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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018-02-15 Leeward Exh A (USE 17-73) LEEWARD PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAI‘I HEARING TRANSCRIPT FEBRUARY 15, 2018 A regularly advertised hearing on the application of KS OWNER, LLC (USE 17-000073) was called to order at 1:32 p.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, Nancy Carr Smith, Scott Church, Collin Kaholo, Perry Kealoha, Barbara Nobriga and Sonny Shimaoka ALSO PRESENT: Malia Ho Hall, Esq. (Counsel for the Commission), Michael Yee (Planning Director), Jeff Darrow (Planning Program Manager), Maija Jackson (Planner), Christian Kay (Planner), Shancy Watanabe (Planner) and Noriko Sauer (Commission Secretary) And four people from the public in attendance. APPLICANT: KS OWNER, LLC (USE 17-000073) Application for a Use Permit to allow the establishment of an 18-hole golf putting course on a portion of a 9.312-acre parcel of land within the Village Commercial – 10,000 square feet (CV-10) zoned district. Parking for the putting course will be provided on the adjacent 4.503-acre property to the south in the parking lot for the Kings’ Shops. The property is located at 250 Waikoloa Beach Drive and is the location of the Kings’ Shops, which is on the northwest corner of Pohakulana Place and Waikoloa Beach Drive, Waikoloa Beach Resort, South Kohala, Hawai‘i, TMK: (3) 6-9-008:005 por and 6-9-007:001. UNGER: Item Number 1, Applicant KS Owner, LLC, USE 17-000073, application for a Use Permit to allow the establishment of an 18-hole golf putting course on a portion of a 9.312-acre parcel of land within the Village Commercial – 10,000 square feet, CV-10, zoned district. Parking for the putting course will be provided on the adjacent 4.503-acre property to the south in the parking lot for the Kings’ Shops. The property is located at 250 Waikoloa Beach Drive and is the location of the Kings’ Shops, which is on the northwest corner of Pohakulana Place and Waikoloa Beach Drive, Waikoloa Beach Resort, South Kohala, Hawai‘i, TMK (3) 6-9-8:5 portion and 6-9-7:parcel 1. Staff, for your presentation. KAY: Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Good morning, everybody. Just if I can turn your direction, turn your attention to the screen, my first mistake, as I was told that this is a driver and not a putter, so I apologize. We’ll get right into it. As we said, the subject parcels are located in the South Kohala District of Hawai‘i Island, more specifically, in the Waikoloa Beach Resort area. You can see here, they are across two different parcels; the parcel to the north outlined in yellow, unfortunately a little difficult to see, is the location of the Kings’ Shops and the area for the putting green is going to be roughly in the 1 EXHIBIT A northeast corner of the parcel, and then across Waikoloa Beach Drive is the parking area where parking for the putting course is going to be available. Just for your reference, Queen Ka‘ahumanu Highway is running generally north-south through the slide and Waikoloa Beach Drive is running generally east-west. The applicant is requesting a Use Permit to allow the establishment of an 18-hole golf putting course and related improvements on a 6,342-square foot portion of a 9.312-acre parcel of land within the Village Commercial – 10,000 square feet zoned district. The permit area consists of a 5,842-square foot putting course, a 100 – pardon me – a 100-square foot ticket booth, and bathrooms for putting course users consisting of around 400 square feet. Parking for the putting course will be provided on the adjacent 4.503-acre property to the south within the existing Kings’ Shops parking lot. The applicant proposes to remove the existing lawn and some trees and shrubs on that portion of the parcel, place and compact six inches of base material, add irrigation equipment, and install synthetic putting greens. The existing concrete walkway will remain and landscaping will be installed between putting greens. The applicant anticipates approximately 100 people will play the course each day. Proposed hours of operation are 9:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., seven days a week, and there will be one employee to manage the facility. The project will be developed in two phases with the first nine-hole Phase I to be completed in two years from the approval of the permit, and the remaining nine-hole Phase II to be completed within five years. The estimated project cost is approximately 400,000 dollars. On the left hand side you’ll see the applicant-submitted site plan. Again, this is at the northern parcel, the Kings’ Shops parcel, with the proposed putting course in the northeast corner. Difficult to see here a little bit but this will be the approximate location of the ticket kiosk, and the bathrooms are existing bathrooms within the Kings’ Shops that will be available to users of the putting course. On the right hand side is the course plan, which just kind of shows the layout of the holes on the project area. The first phase will be away from the water’s edge, and then the second phase will be closer to the King’s Lake water’s edge. The zoning for the subject parcels is Commercial Village – 10,000 square feet, as indicated in pink. Other surrounding zoning is Resort zoning, Open zoning, and Multiple Family Residential zoning, as indicated