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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017-07-06 Hearing Transcript - HI Island Distilling SLU 17-047 & REZ 17-218WINDWARD PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAII HEARING TRANSCRIPT JULY 6, 2017 A regularly advertised hearing on the applications of HAWAII ISLAND DISTILLING, LLC (SLU 17-000047/REZ 17-000218) was called to order at 10:13 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 4 members from the public in attendance. APPLICANT: HAWAII ISLAND DISTILLING, LLC (SLU 17-000047/REZ 17-000218) Applications for a State Land Use Boundary Amendment from Agricultural to Urban and a Change of Zone from Agricultural -20 acres (A -20a) to General Industrial -20,000 square feet (MG -20) for approximately 6.505 acres of land. The property is located east of Highway 11 (Volcano Highway), west of Railroad Avenue, and north of Highway 130 (Kea`au-Pahoa Highway), Kea`au, Puna, Hawaii, TMK: 1-6-141:002. HENKEL: And, next on the agenda is Item No. 3, Hawaii Island Distilling, LLC. That's SLU 17-47, REZ 17-218. And, Maija? JACKSON: Thank you. Okay, I'll jump right into the location of the property. It is located in the Puna District just north of the town of Kea`au, and the property shown on the slide outlined in red, you have the Volcano Highway running in a north -south direction on the left side of the slide. This area shown in gray is the Shipman Industrial Park, and then Kea`au Town is located just off of the map to the south. You have the Kea`au Bypass coming off to the right side of the slide, and off of that is Kea`au Road, which leads to Railroad Avenue, and it also leads to Shipman Road, which curves around to the subject property. The Applicant is requesting a State Land Use Boundary Amendment from Agricultural to Urban as well as a Change of Zone from Agricultural — 20 acres to General Industrial with a minimum lot size of 20,000 square feet for approximately 6-1/2 acres of land. The Applicant's making a request in order to establish a microbrewery that will be about 7,500 square feet in size, and it EXHIBIT C will include a 2,000 -square foot supportive retail sales tasting center with about a 300 -square foot kitchen for preparing food for the tasting center and visitors. Other improvements will include improvements to the access road, improvements to the County waterline, and on-site parking and landscaping will be provided. This is the Applicant's proposed site plan. This road here, it's actually not a road lot. It's a series of easements, side-by-side road and utility easements. It's known as Slaughterhouse Road, and this comes off of Shipman Road. The property is currently developed right now with a photovoltaic system field which is in this location here and then the proposed facility would be located kind of in the west corner of the property. So, you would have a circular parking lot, one entrance in, one exit out, and then you can see the proposed microbrewery and then the visitor area. This is the zoning map for the area, and you can see the subject property is zoned Agricultural — 20 acres which is shown in the dark green. To the south are three lots which were recently zoned, rezoned to Family Agricultural — 2 acres. And, then further down Slaughterhouse Road is a lot that is Agricultural — 5 acres, and there's currently an existing water bottling facility on that property. It's known as Hawaiian Springs. This is the General Plan LUPAG Map, and you can see that the subject property is shown in the orange which is Medium Density Urban which usually allows for Commercial and Multi -Family Residential. This area of Railroad Avenue to the east and then a portion of it to the west where the existing HELCO facility is located has been designated for Industrial uses, and the Planning Director has interpreted the map to allow for Industrial uses in this general area of the subject property as well. This is the State Land Use map which shows the property in an Agricultural District. And nearby areas that are in the Urban District are the Shipman Industrial Park, Kea`au, and then some of the industrial areas near the HELCO plant and along Milo Street. And, this is an aerial photo of the property that shows the Shipman Road paralleling the highway. You have the papaya packing facility and a vegetable pickling facility here. And, then, at this point, the road drops down to road easements. This is the Hawaiian Springs water bottling facility, and then this is the general area of the subject property here. So, this is an old aerial photo. It doesn't show the PV field, but that PV field is generally located in this location here, and then the proposed facility would be over on the west end of the property here. These are some site photos of the road. There is about 22 feet of pavement, and you can see the water botting facility at the end of the road here, and then this is looking the other direction back towards Shipman Road. And, these are some views of the property. Hard to see, but you