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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018-04-05 Hearing Transcript - Kelly & Joanne Jarneski REZ 18-226WINDWARD PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAII HEARING TRANSCRIPT APRIL 5, 2018 A regularly advertised hearing on the application of KELLY AND JOANNE JARNESKI (REZ 18-226) was called to order at 9:18 a.m. in the County of Hawaii Aupuni Center Conference Room, 101 Pauahi Street, Hilo, Hawaii with Chairman Joseph Clarkson presiding. COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Gilbert Aguinaldo, Joe Clarkson, Donn Dela Cruz, Donald Ikeda, Thomas Raffipiy, and John Replogle. ALSO PRESENT: Michael Yee (Planning Director), Malia Ho Hall (Deputy Corporation Counsel for the Windward Planning Commission), Ronald Kim (Deputy Corporation Counsel for the Planning Director), Jeff Darrow (Planning Program Manager), Maija Jackson (Planner), Christian Kay (Planner), Shancy Watanabe (Planner), Melissa Dacayanan (Planning Commission Support Technician), and Sarah Hata-Finley (Commission Secretary). And 51 members from the public in attendance. APPLICANT: KELLY and JOANNE JARNESKI (REZ 18-000226) Application for a Change of Zone from an Agricultural -20 acres (A -20a) to an Agricultural -6 acres (A -6a) zoning district for approximately 40 acres of land. The subject properties are located on the west side of Akolea Road, about 550 feet north of the intersection of Kaumana Drive and Akolea Road, portion of Ponahawai-Kaumana Homesteads, South Hilo, Hawaii, TMK: (3) 2-5-047:033 and 034. CLARKSON: The next item on the agenda is an application for rezone. Will the staff person please come forward and make their presentation? WATANABE: Aloha mai kakou. The Applicants are Kelly and Joanne Jarneski, and they're requesting a Change of Zone application. This is the location map. The subject properties are outlined in red and located about 550 feet from the intersection of Kaumana Drive and Akolea Road in the South Hilo District. The nearest stream is the non -perennial Kaluiiki tributary from the Wailoa River which is about 300 feet from the subject property. The Applicants are requesting a Change of Zone from Agricultural — 20 acres to an Agricultural — 6 acres zoning district to create a 6 -lot subdivision. Four of the lots will be a minimum of six acres, and two lots will be about eight acres each, totaling the 40 acres of land. Upon subdivision approval, the Applicants will continue to live in their current residence and retain ownership of that lot while planning to sell the remaining proposed five lots. 10V1111.11 1.1 This is the Applicants proposed subdivision maps for Parcels 33 on the left and 34 on the right. The Applicants will retain their existing residence and retain ownership of that lot shown here, and as mentioned before, the Applicants intend to sell the remaining resulting lots. This is the zoning map. The subject properties are zoned Agricultural -20a. The surrounding properties are Residential shown in the light yellow, Commercial shown in the light pink, and Other Agricultural zoning in the light blue and green. This is the General Plan Land Use Plan Pattern Allocation Guide Map. Parcel 34 is mostly Important Agricultural Lands with a sliver of Extensive Agriculture. Parcel 33 is mostly Important Agricultural Lands with a portion of Low Density Urban and an even smaller portion of Medium Density Urban. This is the State Land Use Boundary Map. The subject properties are situated within the State Land Use Agricultural District, and that's shown in the light green. The State Land Use Urban is shown in the light pink. This is an aerial photograph of the subject properties. You can see the existing dwelling in the upper right hand corner. This photo was taken standing on Akolea Road at about the middle property boundary of the subject parcels facing west. The picture on the left is a view from Akolea Road looking towards Parcel 33 in the southwest direction. The picture on the right is a view from Akolea Road looking towards Parcel 34 in the northwest direction. This photo was taken standing on Akolea Road facing south. This is a one -lane road that is approximately 12 feet wide, and this photo on the right was taken standing on Akolea Road facing north where the one -lane road becomes a two-lane road at about the middle of Parcel 34. The Planning Director respectfully submits for a favorable recommendation for a Change of Zone request to the County Council. This concludes my presentation. I am happy to answer any questions the Planning Commission may have. CLARKSON: Any questions about the presentation from the Commission? If not, thank you, Shancy. At this time, I'd like to call the Applicant or their representative forward. Please, you'll have to share the microphone. Please raise your right hands. