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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018-07-05 Hearing Transcript - Dien-Jung Lin REZ 07-071WINDWARD PLANNING COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAII HEARING TRANSCRIPT JULY 5, 2018 A regularly advertised hearing on the application of DIEN-JUNG LIN (FORMERLY DIEN- JUNG LIN NEKOBA) (REZ 07-071) was called to order at 9:31 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 3 members from the public in attendance. APPLICANT: DIEN-JUNG LIN (FORMERLY DIEN-JUNG LIN NEKOBA) (AMEND REZ 07-000071) Application for an 18 -month time extension of time to comply with Condition B (Payment of Water Commitment Fee) and a 5 -year time extension to comply with Condition C (Conversion of Dwelling into Office Uses) of Ordinance No. 08 20, which reclassified approximately 39,771 square feet of land from a Single -Family Residential -10,000 square feet (RS -10) zoning district to a Neighborhood Commercial -10,000 square feet (CN -10) zoning district. The properties are located at 610 Kekuanao`a Street and 622 Hinano Street, between Manono Street and Hinano Street, Waiakea House Lots, Waiakea, South Hilo, Hawaii, TMKs: (3) 2-2-036:025 and 026. CLARKSON: The next item on the agenda for today is an application from—forgive any pronunciation—Dien-Jung Lin for a time extension to comply with Condition B for an amended, to amend Rezone 07-000071. Will the Applicant—oh no, I'm sorry, I got ahead of myself. This has been going so smoothly that— [Laughter] KAY: That's okay. I don't mean to jam that up this morning. Good morning, Mr. Chair, and Members of the Planning Commission. And, so if I can direct your attention to the screen, as the Chair said, this is an amendment to a Change of Zone Ordinance. The subject parcel is located—the subject parcels are located in the South Hilo District of Hawaii Island; more specifically, in the Waiakea House Lots area. For reference, we've got Kekuanao`a Street running generally east -west through the slide, and the two parcels are here, contiguous parcels outlined in black. The parcel to the right is bounded by Hinano Street, and EXHIBIT C 1 the parcel to the left is bounded by Manono Street. Just for your reference, this dark red area here is Big Island Candies, to give you an idea where that's at. The Applicant is requesting a time extension to comply with Conditions B and C of Ordinance 08-20 which rezoned the subject parcels from Single -Family Residential — 10,000 square feet to Neighborhood Commercial —10,000 square feet. Condition B required a water commitment fee to be paid within 180 days, and Condition C required a conversion of the existing dwelling to office uses within five years from the effective date of the ordinance. The Applicant originally proposed to use existing structures on the subject parcels to accommodate office space and related tour business operations, to provide parking for employees in a gravel parking area, to accommodate parking for passenger vans associated with the tour business, and to mitigate a notice of violation issued for the unauthorized parking of tour vehicles on the site. The Applicant currently operates a tour business office in an approximately 900 -square foot portion of the existing dwelling on Parcel 25 as a home occupation with three current employees that all live on the premises. The Applicant is working toward finalizing a permanent conversion of that portion of the dwelling on Parcel 25 to office uses, and once the conversion is complete, the Applicant plans to add up to three additional employees which would no longer qualify the operation as a home occupation. The Applicant finally has future plans to remove the existing dwelling on Parcel 26 and build a new larger dwelling to operate a bed and breakfast operation which is a permitted use in the Neighborhood -Commercial zoning district provided all the requirements to operate a bed and breakfast are met. The Applicant is making these requests due to the fact that they experienced unforeseen financing issues related to the 2008 economic downturn and health issues that created setbacks to the progress of the project. The Applicant has made efforts to secure funding for the project and has been working with Engineering Partners and Jackson Drafting to determine if the approximate 900 -square foot portion of the dwelling intended for office conversion can be retrofitted to meet current Building Code for commercial uses or if that portion of the dwelling will need to be demolished and have a new office structure built. The Applicant is also working with consultants to develop and implement the required studies and plans to satisfy conditions of Change of Zone Ordinance 08 20 and complete the project in a timely fashion. This is the County Zoning Map for the subject parcels. Again, we've got Kekuanao`a Street running east -west through the slide. Manono Street on the west side and Hinano Street on the east side running north -south through the slide. The