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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2016-10-20 Leeward Exh A (SPP 16-190) LEEWARD PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAI‘I HEARING TRANSCRIPT OCTOBER 20, 2016 A regularly advertised hearing on the application of PR PUU PA, LLC (SPP 16-190) was called to order at 9:32 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, Scott Church, Collin Kaholo, Perry Kealoha, Barbara Nobriga and Sonny Shimaoka ABSENT AND EXCUSED: Nancy Carr Smith ALSO PRESENT: Malia Ho (Counsel for the Commission), Duane Kanuha (Planning Director), Daryn Arai (Planning Program Manager) and Noriko Sauer (Commission Secretary) And one person from the public in attendance. APPLICANT: PR PUU PA, LLC (SPP 16-190) Request for a Special Permit to establish a concrete ready-mix batching plant facility, the manufacturing and storage of concrete precast products, and base yard for the storage of equipment, materials, stockpiling of aggregates/sand, and related uses and improvements on an approximately 2.0-acre portion of a 13,285.024-acre parcel of land situated in the State Land Use Agricultural District. The project site is located on the makai/west side of Māmalahoa Highway approximately one-half (.5) mile to the south of Lalamilo Farm Road, Waikoloa, South Kohala, Hawai‘i, TMK: 6-8-001:Por. 001. UNGER: With that we can get into the agenda item, No. 1. Applicant PR Puu Pa, LLC, Special Permit 16-190, request for a Special Permit to establish a concrete ready-mix batching plant facility, the manufacturing and storage of concrete precast products, and base yard for the storage of equipment, materials, stockpiling of aggregates, sand, and related uses and improvements on an approximately two-acre portion of a 13,285-acre parcel of land situated in the State Land Use Agricultural District. The project site is located on the makai, west side of Māmalahoa Highway approximately one-half miles to the south of Lalamilo Farm Road, Waikoloa, South Kohala, Hawai‘i, TMK 6-8-1: portion of Parcel 1. Staff, would you like to make your presentation? ARAI: Sure, glad to. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning, Commissioners. If I may direct your attention to the presentation screen. The project site, we are looking at the Waimea area here, which is the colorful area located toward the top of the map, the project area is highlighted here with an arrow, I’ll zoom in later, and you can see its proximity to the town of Waimea, which is about one and a quarter miles away from the project site to the north. Zooming in a bit, you’ll see the blue area, which is Agricultural 40-acre zoning, and this is the Kohala Waimea Airport off to your right. This gray area here is lands currently designated Limited 1 EXHIBIT A Industrial minimum lot size 20,000 square feet by the County Zoning Code. And the project area comprising of two acres of land is situated on a portion of a much larger parcel comprising about 13,285 acres, as outlined in dash blue. The project area itself is two acres in size, and currently resides on lands designated Agricultural minimum lot size of five acres. This is an overlay of the project area with the State Land Use District boundaries. The areas colored in green – I wish this pointer was a lot brighter but – the area designated in green here is State Land Use Agricultural and that also encumbers the project site. And this pink area are those lands currently designated State Land Use Urban. This is an overlay of the County General Plan. As you can see, the project area is within the area colored white, and that would depict it an Extensive Agricultural designation according to the General Plan, which is typically range, lands and pasturage. You have a green color here, which is Important Agricultural Lands to the north, and lands designated for industrial uses as depicted by the gray color. I should have noted earlier that the Māmalahoa Highway is located to the right, running top to the bottom of the map in the center of the screen. This is the South Kohala Community Development Plan Land Use Concept Map, and you may see the project area here located in the middle of the map toward the bottom. And you will also note that it’s in a blue-colored area and identified as Industrial Zoned Area. So the proposed project site is situated within that area, anticipated for industrial uses by the South Kohala CDP. This is an aerial photograph taken from the applicant’s submittals. You can see the Māmalahoa Highway off to your right here, access by an easement, and servicing the Waimea Self Storage facility, and the back of it is the DeLuz Trucking & Gravel facility, with the project site off further to the left, or makai, encompassing approximately two acres of land. The applicant is currently requesting a Special Permit to establish a concrete ready-mix batching plant facility, the manufacturing and storage of concrete precast products, and base yard for the storage of equipment, materials, stockpiling of aggregates and sand, and related uses and improvements. The project area itself encompasses approximately two-acre portion of a much larger 13,285-acre parcel. Approximately three-quarters of an acre within the two-acre project area will be utilized for the concrete ready-mix batch plant facility and water catchment tank and base yard, with the remaining 1.25-acre portion of the project area to be utilized for the manufacturing and storage of concrete precast products. An on-site graveled employee parking area will accommodate six vehicles and a landscaping buffer has been planted to mitigate noise, visual and dust impacts. The purpose of the request today as submitted by the applicant is to accommodate the Kohala Coast Concrete & Precast, LLC, which currently operates a similar batching plant in Kawaihae where their existing facility has outgrown its current space and no longer meets the company’s operational needs. The Kohala Coast Concrete & Precast, LLC’s sister company, Edwin DeLuz Trucking & Gravel, LLC, operates a base yard located on the adjoining parcel to the east of the project area, a base yard in Pa‘auilo and quarry operations in Āhualoa and Waimea. The purpose of the request is to consolidate the project operator’s business operations to a centralized location within close proximity to other existing operations, I’m sorry, in close proximity to its other existing operations, 2 EXHIBIT A which will promote operational and management