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth on this matter before the Commission today? MIKKELSON/JARNESKL I do. CLARKSON: Thank you. Whoever wishes to go first, please state your name and where you're from. EXHIBIT B 2 JARNESKL Okay, my name is Kelly Jarneski. I live up Akolea Road. Me and my wife decided that we want to cut up the land and sell the land. At one point, we was keeping the [inaudible] you know, 18 years ago for our family, but only get one daughter, and she's in Las Vegas going college, and has no intentions of coming home. So, at this point, we want to cut it up, sell some, mostly to friends and family. We like living like that. We want to keep it like that. We want everybody—it's more for like, I have friends that get like little kids, and they want to live that way. They want to live close to Hilo and have a farm life in the city, you know, basically, and raise their kids with animals and, you know, fruits and vegetables. I basically live off the land, and they want to practically do the same thing. So, it's, so that's why we decided to do this. MIKKELSON: Good morning. My name is Lori Mikkelson. I've been working with Kelly to get this done, and if you have any questions, I'm willing to answer them if you need. CLARKSON: Well, have you read the Planning Department's Recommendations and conditions for this rezone? JARNESKL Yes. CLARKSON: And you're satisfied with those? JARNESKL Yes. CLARKSON: Any questions for the Applicants from the rest of the Commission? If not, thank you. Please be seated, and we'll proceed with the public testimony. At this time, we have one person signed up to testify, Lloyd Mon [sic]. MORI (from audience): Mori. CLARKSON: Mori. Please raise your right hand. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth on this matter before the Commission? MORI: Yes, sir. CLARKSON: Please proceed. MORI: My name is Lloyd Mori. I live at 140 Akolea Place directly across the street from this proposed change. I have two issues. One is the six lots. They're going to be residential, so it's no farming. It's been farmed in the past, and it's been used that way for as long as I've been there. So, this division is going to become residential. There's going to be six houses there. There's going to probably two to three cars there. That's a one -lane road. Where she showed the two-lane road is just a short section as a safety measure `cause there's a hill there. It turns into a one-way road on the other side. The road is stressed already EXHIBIT B 3 HALL: Please speak into the microphone, sir. MORI: The road is stressed already with traffic. We have tourists coming through there because they're directed to Boiling Pots, you know, where their GPS to come down that road, tourist buses will come through there, and then regular residential. It's a very dangerous road. There have been three or four accidents on that stretch of road that they've shown since I've been there, and it's because it's a one -lane road, and the safety depends upon drivers' courtesy rather than any traffic rules. So, that needs to be addressed. The other thing is more directly affecting me. When it rains, water from that property collects and floods across my property. It's a natural occurrence, like my yard is cut from the way the water has run over the years. My concern is once it's developed with houses there, it's going to change the flow of the water. It may make it worse. It may make it better. I want some assurance that it's going to make it, keep it the same or make it better because developing that property is going to change the water flow across that road, which also makes the road dangerous because the water accumulates across a 150 -foot stretch of that road as deep as six inches when it rains. And, we're not talking heavy rains. We're talking a normal Hilo rain. Those are my two objections to this. If we can do some kind of a, you know, water report on that to show how they're going to mitigate the water flow through that property once it's developed, and the traffic issue is a County thing. You guys are going to have to deal with it, but those are my two main concerns. CLARKSON: Any questions from the rest of the Commission? I just have one. I'd like to take a look again please at the photograph of the one -lane road just so I understand. I also drive over extensive one -lane roads to my house, and often meet oncoming traffic and one or the other of us has to pull over. Usually, I think County rules are that the downhill traffic has to yield to uphill traffic. It does appear to me that this road has very, it has some paved shoulder, and in this picture at least, a very broad unpaved shoulder that is well mown. What's under the grass? Is that just dirt? MORI: Well, it's dirt. What you can't see there is a couple of feet off the edge of that, it drops right off Now, on the Kaumana roadside between the Kaumana Road and the first property, there's trenches on either side of the road, so you have nowhere to go, and