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Home My WebLink About2014-06-05HEARINGTRANSCRIPT-VERIZONWIRELESS USE11-028 WINDWARD PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAI‘I HEARING TRANSCRIPT JUNE 5, 2014 Verizon Wireless/AT&T Mobility A regularly advertised hearing on the application of (Amend USE 11-028) was called to order at 9:38 a.m. in the County of Hawai‘i, Aupuni Center Conference Room, 101 Pauahi Street, Hilo, Hawai‘i with Chairman Pro Tem Myles Miyasato presiding. COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Myles Miyasato, Gregory Henkel, Raylene Moses, and Stephen Ono. ABSENT AND EXCUSED: Charles Heaukulani and Wallace A. Ishibashi, Jr. ALSO PRESENT: Duane Kanuha (Planning Director), Margaret Masunaga (Deputy Corporation Counsel for the Windward Planning Commission), Jennifer Ng (Deputy Corporation Counsel for the Planning Director), Daryn Arai (Planning Program Manager), Jeff Darrow (Staff Planner), Maija Cottle (Staff Planner), Sarah Hata-Finley (Secretary), Kim Tanaka (Secretary), and Melissa Dacayanan (Planning Commission Support Technician). And approximately 25 people from the public in attendance. APPLICANTS: VERIZON WIRELESS/AT&T MOBILITY (Amend USE 11-028) Amendment to Use Permit No. 11-000028, which allowed the construction of a 154-foot tall steel telecommunication monopole with 8-foot tall panel antennas and related facilities on an approximate 750 square-foot portion of a 1-acre parcel situated in the State Land Use Agricultural District and the County’s Agricultural 1-acre (A-1a) zoning district. The amendment seeks to expand the permit area from 750 to 1,500 square feet to accommodate co-location of antennas and ground equipment. The property is located at 13-3474 Kupono Street, which is on the west side of Kupono Street, approximately 400 feet north of the intersection of Kupono Street and Leilani Avenue in Leilani Estates Subdivision, Keahialaka, Puna, Hawai`i, TMK: 1-3-36:Portions of 40-43. MIYASATO: Okay so with that, let’s move to Item No. 2 on the agenda. COTTLE: Thank you, Mr. Chair. Item No. 2 is a request for an amendment to a Use Permit. The applicant is Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility. The subject property is located in the Puna District, in the Leilani Estates Subdivision. You can see the subject property in the middle of the slide, outlined in red. You have Pāhoa-Kalapana Road running in a north-south direction on the left side of the slide, and then Leilani Boulevard running in an east-west direction through the middle of the slide. 1 EXHIBIT B The subject properties are located off of Kupuno Avenue. All of Leilani Estates is zoned Agricultural – 1 acre which is shown in the light green. The General Plan designation for the property is Rural, that’s Rural for the entire Leilani Estates Subdivision. This is the State Land Use District Map for the area, and you can see again the entire Leilani Estates Subdivision is in the State Agricultural District. Use Permit 11-028 was approved--it was issued to Verizon Wireless in 2011 to allow the construction of a 154-foot tall telecommunication monopole and related ground equipment on approximately 750 square feet of leased area. The property is owned by the Leilani Estates Community Association. It’s a very—it’s made up of one acre lots but they own, I think, at least ten adjacent lots in this area. And the monopole was designed to allow co-location of up to three additional carriers. The applicant, AT&T Mobility, is now coming in and requesting an amendment to the permit in order to expand the permit area from 750 square feet to 1,500 square feet of lease area, and in order to co-locate their antennas and ground equipment on the site. This is a site plan of the properties. You have Kupono Street on the right side of the slide, and there is a driveway. It’s a dirt or gravel driveway that comes off of Kupono Street in this area here, and it runs parallel to Kupuno Street and then it jogs to the west to the lease area. You can see the existing monopole right where the red dot is here on the slide, and Verizon has a lease area surrounding the monopole that’s 750 square feet in size. AT&T is requesting