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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017-07-06 Hearing Transcript - COH DPW USE 17-069WINDWARD PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAII HEARING TRANSCRIPT JULY 6, 2017 A regularly advertised hearing on the application of the COUNTY OF HAWAII, DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS (USE 17-069) was called to order at 9:51 a.m. in the County of Hawaii Aupuni Center Conference Room, 101 Pauahi Street, Hilo, Hawaii with Chairman Gregory Henkel presiding. COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Gregory Henkel, Donald Ikeda, Myles Miyasato, and Thomas Raffipiy. ABSENT & EXCUSED: Joe Clarkson, Donn Dela Cruz. ALSO PRESENT: Michael Yee (Planning Director), Daryn Arai (Deputy Planning Director), Mafia Ho Hall (Deputy Corporation Counsel for the Windward Planning Commission), Jeff Darrow (Planning Program Manager), Maija Jackson (Planner), Christian Kay (Planner), Shancy Watanabe (Planner), and Sarah Hata-Finley (Commission Secretary). And 25 members from the public in attendance. APPLICANT: COUNTY OF HAWAII, DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS (USE 17-000069) Application for a Use Permit to allow the construction of a 130 -foot tall, steel lattice radio tower equipped with one microwave dish and two, 2 -way radio antennas and related structures and improvements on approximately 2,178 square feet of land within the State Land Use Agricultural District. The project site is situated at 92-6091 Orchid Circle Mauka which is also the site of the Ocean View Fire Station at the intersection of Orchid Circle Mauka and Ocean View Parkway, Ocean View, Ka`u, Hawaii, TMK: 9-2-031: Portion of 019. HENKEL: So, we'll move onto Agenda Item No. 2—thank you again for coming all of you which is County of Hawaii Department of Public Works, item USE 17-69, and KAY: That's me, Mr. Chair. I'll be there in a second. HENKEL: And, Christian is going to make the presentation. KAY: Unless Maija wants to. Good morning, Members of the Windward Planning Commission. MIYASATO: Good morning. KAY: Good to see you again. As the Chair mentioned, our next application is a Use Permit for another tower. Just if I can turn your attention to the screen, the subject parcel is located in the 10V1111.11 1.1 Ka`u District of Hawaii Island; more specifically, in the Hawaiian Ocean View Estates or HOVE Subdivision. And, it's outlined in red. I'm not gettingoh, yeah, there we go. Outlined in red here on the western portion of the subdivision. For your reference, we've got Mamalahoa Highway running generally east -west through the slide and access to the subject parcel is off of Ocean View Parkway and Orchid Circle Mauka, which is in this area here. The Applicant is requesting a Use Permit to allow the construction of a telecommunication tower and related structures on a 2,178 -square foot or 0.05 -acre portion of a 2 -acre parcel in the State Land Use Agricultural District which will include the following: a 130 -foot tall, self-supporting, structural galvanized steel lattice telecommunication tower with one microwave dish and two, 2 - way radio antennas; 200 -square foot radio equipment shelter containing communications equipment; underground electrical lines in conduit to the equipment shelter; an emergency generator on a concrete pad; and a propane fuel tank on a concrete pad; and finally a ten -foot high fence around the whole project area, security fence. The reason for the request is that the County of Hawaii is upgrading its radio system which is used by various County agencies for emergency and other communications. With the current radio system, there are certain areas of the island with poor to no radio communications, particularly in the Puna and Ka`u Districts. Fire, Police, and Civil Defense personnel are sometimes cut off in communication with headquarters and other personnel during disaster events when all other conventional and public communications can be affected. The Applicant is proposing a safe and effective location that offers transmission lines of site to other key facilities which will enable critical coverage of gap areas and improve overall County radio coverage in the District of Ka`u. Just, again for reference, this is a zoomed in view of the site. We've got Ocean View Parkway running generally east -west through the slide and Orchid Circle Mauka, again, was where we accessed the parcel running general north -south. This is the subject parcel here outlined in red. And, in the black, dashed line is generally where the project area is going to be located. The County zoning for the area, subject parcel, and surrounding area is Agricultural – 1 acre. The State Land Use Boundary designation for the subject parcel and surrounding area is Agricultural as is