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HomeMy WebLinkAbout01/06/2010 Public Hearing Transcript re: BILL 2340PUBLIC HEARING JANUARY 6, 2010 A public hearing of the Council of the~County of Kauai was called to order by Jay Furfaro, Chair, Planning Committee, on Wednesday, January 6, 2010, at 1:37 p.m. at the Council Chambers, Historic County Building, 4396 Rice Street, Lihu`e, Kauai, and the presence of the following was noted: Honorable Tim Bynum Honorable Dickie Chang Honorable Jay Furfaro Honorable Lani T. Kawahara Honorable Bill "Kaipo" Asing, Council Chair Excused: Honorable Daryl W. Kaneshiro Honorable Derek S. K. Kawakami The Clerk read the notice of the public hearing on the following: BILL NO. 2340 - A BILL FOR AN ORDINANCE RELATING TO ZONING DESIGNATIONS IN ORDINANCE NO. PM-229-91; KILAUEA, KAUAI (County of Kauai, Applicant), which was passed on first reading and ordered to print by the Council of the County of Kauai on December 2, 2009, and published in -The Garden Island newspaper on December 10, 2009. The hearing proceeded as follows: Mr. Furfaro: Just to give the councilmembers a little history on this, this was the downzoning of the commercial property on the mauka side in Kilauea, and unfortunately, at the time we processed this applicant for the downzoning, there was an error in certain map lines for the zoning map. The State land use map as well as the general plan- map have been corrected. This zoning error on the outline needs to be consistent with the two previous maps, so this is coming back to us to be heard for the purpose of correcting the map, and eventually will catch up with the earlier pieces. on general plan and • State Land Use Commission. I would like to ask if there is anyone in the audience or the applicant if he would like to give any testimony. I think this is the piece that has now come back to us from the planning commission, am I correct? Mr. Nakamura: Yes. Mr. Furfaro: And therefore, this will then go to committee, and then will then be completed and aligned up with the other two maps. If can have you introduce yourself as the applicant? 1 MICHAEL KAPLAN: Sure. Mahalo Chair Asing and Councilmembers. My name is Michael Kaplan. I am the project manager for Anaina Hou, which is the development for this site, and I did just want to let the council know that the owner of the property is in favor of downzoning from industrial to open zone. And just wanted to give you a quick update of what's going on on the project. We are currently constructing a miniature golf course with botanical gardens and a park and ride on the upper portion of this property. We do hope to be finished with construction and open toward the end of summer. We do also have a use permit for a nursery for plants and gardening supplies. We are currently not constructing that facility right now, but it is in our plans in the near future to build that as well. As far as the rezoned portion of the property, we are proposing an outdoor amphitheater that can be used for concerts, weddings, and variety of other community events, as well as an indoor theater for movies, theatrical productions, also be a host for business conferences. And we do plan on also having a certified kitchen at the facility so we can serve food at the variety events that we're hosting, and also rent out that space to local producers so they can make their products certifiable. Basically, the goal of this facility is to create amulti-use venue for the north shore for any type of public or private event. Mahalo for your time. You have any questions? Mr. Furfaro: I would like to correct the statement I made earlier. They are the property owners there and the developers. The county, in correcting . this, is actually the applicant, so... Mr. Bynum? Mr. Bynum: Thanks for coming today, appreciate it. Mr. Kaplan: Thank you. Mr. Bynum: Nice to hear the update. I just have one question to ask. The amphitheater and the theater that you mentioned, when it was developed, what would the capacity be...like audience capacity? Mr. Kaplan: Around 250 people. Mr. Bynum: Thank you. Mr. Kaplan: You're welcome. Mr. Furfaro: Thank you Mr. Bynum. Mr. Chang: I'm sorry. Two hundred fifty people for the amphitheater, but the indoor theater is different, right? Mr. Kaplan: Yeah, sorry. Just to qualify that, we will have about 250 seats for the indoor theater. With the outdoor amphitheater, since it's sort of like a hillside, we do plan on having around the same amount of bench seating, but then there'd also be a grassy area, which I guess if there was a big event going .on, you could expand that. But as far as actual seating goes, around 250. 