Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2015-04-16 Leeward Exh A (SLU 15-042 & REZ 15-186) LEEWARD PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAI‘I HEARING TRANSCRIPT APRIL 16, 2015 WAIEMI LLC (SLU 15-042/REZ 15-186) A regularly advertised hearing on the application of was called to order at 9:37 a.m. in the West Hawai‘i Civic Center, Community Center, Building G, 74-5044 Ane Keohokālole Highway, Kailua-Kona, Hawai‘i, with Chairman Brandi Beaudet presiding. COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Brandi Beaudet, Scott Church, Collin Kaholo, Sonny Shimaoka, Keith Unger and Barbara Nobriga (from 9:38 a.m.) ABSENT AND EXCUSED: Thomas Whittemore ALSO PRESENT: Danny Patel (Deputy Corporation Counsel), Bobby Command (Deputy Planning Director), Jeff Darrow (Planner), Maija Jackson (Planner) and Noriko Sauer (Commission Secretary) And two people from the public in attendance. APPLICANT: WAIEMI LLC (SLU 15-042/REZ 15-186) Applications for a State Land Use Boundary Amendment from Agricultural to Rural and a Change of Zone from Agricultural- 3 acres (A-3a) to Residential and Agricultural- 1.5 acre (RA-1.5a) for 3 acres of land. The property is located along the north side of Kawaihae Road, at the northeast corner of the Kawaihae Road - Waiemi Place intersection, Waimea Landmark Estates, South Kohala, Hawai‘i, TMK: 6-2-005:008. BEAUDET: Today’s first agenda item is Waiemi LLC, application for a State Land Use Boundary Amendment from Agricultural to Rural. Staff? JACKSON: Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our new Commissioners. It’s very nice to have you here. The first and second application on the agenda have the same applicant, Waiemi LLC, and so I’m going to do one presentation for both items. So the applicant, Waiemi LLC, is requesting a State Land Use Boundary Amendment from Agricultural to Rural, as well as a Change of Zone from Agricultural-3 acres to Residential and Agricultural-1.5 acres for three acres of land. The property is located between Waimea and Kawaihae in the South Kohala District. You can see the property in the middle of the slide outlined in red. It’s just north of Kawaihae Road that runs through the middle of the slide. This is a close-up view of the property. So you have Kawaihae Road, again, running an east-west direction. This is the subject property. It’s the first lot as you go into the Waiemi Place; it’s a little cul-de-sac. And this lot is part of the Waimea Landmark Estate Subdivision. You can see the Anekona Subdivision to the east. And then, let’s see, as far as zoning goes, the colors on the map represent the zoning. The subject property and the other lots in the Waimea Landmark Estate are zoned Agricultural, with a minimum lot size of three acres. (Secretary’s note: Commissioner Nobriga came in at this time, 9:38 a.m.) 1 EXHIBIT A The large property to the north, which extends a long way up Kohala Mountain, is zoned Agricultural-40 acres, and then the Anekona Subdivision to the east is a mix of Agricultural-5 acres and Residential and Agricultural-2 acres. So the zoning in the Anekona Subdivision is similar to what the applicant will be requesting. This is the General Plan Map for the area, and the brown color represents the Rural designation. Rural allows for a mix of small farms and low-density residential. So the applicant’s request would be consistent with the General Plan for this area. Then this is the State Land Use Boundary Map; you see there three of the four State Land Use Districts are represented on the map: you have Agricultural in green, which includes the subject property and the immediately surrounding area; and then the lots within the Anekona Subdivision some of them are in the Rural District, that is also what the applicant is requesting today; and then the ‘Ōuli Self Help Housing Project is shown here in the Urban District, which is the pink color. So this is an aerial photo of the property and surrounding area. Again, you have Kawaihae Road running through the middle of the slide, this is Waiemi Place, and then the applicant’s lot is outlined in black. You can see most of the surrounding lots are developed with residences, and there is an agricultural operation to the east; this is a composting and mulching facility. It used to be, I think about five years ago, it used to be an egg farm, but more recently it’s a mulching operation. And then this is the applicant’s dwelling here. You can see their driveway coming off of Waiemi Place. And then this is the natural drainage way that was referred to in the application; you can see it running from the mountain down towards the highway here. So the applicant is requesting a State Land Use Boundary Amendment, again, from Agricultural to Rural, as well as a Change of Zone from Agricultural with a minimum lot size of three acres to Residential and Agricultural with a minimum lot size of one and a half acres for three acres. And the reason for the request: They are proposing a two-lot subdivision consisting of two 1.5-acre size lots. They are planning to build a single-family dwelling on the newly created lot to be used as a rental by the applicant’s family or non-family tenants. This is their proposed subdivision plan. This is Kawaihae Road on the bottom of the slide and then Waiemi Place. Their driveway for the newly created lot would be a shared driveway with the existing lot right in this area here. And then you can see two approximately 