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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2016-05-19 Leeward Exh D (SPP 16-188) LEEWARD PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAI‘I HEARING TRANSCRIPT MAY 19, 2016 The Leeward Planning Commission took up public testimony regarding the application of BOLTON INC. (SPP 16-188) at 10:39 a.m. in the West Hawai‘i Civic Center, Community Center, Building G, 74-5044 Ane Keohokālole Highway, Kailua-Kona, Hawai‘i, with Chairman Keith F. Unger presiding. COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Keith F. Unger, Nancy Carr Smith, Collin Kaholo, Scott Church, Barbara Nobriga and Sonny Shimaoka ALSO PRESENT: Danny Patel (Counsel for the Commission), Duane Kanuha (Planning Director), Daryn Arai (Planning Program Manager), Jeff Darrow (Planner), Maija Jackson (Planner), Christian Kay (Planner) and Noriko Sauer (Commission Secretary) And approximately 70 people from the public in attendance. APPLICANT: BOLTON INC. (SPP 16-188) Application for a Special Permit to allow for a baseyard/staging yard for equipment, storage of materials, stockpiling and crushing of natural materials for commercial use and a security dwelling situated on a 9.23-acre portion of a 23.738-acre property situated within the State Land Use Agricultural District. The property is located at 75-476 Hualālai Road, approximately 700 feet east of its intersection with Queen Kaʻahumanu Highway, Kahului 1st, North Kona, Hawai‘i, TMK:7-5-017:044. UNGER: As mentioned, Agenda Item No. 4, Applicant Bolton Inc., SPP 16-188, has been deferred to a later hearing. We would like to at this time entertain public testimony. So at this point I have a list of members that are interested in testifying. I’ll call you up six at a time and we will swear you in at that time. Also, if we could, if we could limit our testimony to three minutes. I, we just want to assure that everybody has an opportunity to testify; this is not for the Commission, this is not for staff, this is for you that everybody has an opportunity to testify, who wants to testify. Thank you. Tom Madson, Bill Culhane, Mike Matsukawa, Wayne Reese, Manuel Roberto and Brad Beckham. Also, I see a note here where that we are going to be swapping minutes, and that’s fine. I think you understand the general idea here, so we can work with you on that. Please raise your right hand. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth before the Planning Commission? TESTIFIERS: Yes. I do. UNGER: Please state your name and where you reside. MADSON: Tom Madson, Hualālai — 1 EXHIBIT D UNGER: Please use the mike. Please use the mike, speak directly into the mike. Thank you. MADSON: Tom Madson, Hualālai Colony. UNGER: Very good. And we can just continue right down with introductions and where you reside. CULHANE: Bill Culhane, Pualani Estates. ROBERTO: Manuel Roberto, Pualani Estates. REESE: Wayne Reese, Pualani Estates. BECKHAM: Brad Beckham, Kona Orchards. MATSUKAWA: Mike Matsukawa. I’m attorney for the petitioner for the contested case. Thank you. UNGER: Thank you. We can start with you, sir. MADSON: Yes. My assignment was to testify on the safety conditions of Hualālai Road. But before I do that, this is a petition to request a base yard and a rock crushing facility, and there has been a rock crushing facility down the road about a mile away, West Hawai‘i Concrete, where they have constant water spray to keep the dust conditions down, they’ve been in business for decades; why we need another one within a mile that doesn’t spray water, constant dust, and creating a health problem with a school nearby. But I’m supposed to testify about road safety, so I will do that. According to the National Highway Safety Conditions, there are several criteria as far as safety of the road: the width of the lanes, the line of sight, the width of the shoulder, the radius of the turns and the banking of the turns. In many cases on Hualālai Road the roads are banked the wrong way away from the inside radius instead of into it. And I know why that was done; it was so, since it’s in a flood zone, there’s water drainage issues. Anyway, in every one of these categories Hualālai Road fails. It’s considered a substandard road, and substandard road means unsafe. The next thing I would like to show you, and I’m sorry, I just found these pictures this morning – if you would just pass them down, as I testify — is for the short time that I’ve lived at this location in this subdivision, because of the road conditions, telephone poles have been hit four times, knocked down, knocked our electricity out, and closed the road for a day to some, in one instance two days, before they could re-erect the telephone poles. So that is another great concern. And the next thing I would like to testify – and I’ve submitted these pictures, but I guess you don’t have them in front of you, I’ll pass these down – is the trucks that are being driven on the road cannot traverse the corners and stay in their lane; they have to cross the centerline of the 2 EXHIBIT D road to get, to traverse the Hualālai Road. And you can see in those pictures perfect example. And so that creates a condition of safety concerns. And then next thing I’d like to say is six weeks ago I was involved in a traffic accident on Hualālai Road; I was sitting at the bottom of Hualālai Road where it’s very steep, and there was a large truck with full gravel, Bolton truck, waiting to make a right turn onto Queen K. Highway, and because they don’t accelerate very fast, they waited and waited and waited for traffic, and a car came around the corner above, which has no line of sight, and because of gravel and sand on the road, could not stop and I got rear-ended right at the bottom of Hualālai Road where Bolton is going to have all their trucks going in and out. And they are still doing it to this day in violation of the conditions that they’ve been, accepted. And that’s that, so, anyway. The last thing is I, a few years ago, I installed a new swimming pool, had a new swimming pool built at my house. We were having our homeowners meeting and people started talking about their swimming pools and the water conditions in their pools. And I said, well, when did this all start, what’s happening? They were talking about algae growing in their pools and everything. And I had just had my pool installed less than a year before, and I said I’m having the same problem, and everybody else that had pools in the room said, I’m having the same problem, too. So I talked to the pool people that service the pools, several of them, and they said, yes, everybody