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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2015-04-02 HearingTranscript - James Stapleton & James Ricciuti SPP 14-176 WINDWARD PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAI‘I HEARING TRANSCRIPT APRIL 2, 2015 JAMES STAPLETON AND JAMES A regularly advertised hearing on the application of RICCIUTI (SPP 14-176) was called to order at 9:57 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 10 people from the public in attendance. APPLICANTS: JAMES STAPLETON AND JAMES RICCIUTI (SPP 15-176) Application for a Special Permit to allow the establishment of a 5-bedroom bed and breakfast operation within a portion of an existing 8-bedroom single-family dwelling situated on 2 acres of land within the State Land Use Agricultural District. The property is located at 13-3545 Maile Street, approximately 930 feet north of its intersection with Malama Street, Leilani Estates Subdivision, Keahialaka, Puna, Hawai‘i, TMK:1-3-014:041. MIYASATO: Okay, next item on the agenda, Applicants James Stapleton and James Ricciuti. KAY: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you County—thank you, Commission members. The next application is for a Special Permit. So, the subject parcel is located in the Puna District, more specifically, it is located in the Leilani Estates Subdivision, which is roughly two miles south of Pāhoa Town. For reference, we have Highway 130 running north-south on the left side of the slide. Leilani running east-west, and the subject parcel is here on Maile Street outlined in red. Zooming in a little bit here, we see that the zoning for the subject parcel and surrounding parcels is Agricultural – 1 acre. Not on the slide, but is also designated by the State as Agricultural as well. The General Plan Land Use Pattern Allocation Guide Map designates the subject parcel and surrounding parcels as Rural. This is seen with most of the non-conforming subdivisions in the Puna area. 1 EXHIBIT B This is an aerial photograph of the subject parcel and surrounding areas. Again, outlined in red, we’ve got Maile Street running east-west here. You can see the subject parcel and surrounding residences, vacant land, and some agricultural uses. A bit of zoom-in here showing the subject parcel and the structures to be used for the application, bed and breakfast. The request is to, a Special Permit to establish a five bedroom bed and breakfast establishment within existing dwelling situated on two acres of land in the Leilani Estates Subdivision. This is the Applicant’s site plan. Again, for reference purposes, Maile Street is running north- south. Access to the subject parcel is a paved driveway. There is a parking area here which is currently cindered, and can accommodate up to six vehicles, and there is area to expand if necessary. The Applicants will live in this main 3-bedroom structure here. There is an eating area for the guests that will be located here, and then what on the site plan is shown as addition “a” will be a 2-bedroom, 1-bathroom, pardon me, pardon me, a 1-bedroom, 1-bathroom guest accommodation. This addition “b” will be a 2-bedroom, 1-bathroom guest accommodation, and this addition “c” will be a 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom accommodation. This is, although these are different structures, they are connected by covered walkways and for, for the purposes of the Planning Department, this is all considered one single-family dwelling. As you can notice here, there are two cesspools on the property, and that is to accommodate that the wastewater for that size of a structure. Some site photographs. This is that main structure that the Applicants will reside in. This next photo shows again that main structure. The eating area here, which is an enclosed carport/lanai area, and the, that first addition, with the 1 bedroom will be right beyond that here. The addition “b” would be here, and this is just a photo showing that it is indeed covered walkways connecting the different structures, and a photo of that third addition which is again going to be facilitating that 2 bedrooms. Just our last photo here is showing the parking area that is already cindered in and can again accommodate six vehicles. The Planning Director is recommending approval with conditions. With that, I am happy to answer any questions. MIYASATO: Commissioners, any questions for staff? Thank you. KAY: Thank you. MIYASATO: Will the Applicant or representatives please come forward? Good morning. STAPLETON/RICCIUTI: Good morning. 2 EXHIBIT B MIYASATO: Could you please raise your right hands? Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth on this matter now before the Hawai‛i County Planning Commission? STAPLETON: I do. RICCIUTI: Yes. MIYASATO: Thank you. Do you have a comment or presentation or— STAPLETON: No we don’t, we’re just— MIYASATO: Commissioners, any questions for the Applicant? IKEDA: I--I do. MIYASATO: Commissioner Ikeda. IKEDA: You know I have a concern because your water catchment doesn’t seem to be large enough. It doesn’t seem to have enough capacity. I know you stated that you’re gonna use your neighbor’s water catchment in case of emergency, but a, you know, I, I think your, I feel uncomfortable because you don’t know how much water your neighbor has, and a, you don’t know what your relationship with your neighbor gonna be in the future, so to depend on your neighbor, that’s my only concern I have on the water catchment. Other than that, I see no problem at all. STAPLETON: Our next door neighbor has a 12,000 gallon catchment tank less than 25 feet from one of the existing buildings in there, and we have a written agreement with him which I didn’t bring in that states that we can use the water, and then also on the other side of us, which is about a 100 feet away, one of the other neighbors actually has a big fish pond back there, and then a above-ground swimming pool, and they’ve also indicated that water is no problem in there. Once we get up and running, we plan to expand our catchment tank to probably 12- to 15,000 gallons basically because our catchment system is a little bit older, but we want to get running first with some income before we can do that. IKEDA: You know, that’s my only concern. I wish that, you know, there was a condition that you have to upgrade your capacity, to a higher capacity like 15,000 or higher because neighbors come and go, and I don’t know how good a neighbor you are. You might have disagreements with your neighbor. I seen it happen all the time where you can be good friends today and then you don’t get along with your neighbors in the future. So, that was a real big concern for me because you’re depending on your neighbors, and other than that, I see no problem with your permit. MIYASATO: Commissioners, any further questions for the Applicant? If not, thank you. We have no one signed up for public testimony. Does anyone out there wishing to testify on this application? If not, can I have a motion to close the public testimony. 