1.5-acre size lots. This is a view of the driveway right in here from Waiemi Place. A closer-up view of the driveway and then the applicant’s house in the background. This is a little bit further into Waiemi Place, looking back kind of north-east; you can see the applicant’s house in the background, as well as the adjacent mulching composting operation sitting above it kind of on a hill. And then this shows the house to the west of the subject property; you can see the mulching operation property a little bit better here. And then this is a view of Kawaihae Road, looking south from Waiemi Place. So the Planning Director is recommending a favorable recommendation for the State Land Use Boundary Amendment and Change of Zone request. And I have some testimony that you received after we provided you with the background and recommendation reports. You should have in your folder a letter, an email actually, from James Goodloe, dated April 13, with some pictures attached. You should also have an email from David Davenport; you should have received that yesterday. And you should also have two letters from the Planning Department that were sent to the applicant in 2012 regarding the illegal rental unit, as well as an email, I’m sorry, a letter from the applicant’s representative, All Aina Services, dated April 14, responding to Mr. Goodloe’s letter, and then another letter dated yesterday from the applicant’s representative responding to Mr. Davenport’s 2 EXHIBIT A concerns. And I can, I just want to give a little explanation of those letters, and the applicant’s representative can add to it, if they would like to. So the concern of one of the testifiers was that the applicant was operating a rental unit that had a second kitchen in it. And the Zoning Code basically defines a kitchen as having two things: You have to have a place to clean the food, like a sink, and you have to have a place to cook the food, which could be a microwave, stove, or hot plate. So if you have both of those two things, you have a kitchen. And so as you can see from the pictures that Mr. Goodloe sent, those two items were in the dwelling in 2015, and you can see from the pictures that the applicant provided recently that those, that the cooking items were removed from the dwelling, so they no longer have a kitchen. That concludes my presentation. Are there any questions? BEAUDET: Commissioners, any questions of staff? CHURCH: Is the microphone on? Okay. My only one question that is: Is this a precedent application for the subdivision? JACKSON: Yes. This will be the first lot within the subdivision that’s requesting a different zoning than the remaining lots. CHURCH: Thank you. BEAUDET: I also have a question. So is it required, in order to subdivide this lot, does it have to be rezoned from Ag to Rural? JACKSON: It does, because the Zoning Code the minimum lot size – and correct me if I’m wrong, Jeff – for Agricultural zoning is five acres. So in order to subdivide this three-acre lot, they have to go to Residential and Agricultural zoning. BEAUDET: I mean, there’s one-acre Ag lots, so I’m wondering why we need to redefine. JACKSON: Okay, Jeff just explained to me that they could go Family Agricultural, which would allow a larger lot size. But the General Plan for the area is Rural, so the Residential and Agricultural designation is actually more consistent with the General Plan. BEAUDET: Okay, thank you. Commissioners, any more comments or questions of staff? Would the applicant or their representative please come forward? So, first, I’ll swear you in, and then if you could introduce yourself and provide your place of residency. So please raise your right hand. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth on this matter now and before the Leeward Planning Commission? APPLICANTS: Yes. BEAUDET: Okay. With you first, ma’am. MIKKELSON: My name is Lori Mikkelson. I reside at 35-237 Pāpa‘aloa Road in Pāpa‘aloa. SMITH: Yeah, I’m Marty Smith, and I reside right up the street from Waiemi Place in Anekona Subdivision, I have another Rural Ag zoned lot, 62-2391 Kaneoha Street, Kamuela. 3 EXHIBIT A BEAUDET: Thank you. So you’ve received the Planning Director’s background report and recommendations. Are you in agreement with the conditions? MIKKELSON: Yes, we are. BEAUDET: Okay. MIKKELSON: I do have something to add. You’ve asked about the other, the precedent setting of the rezoning. There was a time in history that they allowed, the State and the County, allowed for ‘Ohana permitting and CPRs on Ag lands. And the subdivision is completely full of that. So most of those properties have at least one ‘Ohana and they do have CPRs on several other properties there. So it is divided already, just not divided by means of change of zones. SMITH: I’ve made up a map here showing all of our neighbors that have ‘Ohanas and CPRs that have essentially doubled the density on their three-acre lots, and of course they did these, you know, back in the 90’s whenever. Can I give you guys this map? So you can see my neighborhood is, out of the eight lots, including mine, below the mulch farm, six of the lots have been CPRed or have ‘Ohana dwellings on them; they all have two buildings on them and they are all, you know, they are rental properties or what have you, but they are single-family buildings. My lot where we’ve got the one house, CPR ‘Ohana is no more, it’s also a condition of our recommended approval that I would not be able to