in this subdivision all of a sudden is having water problems with their pools, some of them won’t swim in their pools because of the algae. And they finally decided, or told me, it’s when Bolton started crushing rock at his base yard that was illegal, and crushing was illegal at the time, that all the calcium deposits went into the air, settled in your pool, and the water hardness in your pool went sky-high; it’s supposed to be 150, it went over 400. Mine was off the scale; they didn’t know how far over 400 parts per million it was. And so I went to the pool store, talked to the guys, and I said they should, what shall I do, they said there is only one thing to do, drain your pool, get rid of the water and refill it. So my pool’s less than a year old, I drained the pool, and several other people in the association drained their pools, and refilled them. And now mine is creeping up again; it’s up to 300 parts per million. At 400 I’m going to have to drain it again. I had a salt chlorinator in my pool, and the calcium in the pool clogged the whole chlorinator up, and so I had to get a new chlorinator, and I started to use the new one, and I saw it was starting to get clogged up, too, so I took it out. So now my salt chlorinator and hundreds of dollars of salt and everything are gone. So that’s the result, and there is no question that these pool problems were result of Bolton’s crushing rocks and base yard, and it’s created problems. And who knows what kind of health problems if it’s, it creates, if it’s that kind of a problem for your swimming pool, what does it do for your lungs? UNGER: Thank you, sir. If you could summarize — MADSON: So, thank you. I’m done. UNGER: Okay. Thank you. Sir? CULHANE: Bill Culhane. I’m testifying as an individual. Like many of the people here, I live in a house that’s less than a quarter mile away from the proposed crushing. And I disagree that the barrier between us and the operation is sufficient. Since Bolton Company was kind enough 3 EXHIBIT D to give us a preview what this was going to be like when they briefly did some crushing last year, we got to experience the obnoxious noise and the tremors that actually sent to our house. I can testify that their work causes real problems as far as the quality of living. Please do not allow this industrial operation to happen so close to our residential neighborhood. I was amazed as the images were put up during the other cases how much of the land here is zoned Agricultural, and when they showed the aerial shots, how many buildings and different things you can do on Agricultural land. I assume that’s done for tax purposes. But we are residential, and I think that that should buy us some additional protection. Thank you. ROBERTO: My name is Manuel Roberto. I live in Pualani Estates Unit 105, and I respectfully would like to submit a few numbers for your information that you may want to think about. These are approximate numbers; you may want to find the real numbers yourselves, or perhaps some of the real estate agents in the audience will be able to provide that for you. So these are approximate numbers. But I’m in the investment business. I consider this property as an investment. So we’ve got to look at some facts, which are important. Pualani Estates basically is a community for about 300-plus units, somewhere around 380, I believe. The property value, total property value of Pualani Estates is somewhere between 250 and 300 million dollars. I suppose that the property tax revenue to the County is, based on my own property taxes, I expect that the County is collecting somewhere around half a million dollars right now, 500,000 dollars. All investments require time. Let’s move forward ten years. Ten years from now — Pualani Estates currently is appreciating at a rate of five percent, more or less; real estate appreciates about that rate, especially good properties, good investments always appreciate with time. Time is very important; it’s an important requirement, as you all know. So, going forward ten years at around five percent appreciation our 300 million dollars value is going to be somewhere around 450 million. Property taxes are based on appreciation of property; property taxes don’t go up, if the property doesn’t appreciate, obviously. So that property tax revenue will go up to 750,000 or more, ten years from now, a year, a year. Twenty years from now the property values will be around 500 million dollars and the property tax revenue should be around 1.2 million dollars. Just a reality check. If you put an industrial area next to a residential area, I mean there are no residential areas that appreciate like that next to industrial areas; it just doesn’t happen. So here we are about to bring down the five percent to one percent appreciation or no appreciation or negative appreciation, I don’t know, it’s uncertain, and markets don’t like uncertainty. So, anyway, who is bound to lose here? The property owners, we may lose between 100 and 150 million dollars ten years from now, and the County, of course, in property tax revenues. Thank you. UNGER: Thank you. REESE: My name is Wayne Reese. I live at 75-6087 Ka‘ane‘e Street. We are immediately south of the vacant land that, where Bolton will be doing their rock crushing. It’s going to have a negative impact on the noise, the quality of life and the property values. I retired after moving to Hawai‘i, after leaving Iraq as a military advisor, you know, so it’s a great place to live. But, again, it’s going to have a negative impact on the noise, on the air quality, perhaps vibrations, just overall quality of life, and property values. So obviously, I’m not in favor of it, and I urge the Planning Commission to reject this proposal that they be allowed to do the rock crushing there. It’s not a good location for it. There are too many residential areas very close. And the 4 EXHIBIT D road, as the first individual was talking about, is simply not suitable for large trucks; it’s very dangerous. I’m also a former law enforcement officer; I wouldn’t want to be having large trucks on that road. Thank you. UNGER: Thank you. BECKHAM: My name is Brad Beckham. I’ve had careers in architect, and I know your job is difficult, try to merge business interest with residential ones. Having done work in probably close to 80 cities, numerous counties, most of which have noise ordinances you can, if you choose, require testing. A typical ordinance is like an 80 decibel readings at the property line, that sort of thing. And you can do dust testing as well of the air, preferably on a windy day where it might carry