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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2015-04-02 HearingTranscript - AT&T Mobility USE 14-049 WINDWARD PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAI‘I HEARING TRANSCRIPT APRIL 2, 2015 AT&T MOBILITY (USE 14-049) A regularly advertised hearing on the application of was called to order at 10:23 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, and Raylene Moses. ALSO PRESENT: Duane Kanuha (Planning Director), Belinda Hall (Deputy Corporation Counsel for the Windward Planning Commission), William Brilhante (Assistant Corporation Counsel for the Planning Director), 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 7 people from the public in attendance. APPLICANT: AT&T MOBILITY (USE 14-049) Application for a Use Permit to allow the construction of a new telecommunication facility, including a 154-foot tall steel monopole with 8-foot tall panel antennas and related facilities within a 5,625 square-foot portion of a 40.899-acre parcel situated within the State Land Use Urban District and the County’s Agricultural 3-acre (A-3a) zoning district. The project site is located on the north side of West Kawailani Street, directly across the intersection of Kikaha Street and West Kawailani Street, Waiākea Homesteads, South Hilo, Hawai‘i, TMK: 2-4-003: Portion of 022. MIYASATO: Last item on this morning’s agenda, Item 3, Applicant, AT&T Mobility. DARROW: Thank you, again, Mr. Chairman, Members of the Planning Commission. For our last application, if I can direct your attention to our presentation. Our Applicant is AT&T Mobility. They’re requesting a Use Permit. The area of this subject application is within the South Hilo District of Hawai‛i. More specifically, we’re looking in the area of West Kawailani Street. That’s—for reference, it runs through the middle of the map. It’s just past Komohana, which is in this general location. It is identified with a black outline. This is the State Land Use Boundary Map. It identifies the subject property located within the State Land Use Urban District. 1 EXHIBIT C The General Plan Land Use Pattern Allocation Guide Map identifies this area for Low Density Urban uses. The County Zoning Map shows different colors. Just for reference, the light blue, which entails the subject property is Agricultural – 3 acres. The yellow, light yellow, little bit of mustard colored yellow identify residential zoning. RS-15 for the darker color yellow and RS-10 for the lighter color yellow. The green that you see on the map actually is Agricultural – 1 acre. The subject property is approximately 41 acres in size. This is an aerial photo. You’ll see that there is a flood channel that runs through the middle of the property. Very distinct. This is the Waiākea Stream. And, again, you can see that the surrounding area consists mainly of residential type uses. Also for reference, we have the Life Care Center that’s located adjacent to this on the East side of the property. The Applicant is requesting a Use Permit to construct a 154-foot tall steel monopole with 12, 8-foot panel antennas mounted on top of the monopole. The monopole will be designed to accommodate the placement of other carriers which we call co-location. In addition to the monopole, the 5,625-square foot leased area would be used for accessory ground facilities, which includes radio and battery equipment, cabinets, and a 50-kilowatt emergency generator within an 11.5-foot by 20-foot shelter. The leased area would be fenced with a 6-foot high chain link security fencing. The proposed facility would be unmanned and maintained, and repair activities would be performed by a technician on a periodic basis. And, lastly, the pole will be constructed of structured galvanized steel and built to withstand 105 miles per hour wind. This is the submitted site plan by the Applicants. For reference, on the lower portion of the map is West Kawailani Street. Access would be from Kawailani Street to the leased area approximately 5,600-square foot area. And, you can see the ground facilities as well as the location of the tower. On your left side, you can see the flood channel on the property. We have received several comment letters from the public. One received this morning from Nelson Shimazu. This is the second letter we’ve received with him. And one of his main concerns was that the Planning Department consider conditions that would minimize the visual impacts. The Planning Director has included a condition requiring the Applicant to construct a monopine tower versus a monopole, and we’ll go into a visual presentation of that. The left side is what the Applicant originally proposed which is your typical monopine [sic], monopole tower. On the right side, you will see an identified monopine tower. They blend in better with different areas, and they look, you know, pretty good. This is a site photo of the subject property which is located on the left. This is West Kawailani Street looking makai. This is West Kawailani Street looking mauka, subject property on the 2 EXHIBIT C right. This is on West Kawailani Street looking at the entrance area for the leased area. And, this is the general area that the leased area would be at. The Planning Director is recommending that the Planning Commission approve the subject request with conditions. With that, that concludes our presentation. Thank you. MIYASATO: Commissioners, any questions for staff? Commissioner Henkel. HENKEL: Jeffrey, I couldn’t really tell from the site plan where on the property the leased site is going to be. Could you go back to, you know, the first slide that showed the whole acreage— DARROW: --the— HENKEL: --and— DARROW: --okay, this, just for reference. This is very close to West Kawailani Street. So, this is a 40-acre property. I would say this is probably—I can’t see, but it’s in the portion of the property located closer to West Kawailani Street, so it would be in this general area of the property. HENKEL: Okay. IKEDA: Jeff—can I ask you a question, Jeff? MIYASATO: Commissioner Ikeda. IKEDA: You know, is the site quite close to—when I’m looking at the map, and I’m very familiar with the property, it seems to be close to that Life Care Center. DARROW: Correct, Life Care Center is in this general area. IKEDA: That’s correct. Okay. MIYASATO: Commissioners, any further questions for staff? Thank you. DARROW: Thank you, Mr. Chair. MIYASATO: Could we have the Applicant or representative please come forward? Good morning. Could you raise your right hand? Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth on this matter now before the Hawai‛i County Planning Commission? MIURA: Yes. MIYASATO: Could you please state your name and residence and go ahead if you have a presentation. 3 EXHIBIT C MIURA: My name is Matthew Miura. I work for Cascadia PM, and we are agent for AT&T Mobility to develop the site, and we’ve been working on this project for a year as far as planning, and we’ve sent out the letters to the neighbors, 84 neighbors by certified mail to inform them of and invite them to this meeting. And, we received comments, and we also performed a full archaeological inventory as required by Department. MIYASATO: Commissioners, any questions for the Applicant? Commissioner Ikeda. IKEDA: You know, when I’m looking at the folder, there was a letter from Mr. Sakamoto stating concern that the tower is close to his home, and he feels skeptical about the, the electromagnetic radiation, and I know there’s a, a note from a—Department of Health stating that there’s no effect, but, you know, I have concern about that, too, because I know that they wanted to build one on Haili Street, and I didn’t support it because I feel there is problem because I remember, I’m not sure what’s the difference between high tension wire and this, but I remember watching 20-20 a few years ago where lot of, they built this high tension power line right near the school, and lot of the kids were getting leukemia. So, I have concern on something like this. How are you guys going to address this? MIURA: High tension wires is a totally different topic. Okay, this one is, the signal is called radio-frequency, RF. And, it is, been governed by the Federal Communications Commission, and they have done numerous studies, and they have deemed it safe. They, as long as we operate within the levels of transmission required by the FCC. We are operating well within the requirements set by the FCC, and the FCC has done studies with the Cancer Society and other organizations to, to ensure that it complies and does not harm, is not harmful for humans. Another factor is the antenna is built on a pole for reason to keep it out of direct contact from humans, so, it’s up in a, at a height where the signal transmits out from the site, so it does not go down to hit people. IKEDA: You know, the State, because I had problem with ones on Haili Street, the State was going to build a property right off Komohana where there’s a well. You guys ever looked into that. Maybe you guys could attach to that instead of building your own tower. MIURA: We look at all of the options in the area. The key factor is, of course, the location. As you can tell, we want to cover lot of the residents in the area because they need the service, but also water supplies have different requirements and a lot of times, they do not allow a cellular company to use their facility because it affects their operation, and they have security issues that they have to deal with. MIYASATO: Any further questions, Commissioners? Thank you. We have one testifier signed up, Richard Tsunoda. Do I have anyone else wishing to testify on this matter that hasn’t signed up? 