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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2014-07-03 Hearing Transcript - Asia Pacific Group Amend SPP 09-095 WINDWARD PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAI‘I HEARING TRANSCRIPT JULY 3, 2014 Asia Pacific Group, LLC (formerly A regularly advertised hearing on the application of Poloke Farms, LLC) (Amendment to SPP 09-095) was called to order at 10:29 a.m. in the County of Hawai‘i, Aupuni Center Conference Room, 101 Pauahi Street, Hilo, Hawai‘i with Chairman Myles Miyasato presiding. COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Myles Miyasato, Charles Heaukulani, Gregory Henkel, Raylene Moses, and Stephen Ono. 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, from 9:37 a.m. to 12:25 p.m.), Melody Parker (Deputy Corporation Counsel for the Planning Director from 9:13 a.m. to 12:39 p.m.), 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 9 people from the public in attendance. APPLICANT: ASIA PACIFIC GROUP, LLC (FORMERLY POLOKE FARMS LLC) (AMENDMENT TO SPP 09-095) Amendments to Special Permit No. 09-000095, including a 1-year time extension to comply with Condition 2 (Secure Final Plan Approval); the deletion of all references for a weekly country market in Conditions 3, 4 & 8; reduce special events from 20 to 6 events (Condition 5); and rewrite Condition 6 (Definition of special events). The property is located along the north (makai) side of Highway 19 and east of the Waimea Country Club golf course near the 51-mile marker, Waikoekoe, Hāmākua, Hawai‘i, TMK: 4-7-007: 040. MIYASATO: Item No. 3 on the agenda, Asia Pacific Group, LLC. DARROW: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. If I can direct your attention to our presentation. Our next applicant is Asia Pacific Group, LLC. Formerly, the Applicant’s name was Poloke Farms, LLC. They’re requesting an amendment to their existing Special Permit No. 09-95. The area of this subject application is within the Hāmākua District of Hawai‘i, more specifically, we’re looking for reference, we have the Hawai‘i Belt Road or Hawai‘i Highway 19 running through the middle of the map in an east-west direction. The light green zoning area, Agricultural – 1 zoned area, is Lakeland Subdivision—you might be familiar with. This particular area as your driving into Hilo on your right side, makai side, you might observe an equestrian center. That’s the location of this property that is coming in for the amendment 1 EXHIBIT C request. Again, for reference, the different zonings are colors on the map represent County zoning. The lighter blue represents Agricultural – 40 acres. The purple next door is Agricultural – 35 acres, and the lighter green, Agricultural – 1 acre. This is an aerial photo of the area. Again, for reference, Highway 19 running in an east-west direction, and we have the subject property outlined in a black outline. We have access directly from the highway, and we have the equestrian center that’s identified in the middle of the map. Again, for reference, we have this heavy trees that are lining Mud Lane. You might be familiar with Mud Lane as well. A lot of the area is used for pasture in this particular area. The applicant is requesting several amendments, and we’ll just go through each of these. They’re requesting a one-year time extension to comply with Condition No. 2 which is to secure Final Plan Approval. They had a particular deadline. They had come in previously for a, a time extension on this particular condition. The hold-up, unfortunately, has been trying to get a permitted access from the Department of Transportation. There—it goes without saying, they are a little difficult to work through. Number two, they’re asking to eliminate the weekly country market as a permitted use under Special Permit No. 09-95, and to delete all references to the weekly country market in Conditions 3, 4, and 8. Originally, that was actually what was requested for this Special Permit. It was a country, a weekly country market, and some special events. So, the Applicant, in trying to work out a resolution with Department of Transportation, has kind of minimized the uses that will be allowed under this Special Permit. He’s asking to reduce the number of special events annually from twenty to six which is in Condition 5, and lastly, to rewrite Condition No. 6 to state that a special event is a sporting, cultural, business, or other type of activity. The reason for the request as mentioned previously, the Applicant has been working with the Department of Transportation to comply with the access requirements under Condition 11. This has been for over four years at this point, and is unable to receive a final approval from DOT and, therefore, has held up the Final Plan Approval process required under Condition No. 2. The Applicant states that one possible cure is to construct an ingress/egress lanes fronting the subject property or to reduce the uses allowed in the Special Permit. The Applicant is choosing to reduce the uses by eliminating the weekly country market and reduce the amount of annual special events. For reference, this is the site plan that’s been on file. Again, on your left side of your map, you have Highway 19. You have access from Highway 19, and you have the actual permit area with the equestrian center. We do have some site photos. These were taken previously. This is from Highway 19 looking at the equestrian center that’s on site. Same thing. This is a little further back on Highway 19. You have the equestrian center in the background there and the access. My understanding that the name of this facility now is called the Rocking Chair Ranch. Okay. And this is a little further towards Waimea, and you can see that the