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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2014-10-02 Hearing Transcript-Mark Jernigan SPP 09-081 WINDWARD PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAI‘I HEARING TRANSCRIPT OCTOBER 2, 2014 MARK G. JERNIGAN (SPP 09-081) A regularly advertised hearing on the application of was called to order at 9:02 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, Donald Ikeda, Raylene Moses, and Stephen Ono. ALSO PRESENT: Duane Kanuha (Planning Director), Margaret Masunaga (Deputy Corporation Counsel for the Windward Planning Commission), Daryn Arai (Planning Program Manager), Jeff Darrow (Staff Planner), Maija Jackson (Staff Planner), Christian Kay (Staff Planner), and Sarah Hata-Finley (Commission Secretary). And approximately 5 people from the public in attendance. APPLICANT: MARK G. JERNIGAN (SPP 09-081) Request to amend Condition No. 2 (life of permit) of Special Permit No. 09-000081, that was originally approved to allow the removal of cinder on 43,608 square feet of land situated within the State Land Use Agricultural District. Specifically, the amendment seeks a 5-year extension to the life of the permit. The property is located along the south side of Mahimahi Drive, approximately 356 feet east of the Mahimahi Drive–Lurline Lane intersection, Hawaiian Ocean View Estates Subdivision, Kahuku, Ka’u, Hawai‘i, TMK: 9-2-145:59. MIYASATO: The first up on the agenda for this morning, we have Āhualoa Land Company, which will be continued, so we’ll move to Item No. 2, Mark Jernigan. DARROW: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning. Welcome Members of the Planning Commission. We’d like to welcome our newest member, Donald Ikeda. Thank you for your service and your help with us here. It’ll be much appreciated. Thank you. Before we start with this application, I want to pass around a—it’s a thank you note, and this is from the members of the Hawaiian Acres Community Association so they wrote a little thank you note to the Planning Commission. Our first application this morning is, the Applicant is Mark Jernigan. They are requesting an amendment to Special Permit No. 09-81. The area of the subject application is within the Ka‛ū District of Hawai‛i, more specifically, we’re looking in the Hawaiian Ocean View Subdivision, Hawaiian Ocean View Estates Subdivision or HOVE as they call it. The, just for reference coming through the middle of the map is the Hawai‛i Belt Road. Above the highway, or mauka, we have the HOVE Subdivision. On the makai side of the road or on the left side of the road, we have the Hawaiian Ranchos Subdivision. The main difference between these two subdivisions is 1 EXHIBIT A the zoning for a majority of HOVE is Agricultural – 1 acre, and the lots consist mainly of one acre lots. There are some exceptions within the subdivision, and the Hawaiian Ranchos Subdivision is zoned Agricultural – 3 acres, and a majority of it is made up of three acre lots, although they are larger lots as well. This is a closer-up view. This is just for reference, we have Mahimahi Drive on the mauka side of the map, and we have Kailua Drive which is on the lower portion of the map, Lurline and Liliana. We’re gonna be looking mainly in this area for this application, but the subject property is identified with a black outline. This is the location of an existing quarry in the HOVE Subdivision. You can see that I have a, a map down below and that will be used for reference throughout the presentation, but basically this is what’s existing on the ground. That was more, I think this was around 2010, so that’s even increased since this day today. Again, this is the same picture here. We’re showing Mahimahi Drive. We’re showing Kailua, Lurline, and Liliana. There are multiple operators in this particular area that the Planning Department has been working with. More recently, we’ve had to issue several violation notices because of the fact that currently, there are only two applicants that hold Special Permits. One is a 5-acre piece up in this area. The Applicant is Arrow of Oregon Hawai‛i, and then the Applicant before us today, Mark Jernigan. They have a one-acre property that they’ve been trying to bring down into a safe manner. This shows those different applicants. The colors actually represent the consistency of applicants, so the blue is Arrow of Oregon, so you can see that they own a number of lots. The red is our Applicant. He currently owns this lot, and then, my understanding is that he is the owner of two lots in this general area. And then we have the Hawaiian Ocean View Estates Road Maintenance Corporation owns five acres just to the east of the subject property. We have a large 15-acre property that has been operating since the early sixties, and they’re what we call grandfathered in or non-conforming. So, regardless of, they do not need a Special Permit at this time to operate. They can continue