a lease area adjacent to that just to the west. This is a view of the proposed tower from Kupuno Street. Again, you can see the ground equipment surrounded by a six-foot high chainlink fence. And then the antennas that AT&T is proposing to place on the tower. That would be placed at approximately the 112-foot height of the tower. These are photos of the property. This is on Kupuno Street looking towards Leilani Avenue. The property is on the right side. And you can see—it’s a little bit dark—but you can see the driveway in this area here, and then the access driveway loops, runs parallel to Kupono, and then loops around. This is a view looking at the existing tower. You can see the ground equipment enclosure in this area here. And then this is a view of the tower from the top of the driveway, so the proposed antennas would be added generally at this height of the tower, and then the ground equipment that AT&T would be adding would be just to the right side of the slide. The Planning Director is recommending approval of this amendment request. Are there any questions? ONO: It appears that the area seems well manicured— COTTLE: Yes— 2 EXHIBIT B ONO: --the property. Are there homes in and around that area? You were mentioning ten adjacent lots that—who owns that ten adjacent lots? COTTLE: Let me see if I can go back and show you—so, you see the red outline is actually the four properties that make up this permit area. ONO: That’s four acres? COTTLE: Yes, that’s four acres, and this property right behind it is owned by the Leilani Estates Community Association, plus they own the four acres that are outlined in red. So, the community association owns all the properties in this area right here. So, there would be four lots, well let’s see, one-two-three-four, six lots adjacent to the community association property. Some of them are developed with homes and some of them are vacant. I didn’t include an aerial image because the Google image had clouds over the area, so I didn’t think it would be helpful. ONO: Thank you. COTTLE: You’re welcome. MIYASATO: Any further questions for staff? Thank you, Maija. Would the applicant please come forward? Good morning. Could you please raise your right hand? SOUZA: Good morning. I’m Rebecca— MIYASATO: Could you please raise your right hand? SOUZA: Oh, certainly. MIYASATO: Do you swear and affirm to tell the truth on this matter now before the Hawai‘i County Planning Commission? SOUZA: Yes. MIYASATO: Okay, could you please state your name and your residence? SOUZA: My name is Rebecca Souza, and I’m a consultant for Cascadia PM. We represent AT&T in this matter. I’d be happy to answer any questions that I can. MIYASATO: Commissioners, do you have any questions? Mr. Henkel. HENKEL: Rebecca, the existing towers on—it’s actually a part of the Leilani Park clearing, right? SOUZA: It’s on the Leilani Estates Community Association’s parcel. 3 EXHIBIT B HENKEL: I mean, but its all clear open space there. SOUZA: It’s basically cleared. Light vegetation. HENKEL: Thank you. MIYASATO: Any further questions for the applicant. Okay, thank you. SOUZA: Thank you. MIYASATO: Commissioners, do I have a motion? HENKEL: I move to approve the amendment to 11-000028. ONO: Second. MIYASATO: Motion by Commissioner Henkel and second by Commissioner Ono. COTTLE: Thank you, Mr. Chair. Okay, the motion is to approve the amendment as recommended by the Planning Director. I’m sorry, you know what, if it’s all right with the Commissioners, there is one typographical error on the report that I forgot to mention. The goldenrod--the heading currently says Use Permit application. It should say amendment to Use Permit No. 11-028, so we’ll go ahead and make that correction. Okay, with that, I’ll take the roll. Commissioner Henkel? HENKEL: Aye. COTTLE: Commissioner Ono? ONO: Aye. COTTLE: Commissioner Moses? MOSES: Aye. COTTLE: And Mr. Chair. MIYASATO: Aye. COTTLE: Okay, the motion to approve the amendment passes four, zero. MIYASATO: Thank you. You’ll be notified in writing. 4 EXHIBIT B The discussion ended at 9:47 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Sarah Y. Hata-Finley, Secretary Windward Planning Commission 5 EXHIBIT B