that's—it may be a couple hundred feet of the road, maybe a hundred yards of the road. So, you have nowhere to go. So you're depending upon, you know CLARKSON: Courtesy. MORI: Courtesy, and like I said, they've been three or four accidents there, so adding another 50 cars a day, you know, this is down the road obviously, but adding another 50 cars a day to that situation is not a good thing. CLARKSON: Thank you. EXHIBIT B 4 IKEDA: Mr. Chairman? You know, I walls that road almost every morning. MORI: I thought you looked familiar. IKEDA: Yeah, so I know what you're talking about, but I've noticed that people were courteous, that they do, you know, move on the side. It would be nice if they could have made it, you know, a little wider, but. MORI: What I was thinking, you know, a simple solution to that is some kind of traffic instruction. You know, a yield sign or some warning of what's going on, because it's not really our, you know, local guys, we know what to do. IKEDA: Yeah, I walls that almost every morning. Yeah. MORI: But, it's the tourists that come in. They have no idea, you know, when they face you down on a one -lane road, and some of these mainlanders are really aggressive, you know. IKEDA: Yeah, and in fact I kinda like the road. Maybe I go early in the morning so the traffic isn't that heavy. I might run across four or five cars at the most. MORI: Well, I work out of the house, so I kind of watch it all day if you will. There are two times where it's busy. You know, it has to do with the change of the hospital shifts. The rest of the day, it's just the local traffic. IKEDA: That's right. MORI: Tourist buses and tourists, they run that road. IKEDA: Like at 4 o'clock in the morning, no one is there. MORI: No one's there, yeah. It's really nice, and you know, I don't have any objection, you know, to the change per se. I like your idea actually. That's why we moved up there. IKEDA: I think a lot of lots down there, isn't it Ag -3 or something like that on the bottom side of the road? MORI: Where's that? IKEDA: On Akolea. I think a lot of the lots are Ag -3. MORI: Yeah, they're all Ag -3 I think, almost all of them I think. IKEDA: So, it's kind of changing, you know, so I understand. In fact, what was hisI think, Kai came in for a subdivision not too long ago, and I think we changed his one also. So, EXHIBIT B 5 MORI: No, I think that's the inevitable use of that. The inevitable use of that property is to be residential property, and it's good that it's broken up into six acres. I like all of that. Like I said, my only issue is down the road, you're going to have to deal with the traffic issue there. There's already been several accidents on that stretch. That has to be dealt with. And, the flooding, particularly to me. You know, I can't go along with this unless I have some assurance that they address that issue. IKEDA: I think that can be done, I think. If you ask the Planning Director where all water has to be retained within the property. You know, we have done that before. MORI: Is that the normal course of business when it's in a subdivision? Is that? HALL: Usually when you have a subdivision or even any development there usually needs to be a drainage study for each person that— MORI: There is? HALL: Yeah, so it will be done by the Department of Public Works. MORI: And, they'll give instructions on how to change things or construct them to figure out? HALL: I think that you just submit the study and they approve or deny it. MORI: And, so that's just a normal course of the business? HALL/IKEDA: Yes. MORI: Okay, so will I be privy to that somehow, somewhere? HALL: It's usually all public record because it goes through the County. MORI: But, I won't actually be notified. HALL: You have to request it. MORI: I have to request it? And, where do I request that? HALL: The Department of Public Works whenever it happens, yeah. MORI: But, I won't be notified when it happens. WATANABE: We can add you to a list. MORI: Could I please? EXHIBIT B 6 WATANABE: We can put you through email or we can mail it to you. MORI: Yeah, yeah. WATANABE: And, you do bring up valid concerns. There are two conditions that we are adding, we're recommending that the Planning Commission consider. Condition K, I'll read it for you, states that, "A twenty-five foot wide future road widening setback along the property's Akolea Street frontage shall be delineated on [a] plat map[s] submitted for the subdivision of the subject property. Upon [the] request of the Department of Public Works, the applicant, their successors or assigns shall subdivide and dedicate the land encumbered by the future road widening to the County of Hawaii at no cost to the County." So, this would be during the subdivision approval. The subdivision wouldn't go through unless those improvements, or is delineated on the map. MORI: Okay. WATANABE: And at the time that DPW needs them to do the future road widening, that will happen. MORI: Okay. WATANABE: And, the other condition that you had mentioned, we're addressing that in Condition M which states that, "All development generated runoff shall be disposed of on site and [shall] not be directed towards any adjacent properties." MORI: Okay. Okay, I'm satisfied. IKEDA: So, I think the conditions should be getting better instead of right now. It should be better than what it is right now. MORI: Okay. Well, I hope so anyway. CLARKSON: Thank you. We have one more person signed up to testify. Please raise your right hand. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth on this matter before the Commission today? PEART: I do. CLARKSON: Please introduce yourself and then proceed with your testimony. PEART: Thank you. I'm Eden Peart, a 35 -year resident of the Island of Hawaii, now in Hamakua. I'm not fully familiar with this request, but I was concerned as I saw the presentation. I am hoping that the Commissioners won't take lightly dividing up land that's been designated for Agricultural in several designations into smaller units. I can understand and acknowledge definitely why the owners would want to surround themselves with neighbors, families that share the same kind of subsistence lifestyle. I'm concerned that Puna, which is such a quickly EXHIBIT B 7 increasing area of growth, but lacks sufficient infrastructure, would do this lightly. It opens the door for speculation, and for one thing, these are like gentlemen farm kind of tracts that would be opened up even if they were initially sold to families. That doesn't guarantee that they will stay in that kind of conscionable stewardship. But, moreover, I hope you'll really consider the expertise of the neighbor who brought up some important hydrology issues, that, you know, quick fixes aren't easy to figure out what to do or how to pay for them, and the County has a lot of obligations in many areas to fix things in Puna. So, before this designation is decided, I hope you'll really consider with the expertise that exists in our County now through the extension offices and Korean Natural Farming. There's ways to take these 20 -acre tracts or 40 as they were and make them serve multiple needs for families and communities and support our number one goal of, you know, food sovereignty and food self- sufficiency on the island. So, while it will certainly be profitable and perhaps have some good outcomes, I hope you won't take this decision lightly to divide up big tracts of agricultural land that has a lot of potential to meet our greater needs. Thanks. CLARKSON: Thank you. Are there any questions for the testifier from the IKEDA: I'd like to comment on that. CLARKSON: Okay. IKEDA: You know, like what you're saying is really true because they had a new subdivision in our area called Haleloke, and the developer did a good job where their land used to flood and used to go all the way down to Ainako. They did swales, and they diverted some of the water, and it doesn't flood anymore, and so I have a lot of confidence in the County. Also, on the natural farming, I was one of the founders of the natural farming so I understand what you're talking about, and I think six acres is quite a lot because I do some farming on my one -acre, and I do mine little different. I have some in the ground but lot of—because my land is very poor. It's rocky, and I do hydroponics, so, you know, there's other ways of farming also. So, thank you. CLARKSON: Any other questions? REPLOGLE: I would like to. I agree with you. The idea that they have presented in having their friends farm around them, that lifestyle producing food is good, but down the road, is the six -acre parcel going to become six different parcels? And, the idea of food sovereignty is a very serious thing facing the State of Hawaii, and I don't know that there's anything that can be done to protect our agricultural land. I agree with Mr. Ikeda. Six acres is a lot to farm, yet we have to be careful we don't today say go ahead and tomorrow the farmland, the ag land is lost. And, an interesting thing, the population of the State of Hawaii today is equal to what it was in the islands at the time of the arrival of Cook. The big difference is when Cook got here, we fed ourselves. Now, we don't feed ourselves. We have a week or two of food in the State, and these 10V1111.11 1.1 six -acre parcels would be gold if something were to change. Anyway, that's my concern with the messing with agricultural property. Thank you. RAFFIPIY: Mr. Chairman, I'd like to make a comment on that. I kind of look at it in a different perspective. Right now, we have one family trying to do farming, and I don't know how much they can farm, one family can farm that much of a property, real estate. But, I was thinking like if you have six families, multiply that effort right now by six times. I thought that it would increase the food production by six times, and like Mr. Ikeda said, you know, six acres is a lot of real estate to farm, so that's how I look at it. Thank you, Mr. Chair. CLARKSON: Any other comments or questions for this testifier? No? Thank you very much. Is there anyone else that would like to testify on this matter? Please come forward and be sworn in first. Please raise your right hand. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth on this matter before the Commission today? PAIK: I do. CLARKSON: Please introduce yourself and proceed. PAIK: Hi, my name is Koohan Paik, and I also didn't come to speak on this, but I was on Kauai for 20 years, and I saw situations like this time and time again, and I don't know if you know what Kauai is like now, but it's a planning commission disaster, and it's because people had entirely good intentions just like these folks do. So, I wonder, if, why not lease the land? Set up arrangements with families and friends because what happened on Kauai time and time again is that as prices skyrocketed and people like Mark Zuckerberg started moving in, which is going to happen here more and more. It's like how can you turn down a million dollars for your six -acre parcel even though your cousin wants to give you payments of $300 a month for the same parcel. Or, what if you sell your parcel to your cousin for whatever, and then prices skyrocket, and that person loses his job. Next thing you know? It's in the hands of a speculator, and that's what happened on Kauai. That's what happened on Maui. And, it all started out with entirely good intentions for food sovereignty, for staying in the family. If you want to stay in the family and with friends, why not lease it? And that way you don't go down that road that there is no turning back. Thanks. CLARKSON: Thank you. If there is no more testimony, I ask for a motion that public testimony be closed. IKEDA: I move that public testimony be closed. CLARKSON: Is there a second? DELA CRUZ: Second. CLARKSON: All those in favor? COMMISSIONERS: Aye. EXHIBIT B 9 CLARKSON: Opposed? Public testimony is closed. Is there any discussion that we Commissioners would like to have? Any more questions before I call for a motion for action? If not REPLOGLE: I have a question of the Applicants. CLARKSON: Please come forward. REPLOGLE: We are at a juncture here, and as I stated, I think your plan and your intentions are excellent, but as our friend from, that lived on Kauai pointed out, we can see how that could go awry and cost us something of real value, that agricultural land. I guess my question is would youI'm new at this so—would you be willing to consider the leasing idea from the standpoint of, you know, so the land can stay in ag or put covenants on this subdivision where the land would stay like that? MIKKELSON: There's a couple of different things I'd like to say, please. REPLOGLE: Go ahead. MIKKELSON: First of all, this land can no longer, no further be subdivided. It is, it's at its max right there. So, that stays at 6 acres and 8 acres. That's the first thing. The second thing, because of the requirements for having additional farm dwellings, you would come to a spot where you could not lease it out and have homes on it, residences on it. Although you can lease the land, you wouldn't be able to have a residence, so your family could not be on there, and this way, they have each of these properties has a water meter available, one. And, after that, so, they cannot really subdivide any further. It is just what it is. I hope that helps. REPLOGLE: Well, I understand that, and the three of us aren't going to rewrite land use law today, but that is a concern of mine that we need to figure out a way so you can do that. You can live on your farm. Anyway, thank you. Thanks for answering. CLARKSON: Thank you. You may be seated if there are no further questions. At this time, I'd like a motion for action, please. IKEDA: I move that a favorable recommendation be forwarded to the County Council on the application of Change of Zone, Docket No. REZ 18-226 based on the Planning Director's recommendations, findings, and proposed conditions which shall be adopted. DELA CRUZ: Second. CLARKSON: It's been moved and seconded that a favorable recommendation be made. Moved by Commissioner Ikeda and seconded by Commissioner Dela Cruz. Please call the roll vote. WATANABE: Yes, Chair. Commissioner Ikeda? EXHIBIT B 10 IKEDA: Aye. WATANABE: Commissioner Dela Cruz? DELA CRUZ: Aye. WATANABE: Commissioner Aguinaldo? AGUINALDO: Aye. WATANABE: Commissioner Raffipiy? RAFFIPIY: Aye. WATANABE: Commissioner Replogle? REPLOGLE: Aye. WATANABE: And, Chair Clarkson. CLARKSON: Aye. WATANABE: The motion carries six to zero. Thank you. CLARKSON: So, the action of this Commission will be forwarded to you in writing soon. Thank you. The discussion ended at 9:47 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Sarah Y. Hata-Finley, Secretary Windward Planning Commission EXHIBIT B 11