subject parcel, again, is zoned Neighborhood Commercial —10,000 square feet, and you've got some other zonings surrounding it. Single -Family Residential —10,000 square feet as indicated in the yellow color; General Commercial — 20,000 square feet as indicated in the dark red; and some RD zoning indicated in the brown. EXHIBIT C 2 This is the State Land Use—or pardon me, this is incorrectly identified. This is the Land Use Pattern Allocation Guide Map and this is from the General Plan, and it indicates that the subject properties and much of the surrounding land is Medium Density Urban and there is some High Density Urban as indicated in the red in the upper right hand corner. This is the State Land Use Boundary Map which indicates the subject properties and the surrounding properties are all in the State Land Use Urban designation. Here's an aerial photograph of the subject parcels. On the left hand side, you see parcel 25. There is a two-level, 2,555 -square foot dwelling and an approximately 1,129 -square foot storage building, and this is the area where the home occupation is currently taking place for the office uses. On the right hand side is parcel 26, and it's got an 836 -square foot single-family dwelling with a detached carport. Here are the Applicant's site plans. This is, again, for parcel 25. You got the single-family dwelling here. On the left-hand side is the storage area, and we consider this part of the single- family dwelling as it's connected under a shared roof on the walkway here, and this is showing that the two proposed office spaces, a bathroom, and then some storage space with a covered lanai on the back side. This is showing a gravel parking area. This is not currently existing. In visiting the site, we found that there is some gravel down, but most of this grassed, and the Applicant understands that any parking that's related to the business use will have to be paved in the future. This is a site plan for parcel 26. Again, we've got the 836 -square foot single-family dwelling here, and the detached carport here. Hinano Street on the right hand side and Kekuanao`a Street running to the top of the site plan. Here are some photos of the parcels. On the upper left is a view of parcel 26 from Kekuanao`a Street with the single -story existing single-family dwelling and detached carport. Here is a different view of the same parcel from Hinano Street just showing where the parcel, pardon me, the dwelling and the carport are located. Here's a view of parcel 25 from Kekuanao`a Street with the existing two-story, single-family dwelling here. A paved parking area for the house use, and this is kind of giving you an idea where the offices are currently located. And, here are just some views of the offices as they are currently constituted, and these are the areas that are being planned to be converted. Here's a view of Kekuanao`a Street looking east towards Kanoelehua and a view of Kekuanao`a Street looking west toward Manono Street and then just a view on the bottom of Hinano Street looking south toward Puna. So, the Planning Director is forwarding, recommending to forwarding a favorable recommendation to the County Council, and it's not exactly supporting what the Applicant requested, but the Director is supporting a five-year extension of time for the Applicant to EXHIBIT C 3 establish a commercial use, be that the conversion to an office use or a bed & breakfast on the subject properties. And, we've changed several of the other conditions so that the trigger for many of those conditions is based on the commencement of a commercial use. So, I'd be happy to answer any questions the Commission may have on the application. IKEDA: Christian, I'm kind of confused because it looks like it is two parcels. KAY: That's correct. IKEDA: And, one is asking for an extension. I understand that, but at the same time they want to build a bed & breakfast or they're going to use the old building on parcel 26 as a bed & breakfast. KAY: So, my understanding is that at this time, that is a long-term rental, the structure on the parcel, on parcel 26. Plans in the future are to remove that dwelling, move it to another property and build a new structure to run as a bed & breakfast, but that's not in the immediate plans. The priority the Applicant has shared with us is to get the conversion of offices done. The request initially was for both parcels to be rezoned, so we have to take both parcels into account as we're doing a time extension. IKEDA: Yeah, I was thinking it's kind of strange. It should be only—in each parcel, should have your own application, one being a time extension and the other is a Change of Zone so KAY: Well, the Change of Zone took place, so this is just a time extension to a condition of the Change of Zone. IKEDA: No, but what I'm saying is you know they're combining the parcels. Is the parcels combined or is it two separate parcels? KAY: They are two separate parcels, and there was a condition in the original Change of Zone that let me