CPR or ‘Ohana, just one single-family dwelling. That’s what we are going after; that’s fine. Above the mulch farm there’s two more lots that are very close that did the same thing, CPR and ‘Ohana with two dwellings on them. So our goal is, you know, we worked hard all the years, we’ve had the lot since 2005, purchased in ’05, mind you we purchased it when the egg farm was in full-blown operation and there were days when the trade went through howling, which they do howl in Waiemi, that I mean the whole neighborhood has to have, batten down the windows. We bought it realizing that my neighbor, David, he’s a very good guy and a well-respected diversified farmer, not a problem, we didn’t know he was going to go to mulching later one, but we were willing to make it work and work on our own plans. But as time went by we just, you know, the option of doing the second dwelling on there to, you know, add for family rental, tenant rental, to go towards our retirement, you know, that’s our goal and we ask you guys really consider this. David next door, some concerns about changing the nature of the subdivision, with the more residential, well, I just described that; there’s already two homes on the all CPR lots below us, due to CPR and ‘Ohana. Yes, David, the wind blows that howls through there sometimes, and we are, we have some different plans for the new building to help mitigate that; we won’t do a two-story building because that’s kind of a direct hit from the mulch operation, but we’ve never complained, I mean never complained to the Health Department, and David has been good about moving his piles around. He’s a great neighbor, so I have nothing negative to say about him. But we’ll work, I mean, he may not have a mulching operation in a few more years, who knows, but, you know, we are in for the long haul, so we are okay. Water meter, no water meter was available makai of HPA, below the bridge – forgot the name of the bridge. I started in, with the Department of Water Supply, 2011. Finn McCall was the engineer at the time, and I just kept communicating with those guys because I know down the line I need a second meter to be able to do just about anything. And, you know, he kept telling me, “Yeah, I’m all ready, you know, one of these days you’ll get water service, second water service, but first we 4 EXHIBIT A have to repair the reservoirs above Waimea Town due to the 2006 earthquake.” Well, those repairs took several years. And McCall, he left his job, a new engineer came in, and we started over. They did finally repaired the reservoirs, and then it was the Department of Hawaiian Homes Land infrastructure and their one-million gallon tank that needed to be completed and, you know, put on the system. So this is a lot of years, six years, waiting for this to happen and following up with those guys. Last year, I think it was in August, I got a phone call from the Department of Water Supply; he said, “Marty, we have your second water service.” I mean this was a Christmas present. What a surprise. So we promptly went down there, we invested 8,500 dollars on the second meter, and, you know, we are ready to charge. Thank you. BEAUDET: Thank you. Commissioners, any comment or discussion with the applicant? NOBRIGA: I have a question. These are Ag lots, right? Besides the mulch farm and the egg farm, the only ag I see is growing houses. Are you planning to do any growing of any crops or anything? SMITH: The land up there is very minimal desirable as far as agricultural operations. I tip my hat to Dave because he did the egg farm thing and he did the mulch farm. He’s got a larger lot, so, economies of scale, he can do these things. Yes, we would like to plant some trees; we are thinking about some citrus. We live in Anekona; citrus does great. But it’s wind-swept, it’s drought, it’s desert, the soil is super rocky, anything you plant in the ground there you’ve got to prop it up with rebar, not stakes, rebar to get it used to the wind. And then the water situation, there is no natural rainfall, I mean except yesterday afternoon, it poured. But there is no rain, so we pay dearly for water for anything that we grow there. Our lots are pretty small, you know, fun farming whatever, but as far as, you know, sustainable, you know, I think that it would be challenging. We are planning to grow some stuff there, you know, part of our plan. We first talked about doing ironwoods. There is a need for ironwoods in the windy areas. We know about it; we live in Anekona, we have iron-, all our neighbors have ironwoods. Well, the State has deemed ironwoods not good any more, I forget what they call it, but we actually thought about doing a small ironwood nursery on our property. There are some possibilities and we are thinking about them. Avocado, (inaudible) grew at our place in Anekona, there’s a couple of varieties, really well --. SAUER: -- Please use the microphone; we are recording. SMITH: We are thinking about avocado. BEAUDET: Just --. KAHOLO: I’ve got a question --. BEAUDET: -- Just a comment. So, you know, it’s obvious that precedent has already been set mauka and makai of your parcel. But we all know, you know, there is, you know, no fence is too high or is high enough to keep you out of eye’s view of your neighbors. And I think, you know, as far as the testimony that came in that was not in support of your application, had to do primarily with the second kitchen on the downstairs of your current home. We