Applicant has put a quite a number of trees to kind of eliminate the visual aspect of the equestrian center. So, this is on the Waimea side of the subject property. This is looking towards Hilo on Highway 19 with the access on your left side. This is looking towards Waimea with the access on your right side. 2 EXHIBIT C The Planning Director’s recommendation is that the Planning Commission approve the amendment request with the amended conditions that have been supplied to the Planning Commission. I don’t think we’ve received anything since. The original permit has come in. I did want to make reference that the Applicant has been diligently working with the Police Department. They did have some comments under Exhibit No. 6, mainly concerns regarding these types of events but one of our conditions, it’s the new Condition 5, asked that a policy for security and traffic control for special events be developed in consultation with the Hawai‘i County Police Department with the approval of the Director prior to Final Plan Approval. So, if you refer to Condition, Exhibit No. 9, you’ll see those efforts that are being made by the Applicant to meet and come up with that policy. With that, that concludes our presentation. Thank you. MIYAMOTO: Any questions for staff, Commissioners? If not, would the Applicant please come forward. ANDERSON: Good morning. MIYAMOTO: Good morning. Could you please raise your right hand? Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth on this matter now before the Hawai‘i County Planning Commission. ANDERSON: Yes. MIYAMOTO: Could you please state your name and residence? ANDERSON: Brian Anderson, 64-5085 Kalake Street, Kamuela. MIYAMOTO: Go ahead. Would you like to make a statement? ANDERSON: Yeah, in—we’ve scaled down the number of events to try to—I’ve met with DOT on a number of occasions for a number of years. They verbally have given us approval on this restructured special amendment on our Special Permit. So, we’re working on that, on that grounds to scale back and try to proceed. I didn’t realize four years ago that when the Commission approved it, we needed to go get—everyone else has to be in consensus. So, we believe with this new plan, we’ll get consensus with all agencies that need to sign off. MIYAMOTO: Any questions for the Applicant, Commissioners? ONO: Mr. Chair, I have several. MIYAMOTO: Commissioner Ono. ONO: May I? My concern is that, this is a commercial venture and your activity, so reducing your activities from your, for example, your market program. Doesn’t it reduce your income or the idea of making profit out of this. 3 EXHIBIT C ANDERSON: Well, a lot of the special events weren’t for—when they were initially thought of, they’re not for a commercial activity. Commercially, what supports our bills is boarding horses. We have about 30 horses boarded there. And then we give lessons and such. So that’s our commercial venture. Every now and then, though, we’re, we’re approached for a special event. It may be a fundraiser like Shane Hapai’s daughter had to go to Boston for an operation. We did a function couple years ago. And that kind of thing. We want to be in compliance, and we were, when we first got the permit, we kind of did a couple of those thinking it would be all forthcoming, but then we realized reality and four years later, we stopped doing everything couple years ago because we, we never got our signatures. So, it’s just for those kind of things. And then we had one change also on the—it’s a broader interpretation of special event, and you know, one of the things that we talked about is doing political fundraisers, and there’s certain candidates out there, if you don’t get a real good group, you ain’t gonna get nobody show up. So, we don’t want to be in disagreement with the Planning Department over whether it’s a concert if we bring in Kapena or something, or if it’s a fundraiser. So, we try to broaden it so hopefully we don’t have any, you know, we don’t have any disagreements on where you cross the line of concert versus a fundraiser. And then to answer the potential additional traffic, I met with Captain Burian from Honoka‘a, and we re-did our—the Police Department had signed off on a, on a plan four years ago, but obviously with a new permit, we’ll need a new plan, and he had a lot of input. We went back and forth, and there’s a lot of really good safety things in here which comply with our insurance company anyway. So, we’re all for safety. If we’re gonna do an event, it’s gotta be a safe event. ONO: I apologize. I thought your primary purpose for this complex was for the idea of the market, the farmer’s market, to earn an income. I’m—I didn’t realize it was an equestrian program— ANDERSON: --No, we just take care of horses— ONO: My apologies. ANDERSON: No, no. MIYASATO: Any further questions, Commissioners? Thank you. ANDERSON: Thank you. MIYASATO: We have no testifiers. Any further discussion, Commissioners? MOSES: Can I make a motion? MIYASATO: Commissioner Moses. MOSES: I move that the amendments to Special Permit No. 09-000095 be approved based on the Planning Director’s Recommendation and proposed conditions. 4 EXHIBIT C HEAUKULANI: I’ll second. MIYASATO: Moved by Commissioner Moses, seconded by Commissioner Heaukulani. DARROW: Thank you, Mr. Chair. With that, we’ll take the roll call. Commissioner Moses? MOSES: Aye. DARROW: Commissioner Heaukulani? HEAUKULANI: Aye. DARROW: Commissioner Henkel? HENKEL: Aye. DARROW: Commissioner Ono? ONO: Aye. DARROW: And Mr. Chairman. MIYASATO: Aye. DARROW: The motion passes five to zero. MIYASATO: You’ll be notified in writing. The discussion ended at 10:42 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Sarah Y. Hata-Finley, Secretary Windward Planning Commission 5 EXHIBIT C