find it here, pardon me—Condition number d or letter d. "The Applicant shall either consolidate parcels 25 and 26 prior to receipt of Final Plan Approval for any development on the property or shall establish cross -easements to permit a traffic circulation between" the two parcels "that would implement in connection," we added, "the establishment of a commercial use, any construction of new buildings or any subdivision of the properties. Any access points other than the existing driveway shall meet with the approval of the Department of Public Works." So, there was some consideration at the time the Change of Zone was originally granted in 2008 to either consolidate into one parcel or create that cross -easement situation. IKEDA: But, actually right now, all they're concerned about is the time extension. Is that correct? KAY: Yeah, so the time extension was, the way that the condition originally read in 2008 was to finalize completion of the conversation into office use. But now that we understood that there is a possibility of a changed scenario where they may do a bed & breakfast, we added that in as EXHIBIT C 4 well because the new information came to light. So, we're saying, either complete your time extension, operate your bed and breakfast or commence some other business use on the property to be consistent with the commercial zoning. IKEDA: Yeah, because I was getting confused because too much information. Okay, now I got it so right now, we're just going to consider the time extension. KAY: Yeah, so that will be a time extension to commence a business operation so we'll have five years to do that from the time of the amended ordinance. IKEDA: Yeah, thank you. RAFFIPIY: Question. KAY: Yes? RAFFIPIY: So, the Condition B, it looks like, appears like the client went in for Condition B, it talks about the water commitment. KAY: Right. RAFFIPIY: The fee to be paid within 180 days? KAY: Right. RAFFIPIY: So, and then the Planning Director's recommendation, it doesn't really cite that, so is that what you said? KAY: Right. RAFFIPIY: This recommendation is different from— KAY: Right, yeah, so good question. The reason that we changed this is this is basically saying within a 180 days, they have to pay the water commitment deposit. As we looked at it, given the water usage, I think its 600 gallons per day for each one, we don't know if they're going to need additional units of water. It's likely that they won't, so what we're saying is do your calculations prior to getting Plan Approval for your commercial use instead of getting them now which may be, you know, you may change your use prior to a Plan Approval. So, that's all we're saying, is you don't have to do it within a 180 days of this amended ordinance. You can do it prior to your Plan Approval for the commercial use. RAFFIPIY: Thank you. KAY: You're welcome. I was reminded to—there was one other clarification that I wanted to make. On the Background report, second line from the top, it talks about an 18 -month time extension to comply with Condition B. That was incorrect. It should have read a 180 days, so I EXHIBIT C 5 just wanted to clarify that for you if that was confusing. But, everything else speaks to a 180 days. CLARKSON: I'm still a little bit confused about the plans as shown don't show any cross use between the parcels. The aerial photo showed parking on lot 26, parcel 26 and the offices on parcel 25, but the plans that you're showing us now do not show any cross traffic uses between the parcels. KAY: So, that's correct. I think when we, when they initially came in back in 2007 and ultimately it was granted in 2008, they were asking to park their tour vans on parcel 26 in support of the operation on parcel 25. At the time, the director clarified that the Neighborhood - Commercial zoning doesn't allow for commercial parking lots nor a base yard for that type of use, so that, the aerial photo is an older photo. It's showing some of that parking that's taken place. There have been some violations, and the Applicant understands that only one tour related vehicle can be parked on the properties at any time. So since the violations have been dealt with, the Applicant has purchased an Industrial property on Kanoelehua and is parking the majority of their tour -related vans there. CLARKSON: Thank you. Any further questions from the Commission for staff on this rather complicated application? KAY: This is what we live for. CLARKSON: If not, will the Applicant or their representative please come forward? Please raise your right hands. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth on this matter before the Commission today? LIN: Yes. TITA: Yes. CLARKSON: Thank you. Either one of you may go ahead. Please, when you start speaking, speak into the microphone, introduce yourself, and where you reside and if and who you are representing. TITA: My name is Susann Tita. I represent Ms. Dien -Jung Lin. I reside in Kea`au outside of Kurtistown, and Ms. Lin, I've worked for her for a few years, had asked me to represent her on this particular request through the County. I worked diligently. This is something I haven't done before so that's why there may have been more questions. They, the County representatives, the Planning Department, helped and guided me through this process. I'm very appreciative of that. Ms. Lin had this zoning change a few years back, but then due to illness and then there was, she was not financially postured to proceed on with her bed & breakfast so it sort of went dormant. She since acquired another property so that it is now no longer looked at as her primary business location for her vehicles. Her baseyard is on another location, but she wishes to move forward and have this now her offices for other employees. She probably will retain three more EXHIBIT C 6 employees for the tour business. Her long-range plans, Ms. Lin, from what I understand, is to move, physically move, the one building to another location so that it remains in the area of long-term rental. It wouldn't take away from the need for long-term rental and then build another structure which would be for bed & breakfast. It's an ambitious plan. I think at this time she's much in a better financial position to proceed on with that. Ms. Lin? CLARKSON: Please proceed. LIN: Hi everybody. My name is Dien -Jung Lin. I'm sorry, but my English is my second language. I living in here since 1983, and Iwe start up business 1991, '95 I purchased the house, 25, that big house and about ten years from, before ten years from now, before now, I purchased the 26 lot and the small house. Intention is to have our business residential and parking lot together. So, 2008, it was, we applied for our rezone but because the commercial parking lot we cannot so we already moved to 496 Kanoelehua. Most of office and the parking is in there, industrial, and since we have a tour coming so we want to build a B&B for them to stay, plus we will serve the B&B, serve the breakfast which is good for Chinese. For now, we have a Chinese tour, Japanese, English, and some Korean. So, that is idea, but since 2008, we just pass it. We think so positive we can do it, but financially, the business was not that good, and last year we're getting better and better, and I sold the other house. We have small house, other property, gathered in the money. We have fund enough, and we have a bank working on it to build a B&B. Not ready quite meet the ten years period yet, so that's why we request for extension. If we can have a commercial continue to use as CN, and we can really quick to develop it, and if cannot, we already start already, but we stop it before we have [inaudible]. The zone is continue to be CN, then we will develop as soon as possible. Okay, thank you. CLARKSON: Thank you. Are there any questions from the Commission for either the Applicant or her representative? If not, I'll just ask. Did you review the Background and Recommendation and conditions and do you agree with all of them? TITA: Yes, and I have clearly gone over those conditions with Ms. Lin so it's understood. It's clear. Yes. CLARKSON: Okay, thank you. There being no questions, please be seated. TITA: Thank you. CLARKSON: Nobody has signed up for public testimony. There being no indication that there will be any, I'll ask for public testimony to be closed. IKEDA: Move to close public testimony. DELA CRUZ: Second. CLARKSON: It's been moved and seconded. All those in favor? COMMISSIONERS: Aye. EXHIBIT C 7 CLARKSON: Opposed? Public testimony is closed. Are there any further discussions we desire to make on this application from within the Commission or any further questions for staff? If not, the Chair would IKEDA: I want to ask that— KAY: Yes. IKEDA: Did you recommend consolidation of the two parcels? KAY: So, we kept the condition that either called for consolidation or cross -easement. IKEDA: Okay, yeah. CLARKSON: The Chair would welcome a motion for action. IKEDA: I'll make the motion. I move that a favorable recommendation be forwarded to the County Council on the request to amend Change of Zone No. 08 20 based on the Planning Director's recommendations, findings, and proposed amended conditions which shall be adopted. REPLOGLE: Second. CLARKSON: Okay. It's been moved by Commissioner Ikeda and seconded by Commissioner Replogle that a favorable recommendation be made. If there's no further discussion on this motion, I'll ask staff to call the vote. KAY: Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Commissioner Ikeda? IKEDA: Aye. KAY: Commissioner Replogle? REPLOGLE: Aye. KAY: Commissioner Aguinaldo? AGUINALDO: Aye. KAY: Commissioner Dela Cruz? DELA CRUZ: Aye. KAY: Commissioner Raffipiy? EXHIBIT C 8 RAFFIPIY: Aye. KAY: And, Chair Clarkson. CLARKSON: Aye. KAY: Thank you, Mr. Chair. The motion carries six, nothing. CLARKSON: You'll be notified in writing of today's action. The discussion ended at 9:56 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Sarah Y. Hata-Finley, Secretary Windward Planning Commission EXHIBIT C 9