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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2015-05-21 Leeward Exh A (Amend SPP 538) LEEWARD PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAI‘I HEARING TRANSCRIPT MAY 21, 2015 WDC PROPERTIES, LLC (Amend SPP A regularly advertised hearing on the application of 538) was called to order at 9:36 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, Barbara Nobriga, Keith Unger and Thomas Whittemore ABSENT AND EXCUSED: Sonny Shimaoka ALSO PRESENT: Bobby Command (Deputy Planning Director), Daryn Arai (Planning Program Manager), Jeff Darrow (Planner) and Noriko Sauer (Commission Secretary) And six people from the public in attendance. APPLICANT: WDC PROPERTIES, LLC (Amend SPP 538) Request for a 10-year extension to the life (Condition No. 4) of Special Permit No. 538, which allowed the establishment of the existing Waikoloa heliport and its related improvements situated on 9.8+ acres of land within the State Land Use Agricultural District. The property is located at the southeastern corner of the Queen Ka‘ahumanu Highway and Waikoloa Road intersection, Waikoloa, South Kohala, Hawai‛i, TMK: 6-8-01:043 (portion). BEAUDET: First item today, agenda item for today, is WDC Properties, LLC, Special Permit No. 538. Staff, would you like to -? DARROW: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning, Members of the Planning Commission. Welcome. Great day here in Kona, nice to have the change from our rain in Hilo. If I can direct your attention to our first applicant, this is WDC Properties, LLC. They are requesting an amendment to their existing Special Permit. Just for reference, the area of this subject application is within the South Kohala District of Hawai‘i. More specifically, we are looking in the Waikoloa area. For reference, running through the north-south direction of your map is Queen Ka‘ahumanu Highway and running in a mauka-makai, or east-west, direction is Waikoloa Road. The subject property is actually at the intersection of these two roadways. As we zoom in, this is our County Zoning Map; again, for reference, we have Queen Ka‘ahumanu Highway and Waikoloa Road, the subject property is identified with a black outline. The colors on the map represent the different County zonings; the lighter green shaded areas are Agricultural-5 acres; the different colors that we have on the map represent mainly Multiple-Family Residential zoning; the darker green represents our Open zone. This is our State Land Use Boundary Map. There are two colors identified; the pink represents Urban State Land Use zoning and the green 1 EXHIBIT A represents Agriculture. This is our General Plan Land Use Pattern Allocation Guide Map; it identifies the subject property within the Urban Expansion Area. And this is an aerial photo. Again, for reference, we have Queen Ka‘ahumanu Highway with Waikoloa Road. The entrance to the subject property is just mauka of the intersection. Just so you are familiar with this area, this is the area that they park the helicopters on as you are passing through this intersection area. The applicant is requesting an amendment to Condition 4 of Special Permit No. 538, which limits the life of the permit until June 30, 2015. The applicant is requesting to extend the life of the Special Permit for a period of ten years until June 30, 2025. WDC Properties, LLC is the fee owner of the subject property, which consists of 13.007 acres. This is some background on Special Permit No. 538. On April 14, 1987, the Planning Commission approved a requested amendment to Special Permit 538 to allow the establishment of a heliport in addition to the already approved airstrip landing facilities. On May 24, 1990, the Planning Commission approved the applicant’s request to extend the life of Special Permit No. 538 to June 30, 1995. As part of the Commission’s approval, the permit was amended to limit the use of the approved facilities as a heliport, as well as adding new and revised conditions of approval, which are similar to the current conditions we have today. Since 1990, the Planning Commission has approved several amendment requests to extend the life of the permit. The reason for the continual request for time extensions on the life of the permit versus granting a permanent life on this is because of the fact that the Commission is requesting the ability to look at this every ten years in light of the possibility of expanded uses in this particular area. There are a number of projects that could be built in this particular area, and the heliport could have negative impacts to these particular projects; so they want to be able to have this applicant come back every ten years or so to just look at the landscape and see if everything is still working properly or they have