can see the PV field over in this area here. That's on the east side of the property. And, then, this is the middle area and the west side of the property. So, the proposed facility is, would be located in this area here. EXHIBIT C 2 The Planning Director is recommending a favorable recommendation be forwarded to the County Council for the Change of Zone and the State Land Use Boundary Amendment requests. And, that concludes my presentation. I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have. HENKEL: Thanks, Maija. Any questions from the Commission? All right, will the Applicant and/or representative please come forward? Good morning, Mr. Fuke. Will you raise your right hand, please? FUKE: Sure. HENKEL: Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth in this matter before the Planning Commission? FUKE: Yes, I do. HENKEL: Thank you. Proceed. FUKE: Sure, thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, Members of the Commission. The staff's Background Report, as always, is comprehensive and, you know, you really have very little to add. However, I would like to note initially that I'd like to apologize for the absence of the Applicant. He's currently in Australia—not Australia, but in Asia right now trying to generate funds for some of his planned beverage activities. Just to give you some background as far as who the Applicant is, he was one of the original founders of Hawaiian Springs, and he did the facility in Honolulu. It's called Blue Moon. It was a brewery, a microbrewery and a restaurant as well. He's also the founder of Kai Vodka and, which is distilled primarily in Vietnam right now, and actually this is—you know, he's currently right now in Vietnam. But, the reason why he's doing this is like, you know, he's had some studies done, and one of the studies showed, you know, which was done by the U.S. Geological Survey found that this particular area has one of the best artisan water system in this area; and hence, you know, you have the Hawaiian Springs. And, with the growth of the, you know, the microbrewery, you know, the interest in microbreweries, distilled, you know, vodkas, well, you know, you have like Koloa Rum. You have like Maui Vodka. And, you know, it's really becoming a very, kind of like more in vogue, and this site from his perspective is reasonably accessible to a lot of the local, agricultural tropical foods. You know, whether it's papaya, rambutan, lychee, lime. These will be all potentially, can be infused into the various distilled products or let alone, the brewed products. And, so, that's the reason why, you know, this site is selected. The zoning map might seem a little bit deceptive in the sense that you have an area which would show like an Ag -5 acre area. But, that Ag -5 acre area is where the Hawaiian Springs operation plant, operating plant is. The FA -2 acre area was, well actually rezoned to create two -acre lots because previously, there was a Special Permit also issued for brewery or beverage facility. EXHIBIT C 3 However, to enable the subdivision of different brewery or distillery operations, then the property had to be subdivided and so, as a result, the property was then rezoned into the, at that time FA -2 acre area. So, his vision is actually because of the, the quality of the water in this area is like to kind of like create like a beverage community. You know, ranging from potable water to distilled activity as well as a brewery. So, that's kind of like gradually evolving right now. The staff, you know, like is, you know, inI'm sorry, if I can just kind of back up. So, in anticipation of creating a so-called, this beverage community, what he has done is like created this one acre of solar array. You know, and that solar system right now is already on-line, and it currently services the Hawaiian Springs. And, the intent is to also supplement other users, you know, within that so-called beverage community. He recently received a permit and currently is drilling another well just across of this property on one of those areas that currently has a Special Permit. And, depending on what the volume and, again, the quality of that water, and his ventures out in Asia to find investors to possibly develop either a brewery or a distilled operation still remains to be seen, but at least the Special Permit and the current zoning request will enable all of those different type of options for him. In addition, you know, as the staff's Background Report kind of pointed out, the original plan was to apply for a Special Permit. You know, like just across the street. But, in the discussions with the staff, it was felt like it would be more appropriate to have this area be zoned General Industrial, you know, rather than continuing this pattern of Special Permits. The Applicant was totally receptive to that because the General Industrial zone would also enable him to provide areas for warehousing, for example, that can be used by the other users in that, you know, other developers in that area. So, that kind of like suits into