of the sand. And as far as the noise, you might consider dropping at the maximum height of the frontend loaders into the steel beds of the trucks, and actually getting hardline data. It feels to me everybody’s idea of dust or noise is subjective. I feel that, you know, living a half mile away I do feel tremors and it’s really loud, but my opinion might defer with somebody else’s, especially who has a business interest. So my recommendation for you would be get some realign testing and follow existing laws, and that might help you make your decisions. I have to apologize I’m late for a doctor appointment, so I’ve got to bail right now. UNGER: Thank you. MATSUKAWA: My name is Mike Matsukawa. I’m an attorney. I represent the petitioners for the contested case. And I forgot to sign up Jeff Citron who is the president, and he submitted his sign-up sheets. UNGER: I got that and so — MATSUKAWA: Okay. UNGER: — he’ll have an opportunity to testify. MATSUKAWA: Thank you. I just want to point out a couple, a few things for the Commission and its staff. It seems like the application and the background report was put together pretty hurriedly. Some things that stand out is there seems to be one application for the drainage improvements, which in itself is its own project and ought to be treated as a standalone project; however, cobbled to this are the additional request, which make this application somewhat confusing. Secondly, there are some preliminary issues that should be explored but weren’t, which is whether a Board of Land and Natural Resources Mining Permit is required under Chapter 181. As to the noise and air emission issues, which the prior speaker just addressed, I don’t think there has been any analysis on air emission or noise. Both subjects are very complicated topics. When the Hawai‘i Electric Light Company built their Keāhole power plant, they did extensive studies on both noise and air emissions because of the surrounding neighborhood that’s Palisades and the Ag Park. They did the study, and also on the issue of noise the judge who were supervising the case determined that where and how you measure the noise is a very intricate 5 EXHIBIT D matter. And so the noise levels were studied at the site where the noise was received. My understanding of this application is they are looking at the quantity of noise generated on the site with no study as to the impact on surrounding properties, which can be measured. I think also since this matter is going to be continued, the staff should explore how many Special Permits have been issued for similar activities in the community, because you are converting an Ag parcel into an industrial park. I mean that’s really what it is. So given the additional time, I ask that the staff and the Commission explore further studies. Thank you. UNGER: Thank you. You may be seated. Jeff Citron, Barbara Hussey, William Mandell, Jim Hill, Mark Kaplan and Nick Wong. Please raise your right hand. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth before the Planning Commission? TESTIFIERS: I do. UNGER: Please state your name and where you reside, staring on this side. Thank you. WONG: My name is Nick Wong and I live in Hualālai Colony. UNGER: Thank you. We can go down and introduce. HUSSEY: Aloha Commissioners. I’m Barbara Hussey. I live in Pualani Estates. KAPLAN: My name is Mark Kaplan. I live in Hualālai Colony. Thank you for inviting us to talk today. HILL: My name is Jim Hill. I live in Halewili Place. MANDELL: My name is Bill Mandell. I live in Halewili Place. CITRON: Jeff Citron, Hualālai Colony. UNGER: Aloha. We can begin here, with your testimony. WONG: I’m part of Innovations School, Innovations Public Charter School. And the Bolton rock crushing, I think it’s not good for education because it’s, it would be a big distraction with all the noise going around and all the dust coming in to our lungs. And I don’t believe that it’s very good for the kids’ health, and for all the distraction with all the noise. UNGER: Thank you. HUSSEY: Aloha Commissioners. Again, I’m Barbara Hussey. I live in Pualani Estates, and kind of on my own — I actually live right next door to Bill Culhane, so it’s kind of like a two for here. Initially, when they started with their crushing, my husband and I were sitting in the living room and having coffee and just reading the paper, and I’m going what is that, an earthquake? Because the coffee was actually moving in the cup. So kind of on my own what I decided to do 6 EXHIBIT D was to park my vehicle down at the end of Pualani Estates and walk up Queen K. I took some photos of the actual site, and I’d live to submit those, if I may, just so that you have an idea of what the quarry looks like. I was absolutely, at the base of Pualani Estates we also have a park where people bring their keiki, and all of the dust and the noise, I cannot, I cannot even imagine what those young families must endure or had to have endured or will endure, as this noise and dust and dirt continues, as it comes up mauka to all the rest of us that live uphill. When I was walking along, I took these photos just on the street, and what’s struck me so terribly much is what is happening to the ‘āina. And that says it all. KAPLAN: My name is Mark Kaplan, and I’m very concerned about the noise, the dust, the safety and the health of all the citizens living around here. A quarry and trucks moving up and down that road should not be in a residential area. I am a person who has asthma and COPD. Obviously, dust is not healthy for my environment. I work very hard to keep in shape, and this dust does not help me get to the effects that I want to be at. People have migraine headaches. You could say how much sound or banging in a distance; the bottom line is, if you have a migraine and you are hearing clamoring every day all day long, it’s not good for your health, either. As far as Hualālai Road goes, we all know it’s a very narrow road. It’s difficult for cars to go up and down there safely. It intensifies it when big trucks are going down. Again, talking about health and safety, if an ambulance needs to go up and down that road and there is a big rock truck up and down, and there is going to be many, many trucks going up and down, you are going to make slow down that ambulance that could save somebody’s life. There is also a lot of bicycles and joggers that go up and down that road, and you are putting them in jeopardy as well as everybody else. So at the end of the day, really, if you could please, please cancel this project, I think it’s in everybody’s interest. Thank you. HILL: My name is Jim