efficiency and effectiveness, reduce operational costs, and mitigate impacts of its operations on community resources, for example, reduction of traffic on public roadways, noise, vehicular exhaust and consumption of fuel. This is the applicant’s site plan. Off to the right of this site is the existing DeLuz base yard operations. You may note within this two-acre – okay, I just lost my pointer, sorry, okay, that doesn’t help – off to the right you can see the batch plant, proposed batch plant operations, including, toward the bottom of the project site you see where they propose some aggregate storage; off to your left a bit you see these four features, those are like the applicant’s base yard operation, those are like the concrete trucks; and to the left of the project site is where the precast operations will be conducted. Along the bottom of the map, the applicant has already commenced with the planting of landscape material; they are at an early stage yet, but we do anticipate them to grow eventually and then provide the necessary visual and noise buffer. This is some photograph, the top left photograph show it’s facing north toward Waimea, with the project site access driveway off to your left, and on the lower right hand side is looking south along Māmalahoa Highway, with the project access driveway off to your right. The Planning Director has reviewed this application, and is recommending to the Commission its approval subject to proposed conditions of approval. With that, I stand ready to answer any questions that you may have. UNGER: Thank you. Commissioners, any questions of Planning at this time? CHURCH: \[Inaudible\] questions really more out of curiosity — SAUER: Commissioner Church, please use the microphone. UNGER: Speak into your mike. CHURCH: Okay. Looking at the State Land Use Map, it looked – here we go – part of the property is Urban, and if you look at the County General Plan, Industrial sweeps right to the south of it. So I’m just curious why was that the site was selected there rather than position it south with access from the storage area, which I think then would not require a Special Permit. ARAI: That question maybe is best addressed to the applicant. The representatives of the applicant are currently here. UNGER: Very good. Commissioners, any other questions of staff? Very Good. Thank you. ARAI: You’re welcome. UNGER: Would the applicants or representatives come forward, please? Please raise your right hand. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth before the Planning Commission? REPRESENTATIVES: I do. 3 EXHIBIT A UNGER: Please state your name, resident address, and again, please, even though the speakers are not working, please speak into the microphone. HAITSUKA: Thank you. Good morning, Chair Unger, Members of the Leeward Planning Commission, Mr. Kanuha, Ms. Ho and the Planning Department staff. My name is Ed Haitsuka. I’m an attorney with Carlsmith Ball. My home address is 75-357 Nani Kailua Drive, Kailua-Kona, Hawai‘i 96740. I represent the applicant, PR Puu Pa, LLC. And today I have Ms. Nahua Guilloz who is also representing the applicant, and Mr. Kevin Balog who represents the proposed project operator, Kohala Coast Concrete & Precast, LLC. UNGER: Thank you. This is your opportunity to, have you received the background report and recommendation from the Planning Department? HAITSUKA: Yes, I have. UNGER: Do you agree with their recommendation and the conditions associated with the recommendations? HAITSUKA: We would agree and comply with the recommendations. UNGER: This is your opportunity to provide further comment or clarification. HAITSUKA: Regarding Commissioner Church’s comments, the particular project area was chosen because it is adjacent to property that is being currently utilized by the project operator’s sister company Edwin DeLuz Trucking & Gravel, LLC. The land to the south, to the south that’s within the Urban area marked up there, that is actually owned also by the applicant, but that particular area was not chosen because it’s zoned for light industrial, and this particular use is not allowed in light industrial. CHURCH: There you go. Thank you. UNGER: Thank you. HAITSUKA: You’re welcome. UNGER: Commissioners, do you have any questions of the applicant? Thank you. You may be seated. ARAI: And, Mr. Chairman, if I can now expound. Thanks for the explanation, but Commissioner Church also made mention of the General Plan designation. General Plan being a broad brush document, it provides the Director with some flexibility interpreting, you know, whether or not the uses are generally consistent with the General Plan. And he has done so in this particular instance, especially knowing the, looking at the close proximity of the Industrial designation relative to the project site itself. 4 EXHIBIT A UNGER: Thank you. I will go ahead and ask for public testimony, if there is anybody here that would like to testify. It does not appear that there is anybody, but I will ask. Seeing no members of the public here to testify, I will ask for a motion to close this portion of the public hearing. NOBRIGA: I so move. SHIMAOKA: Second. UNGER: We have a motion by Commissioner Nobriga, second by Commissioner Shimaoka. All in favor? COMMISSIONERS: Aye. UNGER: Opposed? \[None.\] Motion passes. Public portion meeting of the hearing is closed. Commissioners, at this time I’m asking for a motion on the application. SHIMAOKA: I move that the application to amend Special Permit SPP 16-190 be approved based on the Planning Director’s recommendations, findings and proposed conditions, which shall be adopted. CHURCH: I’ll second. UNGER: We have a motion by Commissioner Shimaoka, second by Commissioner Church. Commissioners, this is our opportunity to discuss the application, so the floor is open for that. Hearing no further discussion, staff, roll call, please. ARAI: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Commissioner Shimaoka? SHIMAOKA: Aye. ARAI: Commissioner Church? CHURCH: Aye. ARAI: Commissioner Kaholo? KAHOLO: Aye. ARAI: Commissioner Kealoha? KEALOHA: Aye. ARAI: Commissioner Nobriga? NOBRIGA: Aye. 5 EXHIBIT A ARAI: And Mr. Chairman? UNGER: Aye. ARAI: Mr. Chairman, motion carries with six aye votes. UNGER: Thank you. Applicant, you will be notified in writing of the Commission’s decision. Thank you. The discussion ended at 9:48 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Noriko Sauer, Secretary Leeward Planning Commission 6 EXHIBIT A