to amend it to be able to take in the consideration those new uses that are being built in the area. These are some site photos. This is from Queen Ka‘ahumanu Highway, looking mauka; you’ll notice the helicopter parking area just from the highway. This is on Waikoloa Road, looking at the facility; there is an actual structure that’s on the property, as well as the parking for the helicopters and parking for the patrons. This is Waikoloa Road, looking mauka; you have the entrance to the right. And this is looking makai; the entrance is just, I’m standing actually at the entrance, this is the intersection area at this point. The Planning Director is recommending approval of this amendment request. That concludes our presentation. I am ready to answer any questions, if anyone has any. Thank you. BEAUDET: Commissioners, any questions of staff? CHURCH: I have a question. I noticed that in the June 22, 1995, amendment, Condition No. 10 required an annual monitoring report, and I wondered if those were regularly submitted and if there is anything noteworthy to share with us regarding those reports. 2 EXHIBIT A DARROW: They are supplied to the Planning Department on a yearly basis. It’s actually comprehensive because of the fact that WDC Properties owns a number of properties and projects in the area; so it comes in as part of other annual progress reports. At this point there hasn’t been any complaints or any items of issue to speak about. WHITTEMORE: I’ve got -. BEAUDET: Go ahead. WHITTEMORE: A quick question. The Department of Transportation made note in their response that there is going to be some changes out on the roadway out there, Queen Ka‘ahumanu and Waikoloa Road. We’ve got idea what the extent’s at, if that is going to be, and how that might impact this access to the site that they’ve got? DARROW: My understanding is that they are planning and doing road widening along the highway. Our goal at this time is to try to complete the intersection; there is the makai portion of that intersection that’s incomplete. We’ve been working with Waikoloa Development Company, as well as other property owners in the area or leasehold owners, to be able to get the intersection completed. I personally don’t believe that’s going to have any type of impact on this; it’s going to be quite a distance away from the intersection. UNGER: Question. Does the Planning Department have, are there any planned developments in close proximity to this property? Are there any applications or rezonings or plans in this area? DARROW: We have – let me go back to, bear with me here, you know what, it might be better for me to just, no, you know what, let me go this way, this takes a little while – we are familiar with a number of projects that have their zoning in place. But as far as them being constructed, that’s another matter. That’s, because of the economy and because of problems that have caused financial burdens on these particular developers, they’ve been held in limbo. One of them is the ‘Āina Le‘a project that you might be familiar with; this one has been held for a number of years. We are always working with the developer to see if there is going to be any type of action on there, and, again, a lot of it comes down to being able to get the funding to proceed. So right now we are still, that’s still on hold at this point. We have inquiries that are coming in regarding this particular property at this time, but nothing submitted at this time. And then again, you have all the properties that have been constructed along the makai side of the Waikoloa Development Company properties. But again, in conjunction with this one there is some activity happening here. We’ve been getting inquiries regarding proposed developments on these RM zoning properties, as well as continual inquiries regarding the ‘Āina Le‘a project. Just recently we met with the owner and operator, or the operator, of a quarry operation in this general area, who is talking about coming in for an amendment, which may come before you soon, a time extension request. But other than that, on the mauka side of the road there is not much that we are aware of. UNGER: Have any of these landowners made any comments about this proposed extension? DARROW: We haven’t received any comments. 3 EXHIBIT A UNGER: Okay. Thank you. DARROW: Thank you. BEAUDET: Any further questions, Commissioners? Okay. Will the applicant or their representative please come forward? If you could both raise your right hands. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth on this matter now before the Leeward Planning Commission? REPRESENTATIVES: Yes. BEAUDET: If you could introduce yourself and speak clearly into the mike. FUKE: Good morning, Mr. Chairman, Members of the Commission. My name is Sidney Fuke. I’m a planning consultant here assisting the applicant. HEAD: Good morning, everybody. Thank you for your time. My name is Scott Head. I’m a representative for WDC Properties, LLC, at the address of 150 Waikoloa Beach Drive. Thank you. FUKE: Mr. Chairman, I think, as always, your staff’s report is very comprehensive and on point. The staff’s proposed conditions were reviewed both by the applicant as well as the operator, Blue Hawaiian Helicopters, and found to be acceptable. However, I’d like to just kind of respond to some of the questions that the Commissioners have raised. First, you know, in regards to the annual report, that’s really like on point, I think, which I failed to include in my background report. One was filed on November 21, 2014, with the Planning Department. So they have been, WDC has been current in terms of addressing the annual report requirement. And one of the issues that, one of the basis for such an annual report is just to be able to alert the public, you know, through the Planning Commission and the Planning Department, whether there are any complaints associated with the operations at the heliport, and if there are, if you notice that one of the existing conditions, Condition No. 11, enables the Planning Director through the Planning Commission to kind of re-review, you know, the whole operations and see whether there is a need to have further amendments to the Special Permit. The other thing relating to the intersection issue, what State Highways is referring to essentially is like the full channelized intersection at that point in time, the obligation to construct the makai portion of the particular intersection rests with either WDC or with Hilton Grand Vacation; but that project has been kind of like temporarily on hold right now, but if and when the project develops, then there is the obligation to construct a fully, you know, four-way signalized traffic intersection. But as the staff had indicated, I don’t think that that would implicate, or have any direct implication to the access to the helicopter operation. Finally, in terms of the future land use plans, yes, I did send notices to surrounding property owner, and, you know, in this particular situation almost all of the properties are either owned by the applicant, with only one exception; the property immediately adjacent to the heliport and also across the street on the Kohala side of Waikoloa Road are owned by Waikoloa Mauka Development. And so these are formerly owned by WDC; they were subsequently sold to Waikoloa Mauka. I sent 4 EXHIBIT A them notices and, you know, we did not receive any comments or complaints from them. I think the, what the Commission, the Commission’s original condition, as well as what the staff had indicated, limiting it to a ten-year period, is just so that there is, you know, by not having an indefinite timetable for this use, it does not foreclose any future land use options in that area. As the staff had kind of pointed out, the General Plan for this general, you know, the areas immediately adjacent call for urban expansion, and so obviously if you are going to have urban expansion activity or future development in that area, you would want to be in the position to reassess potentially noxious use like a heliport. So having this ten-year period is good. Having this annual report condition also is good. So if there are any other further questions, you know, we have representatives from Blue Hawaiian that maybe can respond to questions, or the applicant. BEAUDET: Commissioners, any questions of the applicant? Okay. Thank you, Applicant. Being that there is no members of the community wishing to testify, and if there is no further comment or question from staff or the Commissioners, I’d like to call for a motion. WHITTEMORE: Chair, I’d like to make a motion. I move that the amendment request for the Special Permit, Docket No. SPP 538, be approved based on the Planning Director’s recommendation. NOBRIGA: Second. BEAUDET: It’s been moved by Commissioner Whittemore for a favorable recommendation \[sic\], and seconded by Commissioner Nobriga. Staff? DARROW: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. With that, we’ll take the roll call. Commissioner Whittemore? WHITTEMORE: Aye. DARROW: Commissioner Nobriga? NOBRIGA: Aye. DARROW: Commissioner Church? CHURCH: Aye. DARROW: Commissioner Kaholo? KAHOLO: Aye. DARROW: Commissioner Shimaoka? Oh, not here, sorry about that. And Mr. Chair? BEAUDET: Aye. DARROW: Oh, I’m sorry, Commissioner Unger? 5 EXHIBIT A UNGER: Aye. DARROW: Not doing good today. And Mr. Chair? BEAUDET: Aye. DARROW: The motion passes, six to zero. Thank you. BEAUDET: Thank you. The discussion ended at 9:51 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Noriko Sauer, Secretary Leeward Planning Commission 6 EXHIBIT A