Hill. Thank you for this opportunity to address you folks. I’d like to state that this is a quiet peaceful residential and agricultural area with more residential development anticipated. It doesn’t make any sense in a common sense to change the zoning to give a Special Permit to allow an industrial use. Rock crushing should be in an already zoned industrial area without any question. I personally have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and know some other individuals in the area that have the same like my neighbor here. Further additional particulate matter in the air is going to complicate our health problems. You might also think about the children that are coming up behind us that are going to suffer from having improper air to breathe and noise, as this young man states. The dust generation of this operation will impact them not necessarily today but in the future, both from their learning capacity and their health problems. Like this gentleman said, there are many bicycles and joggers and the people on scooters who use Hualālai Road, and additional traffic and ten to twenty heavy industrial trucks per day is going to pose an accentuated danger to an already significant problem. It’s a narrow curvy road. Our property values are definitely going to be negatively impacted by the noise and the air pollution, traffic congestion and safety concerns, if this is approved. Bottom line, I oppose any change to allow use a special use for rock crushing. It’s fine, if they want to park agricultural equipment that’s part of the game; I think that should be perfectly acceptable. 7 EXHIBIT D MANDEL: Hi. My name is Bill Mandell. I’m a resident. I think all the testimony so far, there is not much more to say. I would just like to say you are our Planning Commission, not a court of law; this is going to go down that route obviously, if it needs to. But you are a Planning Commission, and that whole area 60 years ago was all agricultural, and it was decided by your predecessors that that become single-family dwellings. Approximately, if you take the exact center and draw a compass around it with a three-mile radius, you have about 80 percent of the single-family residences in Kailua-Kona. And it was decided by your predecessors that when you go north of Henry Street, that was going to be heavy commercial industrial. And I just can’t even begin to understand why anyone would consider bringing industry into the residential area. It just makes zero sense. It may improve Bolton’s bottom line, but it is, it is so anti-planning. I mean if they can win in court, they can something, that’s a different matter, but you are a Planning Commission and this violates everything that’s been planned for this entire area for the last 60 years. CITRON: Mr. Chairman, I need more time since I am representing a large constituents. UNGER: Understand that. That’s fine. And I understand you are the, will be the petitioner, so that’s fine. CITRON: My name is Jeff Citron, a Kona resident for 45 years and a homeowner at Hualālai Colony Subdivision, which is located directly above Innovations Charter School. I’m also the President of The Community Association of Hualālai, which consists of the Heights at Hualālai, Pualani Estates, Hualālai Colony, Kona Orchards, and Sugar Cane Lane. I want to start my testimony by pointing out some serious violations of Bolton, Inc. in the past two years concerning the subject property. During the first week in October of 2014, while traveling in my car, I observed the development of two roads that were going to tie into Hualālai Road. Having been involved in land use issues, I had a problem if there was adequate sight distances, because they were located on dangerous parts of the road. I went down to Public Works and talked to Ki Emler, the engineer, and told him about my concerns. Ki said that the next day Bolton was performing some asphalt work on those two access points. I was alarmed that they were proceeding before checking out my claim. While I was there, I had a chance to look over the construction plans. I noticed that the figures provided by the private consulting engineer were overstated. I also noticed that the road profiles on the two roads were not provided as to elevation. The morning of the very next day, while traveling up Hualālai Road, I saw the Public Works inspector measuring the sight distances. I called the inspector a few days later, and he told me that he had shut the project down, and that Bolton had removed a large portion of a guard rail on a turn. Later Ki Emler said Bolton shouldn’t have removed the guard rail because it was never revealed on the plans. He also said that Bolton should have obtained a grading permit for the mauka approaches to Lots 4 and 6 because according to our inspector the fill exceeded five feet in the height, therefore did not qualify for permit exclusion. An th investigation was generated by Public Works. On November 19 I requested a copy of the final report. On February 25, 2015, the Corporation Counsel, Self, determined that my request was denied in its entirety by applicable statue, HRS 92-13(3). Since this is a contested case, these findings should be made public since we are doing a continuance, and that this information be made available. And to this day, the guard rail has never been replaced on the turn. 8 EXHIBIT D Later in the early part of 2015 I started hearing sound of machinery, dumping of rocks, and also a crushing sound. This was occurring every day, and I live over 1,000 feet from Bolton property line. And I do have a hearing problem, I have a hearing aid, but I’m still able to hear it loud and clear without this in my ear. I then decided to travel down Hualālai Road to find a spot where I could observe what was causing the noise on Bolton’s property. I could see a huge crusher, a loader, and a stockpile of rocks that were being brought in from outside the property. The loader was feeding the hopper of the crusher with rocks, and the crusher was making aggregate. I also observed that no water was being used to control the dust. Did you know that dust and noise has no borders? Every time the loader would back up, it made a beeping sound. At my house I have noticed that dust was accumulating on my car and window screens, and started wondering what I th was breathing. Then on April 7 I was traveling down Hualālai in the afternoon, when a huge dump truck with a Bolton insignia on the truck door pulled out in front of me, loaded with aggregate. I decided to follow the truck to see where the aggregate was being delivered. The final destination was the Kohanaiki