Kupulau Street approximately 100 feet south of its intersection with the driveway entrance to New Hope Christian Fellowship Church, portion of Waiākea Homestead nd 2 Series, South Hilo, Hawai‘i, TMK: 2-4-038:012 GONZALES: Item No. 2 is Jason Deponte, Change of Zone Application REZ 14-173. COTTLE: Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good morning Commissioners. The next application is also a change of zone request. The property is located in the South Hilo District very close to your previous application in the upper Waiākea area. The applicant is Jason Deponte, and again you see Ainaola Road running in an east-west direction in the middle of the slide. The application you just heard was located here, and the subject application is located in this area off of Kupulau Street. It’s highlighted in red. I’m just going to zoom in a little bit more. So you have Kupulau Street running in a north-south direction off of Ainaola Drive, and the property is located just makai of Kupulau Street. The New Hope Fellowship Church is located in this general area. You can see the subject property is currently zoned Agricultural – 3 acres which is shown in the light blue but there are some residential zonings nearby with small residential lots. Those are shown in the light yellow. The General Plan designation for the property is Low Density Urban which again allows for single family residential uses up to six units per acre. And then this is the State Land Use 1 EXHIBIT B District Map for the area. You can see that the property is located in the Urban district which is shown in pink. And the previous application was in the State Land Use Agricultural district so the current application is actually in an area that’s transitioning more to single family residential uses on small lots. This is an aerial view of the property. There is one single family dwelling currently on the property in the middle of the lot. The back portion of the lot on the makai side is mostly a flood zone which is why there are no dwellings located there now. And the applicant would be proposing to subdivide the subject property into two lots and build a dwelling in the front portion of the lot closer to Kupulau Street. You can see again the New Hope Church off to the east. I’m sorry, the west. And then you can see the smaller residential lots that I was referring to, to the north. So, the applicant’s requesting a change of zone from Agricultural – 3 acres to Residential and Agricultural – 1 acre for a 3.23 acre parcel. Technically, they could subdivide it into three lots with the RA-1a zoning, but they’re currently just requesting to create one additional lot, and one of the lots would be approximately 2.32 acres in size. That would be the lot that has the flood zone running through it. And then, they would subdivide out a one-acre lot towards Kupulau Street side in order to build another single family dwelling. And then, the lots would be distributed among family members. The current residents are raising goats. They have been for some time now, and they still intend to do that on a portion of the property. This is the proposed subdivision plan. You have Kupulau Road on the bottom. And then, you can see their driveway access that goes to the existing single family dwelling. This highlighted gray area is the flood zone that I was referring to on the makai side of the lot. And the proposed subdivision line for subdividing out one acre is located in this area here so this would be the new lot location. This is a view of the property driveway from Kupulau Street. You can see it’s an asphalt paved driveway. It’s very hard to see, but there is the single family dwelling way in the back of the property here. And this is a view of the property on Kupulau Road looking at the north property line. You can see the neighboring property and the subject property drop off pretty steeply from Kupulau Road. And there’s a few goats there in the background. This is a view of Kupulau Road looking south from the driveway. The property is on the left side. And then another view of Kupulau Road looking north from the project driveway with the New Hope Church driveway further off in the distance there. The Planning Director is recommending a favorable recommendation be forwarded to the County Council for this request. And, in light of the last application where we asked for a revision for the fair share condition, we’d add that language to this one as well. Are there any questions? GONZALES: Commissioner Ono. 2 EXHIBIT B ONO: Yes, could you go back to the picture on Kupulau Street where there was a slide—that one-- COTTLE: This one? ONO: Is that the flood zone? COTTLE: The flood zone is actually way