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? 4 EXHIBIT C TSUNODA: Yes. MIYASATO: Could you please use the mic? And state your name and residence. TSUNODA: Richard Tsunoda. I live on— DARROW: Could you use the mic, please? Thank you. TSUNODA: My address is 1331 Oihana Street. That’s the street that abuts or adjacent to the subject parcel, just mauka of it. MIYASATO: Go ahead. TSUNODA: Yeah, I had some questions I think, one of it was about the health risk. Also, in that conjunction, if there’s any noise that’s gonna be emitted or any kind of interference that might be produced by the, this project. That’s, I just, basically, I just have questions. And also, the location of the, the exact location is what I’m kind of concerned about cause as Mr. Ikeda questioned about the exact location, on one of the maps that was sent to the residents shows the project site to be closer to Life Care Center, the lower half of the parcel. But I, I suspect that it’s closer to the flood channel which is more in the center or closer to Oihana. So, could I have, if I could have that clarified? MIURA: Okay, so there’s a flood channel— MIYASATO: Could you please use the mic, please? MIURA: So, using the flood channel as a reference, and this is the Life Care Center. This area you’re talking about is the lower area. The location for the site is near the entrance gate here, and in the higher area of the, of the lot. TSUNODA: That’s what I suspect, suspected but the drawing shows it to be more close to, in the lowest, lower spots. I was, I didn’t think it would be there. MIURA: No. Okay, I have to check the drawing, but we, we do have full drawings that we’re preparing to submit for plan approval. TSUNODA: How about the noise level? MIURA: Noise level. TSUNODA: Or any noise. MIURA: Okay, the site is, does not give off much noise but it does have air conditioning, so this, the—there’s going to be a—a shelter with two air conditioners inside, and they all switch, switch off and on, so. Also, there is a 50-kilowatt generator. The generator does get test run 5 EXHIBIT C once a week, and then it will run of course if there’s a power outage, but we use the double wall to minimize the noise, and it’s gonna be inside the shelter. So, the noise should be minimized. TSUNODA: They’ll be no interference with household— MIURA: --no— TSUNODA: --things. MIURA: No interference. MIYASATO: Thank you. Okay-- TSUNODA: Thank you. MIYASATO: Commissioners, any questions? Thank you. TSUNODA: Thank you. MIYASATO: No one else wishing to testify? Could I have a motion to close public testimony? HENKEL: I move to close public testimony. IKEDA: Second. MIYASATO: All in favor? COMMISSIONERS: Aye. MIYASATO: Any opposed? Call a close to the public testimony. Commissioners, any discussion? If not, I’ll accept a motion on this application. HENKEL: Mr. Chair, I’d like to move that the Planning Commission approve AT&T Mobility USE 14-000049 with any conditions by the Planning Director. MIYASATO: I have a motion. Do I have a second? MOSES: Second. MIYASATO: Okay, I have a motion by Commissioner Henkel, second by Commissioner Moses. Any discussion on the motion? Commissioner Henkel. HENKEL: You know, I’ve been concerned in the past when there’s been tower proposals you know on small houselots and within crowded subdivisions where there, there’s no way you could get away with the proximity to the neighbors, but this to me looks like the right place to put it on 6 EXHIBIT C a large acreage. There’s a buffer zone between the houses and the tower itself, so, and the other concern by the, the letter that was submitted was about the disguising of it, so I mean, I don’t know if you agreed with the condition to use a monopine instead of a monopole, but I mean, I think all the issues have been mitigated. MIYASATO: Any further discussion on the motion? If not, take the roll. DARROW: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The motion is to approve. With that, we’ll take the roll call. Commissioner Henkel? HENKEL: Aye. DARROW: Commissioner Moses? MOSES: Aye. DARROW: Commissioner Heaukulani? HEAUKULANI: Aye. DARROW: Commissioner Ikeda? IKEDA: No. DARROW: And Mr. Chairman. MIYASATO: Aye. DARROW: The motion passes four to one. MIYASATO: Thank you. You’ll be notified in writing. The discussion ended at 10:42 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Sarah Y. Hata-Finley, Secretary Windward Planning Commission 7 EXHIBIT C