development. After researching what permits Bolton had on Parcels 44 and 31, I discovered he had only one special use permit for a coffee visitor center on Parcel 31. Parcel 31 is just below Parcel 44. The crusher was located on Parcel 31 where the visitor center was supposed to be. I proceeded to make a formal complaint to the Kona Planning Department for an illegal base yard and illegal crushing operation. On February 19, 2016, I received from the Planning Department a copy of a warning letter sent to Dan and Janet Bolton. The warning letter stated: Immediately cease operating the crusher for commercial purposes (quarry); immediately cease the use of the property as a construction base yard; immediately cease any and all other non-agricultural businesses/activities; and removal of junk. Other findings were four Quonset type structures with no records of building permits, and an office type trailer with no record of a building permit, which also had a drain line that was dumping waste water directly on the ground. The Community Association of Hualālai represents over 500 households and roughly 2,000 residents, not including the children attending Innovations Charter School and their parents dropping off and picking up the students. The Association is concerned about noise, air pollution, increased traffic on a substandard Hualālai Road, diminished property values, negative effects on our neighborhoods, and potential health problems. To allow this heavy industrial use in our neighborhood is insane, and with the total disregard by Bolton’s action affecting our way of life, The Community Association of Hualālai overwhelmingly rejects this special use permit. UNGER: Thank you. You may be seated. Marie Aguilar, Marianne Starr, Rod Quartararo — you may have to help me with that — Don Hurzeler, Rene Heimgartner and Michele Wauson. Please raise your right hand. Ma’am? Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth before the Planning Commission? TESTIFIERS: I do. UNGER: Thank you. Please state your name and where you reside. 9 EXHIBIT D HURZELER: My name is Don Hurzeler. I’m in the Heights at Hualālai, and I am on their homeowners’ board. I’ve been off-island helping my 95-year old mom on the mainland, so I am kind of late to the party on this. I really, the communications about what’s been going on there have — pardon me? UNGER: That’s okay. You can continue and we can, introduce yourself as you testify. HURZELER: Okay. I’m sorry. UNGER: Not a problem. HURZELER: All right. So I’m trying to kind of get up to speed on this. The previous rock crushing, rock crushing, operation that’s been going on this property is kind of mind-blowing to me because I thought it was a permitted thing. So this gentleman has apparently, I don’t know, been operating the rock crusher down there without a permit, putting the waste water goodness knows where; everything is going to go makai from there, so I guess into the bay, with this new free organic material that he has created, it will be all over the Innovations School. I expect that their leadership will be here to testify about how their kids need to be protected. I was thrilled that the young man spoke up on behalf of his classmates. This is caused, I think, again, can’t prove it, cracks on our property. It certainly has put particulate all over the place. I’m asthmatic and feel the effects of this operation. I hear the beep, beep, beep constantly, when the rock crushing is going on, of the vehicles. I hear the crushing machine going on and on eight hours a day in this residential neighborhood. It’s a rock crushing operation in the middle of agricultural and homes, and it just makes no sense at all. I wonder if all the structures on the property that are there now are properly permitted. Were they ever permitted? We don’t, I don’t know that. But is this a person who has followed proper procedures in the past, and are they going to follow them in the future? I’m also a photographer and I travel all around this island on a very regular basis. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of square miles of lava fields on this island that don’t have a structure within ten miles of them. What a wonderful place to put a rock crushing operation. Not in the middle of somebody’s home. Thank you. AGUILAR: Aloha. My name is Marie Aguilar. I live at Hualālai Colony, have been there for 15 years. We developed our home and built our home on a vacant lot there. There is many testimonies today that are also part of my testimony that I’ve written you and I don’t want to repeat that, but I would like to say a couple of things. First of all, I was a part of the dispute when there was a developer who wanted to build along the, there’s four parcels that were to be built, one was already approved by the County Council and another one, Hualālai Partners, is going in, and they wanted our, the neighborhood to speak up as to what would cause us the traffic on Hualālai Road. And I spoke up and I said that there is a considerable repairs that need to be done to the highway, or Hualālai Road, and that development was not issued a standing to go forward. But I’d like to say that those people that are nearby this property have full intention to build someday, maybe luxury homes or neighborhood, and I think the closest property line to that industrial crushing operation is at least maybe 500 feet from there, and I think it’s a wrong thing to do to people that want to build homes in the area. And I’m not against building, but I am against having an industrial park in a residential area. I’d like to say one thing that 10 EXHIBIT D Mr. Bolton, he has a right to go and purchase property in an industrial area, he has resources to do so, and I believe that that would be the best avenue for him, and I think because he owns the property there is not a reason for him to want to build an industrial park in the middle of a residential area. I ask you today to deny this permit, and leave the residents of Hualālai area to their property values and to their enjoyment of life. Thank you. UNGER: Thank you. STARR: Hi. Can you hear me okay? UNGER: Yeah. STARR: All right? Okay. My name is Marianne Starr. I live in Pualani Estates. I live on Ka‘ane‘e Place, which is the second street up from the highway, and I live at the far north end, so we are right next to the vacant property that is on the boundary of Pualani, between Pualani and Hualālai Road. And I, prior to this meeting, I tried to get some information like a map because I don’t know a whole lot about this project; I just learned about it from the couple of articles that