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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018-05-03 Hearing Transcript - Taylor Summers & Amber Mitchell SPP 18-196WINDWARD PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAII HEARING TRANSCRIPT MAY 3, 2018 A regularly advertised hearing on the application of TAYLOR SUMMERS AND AMBER MITCHELL (SPP 18-000196) was called to order at 9:02 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, Donald Ikeda, Myles Miyasato, Thomas Raffipiy, John Replogle. ABSENT & EXCUSED: Donn Dela Cruz. ALSO PRESENT: Michael Yee (Planning Director), Malia Ho Hall (Deputy Corporation Counsel for the Windward Planning Commission), 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 37 members from the public in attendance. APPLICANT: TAYLOR SUMMERS AND AMBER MITCHELL (SPP 18-000196) Application for a Special Permit to allow the establishment of a 2 -bedroom bed and breakfast operation and community commercial kitchen on 1.00 -acre of land situated within the State Land Use Agricultural District. The subject property is located on the northeast (makai) side of 5 t Avenue, about 1,400 feet northwest of the intersection of 5th Avenue and Kaloli Drive, Hawaiian Paradise Park subdivision, Puna, Hawaii, TMK: (3) 1-5-053:139. CLARKSON: Without further ado, we'll go to the first item on the agenda which is an application for a Special Permit from Taylor Summers and Amber Mitchell to allow the establishment of a 2 -bedroom bed and breakfast operation and a community commercial kitchen. And, Shancy Watanabe will make a presentation about this application. WATANABE: Thank you. Aloha mai kakou. The Applicants are Taylor Summers and Amber Mitchell, and they are requesting a Special Permit. The presentation will be right behind you on the screen here. So, this is the location map. The subject property is outlined in red and is located about 1,400 feet from the intersection of 5' Avenue and Kaloli Drive in the Puna District. The Applicants are requesting a Special Permit to establish two separate land uses that will provide sources of income, a detached community commercial kitchen and a detached 2 -bedroom bed and breakfast operation. The bed and breakfast will offer accommodations for tourists in the Puna area as well as family and friends of the local area residents. Each bedroom will consist of a bathroom and EXHIBIT A an attached open covered lanai, located about 100 feet away from the existing dwelling. Guests may use the existing pool, proposed sauna, steam room, hot tub, and fire pit. The Applicants propose to serve guests coffee, tea, or individual container juices, seasonal fruit, and pastries made onsite or purchased at the local bakery. The Applicants propose a shared use kitchen certified for food production, in addition to Scott Walter using the kitchen as a chef for events off premises. Renters or co-op members can use the kitchen by the hour or day to produce food while fulfilling regulatory compliance. The Applicants provided this proposed site plan. In the green is the proposed landscaping. The proposed parking areas are shown in yellow. The purple shows the location of the proposed bed and breakfast rooms. The red is the proposed commercial kitchen. The blue shows the food - grade sealed water catchments, and in the brown is the proposed septic system that will serve the bed and breakfast operation and the detached commercial kitchen. The existing dwelling is shown towards the front of the property. The pool will be located between the existing dwelling and the proposed bed and breakfast rooms, and the pool house is just nearby the pool there. The Applicants provided this proposed floor plan for the bed and breakfast rooms. So you can see that there will be a full bathroom, closet, and the attached porch. The Applicants provided this commercial kitchen floor plan and elevation plans. So, the structure for the commercial kitchen will be about ten feet by sixteen feet. This is the zoning map. The subject property is zoned A -la, Agricultural, shown in the light green. To the north, we have a property that's zoned Ag -20a, and we have Open zoning towards the bottom right hand corner. This is the State Land Use boundary map. The subject property is in the State Land Use Agricultural District as are the surrounding properties. This is the General Plan Land Use Pattern Allocation guide map. The subject property is in the designation for Rural and nearby zonings show Extensive Agriculture and Medium Density Urban. This is an aerial photograph of the subject property which is outlined in black. The proposed driveway is shown in the pink arrows. The proposed parking, again, shown in the yellow. The proposed detached bedrooms location will be shown in the purple. The commercial kitchen is shown in the red, and we have the water the proposed food -grade water tanks shown in the blue. The proposed septic tank in the brown. And, what was hard to see on the previous map is the relative location and relationship of the structure to the dwelling. There will be this pathway between the parking and leading up to the pool area. These are photos from the site visit. The photo on the left shows a view of the subject property from 5th Avenue. The subject property is shown on the