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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018-07-05 Hearing Transcript - Charles & Kitura Andrus REZ 18-227WINDWARD PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAII HEARING TRANSCRIPT JULY 5, 2018 A regularly advertised hearing on the application of CHARLES AND KITURA ANDRUS (REZ 18-000227) 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, Joseph Clarkson, Donn Dela Cruz, Donald Ikeda, Thomas Raffipiy, John Replogle. 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), and Sarah Hata-Finley (Commission Secretary). And 11 members from the public in attendance. APPLICANTS: CHARLES AND KITURA ANDRUS (REZ 18-000227) Application for a Change of Zone from an Agricultural -20 acres (A -20a) to an Agricultural -5 acres (A -5a) zoning district for approximately 11. 06 acres of land. The subject property is located on the southeast side of Kihalani Homestead Road, about 0.90 miles from its intersection with Hawaii Belt Road (Highway 19), Kihalani Homesteads, North Hilo, Hawaii, TMK: (3) 3- 5-004:023. CLARKSON: And with that, we'll proceed to the first item on the agenda which is by Applicants Charles and Kitura Andrus, Rezone 18-000227, and Maija Jackson will make the presentation from Planning staff JACKSON: Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good morning, everybody. It's nice to see everybody here. So, our first application of the day is a Change of Zone request by Charles and Kitura Andrus. The subject property is located in the North Hilo District near the town of Laupahoehoe. You can see Laupahoehoe Point here on the top area of the slide and then the subject property is outlined in red. Hawaii Belt Road is located along the coast here and then the road that accesses the property is called Kihalani Homestead Road. The Applicants are requesting a Change of Zone from Agricultural — 20 acres to Agricultural — 5 acres in order to subdivide the 11 -acre property into two lots. Upon subdivision, the Applicants would reside on one lot in a home that was constructed in 2018, and the remaining lot would be conveyed to the Applicants' children. This is the Applicants proposed subdivision map. You have Kihalani Homestead Road on the top of the slide. The two properties would be located here. This is the house that was recently constructed and then, let's see here, the lot line dividing the two lots would be located here. EXHIBIT A 1 Access to the rear lot would be via a 30 -foot ride access pole from Kihalani Homestead Road to this Lot 2713. The County zoning for the property is currently Agricultural — 20 acres. You can see that in the dark green color. Most all of the properties along Kihalani Homestead Road and the mauka areas are zoned Ag -20 acre, and then closer towards the highway, you have a mix of Agricultural — 5 acre lots, Single Family Residential — 15,000 square feet zoning, and then Residential - Agricultural — 1 acre zoning. The General Plan designation for the property is Important Agricultural Land which is shown in the light green color, but you'll see also that it's fairly close to a Low Density Urban area which is shown in the mustard color. Low Density Urban allows for higher density residential than Important Ag Land. It's usually more urban in nature, though. That's usually where you see your Single Family Residential lots rather than Agricultural lots. And, the State Land Use District for the property is Agricultural, again, shown in the light green, and then you can see the urban areas of Laupahoehoe and Papa`aloa in this area here in the pink. This is an aerial view of the property. The property is outlined in blue. This is I believe Kihalani Stream on the rear part of the property. There's also an old irrigation ditch that runs along the eastern edge of the property which is why the lot line is kind of meandering. And, then Kihalani Homestead Road is here. You can see there's a mix of farm dwellings and some farming as well. It's a little hard to see, but these lots towards the east have orchards on them. This is a view of the new farm dwelling that was just recently finished, and the driveway off of the Homestead Road. This is a view of the ag storage building. There's actually two of them on the property. One here and one in the back, and then, this is the proposed driveway on that flagpole back to the proposed rear lot. This is a view of Kihalani Homestead Road looking east towards the ocean. It is a fairly narrow road. It's about 11 feet wide, but at various points along the road, it does have some grass shoulder and then a drainage ditch along the north side. And, then this is a view of the road looking more mauka, and you can see the driveway for the road to the new house, and then the proposed driveway is further up. The Director is recommending a favorable recommendation be forwarded to the County Council for this Change of Zone request, and we haven't received any additional information since sending out your packets, so that concludes my presentation. I'd be happy to answer any questions. CLARKSON: Commissioners, any question for staff? I actually have a question. I noticed that the vast majority of lots in that Ag -20 zoning area appear to be smaller than 20 acres. EXHIBIT A 2 JACKSON: Yes. CLARKSON: Can you explain how that came about? JACKSON: Sure. CLARKSON: Was there an up -zone from smaller lots? JACKSON: No, so a lot of the lots in this area were created before the Zoning Code, so when the Zoning Code was established, they just went in and said we want this whole area to be Ag -20 recognizing that a lot of the existing lots were less than Ag -20. So, you have a mix of two -acre lots all the way to about 11 to 12 acres. There's about 8 to 10 other lots along this road that could be rezoned and subdivided to 5 -acre lots. CLARKSON: Thank you. If there are no further questions from the Commissioners REPLOGLE: I have a question. So, the purpose of zoning this Ag -20 was to protect good Ag land, and you just stated that there's other 20 -acre lots that could be subdivided into 5 -acre lots. Was that the plan? JACKSON: The Zoning Code was established many decades ago, so at that time, the plan may have been REPLOGLE: Oh, that's allowed JACKSON: to keep that whole area in larger ag lot for farming, but the current plans that we have don't have any guidance in them that says that further subdivision or rezoning of lots to smaller lots in this area is prohibited. So, this is a reasonable land use pattern at this time for this area. REPLOGLE: Okay, thank you. CLARKSON: Now, if there are no further questions, will the Applicant or their representative please come forward? KERN: Good morning. I'm Zendo Kern. I'm a planning consultant. CLARKSON: Please raise your right hand. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth on this matter before the Planning Commission today? KERN: Yes. CLARKSON: Please introduce yourself, where you reside, and who you're representing. KERN: All right. Zendo Kern, planning consultant. I'm representing Mr. and Mrs. Andrus. Mrs. Andrus is back there and her daughter, Sara, is right there. I used to reside in Kapoho, EXHIBIT A 3 currently reside in Hilo, since you asked. Yeah, so I'm happy to answer any questions. I can address a few things. First, I'd like to say, you know, good morning Mr. Chairman and members of the Planning Commission. Thank you for all that you're doing, Mr. Director, Corporation Counsel, and all the awesome staff in the Planning Department. Good morning. I guess I'll just get right into it. On the surface this is, you know, to me it's relatively straightforward. It's a two -lot subdivision. It's in an area that as you kind of started to address is interesting because you have this overlay of this Ag -20 zoning, but the surrounding properties are basically comprised of two acre, five acre, ten acre parcels. So, when we looked at it, when I was looking at it, I said this actually, you know, fits the mix of the surrounding property or the properties. Further, that keeping it in a, you know, five acre size still allows agriculture. Still allows a good amount of agriculture. So, it still keeps with the intent of the zoning, the size and what not, and it will allow, you know, the Applicants to reside in one, and then they'll be able to for estate planning purposes, you know, convey one of the lots to their daughter, Sara, who will be building a home on the other lot to raise those children. So, it has County water available, and the road is County owned and maintained. So, it basically hits all the basic, you know, criteria. I did speak to two neighbors. One of the neighbors as you see in your packet wrote a letter of support. They are basically directly across the street from the Andrus's, and there is another neighbor that I spoke to, and she asked a few questions and talked about like the drainage and what not, and said, you know, she was worried about drainage into the ditch, and I said that I would talk to the Applicants about that. There's obviously nothing going on now that poses an issue, but as they do agriculture and continue to live on the land that they would be, you know, very cognizant and very aware of that. With that, I'm happy to answer any questions. CLARKSON: Did you receive the Planning Director's Background Report and Recommendation? I mean, do you have any disagreement with any of the conditions? KERN: No. We have received the Background Report and Recommendation, and we agree to the Recommendation as well as the conditions. CLARKSON: Any questions from the Commission? With that— KERN: I'll go sit down. CLARKSON: Thank you. KERN: Thank you. Isnobody has signed to testify. I just want to make sure that there are no potential testifiers on this issue. If not, I'll KOZINSKIY (from audience): I have question. Can I KOZINSKIY: I'm one of the neighbors. EXHIBIT A 4 CLARKSON: Please raise your right hand. KOZINSKIY: Sorry. CLARKSON: Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth on this matter before the Commission today? KOZINSKIY: Yes, I do. CLARKSON: Okay, please introduce yourself and where you reside and who you're representing if anyone other than yourself. KOZINSKIY: I am Oksana Kozinskiy. I'm one of the neighbors, reside on 35-167 Papa`aloa Avenue, and my question is will this automatically rezone my property as well? CLARKSON: I'm pretty sure I can answer that question that it won't, but I will defer to staff JACKSON: That is correct. If you wanted to rezone your property, you would need to come in and submit an application, and it would go through the same process that the Andrus's are going through now. KOZINSKIY: Okay, that answers my question. Thank you. But, I am in favor. CLARKSON: Thank you. There being no further public testimony IKEDA: I move to close public testimony. DELA CRUZ: Second. CLARKSON: It's been moved and seconded that public testimony be closed. All those in favor? COMMISSIONERS: Aye. CLARKSON: Opposed? Public testimony is closed. Any discussion within the Commission on this issue or further questions from staff, for staff? If not, I'd like to hear a motion for action on this matter. RAFFIPIY: Mr. Chairman, I'll make the motion. Mr. Chairman, I'd like to make a motion. I move that a favorable recommendation be forwarded to the County Council on the application for Change of Zone Docket No. REZ 18-000227 based on the Planning Director's recommendations, findings, and proposed condition which shall be adopted. CLARKSON: Is there a second? IKEDA: Second. EXHIBIT A 5 CLARKSON: It's been moved by Commissioner Raffipiy and seconded by Commissioner Ikeda that a favorable recommendation be forwarded to the County Council. Staff, would you please poll the Commission? JACKSON: Commissioner Raffipiy? RAFFIPIY: Aye. JACKSON: Commissioner Ikeda? IKEDA: Aye. JACKSON: Commissioner Aguinaldo? AGUINALDO: Aye. JACKSON: Commissioner Dela Cruz? DELA CRUZ: Aye. JACKSON: Commissioner Replogle? REPLOGLE: Aye. JACKSON: And, Chair Clarkson? CLARKSON: Aye. JACKSON: Okay, the motion carries six, zero. CLARKSON: You will be notified in writing of today's action. The discussion ended at 9:17 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Sarah Y. Hata-Finley, Secretary Windward Planning Commission EXHIBIT A 6