have been in the paper, so I don’t have nearly as much information as most of the people who have testified. But, you know, I read 700 feet up Hualālai Road, and I’m guessing, okay, a couple of football fields or a little more, that’s about where we are, and since we are at the far north end, we could be one of the closest houses in Pualani to this project. So that concerns me. I would like to know how I can get more information, but maybe I’ll find out if I attend the next, you know, when Bolton shows up. And I, I have a lot of objections that I’ve already heard people state, so I don’t want to repeat that. But there were a couple that really struck me as being important, and I’d just like to reiterate those. And I heard one person say, urge you to kind of take a step back and consider whether, to consider what the original intent was in this whole planning process that we do, and whether it’s really appropriate to have an industrial project that has so much impact on the properties around it, right in the middle of residential area. And then there was a fellow, I think he was an attorney who sat at the end, who really urged you to do research, if you felt you needed to gather information about impacts like the noise and the dust, and really know what we are talking about, not just guessing because people say it’s noisy. I urge you to do that, if you need to. And then I’d also like each one of you to think about like how you would feel, if you were in our house. I don’t know how far we are from the boundary, but we hear noise. Put yourself in our shoes, and please take that into consideration. Thank you. UNGER: Thank you. QUARTARARO: Hi. My name is Rod Quartararo – that’s how you say it. UNGER: Thank you. QUARTARARO: I might take an extra 30 or 40 seconds. I’m president of the Pualani Estates at Kona Homeowners Association. Just a little more background on it, our subdivision is made up of 363 single-family residences, and I looked up the average household size for this island, so if you take that, those number of homes multiplied it out by the 3.26 average household size; that actually takes, and we need to look at this, this takes us up to about 1,184 actual residents in our 11 EXHIBIT D subdivision. And frankly, I think that’s probably a little low as far as estimates go, because we are for the most part pretty blue collar subdivision. I want to give you a little bit of my own credentials, because I’ve sat on your side, so I try to look at these things objectively. My credentials are at this hearing is that before moving to this island I was a member of the City of Santa Cruz’s planning commission, that’s in California, for 17 years. I served both its chairman, vice chairperson and a member of the commission all those times. The area I came from is very similar in many respects, except for the water temperature. We dealt with water temperature of 65 degrees, so I stayed out of the water a little bit; your water temperature is much better. But Santa Cruz is located on the Central Coast of California. Like this area here, we had the Pacific to the west, mountains to the east, we were heavily dependent on agriculture and tourism, we had a population of 52,000, and a university that brought an additional 21,000 students to our university along with the support staff. The area I came from, just as we are here, was a very environmentally conscious community, very much aware of our natural resources, constantly aware of back growth and a need to manage the growth, looking very closely at providing housing and a viable transportation system while accommodating an economy that could support the residents of our community. Projects were brought before us, our Santa Cruz City Council, or Santa Cruz City Planning Commission, and condition many times taken into account sacred Ohlone Indian burial sites. We were also very conscious of the need to reconcile industrial and residential zoning. We were always balancing those out, looking at the effects of one upon the other. We were very careful to take into consideration these effects and what it might have on the residential zoning. In my first years as a planning commissioner a long time ago I often wondered how qualified was I really to make judgements about projects before me. The language of planning was a bit overwhelming to me, because I’m sure Members of this Planning Commission especially in their first year or two can understand, and I would ask myself how qualified was I really to challenge the recommendations of the professional planning staff. And I’m bringing that up in the context of the recommendation that was made by the Planning staff. This is where public hearings and the observations and needs of the public are so, so, so very important. Reconciling the state and needs of the public with the logic and rule followed by planning staff really needs to trump everything else. We had, and you have, guidelines to follow. But common sense was a big part of the decisions we made, and a big part of your decision-making, I’m sure. At Pualani Estates we walked our neighborhoods when we saw the special use permit coming up. We asked homeowners and tenants what they thought of the proposed special use permit application before you. There were many who did not understand the technicalities to the applied-for permit, but what the overwhelming majority of the residents did understand was the following, and I’m not exaggerating. You already heard about the noise; I won’t say more about that. Residents were also concerned about the increase of dust in the air. This is what residents kept repeating: Dust in the air from the quarry that existed before the stop order the end of February has continued on even subsequent to that stop order. Residents don’t understand — and I haven’t heard a whole lot of people talk about this part of it — how our current road system can handle the truck traffic. Staff’s report states there could be ten to twenty truck loads per day. I looked a little closer at that the way I used to look at things when I had things come before me on the planning commission; ten to twenty truck loads, double that because the truck loads will become empty trucks at the end of the day or earlier, so let’s imagine maybe 35 to 40 trucks 12 EXHIBIT D traveling north and south on Queen K. into and out of the uncontrolled – because there are no stop lights there – intersection at Queen K. and Hualālai Road, the requested hours of operation of 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. would find trucks leaving the proposed site at the peak morning rush hour and returning