right. And, the photo on the right shows a view of the subject property from 5th Avenue, and the location for the proposed driveway is about here, leading towards the back of the property and to the bed and breakfast and the commercial kitchen. EXHIBIT A 2 These are additional site photos. On the left, we have the photo of the pool area and the pool deck. The photo in the middle was taken standing towards the back side of the property looking towards the front of the property. You can see that this is the existing dwelling back here, the pool area is here, and the pool house is here. The detached commercial kitchen will be in this location here, and what you don't see is gonna be where detached bedrooms are gonna be, which will be towards, standing behind me in the view of this picture. This is a closer view of where that proposed driveway would be coming in from 5th Avenue, and the commercial kitchen would be about here. This site photo is towards the back of the property. You can see the ending of the pool area here. This is the existing water catchment tank. Should there be a need for additional firefighting storage of water, that tank will be located in this area here. And, towards the front lower half of this picture will have the proposed water tanks there, the food -grade service water tanks and the septic system. There is this fence here shown in this picture, but that's not the end of the property. This is just where they have it in the middle of their property. Behind that fence, which is going to come down during construction, they'll show the detached bedrooms will be here, and the parking area. These are additional photos of the roadway, so this is standing on 5th Avenue looking towards Kaloli Drive, and the photo on the right is standing on 5th Avenue looking towards the northeast in the Hilo direction. The Planning Commission does have the authority to add, modify, or delete the language of any recommended conditions on the record should the Planning Commission feel necessary. However, during the Special Permit review and in the review of any applications, our office requests comments from other government agencies to understand their rules and regulations and how it impacts the proposed request. And, to ensure compliance with these regulations, their received comments become conditions in the Planning Commission—in the Planning Director's recommendation. So, in this situation for this application, the Planning Director recommends approval with conditions. This concludes my presentation. I'm happy to answer any questions the Planning Commission may have. CLARKSON: Commissioners, any questions for staff on their presentation? If not, thank you. And, would the Applicant or their representative or both please come forward. Would you raise your right hands? Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth on this matter before the Planning Commission today? MIKKELSON/WALTER/MITCHELL: Yes. CLARKSON: Please state your name, where you reside, and when you proceed, please speak into the microphone. MIKKELSON: My name is Lori Mickkelson. Is this on? Okay, I can't tell. Anyway, my name is Lori Mikkelson, and I've been working with Amber and Scott and their mom to, you know, apply for this application. EXHIBIT A 3 MITCHELL: My name is Amber Mitchell. I reside at 15-1473 5th Street, Paradise Park. WALTER: Scott Walter, I also reside at 15 MITCHELL: What I said. WALTER: —1473 5th Avenue. CLARKSON: Do you want to make a presentation or go straight to? MIKKELSON: Yes, I'd be happy to do that. CLARKSON: Okay, thank you. MIKKELSON: These folks have inherited this property. Their grandmother who owned the property originally has passed away, and they want to secure a situation where they could, you know, provide bed and breakfast and activities on their property, including the commercial kitchen which is planned for the community. Mr. Walter has some culinary background, and he would like to have a commercial kitchen for his own purposes for making, you know, income. But, he would also like to provide it to some people that they know who would also like to have commercial kitchen opportunities in the local community. They mentioned when we were out on the visit with the Planning Department that they have friends who are making coconut candy up in Volcano, and they would like to have the opportunity to do it on a more local basis. CLARKSON: Did you receive the Planning Director's Background Report and recommendations, and do you agree with the Director's Recommendation and the conditions? MIKKELSON: Yes. CLARKSON: Most importantly. MITCHELL: Yes. CLARKSON: You do? Any questions about this application from the rest of the Commission? IKEDA: Yes. My concern was the turning radius for fire, fire trucks. I didn't see it on the presentation. MITCHELL: In the one aerial shot you can see there's a small roofed building back there and they show the driveway going in front of that. That is an actually a Matson container we're using for storage. That's going to be moved out next, behind the pool house. So, that whole space back there will be—like the driveway's gonna go all the way to the back and then to the there's a lot more space there. That's a moveable Matson container. IKEDA: That's right `cause when I first looked at it