in the different shades of brown, Open is green, and the Resort zoning is the magenta color. The Land Use Pattern Allocation Guide Map in the General Plan indicates that the majority of the area for the subject parcel and surrounding is Resort Node, with some Open designation closer to the water. And the State Land Use Map designates the area as largely Urban, as indicated in pink, with some Conservation here closer to the water’s edge. Here are some aerial photographs of the subject parcels. On the left hand side you’ve got the entire Kings’ Shops parcel outlined in red here, and then the permit area is outlined in yellow, and then across the Waikoloa Beach Drive is the existing parking lot that will handle the parking for the facility. On the right hand side it’s zoomed in a little bit, and this is the area right 2 EXHIBIT A adjacent to Roy’s Grill, and currently it’s just kind of an open passive green space with a concrete walkway, and that’s where the area for the putting green is being proposed. Here’s some views of the existing area. Generally right here at this tree is that northwest, pardon me, northeast boundary of the property looking toward Roy’s. Some of the trees are going to be removed or relocated and some of the shrubbery is going to be removed as well to facilitate the putting facility. Down at the bottom here is a view of the permit area, just beyond this bend, again, looking toward Roy’s. And then this is a view looking toward the northeast corner from Roy’s, showing the general area that the putting facility is going to be. And here is a, the view on the upper left hand corner is a view of the proposed ticket kiosk that’s in the walkway of the Kings’ Shops. Here is a parking lot entrance from Ku‘uali‘i Place and that’s, again, to the existing parking lot. View of Waikoloa Beach Drive looking mauka toward the highway. View of Waikoloa Beach Drive looking makai toward the ocean and we’ve got Kings’ Shops on the right hand side. And here is a view from Ku‘uali‘i Place looking towards Kings’ Shops, and again the parking lot is going to be on the right hand side. The Planning Director is recommending approval of this Use Permit with conditions as indicated. That’s the end of my presentation. I’m happy to answer any questions that the Commission may have. UNGER: Thank you. Commissioners, any questions for Planning Department? CARR SMITH: Yes, I have a question. I was confused about the bathrooms: It says in one place that it’s a part of the application and then in the other, in the map that you showed recently with the yellow-outlined areas, you said that was the permit area, and that doesn’t include the bathrooms. KAY: Right. So I apologize. On the, this map it was a little difficult to show. I should have shown where the kiosk would be, as well as the existing bathrooms. Both the kiosk and the bathrooms are existing already in the Kings’ Shops. They are just going to be, at least the kiosk will be repurposed for ticketing purposes, and the bathrooms will just be available to the users as well. So we add that as part of our permit area, but they are existing as well. CARR SMITH: So what’s the process for determining whether the existing bathrooms will handle the extra amount of people? How do you do that? KAY: I think the bathrooms are part of, a number of bathrooms, public bathrooms, are available in the Kings’ Shops and it can handle, my understanding is, all of the traffic that comes and uses the Kings’ Shops. So I don’t think there is a capacity issue. But I can have the applicant speak to that when they come up, yeah. CARR SMITH: Thank you. KAY: Mm-hmm. 3 EXHIBIT A SHIMAOKA: I’ve got a question. Is that going into the condo unit by the gas station, that road? KAY: This here? SHIMAOKA: Yeah. KAY: Yeah, uh — SHIMAOKA: No, on the other side, by the, where Roy’s is. KAY: Okay, so this is Roy’s, yeah? SHIMAOKA: Yeah. And that’s a condo unit in there. Is there going to be some kind of buffer because of the traffic? On that road there going into the condo unit. KAY: The condos up here? SHIMAOKA: Yeah. KAY: Buffer in terms of, like a vegetated buffer — SHIMAOKA: Yeah. KAY: — for balls? SHIMAOKA: I know there is something there, but I know with kids, what kind of safety measure we’ve got for kids? KAY: So there is an existing golf course here on the northern side of King’s Lake, and the property line ends here. So, as this is going to be kind of just a putting course, there’s not going to be any driving or anything, so I think the distance will be sufficient to protect against any kind of injury there. SHIMAOKA: Yeah, there is kind of like hedging alongside that road? That driveway — KAY: Oh, yeah, along the road there is some existing shrubs that help protect the road itself, yeah, and the sidewalk across the street. SHIMAOKA: Okay. Thanks. UNGER: Any other questions? Thank you. KAY: Thank you. UNGER: Would the applicant come forward, please? 4 EXHIBIT A ROSTAU: Hi there, good afternoon. My name is Lynn Rostau — UNGER: Just a minute. Oh, you can, please be seated. ROSTAU: Okay. UNGER: Please raise your right hand. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth before the Planning Commission? ROSTAU: I do. UNGER: Please state your name and area of residence. ROSTAU: My name is Lynn Rostau. I’m the general manager at Kings’ Shops and I’m a resident of Waikoloa. UNGER: Thank you. You can proceed with your presentation or your comments. ROSTAU: Well, I wanted to just address a few things relative to the question on the buffer, the shrubs. We do, Kings’ Shops does currently have a row of shrubbery that’s in place along the road that you were mentioning, and the plans would be for that to remain in place. Relative to your concern about the restrooms, we do have, there are two restrooms at the Kings’ Shops, which we feel would be sufficient for the additional traffic that we expect with the putting course. So our plan is to put this putting course into place as an added amenity to the center. As you can see, and as Christian shared, it is already a fully landscaped area, has essentially the footprint for a putting course. And so in cooperation with Roger Brasel and Leonard Bisel we were looking to essentially embellish the area for an added amenity to the center. Are there any other questions maybe I can address? UNGER: Yeah, go ahead. SHIMAOKA: Yeah, I had a question. You said you have one employee. Is that employee going to staff your kiosk? ROSTAU: Yes, that’s correct. SHIMAOKA: And who’s on the course monitoring, or do you have anybody there or are they on their own? ROSTAU: We have our current maintenance staff that already tends to that area, so they would continue to be a part of that, and then we would have one dedicated person to handle issuance of the putters and manning the kiosk. 5 EXHIBIT A SHIMAOKA: Thank you. CARR SMITH: I have a couple more questions. So the pathway is going to remain. ROSTAU: That’s correct. CARR SMITH: Is it going to remain a pathway for the condo residents to go to the Kings’ Shops? ROSTAU: Yes, so the pathway will remain intact all the way back to the condos. It’s also currently used for our petroglyph tour that we run two days a week. And so that will remain in place and will continue to be used to access the King’s Trail. CARR SMITH: So how do you control people going on and off your course then? Just trying to think logistically how that works. The putting holes are not going to be fenced off or anything like that. ROSTAU: No, they will not be. They will be open. So currently there is minimal foot traffic that goes through there, and with the staff that we’ll have monitoring the course, I don’t see that as being an issue in terms of, you know, making sure that people who are crossing on the path versus people who are playing on the course will be, will be separated. There will not be a fenced area and they will not be separated in that regard, so it would just be a matter of how we manage that internally. CARR SMITH: And were you planning on just doing the first half jut to see how it goes? Was that the approach? ROSTAU: We did want to do a two-phase approach for the reason to see how it’s accepted, to see its use essentially before we ventured onto the second, the second nine. CARR SMITH: And I just heard today that it’s a synthetic material? I hadn’t seen that in the background — ROSTAU: Right, that’s correct. CARR SMITH: So you don’t expect any drain-off or anything into the pond or surrounding areas. ROSTAU: No. And we have run a full drainage report. I might have Leonard or Roger speak to that in greater detail, but we actually would be using less water than we currently are, with the synthetic greens in place, which would also be an advantage. So there is obviously a whole landscaping plan behind it, but it would entail limited, limiting the water use. CARR SMITH: Thank you. 6 EXHIBIT A UNGER: Any other questions? Thank you. ROSTAU: Thank you. UNGER: Have you read the conditions of approval and do you agree with them? ROSTAU: Yes, I have and, yes, I do. UNGER: Great. Thank you. You may be seated. I show no members of the public here to testify, but by procedure, let’s go ahead and for the record show that the meeting was open for public testimony. If I could have a motion to close public testimony. KAHOLO: So move. NOBRIGA: Second. UNGER: We have a motion by Commissioner Kaholo, second by Nobriga. All in favor? COMMISSIONERS: Aye. UNGER: Oppose? \[None.\] Public hearing portion of the hearing is closed. At this time, Commissioners, can I hear a motion on the application? CHURCH: Mr. Chair, I would move that the application for the Use Permit, Docket Number 17-000073, be approved based on the Planning Director’s findings, recommendation, and proposed amended conditions, which shall be adopted. UNGER: Do I hear a second? KEALOHA: I’ll second. UNGER: We have a motion by Commissioner Church, second by Commissioner Kealoha. The floor is open for discussion. CARR SMITH: I’ll just comment. I support the motion. I think, it sounds like a nice amenity. Hopefully, it’ll be well received and used. Good luck with that. UNGER: If there is no other comments, roll call. KAY: Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Commissioner Church? CHURCH: Aye. KAY: Commissioner Kealoha? KEALOHA: Aye. 7 EXHIBIT A KAY: Commissioner Carr Smith? CARR SMITH: Aye. KAY: Commissioner Kaholo? KAHOLO: Aye. KAY: Commissioner Nobriga? NOBRIGA: Aye. KAY: Commissioner Shimaoka? SHIMAOKA: Aye. KAY: And Chair Unger? UNGER: Aye. KAY: Thank you, Mr. Chair. Motion carries, seven-nothing. UNGER: Thank you. You will be notified in writing by the Commission. Thank you. The discussion ended at 1:49 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Noriko Sauer, Secretary Leeward Planning Commission 8 EXHIBIT A