to operate as long as they don’t cease for a period of time. And then, we also have a person named David Rodrigues that owns five acres in this general area. The Applicant is requesting an amendment to allow a five-year time extension for Condition 2 which was limited life of the permit. This is for Special Permit No. 09-81. This was originally approved to allow the removal of cinder on 43,608 square feet of land situated within the State Land Use Agricultural District. The Applicant originally asked for the Special Permit to remove cinder because the property had become unsafe because adjacent landowners on three sides had removed cinder creating vertical faces on the east, west, and south boundaries. These vertical cuts range from Grade 0 feet at Mahimahi to as high as 79 feet in certain locations. The Applicant has been working towards bringing three sides of his property to match existing grades on the adjacent property. These are photos. I’m going to be going back and forth between the original submittal of photos and current submittal so you’ll see some differences there. So, this was back in 2009, and this is on Mahimahi looking to the north at this face, the south face of Jernigan’s property. So, it’s just 2 EXHIBIT A that short little angle there. So, his representation with that he would remove the cinder on his property to bring the property into this grade. Currently, this is the amount of cinder that’s been removed. He’s still proposing to remove this remaining amount. This is a photo that we took when we went out on a site inspection. Again, we took the photo from Mahi—Kailua looking towards the south, so this is actually Jernigan’s property, so it has come down quite a bit. And, again, the representation on paper. This has been removed. This still needs to be removed. This is on the east portion of the property looking west so we would be over in this particular area looking at the property this way. This was in 2009, and this is what he was proposing to remove. This is the Hawaiian Ocean View Ranchos, I mean a, Road Maintenance Corporation property. This is what it currently looks like. Again, we’re looking from west to east. I’m sorry east to west. And, they’ve removed quite a bit of cinder on the property. It actually is getting very close to being at grade with the east bordering property. And, again, this is showing the illustration of what’s been removed, and the little bit that needs to removed remaining. This is on the west boundary. This was probably the largest face. The previous owner had illegally removed cinder, and it brought down this quite extensively. So, the Applicant was asking to remove, bring this down to safe levels. This picture shows what has been removed, and what remains to be removed. This was a photo that we took recently on a site inspection again showing the face on the west boundary. There’s been some continual removal of cinder so, you can’t see it very well, but there’s a large pit here, so it comes down another 20+ feet in this particular area. Again, this is that photo, and then this is looking from Lurline towards the property, so you’re getting a different view on the east property, so you can kind of see how deep it’s gone since then. It was from—at this elevation, and it’s gone down quite a bit further, but the Applicant is proposing to just bring it to where he had originally request. So, this is that original request here. These are again some illustrations showing what is on the ground now. This is the east property. That’s their access road. This is their property. Basically, it’s separated by this. Once this is removed, they probably are going to be pretty close at grade. These are additional photos. This is one that we took again showing the pretty close east property and the subject property. And one more there. And, this is to give you an idea of Mahimahi Road, which is this one, or Mahimahi Drive, has been stopped right at the Applicant’s property here because of the unsafe condition of the road. If you can see this hole right here? That actually goes down about 80 feet right off the subject roadway, so they felt it was highly unsafe so they blocked off this particular portion of the road. The Planning Director is recommending a three-year time extension instead of the five-year request. The reason for that is that the Planning Department is requesting that the owners and operators in this area get together and come up with some sort of master plan showing how they can bring the entire area into a safe manner. It appears that this can only be really done in concert with all the other operators. If they work separately, it’s just gonna cause more vertical faces and things. That’s our request, and I believe we’re gonna continue to request that when 3 EXHIBIT A additional applicants in this area come before us. The other owners in the area, a majority of them are over 15 acres, so they may have to be looking at a