I couldn't see EXHIBIT A 4 MITCHELL: Yeah IKEDA: how the fire truck's gonna get in there. I mean, it's safety for you guys, not you know, I have no problem with your application except for that one thing. MITCHELL: Yeah. IKEDA: Thank you. MITCHELL: Yeah, that container will be moved. IKEDA: Thank you. CLARKSON: Any further questions? REPLOGLE: Yes, I do. So, if somebody wanted to rent your kitchen to make lilikoi butter or whatever, that's what you're offering as well? WALTER: Yes. REPLOGLE: Okay, thank you. MIKKELSON: Do you have lilikois? [Laugher.] CLARKSON: Any further questions? If not, please be seated, and we have had at least one person who wishes to testify on this application, Cynthia Hathaway. Would you please come forward? HATHAWAY (from audience): Thank you. These are my neighbors HALL: Oh, please take a seat. CLARKSON: Please, yeah we have some swearing in to do. Please have a seat. HATHAWAY: Okay. Do I sit down for this? HALL: Yes. CLARKSON: Yes, please. HATHAWAY: Thank you. EXHIBIT A 5 CLARKSON: And, raise your right hand. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth on this matter before the Planning Commission today? HATHAWAY: Yes, I do. CLARKSON: Please reintroduce yourself, where you live, and then proceed. HATHAWAY: Hello, I'm Cynthia Hathaway. I live across the street from the proposed development that we're discussing. I have two lots there, and I have some concerns. I work for the Department of Education. I'm a teacher so I go to work, and I come home tired. And, I have been a resident of Paradise Park for 33 years, a resident of the island for 36. And, so I came today because I was curious to hear more details about the project because it impacts me greatly, and I had some concerns that I wanted to bring forward so that you're fully aware of my, the way it impacts me most, and that will probably be noise. Their driveway that they proposed there comes out right at the center of the two properties. I own one and actually my daughter's father owns the other, and I take care of the property, fire ants and all. So, I'm responsible for it. And, I wanted to, so that the traffic coming out, all the trucks coming for construction, are going to impact the road greatly. And Iwe are in an agricultural district so we're gonna have to get used to this kind of development. I was curious about the number of, the maximum number of people that were expected to occupy this once it is up and running, and there were some concerns that I had concerning noise. They do have like five dogs, and these dogs don't bark for long periods of time cause I believe they haveI addressed this with them, and they were kind enough to have gotten that problem taken care of. I guess they have electric collars or something, but they do bark frequently for short periods of time. And, that's a lot of dogs. And, also periodically there's extremely loud music that comes out of the garage when you guys, and it doesn't last long, but it's unexpected and sometimes I'm in the middle of a rest, asleep, or I just got home from work and want to sit down at my piano. And, I'm wondering if during construction there might be a lot of noise and radio going on incessantly all day long. This will make me crazy because it's my refuge. I've been there for a long time before their grandmother built the place. I was the only house on the road, so I guess I'm an old timer. The, in the past, there have, they, there have been instances where a yard refuge was dumped on my property directly across the street, and wanna make sure that that doesn't happen. I'm not sure if I ever brought that to your attention or not. I think one time that—yeah. And, so that's probably not a problem at all. I don't reallyoh, the turning radius. Were you talking about for the firetruck that you're gonna make the driveway go all the way down on this side of the house too? So, there's a total loop around the house? [Ms. Hathaway was turning and addressing the Applicants in the audience.] MITCHELL (from audience): No. CLARKSON: Ma'am, ma'am. You're addressing the Commission. Please HATHAWAY: Okay. EXHIBIT A 6 CLARKSON: And, if your question will be relayed to the Applicant HATHAWAY: Okay. CLARKSON: but please raise your question with us HATHAWAY: Okay, thank you I have never CLARKSON: —and then we'll make sure it gets answered. HATHAWAY: —done this before. Thank you very much. CLARKSON: No, that's quite all right. HATHAWAY: So, I was curious as to whether that loop for the firetruck is going to go entirely around the perimeter of the property, in which case it would be great to not have all the traffic coming out right in my, right in more of my face than, than on the far end of the property. I think that, so I wasn't, my one question had been about the maximum number of people that'd be expected at one time and the occupancy, also their co-op members was brought up. I was wondering what that meant. CLARKSON: We'll ask them that. If you could you please wrap up HATHAWAY: —And, I think rather that, other than, you know, requesting a lot of respect for the fact that an old timer is across the street and wondering about the development of this type becoming a norm, it's more like a motel, and you know, it's going to impact my, you know, my life. That's it. Thank you. CLARKSON: Thank you. Any—wait, wait. Wait. Any questions from the Commission for Ms. Hathaway? REPLOGLE: Yes, I do. If I'm hearing you correctly, basically you have some concerns. You're not against what they wish to do. HATHAWAY: These are my neighbors, and I wish to maintain a healthy relationship with them. It's hard for me to answer that. It borderlines. A kitchen is great, but building other structuresI can't say I have a strong opposition, but I probably will regret it. REPLOGLE: Okay, thank—if I understand it right, we're talking about two bedrooms. HATHAWAY: And, another building that's a kitchen, and there's already, it's already a rental. They already have—their mother lives in the pool house, and they have the regular house. So, it's already a two building, established on the premise. And, this is two more buildings on the premise. REPLOGLE: Okay, thank you. EXHIBIT A 7 HATHAWAY: Thank you. CLARKSON: Any further questions? Okay, there were some questions from this testifier regarding the—you can be seated. I'm sorry. Would the Applicant or the representative please come again? And, to paraphrase the question there was concern about firetruck access and turning radius and also about noise. HALL: They already asked her the turning radius. They already answered the turning radius. IKEDA: Occupancy. CLARKSON: Okay. MIKKELSON: First of all, it is not a loop that goes all the way through the property. It goes to the back of the property and then turn around and come back out. Secondly, regarding the noise of construction, you know, that will be as minimized as possible. You know, typical daylight hours, 7:30 to 4:30 at the back of the property, clear away from her concern. But, you know, still to do the best for everybody, the thought is that it's typical construction. But, they will try to keep it down, they're gonna do their own building as much as they can. And, and then as far as the traffic goes, we stated in our application that we don't anticipate much traffic. There'd be, on a full day, that there would be one car per unit back in the back, and then depending on if the community kitchen is full, possible another one car a day. So, we're not anticipating a lot more traffic. CLARKSON: I have a questoh, go ahead, Commissioner Raffipiy. RAFFIPIY: I have a question with regards to the use of the kitchen and you're rent—you're gonna be renting the kitchen. If you're renting let's say a hui, let's say a group, I'm just going to use a volleyball team just for example, and if the team decides to come and help support, how are you gonna regulate and control the number of vehicles that will be coming to help assist with that? MITCHELL: The commercial kitchen isn't gonna be large enough for a whole team to come and work inside. There's gonna be room for about one or two people inside. It's not gonna be a large space. RAFFIPIY: Okay. Thank you. CLARKSON: My understanding 10 by 16? MITCHELL: Maximum. CLARKSON: I had a question for staff This is in an agricultural zoned area, so the State noise ordinances are higher than in a Residential. Was there any condition for upgrading the noise EXHIBIT A decibel to aI mean or downgrading it to a lower decibel level? For example, as would be appropriate for a residential area. WATANABE: We didn't make a specific condition to address the noise, but that is something the Planning Commission can add. DARROW: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. If I could just chime in regarding that. We've obviously had a similar situation with this type of condition in another permit where we've lowered the dBA for a particular use in a particular area. The difficulty with that is enforcement. We don't have the capability or the equipment to be able to enforce a lower dBA than what's allowed by the Department of Health, so we could not realistically be able to legally enforce that without having training for staff, without purchasing the right equipment, and having that equipment calibrated on a regular basis. So, that's a difficulty we face with that particular type of condition. Thank you. CLARKSON: But, if it were a condition, say to go to 55 decibels rather than DARROW: —The current dBA level in ag is 70 dBA. CLARKSON: 70. To go to 55 rather than 70, if there did become a problem with noise, somebody could be engaged to monitor, and I'm thinking neighbors if they got really concerned about it. DARROW: Yeah, again the problem would be is that we would normally call the Department of Health to come and enforce that condition, and they will not do it because it's lower than their standard. CLARKSON: Okay. DARROW: Thank you. WALTER: Can I say something on that one? I come from a construction background, too, and I'm fully in agreement with anyone that likes their privacy, but I've always, or the quiet, and even like Ms. Hathaway said, even with the noise is at a by 4 o'clock in the afternoon everything ceases. You know, unless we're having a friendly get together or something like that and the kids are playing in the pool or something, then, you know, the music might get out of hand but as far as the noise level from construction will be, I will adhere to a strict, you know, by you know, 3:30, 4 o'clock done. Yeah. CLARKSON: Okay, thank you. If there are no further—Commissioner