indicated in the green color. And, finally, our General Plan Land Use Pattern Allocation Guide Map designates the subject parcel and surrounding area as Rural, as indicated in the mustard color. Here are two aerial photographs of the subject parcel. On the left—we have more zoomed out you can see Orchid Circle here. The subject parcel is in, outlined in red. And, it's a two -acre parcel which the, the more makai acre of the parcel is heavily vegetated, and is undeveloped. The mauka portion of the parcel is where the volunteer fireoh, pardon me—the Ocean View EXHIBIT B 2 Fire Station is located. And, here in the yellow, you'll see generally where the proposed tower is going to be located. On the right-hand side, zoomed in, just showing access again off of Orchid Circle Mauka. Access to the driveway here. Here's the Fire Station building. There is a helicopter landing pad, catchment tank here, and adjacent or across from the landing pad is generally where the tower is going to be located. Here is the Applicant's site plan. Again, for reference, we've got Orchid Circle Mauka here on the right-hand side generally running north -south. Again, with the—with the Fire Station building here, access off of here, and generally, again, toward the northeast corner, pardon me, northwest corner of that portion of the parcel is where the tower is going to be located. And, also shown on the map here or that the, indicated here, are tall trees. So, there is a residence located to the north of the subject parcel, but that the trees will generally will shade out or, or restrict view of at least the ground equipment and other facilities there. Here's elevation of the tower to give you an idea of scale. This is the 10 -foot high security fence, so again, it's going to be a 130 -foot tower. On the left-hand side, it's just a more blown up view of the tower site plan showing the shelter and the location of propane tank, the tower, etc. Here's some photographs of the parcel of the site. Again, this is coming off of Orchid Circle Mauka. This is the entrance to the site, and you've got the Fire Department building here. In the back here, you can kind of see a yellow fire truck. This is generally going to be the location of the tower, and on the right-hand side zoomed in a little bit more, so this is that same truck so the tower is going to be right around here. Finally, just some views of Orchid Circle Mauka looking south. The subject parcel is on the right-hand side, and again, the same road looking north with the subject parcel on the left-hand side. The Planning Director is recommending approval of the Use Permit with conditions. I'd be happy to answer any questions the Commission might have on this application. HENKEL: Thanks, Christian. Any questions from the Commission? All right. Will the Applicant please come forward and/or their representative? Welcome, gentlemen. Will you please raise your right hand? Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth in this matter before the Planning Commission? TERRY/O'CONNOR/DRUMMOND/TODD/ANDRADE: Yes. HENKEL: Okay, we'll start with you, sir. Please speak into the microphone, and state your name and where you're from. EXHIBIT B 3 TERRY: My name is Ron Terry. I'm the environmental consultant for the project. I've been working for the County on this for several years, and we've had an environmental assessment. It was attached as part of the application. And, I think, in terms of my testimony, I have very little to say unless you have questions, but I wanted to make sure that the folks that are going to be using this equipment to benefit our entire County could explain, you know, why they generated this project and how important it is to them. So, I'll seed my time to them. HENKEL: Thank you, Ron. Okay, and the Director recommended approval with conditions. Have, have you folks seen the conditions and are okay with them? Okay, yes sir, you can go next. O'CONNOR: James O'Connor, Major of Technical Services in the Hawaii Police Department. The radio system is already up and running. With the addition of the Fire Station 20 tower, it gives a lot better coverage in the Ocean View area as well as the South Kona area. Having been a captain down there, I know there's certain areas where there are no radio coverage previously which creates safety hazards for all first responders as well as for the public in general. It also allows, this tower will allow some redundancy, so if we do lose another tower in the `Ohi`a Mill area, South Kona, that the tower will be able to pick up that area, and we won't lose any radio coverage. Thank you. HENKEL: Good morning, John. DRUMMOND: John Drummond, Hawaii County Civil Defense, and I'd just like to emphasize what Major O'Connor brought up. It's, we've got areas in the South Kona and the Ka`u District with