up to the site at the peak of the evening rush-hour traffic, returning to the site in the southbound direction would find no less than four-axle vehicles possibly queuing up in the southbound left-hand turn lane during the rush-hour traffic. A protected left-hand turn lane that is nowhere near adequate for the number of vehicles that could be traveling in there, and you can imagine what that would do to the flow of the traffic going south. Applicant was ordered to cease operations on the subject parcel based on an investigation by the Planning Department, and such operations were to be halted until the applicant was able to receive a special use permit for the non-compliant use of the subject property. I’m here today representing the 1,184 residents of Pualani Estates at Kona who feel now is not the time to approve a special use permit for the subject property. To the contrary, the applicant has in fact continued to use the subject property despite the County’s injunction. As planning, as recently as last week, loaded trucks were seen coming and going from the subject property to work sites. I think you have pictures of those trucks; they were given to you. This egregious disregard for the order by the County should not and cannot be rewarded by an approval for the special use permit at this time. One last comment: Given the continuance, and it was more than custom in our City of Santa Cruz with a project of this type, we encouraged applicants at our meetings to go out and talk to the affected neighborhoods. Now, I know we are beyond, we’re beyond the noticed area, but as others have testified, the noise, the pollution, the trucks, the traffic should extend far beyond the immediate notice area. None of us received any notice. None of us have had any conversations with Bolton, Inc. I as the president of Pualani Estates have heard nothing. And I would recommend to the Planning Commission that this continuance provide also for Bolton the opportunity to reach out to the community, and would ask the Planning Commission to strongly recommend this to the applicant that they set up a series of meetings with our community and explain to us just what they are proposing to do, how they plan to mitigate those things that we are all feeling and seeing, and clear things up with us. But there has been absolutely no communication with this applicant, as I really strongly feel there should be. UNGER: Thank you. HEIMGARTNER: Good morning again. My name is Hermann Heimgartner. I’m here as an individual. I own a house in Pualani Estates. I live on the north side of the subdivision bordering the Agricultural land. And I live with my wife and we have two kids, six and four. And I oppose the project. What I’m concerned about mostly is the noise, and there is the dust, there is the traffic impact. But the noise, as I’ve heard it before, there is the backhoes and other dump trucks, if some things go backwards, and they beep, beep. And if this application is allowed, I can only imagine it will get worse; there is going to be excavating, power driving, the rocks are going to have to be pushed around and jackhammered out. And most days my kids go to school and I go to my office, but there are lots of days where my kids are sick, I have a home office, they are on vacation, I’m at home. And I’m worried that when I’m at home during the week, they are going to be basically exposed to a constant noise. We don’t want that, we don’t 13 EXHIBIT D have that. And I’m concerned because I don’t think that a noise assessment hasn’t been done; I think that needs to get done. And I did a little quick Internet search on noise impact in a construction project. What I found was that different, obviously different equipment cause different decibel levels, an excavator can be up to 81 on an average decibels but it can go as high as 110 for impact power driver, and so forth. Then in this study what I then saw was that — that noise as it travels slowly gets lower, but then I think such a study needs to be done — in this study what I found, and I can give it to the members afterwards, 95 decibels at about 800 feet lower to 71 decibels, at 1,600 feet it lower to 65 decibels, and between 60 and 70 decibels sets a noisy restaurant, freeway traffic, and air-conditioning unit. I don’t want to be at home during the week and have constant freeway traffic going on from this thing at that level. It’s, I think it’s ridiculous. I think a study needs to be done and, along with all studies regarding the dust and the traffic. Thank you for your time. WAUSON: Hi. My name is Michele Wauson. I live in Pualani Estates. I was recently elected to the board of the homeowners association. I am here to read a testimony from our board’s — I’m kind of nervous, I’m sorry — our board’s treasurer, Joel Cooperson. Joel said he can’t be here today and asked me if I would read his testimony, so that’s what I’m doing: Aloha. My name is Joel Cooperson. I am the President of Heights at Hualālai Subdivision and also the Treasurer of Pualani Estates Subdivision. I also taught public school in Kona for over 31 years. Unfortunately, I am not able to be here at this time, but I wanted to share my thoughts. Hopefully, it will not be too redundant with what’s been shared before me. I am absolutely shocked that Mr. Bolton would think it was okay to have a rock crushing operation so close to a number of subdivisions and a school. While he may explain he’ll be hosing to keep dust down, wink wink, as you already know, he’s been cited for crushing without a permit along with construction buildings without permits. I’d say we have a bit of an integrity problem. To reward all his violations with a variance involving good neighbors and students nearby to these health hazards is absolutely unbelievable. There is no way the noise of a rock crushing operation can be quieted. He’s already stated he plans on running the crushers until 5:30 at night. There is no way to quiet heavy-duty trucks from coming and going off the property. And, of course, Mr. Bolton will not shell out money to improve the substandard Hualālai Road. Never going to happen. There are industrial properties available where Mr. Bolton can knock himself out with the crushing. Or, why doesn’t Mr. Bolton get a variance on a large track of land he owns by his house? Do you think that this may reduce his quality of life but the hell with everyone else? Commissioners, would you be okay with a rock crushing operation near your home? Do you think the dust and noise would not be a health and safety issue for you and your family? It baffles me that this request for