state land use Special Permit. With that, that concludes our presentation. I stand ready to answer any questions if you have any. MIYASATO: Any questions for staff, Commissioners? Commissioner Ono? ONO: Out of curiosity— DARROW: --it’s on— [referring to microphone] ONO: It’s on? DARROW: Yeah. ONO: Okay, the area is generally designated residential? DARROW: This is Agricultural County zoned as well as Agricultural State Land Use. ONO: So, what happens to that area once the resources are depleted? DARROW: What happens to the area? ONO: That quarry area. DARROW: Well, I—that is one of the reasons why we’re asking for this master plan to be created so that when they come to the point that they’ve reached those particular grades that have been identified in the master plan, that it will still can be utilized in a safe manner. Usually, with quarries, there’s not a whole lot you can do after they’ve been depleted. ONO: Well, I was wondering in terms of reclamation. Is there—that’s what you’re looking for in terms of the lot owners? DARROW: We’re looking again to be able to create a safer environment. Right now, there’s very, very steep vertical faces in areas that actual people can access. We’re just trying to be able to bring this to a safe grade so that, you know, people don’t get hurt. There, in the past, unfortunately, there has been a death on this particular property in the operation of this. There was an operator working on a vertical face, and the vertical face had fallen on him, and the operator passed away. As a result to that, MSHA, which is an oversight agency that oversees mines and quarries for safety has gotten actively involved in this area, but they’re not an oversight agency like the Planning Department or the State Land Use Department for Land Use permits. They’re more for safety. Thank you. 4 EXHIBIT A MIYASATO: Commissioners, any further questions for staff? If not, could we have the Applicant or representative come forward? 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? JERNIGAN: I do. MIYASATO: Could you please state your name and residence. JERNIGAN: Mark Jernigan. MIYASATO: Speak into the mic. JERNIGAN: My name is Mark Jernigan. I reside in Kailua-Kona. MIYASATO: Do you have anything that you wanted to add to this? JERNIGAN: I think Jeff covered it pretty well, and my goal was to just, you were talking about reclamation a little while ago, was to bring this into a slope that’s stable and safe for people so they don’t fall off of it cause right now the land is, it’s not useful for anything cause of the shear slopes around it. MIYASATO: Commissioners, any questions for the Applicant? Commissioner Ono [sic]. MOSES: Mr. Jernigan, do you, do you see what the Planning Director’s Recommendation? Is that an issue as far as three years versus the five years that you initially sought for? JERNIGAN: Three years is very workable. Thank you. MOSES: Thank you. MIYASATO: Anything further for the Applicant? ONO: Mr. Jernigan, how much of an effort has been implemented regarding the suggestion that the owners get together in terms of looking at an overall plan? JERNIGAN: Well, there’s rumblings about it. I think what just happened from the, applying for this extension, I’ve talked with Arrow of Hawai‛i. They want to do something about it, overall plan. I haven’t talked to Rodrigues, but I think it’s a workable thing. Hopefully, there’s not a hold out, but a— ONO: Has anyone taken the lead on this in terms of moving in a direction or forming a committee or something? JERNIGAN: No— 5 EXHIBIT A ONO: No? JERNIGAN: -- because it just hasn’t been an issue of having to come together before this. This is forcing that. MIYASATO: Commissioners, any further questions? If not, thank you. Commissioners, any discussion on this application? If not, I will accept a motion. MOSES: I’d like to move that the application for amendment to Special Permit No. 09-000081 be approved based on the Planning Director’s Recommendation as a three-year time extension instead of the five-year extension as requested by the Applicant. ONO: Second. MIYASATO: Moved by Commissioner Moses, second by Commissioner Ono. Any discussion on the motion? If not, you can call the roll. DARROW: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. With that, we’ll take the roll. Commissioner Moses? MOSES: Aye. DARROW: Commissioner Ono? ONO: Aye. DARROW: Commissioner Heaukulani? HEAUKULANI: Aye. DARROW: Commissioner Henkel? HENKEL: Aye. DARROW: Commissioner Ikeda? IKEDA: Aye. DARROW: And Mr. Chairman. MIYASATO: Aye. DARROW: The motion passes six to zero. MIYASATO: Okay, yeah, there were no testifiers for this application. You’ll be notified in writing. 6 EXHIBIT A JERNIGAN (from audience): Pardon me? MIYASATO: You’ll be notified in writing. JERNIGAN: Thank you. The discussion ended at 9:19 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Sarah Y. Hata-Finley, Secretary Windward Planning Commission 7 EXHIBIT A