very poor radio coverage, and that's been a longstanding problem. We're trying to correct that with this tower. HENKEL: Thank you. And, the Fire Department? TODD: Battalion Chief Kazuo Todd. I run auxiliary services and directly oversee dispatch, and also work somewhat on the radio project that this is being put up as part of. So, some of the background history is we had to go to narrowband as opposed to wideband in terms of our radio transmissions. The FCC made some rules where basically, they wanted to cut up the bands a little bit to be able to have more people using them. Part of the issue is we also went to digital to compensate for the fact that we wouldn't have as much bandwidth to send our messages, and the radio reception would actually be decreased in terms of the quality. This tower is one of a, I believe, a couple that we're going to try to put up to compensate for the fact that we had to switch to narrowband. And, it is vital and crucial that it gets approved and put up. Our responders respond in less than ideal conditions often times radio -wise, and if they were to call for help or need assistance on a case because of manpower issues or, you know, something going wrong at the scene, we need that radio communication to work properly. And, because of EXHIBIT B 4 the changes that the FCC put forward, and the changes in our radio system to comply with that, this particular tower is crucial for that need. And, I'm, if you guys have any questions from the fire side in terms of response or radio or dispatching, I'm here to answer as well. ANDRADE: Good morning. Gantry Andrade, Assistant Fire Chief, Operations Division. Just here to show support for this project in that communications plays a vital role in our emergency operations so, any questions, then refer to Kazu. HENKEL: Thank you. Any questions from the Commission? IKEDA: John, is this the communication that the Federal government mandated about 30 years ago? I remember working with you guys about having an island -wide communication system. DRUMMOND: Back in the early nineties, the FCC mandated that all public safety communications go to narrowband which means 12-1/2 kilohertz channels as opposed to the 25 kilohertz channels that we used previously. Unfortunately, it was an unfunded mandate so the County had to come up with the money to make the changeover. We were finally able to do that. The Phase A of our project changed the equipment at the existing towers and changed all of the radios in all County vehicles as well as the hand-held radios. Phase B of the project which the Ocean View tower is part of was to increase coverage to areas of the County where we have marginal or no radio coverage. So, the long -way around, yes, this is part of that. HENKEL: Any other questions? I have a comment. I live in another underserved area in Puna, and I appreciate the need for good communications, and Major O'Connor, you mentioned redundancy in communications. Is—would that be cell phones? Is that is that part of your, if the radio coverage goes down? O'CONNOR: No, sir. That's not part of the coverage, the cell phone. HENKEL: Okay. What, what is the redundancy? O'CONNOR: What the redundancy is, is having the towers being able to overlap certain areas. If one tower is to go down mechanically or, you know, due to some sort of weather event and you still had other towers up, they can still pick up service in that area so we'd have that redundancy and be able to communicate. HENKEL: Okay, thanks for clearing that up. Any other questions? Thank you, gentlemen. I have no one signed up to testify, so we'll look for a motion to close the public testimony portion. IKEDA: Move to close public testimony. MIYASATO: Second. EXHIBIT B 5 HENKEL: It's been moved and seconded to close public testimony. All in favor say, "aye." COMMISSIONERS: Aye. HENKEL: Opposed? Public testimony is closed. And, now we can look for a discussion and a motion for action. MIYASATO: Chair, I'll make a motion. You know, I agree and that for our first responders, communication is vital and key, so I'd like to makeI move that the application for Use Permit Docket No. USE 17-69 be approved based on the Planning Director's recommendations, findings, and proposed conditions which shall be adopted. IKEDA: Second. HENKEL: It's been moved by Commissioner Miyasato; seconded by Commissioner Ikeda. Any discussion? Then, we'll have a roll call vote. KAY: Okay, thank you, Mr. Chair. Commissioner Miyasato? MIYASATO: Aye. KAY: Commissioner Ikeda? IKEDA: Aye. KAY: Commissioner Raffipiy? RAFFIPIY: Aye. KAY: And, finally, Chair Henkel. HENKEL: Aye. KAY: All right, thank you. Motion carries four, nothing. The discussion ended at 10:06 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Sarah Y. Hata-Finley, Secretary Windward Planning Commission EXHIBIT B 6