2 Mr. Furfaro: So it's 250 plus the lawn... Mr. Kaplan: Plus the lawn. 1VIr. Furfaro: Plus the lawn... ~Mr. Kaplan: Correct. So for the lawn, you could also do, if someone's hosting a wedding; you could set up a tent there, or if you have a luau or something, you could set up tables and chairs. So it .definitely can expand to a larger facility if needed. ~ . Mr. Bynum: I'm looking forward to going to a hoike. Mr. Chang: Is the amphitheater like a...like the Waikiki Shell, like there's an elevated stage... and the hill, so you got great views... Mr. Kaplan: It's definitely not in the scale, first of all, of the Shell. We are dealing with a 25 foot height limit on the north shore. So the good thing about this parcel, just to familiarize the council, there's atop- tier and then there's a big sort of hillside, and then a bottom tier: And what's great about that is that's going to, even though we're going to have a 25 foot building, you won't be able to see it from the highway. So that's going to be great for the north shore; we're going to keep the view planes intact and all that.. What's also great about the hillside is it kind of creates this sort of natural bowl shape, if you will. There will be some earth work that would need to be done, but we're more going for like a rustic feel, more lawn seating, and the stage would actually be more at the ground level, and then you'd be looking down on the stage. Mr. Chang: And the garden... the nursery and the garden, that's a... you can buy plants and fertilizer and a hose and tools and... Mr. Kaplan: Correct. r = r T~ - Mr. Chang: Thank you. Mr. Furfaro: Thank you Mr. Chang. I want to reconfirm earlier, the intent for the commercial kitchen is to allow, by application and for a fee, north shore farmers, the agricultural community, they could produce jams, jellies, things associated with agriculture production. i ;, Mr. Kaplan: Correct: Whenever the...if we're not having an event where we need the kitchen, we would love to get. as much use out of it as possible, and anyone who's willing.... We haven't established what the fee would be, but anyone would be willing to rent out the space. Mr. Furfaro: The intent is to let the local agricultural .people who... Mr. Kaplan: Correct. .We've talked with a number of different people who are...they need a certified kitchen to be able to make their products. 3 Mr. Furfaro: And I guess this would be a location that, for the north shore not having a community center, this could be a .place to have a local wedding reception and so forth. Mr. Kaplan: Correct. Often if I know just form the Kilauea community, if they want to have a fundraiser, they have to go to the Princeville Hotel, they have to be inside; this would give the community...well the whole north shore, but definitely Ifiilauea as well, a venue space. And you know, like I said, our goal, is the more events and different types of activities we can have there, the better. We're open for anything. Mr. Furfaro: Okay. Are there anymore questions of this particular piece? Yes, Mr. Chang. Mr. Chang: Mike, also you mentioned that- you mini golf course should be opening early summer? Mr. Kaplan: Toward the end of the summer. We're currently constructing it right now. Weather's been good, so it's been moving along. If we hit some rains, it might delay us, but as far as right now, toward the end of the summer we hope to open. Mr. Chang: So that's 18 holes? Mr. Kaplan: Correct. It's a... It's putt-putt. Mr. Chang: Yeah, putt... So you got a score card, maybe water features, and... Mr. Kaplan: .Yeah, there'll be water features... This isn't like a typical boardwalk style with like windmills and props. We're calling it landscape golf; it's all like sort of undulations and turns and... you know, there's some fun aspects to it as well, but we also have these botanical gardens, the goal of which is to sort of immerse yourself in Hawaiian flora, and what we want to do is tell the history of Hawaii through the course. So for example, like the first couple holes we'd have native species of plants...I mean tell a little bit about the geological creation of the islands and the flora before any human arrival, and then we tell about the...or show the Polynesian species of plants for the next couple holes and tell about the Polynesian discovery, move on through plantation style plants like sugar and pineapple and guava for Kilauea, and then into like a Chinese and Japanese gardens focusing on some of the immigrants that came to the island. So it's...you know, it'll be fun and hopefully beautiful and a little bit education as well. Mr. Chang: Have you folks like...have you established... You thought about a rate for the course? Mr. Kaplan: We're ,thinking... I don't want to... don't hold me to this, but maybe around twelve dollars for the regular rate, but we would have a Kama`aina rate as well. 4 Mr. Chang: Thank you. Congratulations. Mr. Bynum: This is the golf course I can be competitive with you, right? Mr. Chang: I can cheat. Mr. Furfaro: Are there anymore questions of the property owner? Mr. Chair, did you have anything? Okay; I'm going to go ahead and thank you. There's no one else in the audience? Is there any written communications, on this matter? Mr. Nakamura: No written testimony Mr. Vice Chair. Mr. Furfaro: Okay, so thank you very much. Mr. Kaplan: Malialo. Thank you Council. Mr. Furfaro: And I'll close this public hearing. There being no further testimony on this matter, the public hearing adjourned at 1:48 p.m. Respectfully submitted, PETER A. NAKAMURA County Clerk /ao 5 .. ~~