in the back of the property so if you—let’s see here— so, this is looking south on Kupulau towards the Puna direction, right? Towards Ainaola Road. And the flood zone comes right across here in the dip of the road. And then it crosses the properties just to the south of this one, and then it extends to the back of this lot. I can show you a little bit better on the aerial photo. So, generally the flood zone is in this area here, and it runs to the back of the property and then I think there’s actually a drainage easement further down that it crosses into. ONO: So the picture that I requested would be on the left side of that—the border, the red border? COTTLE: The picture that you were looking at, I was standing right here looking— ONO: --I see— COTTLE: --this way to the property. ONO: Thank you. COTTLE: So this is like a low area because the road drops off here. And then, even though this is a low area, it’s not a flood zone. The flood zone is actually south, well south of the property. GONZALES: Any other questions for staff? HENKEL: Mr. Gonzales. GONZALES: Yes sir, Mr. Henkel. HENKEL: Maija, on this application, the fair share contribution language is, is a lot different. It talks about how the applicant may contribute to the land or construct improvements to you know Parks & Rec., Fire, Police, and stuff. Did you just say that this language would revert to the same language as the first application we had or-- COTTLE: I thought the two were the same except for adding the word “newly created” lots. So let me just look at the previous application real quick. HENKEL: Okay. 3 EXHIBIT B COTTLE: Commissioner Henkel, which, which part are you saying is different than the previous one? I thought they were the same except for, we just wanted to add that word in the one-two-three-four, fifth sentence down. HENKEL: On the, on this application or on the first application, I don’t see any provision to contribute land, construct improvements, facilities to Parks & Rec., Fire, Solid Waste, facilities or roads within the region. I only see— COTTLE: Okay, let’s see here. HENKEL: --shall become payable and due. COTTLE: Okay— HENKEL: Am I looking— COTTLE: --on the previous application, if you look at the one-two-three-four-five-six, the seventh sentence. It says the fair share contribution in a form of cash, land, facilities, or any combination thereof shall be determined by the County Council. Is that the part you were referring to? HENKEL: Sorry. COTTLE: Good? Okay. So we’ll just add the word “newly created” lots. HENKEL: I was looking at the wrong paragraph. COTTLE: Okay, thanks. HENKEL: I apologize again for wasting your time. GONZALES: Any other questions for staff? Thank you, Maija. Could we have the applicant please come forward? Could you raise your right hand, please? Do you swear to tell the truth before the Windward Planning Commission today? DEPONTE: Yes. GONZALES: Thank you. State your name, where you live, and go ahead. DEPONTE: My name is Jason Deponte, and I currently live at the address that we’re requesting to subdivide and rezone. The conditions are acceptable, and I wanted to add that since we’re currently living there, there would be no impact as far as traffic on Kupulau Road. Yeah, if you guys have any questions. GONZALES: Any questions for the applicant? You stated that you’ve read the conditions and you’re fine with everything? 4 EXHIBIT B DEPONTE: Yes. GONZALES: Okay, very good. Thank you. DEPONTE: Thank you. GONZALES: I’d like to note that there’s no public testimony on this item. I guess a motion would be in order. Thank you. ISHIBASHI: Mr. Chair. GONZALES: Yes sir. ISHIBASHI: Thank you. I would like to make a motion that we send a favorable recommendation to the County Council in regards to Mr. Deponte’s application, Rezoning 14-173. HEAUKULANI: I’ll second. GONZALES: Thank you. Recommendation to approve by Chairman (sic) Ishibashi seconded by Chairman (sic) Heaukulani with conditions as stated with the one page that we just did on the last application. Any discussion, Commissioners? Go ahead, Maija. COTTLE: Okay, the motion is to send a favorable recommendation to the County Council with that one change to the fair share condition. Commissioner Ishibashi? ISHIBASHI: Aye. COTTLE: Commissioner Heaukulani? HEAUKULANI: Aye. COTTLE: Commissioner Henkel? HENKEL: Aye. COTTLE: Commissioner Moses? MOSES: Aye. COTTLE: Commissioner Ono? ONO: Aye. COTTLE: And Mr. Chair. 5 EXHIBIT B GONZALES: Aye. COTTLE: Okay, the motion passes six, zero. GONZALES: Thank you. You’ll be notified in writing. The discussion ended at 9:31 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Sarah Y. Hata-Finley, Secretary Windward Planning Commission 6 EXHIBIT B