a variance even got this far. I am shocked that Mr. Duane Kanuha conditionally recommended its passage without considering the impact of the lives of so many innocent residents. It is my strongest recommendation that the Leeward Planning Commission do what’s best for these Kona communities and Innovations Charter School, and reject Mr. Bolton’s request. Mahalo and aloha, Joel Cooperson. UNGER: Thank you. You may be seated. That’s all I have signed up to testify. Is there any other members of the public that would like to testify on this matter at this time? Please come forward and speak into the mike. 14 EXHIBIT D HUSSEY: I’m Barbara Hussey from Pualani Estates. I just wanted to know that since this is going to be deferred to an additional time, those of us that were here today who would be willing to come back to hear what Bolton has to say, would we be allowed to testify again, or, since we’ve testified once — or could we speak again, sir? UNGER: No, you’ll be able to testify again and you’ll all be, all will be given notices in regard to when the next hearing will be, and you will have that opportunity again to hear from the applicant and testify as well. HUSSEY: Mahalo. UNGER: At this time, as I — please, yeah, come forward. RYAN: My name is Brent Ryan. I live in Pualani Estates, 75-6094 Paulehia Street. I apologize for not signing up in advance for this. But I’m a professional, I’m a real estate professional. I’m a Realtor in the area in Kona. And I agree with everything that has been said, but also just want to say my professional opinion that the property values will seriously be impacted, if this project is able to go through. And as a homeowner there, you know, I don’t want that, and I’m sure that you would not want that happening where you live as well. Thank you. UNGER: Great. Thank you. Please come forward. SCHULMAN: My name is Ed Schulman. I submitted some written testimony to the Commission earlier today. My only question is, what is the position of the Planning Commission on the application for a contested case hearing, and do you have any intention of issuing an up-or-down vote on this proposal prior to a contested case hearing? UNGER: Mr. Patel — PATEL: Yeah, I — UNGER: — would you like to answer the legalities — PATEL: Yeah, no, we are not going to discuss that at all today. If you have public testimony you want to give, you can do that now, but — SCHULMAN: No, I’m, I’m asking, you have before you an application for a contested case hearing, I’m asking this Commission whether it intends to issue a decision on the application prior to having a contested case hearing or even ruling on the application. PATEL: So the petition for standing will be acted on first. SCHULMAN: Before ruling. PATEL: Correct. 15 EXHIBIT D SCHULMAN: Thank you. CITRON: This is for corporation counsel. Will I be allowed to get that report since it’s a contested case? PATEL: Mr. Citron, is it? I’m not sure what report you are referring to, but you can discuss that with your attorney. CITRON: It’s, I submitted the, with my testimony, the paperwork from corporation counsel and the letter that I wrote to Ki Emler and cc to Lee, and they denied the request. But since it is a contested case and has bearing on this particular special use permit, we deserve to have that open to the public. PATEL: Again, discuss that with your counsel. This agenda item was cancelled, so beyond public testimony we are not going to have any discussion on this. CITRON: I’m just telling you that that’s — PATEL: I understand, but you can discuss that with your counsel. Thank you. UNGER: Thank you. Go ahead — ARAI: Mr. Chairman, sorry for interjecting, but we thought we heard you indicate that the people who have testified would be served notice of the, or when the hearing will be scheduled. Are you asking for a direct service to all of those who have testified today? I just want to make sure we are clear, because normally if a meeting has been cancelled to another meeting, then the applicant who made the request for continuance, will be obligated to only notify within — UNGER: Right. I was referring to the normal channels of communication. ARAI: Okay. UNGER: So as you usually proceed. ARAI: As we normally, okay, so that would be the applicant notifying within the 500-foot radius, as he did for this particular meeting, as well as publication of the agenda in the local newspapers. So just for everyone’s edification we are looking at possibly scheduling this matter at the Leeward Planning Commission’s next meeting on June 16, one-six. UNIDENTIFIED PUBLIC MEMBER: Pardon me, but notifying people within 500 feet is absurd; that’s not nearly large enough. UNGER: At this point we’ll go ahead and close the meeting. We can discuss this afterwards, so you can raise those issues with staff in regards to notification. But you will be notified pursuant to the normal procedure. Thank you. Thank you all for coming and testifying. 16 EXHIBIT D SHIMAOKA: Is it possible for me to ask the young man a question again? Can I do that before we close? I had a question that I wanted to address the young man there, the student. UNGER: Sure. Can you come up, please, yeah, and sit down and — SHIMAOKA: Your name is Nick? WONG: Yeah. SHIMAOKA: Nick, you mentioned that your learning atmosphere was affected primarily by the noise, or do you experiencing dust at the Innovations School? WONG: I’m just worried mostly about the distractions when students are learning and when teachers are talking, because we’ve had, we’ve, we started building a new road and we’ve, we had lots of noise and it’s really distracting from all the tractors and that kind of stuff, the big trucks and stuff, so. SHIMAOKA: So it’s primarily the noise that’s affecting you guys? You guys get dust up there, too? WONG: Yeah, mostly the noise. And I am a bit concerned about the dust and the health issues that occurs with that. SHIMAOKA: Okay. WONG: Because we have, our, we have more of an outdoor campus. We don’t spend a lot of time inside classrooms; we go outdoors a lot. So, yeah. SHIMAOKA: Okay. Thank you. WONG: Thank you. UNGER: Thank you. Next agenda item — Commissioners, could I have a motion to close the public — KAHOLO: So move. SHIMAOKA: I second. UNGER: We have a motion by Commissioner Kaholo, second by Shimaoka, to close public hearing. All in favor? COMMISSIONERS: Aye. UNGER: Oppose? \[None.\] So moved. Public hearing is now closed for this agenda item. 17 EXHIBIT D The public testimony was closed at 11:47 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Noriko Sauer, Secretary Leeward Planning Commission 18 EXHIBIT D