Aguinaldo. AGUINALDO: Yes, I have a question for all you three. What is your anticipated timeframe of construction? How long would it take? If this goes through, I, you know, for myself and this lady that came up here, it's always nice to always address your neighbors that hey, you know, I got my building permit, I going be working at this hours, you know, just to have transparency yeah? Not to be rude. But, as far as that, what is your anticipated timeframe for construction EXHIBIT A 9 and as well as for like noise, right? You don't want to be blasting your radios. I don't know if HPP has a regulatory about noise like certain subdivisions like on the west side. You, minimal you cannot play radios or pound hammer at a certain time. So, that, that's kind like what my question—is it going to take a year, or you going do some work and, you know, it's gonna prolong yeah? Sooner the better, the quicker. WALTER: We are anticipating three months from start to completion once we get, you know, all the permits and every—you know, all our ducks in a row, basically. No more than three months until we open. MITCHELL: The sooner the better. This is going to be our occupation. So, the sooner we can work from home, the happier we'll all be. MIKKELSON: One more thing is that they're anticipating and hopefully gonna do the bed and breakfast first and get it under operation, get it finaled, and then go back in and start the construction and the completion of the kitchen. So, first the bed and breakfast, and then the kitchen. Thank you. YEE: Last week at the Planning Committee, County Planning Committee on the vacation rentals, there was a lot of testimony, and probably one of the biggest issue was around unhosted rentals that had pools. That meant, you know, two or three times a week you get new folks, they're all playing out in the pool, drinking, and laughing, and playing in the pool until late at night because nobody's there to control that. That was clearly one of the biggest issues. So, in this case, having somebody live on site tends—we have heard very little concern about those situation, so I do appreciate that you're running a B&B and not necessarily just a full -out vacation rental. And, I would hope that you ensure that through your, you know, kind of like guest policies that you have restrictions on noise after hours and stuff Thank you. CLARKSON: If there are no further questions from Commissioners, and go ahead and please be seated, I'd like to call Cynthia Hathaway up again. If there are any other folks who want to testify on this matter before the Commission? HATHAWAY: Thank you, so much. I just had HALL: Please sit down. HATHAWAY: My additional question and response to some of the responses is there's already like four, five cars there daily, and so a couple more for these rental, for the rentals and probably at least another one for a kitchen would be another additional three cars minimum. And, so that would be eight cars and that's an acceptable—eight cars running, coming in and out, and active is acceptable in a situation like this? CLARKSON: We'll take your consideration, your question to heart. I Just HATHAWAY: —They all come out and point right in at my house and EXHIBIT A 10 CLARKSON: All right. HATHAWAY: Thank you. CLARKSON: Thank you. HATHAWAY: Very much. CLARKSON: Please be seated. ToI do have one more question because it came up from Ms. Hathaway. Night time entry and exit, is there any proposal to somehow shield the turnaround coming onto 5th Avenue so that the headlights aren't shining directly at the neighbors? Or, is this just gonna be a straight T -intersection? MIKKELSON: That would be a bit difficult because the driveway does come out onto the road; however, I would assume that typically the bed and breakfast with those people would not be coming out at night. They would be settled in, and the commercial kitchen would not be operating in the evening. CLARKSON: Okay, thank you. MIKKELSON: Thank you. CLARKSON: If there are no further testifiers at this time, the Chair would accept a motion to close public testimony. RAFFIPIY: Mr. Chairman, I move to close public testimony. IKEDA: Second. CLARKSON: All those in favor? COMMISSIONERS: Aye. CLARKSON: Opposed? Motion carried. Public testimony is closed. At this time, we need a motion for action on this item. RAFFIPIY: Mr. Chairman, I would like to make the motion. I move that the application for Special Permit Docket No. 18-196 be approved based on the Planning Director's findings, recommendation of proposed conditions which shall be adopted. CLARKSON: Is there a second? IKEDA: Second. CLARKSON: All right, it's been moved and seconded that this application be approved as recommended by the Department subject to the conditions. Please call the roll. EXHIBIT A 11 WATANABE: Yes, Chair. Thank you. Commissioner Raffipiy? RAFFIPIY: Aye. WATANABE: Commissioner Ikeda? IKEDA: Aye. WATANABE: Commissioner Aguinaldo? AGUINALDO: Aye. WATANABE: Commissioner Replogle? REPLOGLE: Aye. WATANABE: Chair Clarkson? CLARKSON: Aye. WATANABE: The motion carries five to zero. Thank you. CLARKSON: You'll be notified in writing soon. The discussion ended at 9:34 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Sarah Y. Hata-Finley, Secretary Windward Planning Commission EXHIBIT A 12