are not here to judge, we are not here to challenge, but, you know, neighbors are neighbors, and they’ll either be very supportive or antagonistic. So, you know, I’d like to encourage you to follow the rules that are in place and abide by them so that a decision made today will not impact other applications in the future whether it be yours or someone else’s. And having a second kitchen in a home, you know, that’s just something that shouldn’t be done. But we are not here to challenge that any more, but just to keep 5 EXHIBIT A it in your mind as you move forward and building the second dwelling. I mean, you are open and upfront about why you, what your plans are in accordance with building a second home, should the subdivision come through, so, you know, I just encourage to follow, you folks to follow the rules that are currently in place. Commissioner? KAHOLO: Yeah, my question is pertaining to Ag lot, you know, you are dividing that three-acre into 1.5 each. So the designation still holds in place as an Ag lot, with the reduction in taxes? SMITH: Provided we work with the assessor’s office and, you know, get their blessing, but that does require ag activity. So right now we are paying market value highest and best use for the land, for the existing three acres. COMMAND: Mr. Chairman. I’d just like to add that this application is for a State Land Use Boundary Amendment from Agriculture to Rural, and that Rural, sorry, Rural does seem to be the logical interface between Ag and other uses. I think they are basically doing this the right way instead of leaving it an Ag, to go to Rural, which is more in line with what they are looking to use the property for. BEAUDET: Does that answer your question? KAHOLO: Yeah, thank you. BEAUDET: Okay. JACKSON: Mr. Chair, if I may. I think Commissioner Kaholo had a question about taxation, and, Bobby, you can correct me if I’m wrong, but I think when they, if this is approved and they get Residential and Agricultural zoning, they would actually be taxed at a higher rate at the residential rate rather than the Agricultural rate. And then the other thing I wanted to point out was just to go back to the General Plan Map. So the General Plan, if the County wanted to see this area stay in Agricultural uses, the General Plan designation for this area would either be Extensive Agriculture, which is the white area, or Important Agricultural Land, which is the green area here; so you can see it’s designation for what we want to see in the future is Rural, which, as I said, is a mix of small farms, like Mr. Davenport’s mulching operation, and low density residential lots that aren’t farming. BEAUDET: Commissioners, any questions for the applicant or discussion? Thank you. So there is no one, okay, thank you, no further questions. So with no testifiers coming in from the floor, I’d like to ask for a motion. Two things for note: No testifiers so there is no need to close the public hearing portion; and also for the record Commissioner Nobriga came in just after we started. Okay, so, with that, Commissioners, I need a motion for action. KAHOLO: I move that a favorable recommendation be forwarded to the County Council on the application for a State Land Use Boundary Amendment, Docket Number SLU 15-042, based on the Planning Director’s findings and recommendation, which shall be adopted. NOBRIGA: I second. COMMAND: Maija, are they going to have to make two motions on this? JACKSON: Yeah. 6 EXHIBIT A COMMAND: Okay, yeah. JACKSON: And they started with the State Land Use Boundary Amendment, which is perfect. COMMAND: All right. BEAUDET: So it has been moved by Commissioner Kaholo and seconded by Commissioner Nobriga for a favorable recommendation for the State Land Use Boundary Amendment. Any discussion, Commissioners? Maija? JACKSON: Okay, the motion is to send a favorable recommendation to the County Council for the applicant’s request for a State Boundary Amendment from Agricultural District to Rural District. With that, I’ll take the roll. Commissioner Kaholo? KAHOLO: Aye. JACKSON: Commissioner Nobriga? NOBRIGA: Aye. JACKSON: Commissioner Church? CHURCH: Aye. JACKSON: Commissioner Shimaoka? SHIMAOKA: Aye. JACKSON: Commissioner Unger? UNGER: Aye. JACKSON: And Chair Beaudet? BEAUDET: Aye. JACKSON: Okay, the motion passes, six-zero. BEAUDET: Thank you. So now we need to make a motion for the Change of Zone application. Commissioners? UNGER: I’ll make a motion. BEAUDET: Okay. UNGER: I move that a favorable recommendation be forwarded to the County Council on the application for a Change of Zone, Docket Number REZ 15-186, based on the Planning Director’s findings, recommendation and proposed conditions, which shall be adopted. 7 EXHIBIT A NOBRIGA: I second. BEAUDET: It has been moved by Commissioner Unger and seconded by Commissioner Nobriga for a favorable recommendation for the Change of Zone request to be forwarded to the County Council. Any discussion before roll? Okay. JACKSON: Okay, with that, I’ll take the roll. Commissioner Unger? UNGER: Aye. JACKSON: Commissioner Nobriga? NOBRIGA: Aye. JACKSON: Commissioner Church? CHURCH: Aye. JACKSON: Commissioner CK? KAHOLO: Aye. JACKSON: Commissioner Shimaoka? SHIMAOKA: Aye. JACKSON: And chair Beaudet? BEAUDET: Aye. JACKSON: The motion passes, six-zero. BEAUDET: Thank you. The discussion ended at 10:07 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Noriko Sauer, Secretary Leeward Planning Commission 8 EXHIBIT A