his overall, what I call, beverage community kind of plan. He's had a chance to review the staff's proposed, not only Background Report, but the Recommendation and the conditions and found them to be totally acceptable. So, if you have any more questions other than what I've stated, I'd be more than happy to respond. HENKEL: Thanks, Mr. Fuke. Any questions? You may be seated. FUKE: Okay, thank you. MIYASATO: Chair, I just have one real quick one. So, you know, for the Industrial zoning portion, Condition C, I'm just assuming that those, that additional well that you're drilling will be providing the water supply for this. Under Condition C that no County water shall be used? FUKE: No, like that condition was madeI think you've read in the paper like there was this one guy who had this water bottling thing, was taking out of the County system and marketing it as like, you know, a private Hawaiian type of water, and so the County just kind of stopped it off So, that condition was basically saying that, you know, because there's still a need to draw the County water line to this area. And, so what that condition is saying is that you can't use that water and market it as like your own water, yeah. EXHIBIT C 4 MIYASATO: Okay, thank you. HENKEL: Any other questions? Thank you, Mr. Fuke. I have no one signed as, signed up to testify. Is there anybody out there who would like to contribute? If not, we'll look for a motion. MIYASATO: Chair, I just have one quick question for the Chair [sic -Director]. Is that Condition C, is that the intent? Just not to resell? The industrial YEE: Maija, did you have a comment? JACKSON: I doI did. I could try to answer that for you if that's all right. The intent of that condition was to actually not to allow the County water system to be used for any production facilities. So, anything that would go into the final product would come from the water well, not from the County system. So, the intent, and if you look at I think the next condition, Condition D, the intent was to allow County water to be used for like the employee areas for handwashing, restrooms, things like that, but not for water to be used for the actual production of any bottled product. MIYASATO: So, is that, does that work out for the operation? FUKE: Yes, it does. I mean, that was always the Applicant's understanding. You know, and he was aware that, you know, they're all competitors, right, and had this other water company, they was using County water and bottling it as, you know, their own precious water, so he absolutely—you know, it's bad for marketing. You know to say that you're gonna use County water and then you're saying that you're going to market that as your own product. So, you know, he's totally aware of it, and you know, he finds that condition very acceptable. MIYASATO: Okay, thank you. HENKEL: Thank you. No one signed up to testify. Is there a motion to close that portion of the hearing? MIYASATO: Motion to close public testimony. IKEDA: Second. HENKEL: It's been closed—moved and seconded to close public testimony. All in favor say Ic aye?" COMMISSIONERS: Aye. HENKEL: Opposed? Then, we'll move onto discussion and a motion for action. MIYASATO: Chair, I make a motion. I move that a favorable recommendation be forwarded to the County Council on the application for State Land Use Boundary Amendment SLU 17 - EXHIBIT C 5 000047 based on the Planning Director's recommendation, findings, and proposed conditions, which shall be adopted. HENKEL: And, this is just the State Land Use motion. We'll need another one for the Change of Zone. MIYASATO: Yes. HALL: But we can vote, let's vote on this one first, and then HENKEL: —Let's vote on this one. It's been moved IKEDA: Second. HENKEL: And seconded by Mr. Ikeda. Roll call vote, please? JACKSON: Commissioner Miyasato? MIYASATO: Aye. JACKSON: Commissioner Ikeda? IKEDA: Aye. JACKSON: Commissioner Raffipiy? RAFFIPIY: Aye. JACKSON: And Chair Henkel. HENKEL: Aye. JACKSON: Okay, the motion carries four, zero. HENKEL: Thank you. You'll be notified in writing and now MIYASATO: Chair, Chair? JACKSON: The rezone? HENKEL: Another motion for rezone. MIYASATO: Chair, I make a motion. I move that a favorable recommendation be forwarded to the County Council on the application for Change of Zoning, Change of Zone Docket No. REZ 17-000218 based on the Planning Director's recommendations, findings, and proposed conditions which shall be adopted. EXHIBIT C 6 IKEDA: Second. HENKEL: It's been moved by Commissioner Miyasato; seconded by Commissioner Ikeda. Roll call vote, please? JACKSON: Okay. Commissioner Miyasato? MIYASATO: Aye. JACKSON: Commissioner Ikeda? IKEDA: Aye. JACKSON: Commissioner Raffipiy? RAFFIPIY: Aye. JACKSON: And Chair Henkel. HENKEL: Aye. JACKSON: Okay, the motion carries four, zero for the rezone. HENKEL: And, you'll be notified in writing. FUKE (from audience): Thank you. The discussion ended at 10:30 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Sarah Y. Hata-Finley, Secretary Windward Planning Commission EXHIBIT C 7