3 EXHIBIT B IKEDA: So moved. MIYASATO: Can I get a second? MOSES: Second. MIYASATO: All in favor? COMMISSIONERS: Aye. MIYASATO: Any opposed? I call a close to the public testimony. Commissioners, any discussion on this application? IKEDA: Yes. MIYASATO: Commissioner Ikeda. IKEDA: Mr. Director, is it possible to make a condition where they have to increase their capacity because like I said, that was my really big concern that their capacity is too small. You know, their water tank, you know, I feel really uncomfortable with people depending on neighbors for, to meet their requirements. Other than that, I think--I see no problem at all. KANUHA: So your question is whether or not the Commission can require a larger capacity for a, water catchment? IKEDA: That is correct. KANUHA: What would that capacity be? IKEDA: I’m not sure because according to them, they need about what, 12,000? I’m not sure what was your—I know the capacity was bigger than what they, they have right now, you know the requirement. Because I think they said they have 3,000+ square foot building space, and I don’t remember exactly what the water capacity needed for the Fire Department, so I think they need a tank bigger than the, what is required. KANUHA: So, you’re talking about fire capacity plus— IKEDA: Fire capacity plus their usage, because they only have one tank, unless they’re gonna have two tanks. KANUHA: Christian, why did they represent? KAY: Okay, if I may, the, the letter from, the comment letter from the Fire Department has some minimum water supply standards depending on the square footage of the building, and I 4 EXHIBIT B believe this would fall within the 3,000 and 6,000 square foot minimum which would be a 12,000 gallons of water available for fire fighting. IKEDA: That’s what I think it was, and I think they only have 10,000, so that’s my concern. KANUHA: Well, you have the option of either, you know, there’s two systems here, right? I mean, there’s the catchment system for either potable or non-potable, plus the additional requirements for fire flow because of the type of facilities, facility this is. How we’ve covered that is under Condition 6 without being specific, you know, which he gotta comply with all of the rules and requirements, so that’s what they would have to do in order to meet the fire flow requirements. If your concern is for additional capacity over and above the 10,000 gallon tank that they have, you know, there’s no problem accommodating that as long as we have some, some better idea of the threshold that you’re thinking of, you know. IKEDA: Well, you know, they’re also, they were considering of putting in a tank also so they could put in an additional tank now, you know. To me, it’s the cost of doing business to make it safe for their guests, so you know there’s, there could be a condition to put in a 12,000 capacity water catchment for fire, fire use. KANUHA: So, what you’re asking is, I mean, you know, there’s no issue in adding the condition. We just want to make sure that we got the wording, you know, properly configured so—why don’t you give us a couple minutes, Mr. Chairman, and I’ll go work something out with staff. MIYASATO: Okay, I guess just for clarification, are you requesting that this tank be on their property as opposed to what they’re mentioning as a— IKEDA: Yes, what they’re proposing because they’re proposing of using their neighbor’s catchment. I have a concern with that. MIYASATO: Okay. Let’s--five minute recess. Chairman Miyasato called a recess at 10:11 a.m., and the meeting was reconvened at 10:19 a.m. MIYASATO: Okay, let’s call the meeting back to order. KAY: Okay, thank you, Mr. Chair. So, we came up with some, some language to put after Condition 5, and the language states that the Applicant shall provide sufficient on-site water for fire-fighting in compliance with NFPA 1-UFC which stands for Universal Fire Code, or Uniform Fire Code, sorry, prior to the establishment of the bed and breakfast operation. So, that’s, that’s the language that we were able to come up with. MIYASATO: Okay, do the Applicants have any comments to this proposed language? 5 EXHIBIT B STAPLETON: The comment that we have is we’re going to find out if we can just put— MIYASATO: Please use the mic. Use the mic, and you’re still under oath, yeah? STAPLETON: The, we want to go meet with the Fire Department and find out if putting in say just an additional 2,000 gallon tank or to meet their requirements that way, or if we have to have a separate 12,000-gallon tank and that’s, that’s one of the main concerns, is the cost on those. MIYASATO: Okay, thank you. Commissioners, any further discussion on this application? If not, I’ll accept a motion. KAY: Mr. Chair, if I may, I apologize, I failed to mention one thing. If you take a look at the last page, page 7, there was a formatting error for Condition No. 8, pardon me, yeah, so Condition No. 8 shouldn’t be there. It’s actually just should be a bullet under Condition No. 7. Again, just a formatting error. It doesn’t change any of the content. It’s just a formatting, and if it’s okay with the Commission, we’ll just change that in our final, our final documentation. MIYASATO: No objections, Commissioners? That’s fine. Okay, if no further discussion, I’ll accept a motion on this application. IKEDA: Mr. Chairman, I’ll make the motion. Move to approve document 15-000176, SPP 15-176 based on the Planning Director’s Recommendation with the proposed conditions. HENKEL: Second. MIYASATO: Motion by Commissioner Ikeda, seconded by Commissioner Henkel. Proposed conditions including the amended-- IKEDA: That is correct. MIYASATO: Any discussion on the motion? You can call the roll. KAY: Okay, thank you, Mr. Chair. Commissioner Ikeda? IKEDA: Aye. KAY: Commissioner Henkel? HENKEL: Aye. KAY: Commissioner Heaukulani? HEAUKULANI: Aye. 6 EXHIBIT B KAY: Commissioner Moses? MOSES: Aye. KAY: And Chair Miyasato? MIYASATO: Aye. KAY: Okay, vote carries, five, nothing. MIYASATO: You’ll be notified in writing. Thank you. The discussion ended at 10:23 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Sarah Y. Hata-Finley, Secretary Windward Planning Commission 7 EXHIBIT B