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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2014-09-05 Hearing Transcript-Orchid Manor AOAO SMA 14-056 WINDWARD PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAI‘I HEARING TRANSCRIPT SEPTEMBER 5, 2014 Orchid Manor Association of Apartment A regularly advertised hearing on the application of Owners (SMA 14-056) was called to order at 9:36 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, and Raylene Moses. ABSENT AND EXCUSED: Stephen Ono. ALSO PRESENT: Amy Self (Deputy Corporation Counsel for the Windward Planning Commission), Jeff Darrow (Staff Planner), Maija Jackson (Staff Planner), Christian Kay (Staff Planner), Sarah Hata-Finley (Commission Secretary), Kim Tanaka (Secretary). And approximately 2 people from the public in attendance. APPLICANT: ORCHID MANOR ASSOCIATION OF APARTMENT OWNERS (SMA- 14-056) Application for a Special Management Area (SMA) Use Permit to allow an addition of a new roof over the existing roof of an apartment complex on 1.028 acres of land situated within the County’s Resort-Hotel (V-.75) zoning district and the SMA. The property is located at 355 Kalaniana‘ole Avenue, Waiākea, Hilo, Hawai‘i, TMK: 2-1-006:018. MIYASATO: Item No. 3 on the agenda, Orchid Manor Association for Special Management Area. DARROW: Good morning Members of the Planning Commission. Welcome back. It’s been too long since we’ve last seen each other. Well, we have one item on the agenda this morning that we’ll be reviewing. This is for Orchid Manor Association of Apartment Owners. They are requesting a Special Management Area Use Permit. The area of the subject application is within the South Hilo District. More specifically, we’re looking in the area of—we have Bay Front, I mean, the areas where the hotels are located. For reference, we have Kalaniana‛ole Avenue. Many of you are familiar with the harbor area, that’s in this general area. The colors on the map again represent zoning. The gray and the light gray represent Industrial zoning. This large area down here represents the airport area, and you have a lot of Industrial uses in the beginning of the Keaukaha area. The orange areas—I’m sorry, the hot pink areas represent Resort zoning, and the darker green represents Open zoning in this particular area. 1 EXHIBIT A The subject application is identified with a black outline, and the zoning for this property is Resort. This is the Special Management Area in this particular area. The subject application does fall within the subject Special Management Area. This is the General Plan Land Use Pattern Allocation Guide Map for the area. Even though the subject application falls in an area identified for Industrial, the General Plan lines are broadbrushed and so it seems as far as County zoning, it falls right on that line between Resort and Industrial. And this is a closer view again showing you the zoning for the particular area. Again, we have Kalaniana‛ole Avenue, and we have Kea‛a Street. There is an extension of Kea‛a Street that’s identified, but currently it is unused. The properties to the makai side are owned mainly by the State in these particular areas, and you have the old railroad alignment identified in this general area. This is an aerial photo. Again for reference, Kalaniana‛ole Avenue and Kea‛a Street. The subject property has a condominium complex that’s been constructed since 1965. There are approximately 101 apartment owners in this facility. Again, very close to the ocean. Between the ocean and the property is a State property. We have more Industrial uses. This is the self- storage facility for reference, and the County park area over in this area. The Applicant is requesting a Special Management Area Use Permit to allow an addition of a new roof over the existing roof on an apartment complex on 1.028 acres of land situated within the County’s Resort-Hotel (V-.75) zoning district and the Special Management Area. The proposed cost of the improvements for the new roof is estimated at approximately $500,000. The apartment complex was constructed in the early 1960’s which was prior to the SMA laws, rules, and regulations, and did not require an SMA Major Use Permit for the construction of the original complex. The reason for the request is that the Orchid Manor Condominium has been experiencing on-going leakage problems and drainage issues with their existing roof. The options were to replace the existing roof which would be very difficult for residents who reside in the complex or to build a new roof over the existing roof and minimize the difficulties of displacement and other factors to the residence while construction occurs. Just to let you know, some of you may be wondering why the Applicant has to go through this process for a simple repair and replacement of the roof. This was a real struggle for the Planning Department as well. Most times, the Planning Department would consider this an exempt type action being maintenance and renovation, but because they were actually adding on a whole new roof to it, it was considered new construction, and we had to look at it from that aspect, and it was--even though it was one foot, it was still—it’s a tough call. And then the question is whether or not a minor permit or a major permit is required which the cost factor comes into play, and because the replacement of the roof was over $500,000, we had to look at it from a major standpoint. If the original complex had received a major permit originally, we could have done an amendment or possibly maybe considered it as part of the original SMA, but because this was constructed prior to those rules, we were kind of stuck in this position. Just, if you were wondering about that. 2 EXHIBIT A This is a site photo taken from Kalaniana‛ole Avenue at the front of the Orchid Manor Condominium Complex. You might be familiar with this. And this is a side view so you can see the length of it. The roof itself looks like a flat roof, and so they will be putting on a new roof on top of this. The Planning Director is recommending that the Planning Commission approve the request with the stated conditions. That concludes our presentation. I stand ready to answer any questions. MIYASATO: Commissioners, any questions for staff? DARROW: Thank you. MIYASATO: Good morning. YAGONG: Good morning. MIYASATO: Could you please both raise your right hands? Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth on this matter now before the Hawai‛i County Planning Commission? YAGONG/KLIMT: I do. MIYASATO: Could you please state your names and residence? KLIMT: Kurt Klimt, Kamuela, Hawai‛i County. YAGONG: Dominic Yagong, Honoka‛a, Hawai‛i. Kurt is the architect that designed the roof for the Orchid Manor Association, and I’m the—I work for Associa Hawai‛i. We’re the property management company for Orchid Manor. We manage many properties on the Island and this is one of them so that’s why we’re here to answer any questions that you may have. MIYASATO: Commissioners, do you have any questions for the Applicant? HEAUKULANI: Yeah, just one. Good morning. YAGONG: Good morning. HEAUKULANI: You’ve read the Recommendation from the Planning Department? You’ve received that? What I really am getting at is there are conditions to the anticipated approval of the request, and I just wanted to make sure that you’ve reviewed those and that the, those are acceptable to you. YAGONG: Yes, the recommendations by the Planning Department was acceptable to the Association and the Board. HEAUKULANI: Okay, including the conditions of approval? 3 EXHIBIT A YAGONG: That’s correct. HEAUKULANI: All right. Thank you. MIYASATO: Any other questions, Commissioners? YAGONG: Could I make a quick statement, Mr. Chair, if I could? MIYASATO: Sure, yeah. YAGONG: First of all, thank you very much for hearing our application here. This has been a really long haul. The actual problem actually occurred with this apartment complex back in December of 2012. We had a major leak there, and we had done some band-aid issues to just kind of hold our breath, but I gotta tell you, this hurricane that we just had, we had 101 homeowners on their knees praying that our roof was not going to fly off. There’s really a sense of urgency of doing this. Part of the problem it took so long to get to this point is we—we had to vet some of the designs that came through from different architects, making sure that the right insurance coverage, too, to make sure that the job is warranted and so forth. And the big challenge was actually convincing the 101 owners that—to have them approve a loan ‘cause we had to go out and borrow $700,000 to do this, and a lot of retirees actually are in that building, as you can imagine, from building from 1965, so, we are very fortunate that they understood. That back in 1965 when the building was built, gasoline was 35 cents a gallon. That’s how old this roof is. And that’s why it really needs changing, so we were happy that they agreed, that they had to be assessed you know, assessment to pay for the facility, and then of course just then, it was kind of a curve when this SMA Major came to us but we totally understand because the cost at that time, we’re looking at about $700,000, but now it’s a little above half a million so, we know that that’s a threshold, and of course the proximity to the ocean as well. So, it’s very understandable, so, but we are hoping that we can get your favorable recommendation today so that we can actually move forward with the building permitting process because it has been two years that we’ve worked on this project so hopefully it can go through. Thank you. MIYASATO: Commissioners, any questions? If not, Commissioners, any discussion on this? If not, I’ll accept a motion. MOSES: Chair, I move that the application for Special Management Area Use Permit application, SMA 14-000056 be approved based on the Planning Director’s Recommendation and proposed conditions. HEAUKULANI: I’ll second. MIYASATO: Moved by Commissioner Moses and seconded by Commissioner Heaukulani. Any discussion on the motion? If not, call the roll. DARROW: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. With that, we’ll take the roll. Commissioner Moses? 4 EXHIBIT A MOSES: Aye. DARROW: Commissioner Heaukulani? HEAUKULANI: Aye. DARROW: Commissioner Henkel? HENKEL: Aye. DARROW: And Mr. Chairman. MIYASATO: Aye. DARROW: The motion passes four to zero. MIYASATO: You’ll be notified in writing. YAGONG: Thank you very much. We appreciate it. Mr. Chairman? We did have a question that Kurt and I kind of talked about. We know that a lot of the—we have to still go through the permitting process with the County, but we noticed that a lot of the departments that the permitting approval has to go through has already made recommendations or at least commented. Is there any way that—is there a process to kind of expedite that process being that some of the County Departments have already commented on the SMA? MIYASATO: I would have to defer to the Planning Department. DARROW: We can request— YAGONG: I was asked by the Board and owners actually if we could expedite it— DARROW: We can work with you on that. YAGONG: Okay, we’d appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you very much. We really appreciate it. Thank you all. KLIMT: Thank you. The discussion ended at 9:48 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Sarah Y. Hata-Finley, Secretary Windward Planning Commission 5 EXHIBIT A