Pahoa Feed to close soon

[terracore]

They have an early June date posted for closing but 99% of their indoor stuff has been sold at 50% off. They still have some plants for sale at discount.

ETA: I asked them about reopening. They said that is dependent on the permitting.

[terracore]

Ran into one of the Pahoa Feed guys at the gas station and asked them about reopening.

Not going to happen. "The county really screwed us."

[kalakoa]

"The county really screwed us."

Just so long as they're not complaining. Opening a business, who do they think they are? Sounds like a bunch of entitled whiners to me.

[Obie]

"The county really screwed us."

Just so long as they're not complaining. Opening a business, who do they think they are? Sounds like a bunch of entitled whiners to me.

They screwed themselves. They asked if they could build a feed store there.
The answer was yes but they didn't ask if they could build an access off of the Pahoa bypass.
The answer to that is no.

They will need to build a road from an existing road that connects to Pahoa Village Road.

None of you kids were here before the bypasses were built. Whining would be louder without them. Let's not defeat their purpose.

[kalakoa]

They will need to build a road from an existing road that connects to Pahoa Village Road.

They did that; now the argument is "what is a road" because the access looks like a road, and is shaped like a road, and is dressed up as a road (by County crews operating under State directive) yet is somehow not actually a "road" for purposes of access to a business.

Really a symptom of the larger problem: there's no affordable fee-simple C-zoned land for small "local" businesses. Not everyone can set up shop in Puna Kai or spend years arguing Special Use.

[terracore]

The county bureaucracy's mission appears to be to oppose small businesses and economic growth. It should be doing the opposite. They keep conducting "studies" to see what they can do to help businesses. The answer is simple: Get out of the way.

[Obie]

Here is the transcript from the Windward planning Commission hearing. Go down about 3 pages and it explains all of the reasons it was denied.

http://records.hawaiicounty.gov/weblink/...Page1.aspx

[terracore]

"The Planning Director is recommending denial of this application for several reasons which
include the proposed use will not promote the effectiveness and objectives of Chapter 205, HRS,
as amended. The proposed use is inconsistent with the objectives to be sought to be
accomplished by the Land Use Law and Regulations. The proposed use could unreasonably
burden public agencies to provide infrastructure. There are some traffic safety concerns, and the
request is contrary to both the General Plan and Puna Community Development Plan in terms of
location of the business on the parcel.

I'm just going through some of those reasons here in a little more detail. The request openly
fails to establish an effective land use pattern in the area. Pahoa Town has been established as
kind of a central commercial area for these types of services in this particular section of Puna,
and the proposed retail commercial use will be located outside of that commercial area and along
the Pahoa Bypass Road which really just functions to be that, a bypass to move traffic around
Pahoa Town quickly. It was not meant to provide an access to a secondary commercial corridor.
Thus, the proposed retail and commercial use is an inappropriate land use for this particular area.
There are some concerns about setting a precedent here saying okay, we'll put a commercial
business here and then the next guy wants to come and do a commercial business and then it kind
of counteracts the idea of this being a by—it's no longer a bypass. It's a secondary commercial
corridor.

The proposed use is inconsistent with the objectives to be sought to be accomplished by the Land
Use Law and Regulations, and it could unreasonably burden public agencies to provide
infrastructure. The Planning Department has sought to concentrate retail commercial and similar
type of uses within Pahoa Town to focus traffic and related infrastructure improvements within
this localized area. There is potential for encouraging strip commercial development that may
attract the infilling of lands along the Pahoa Bypass by other commercial developments, and
such strip development would create rapid growth, could create rapid growth increase and
adverse impacts to traffic as multiple access points would be required for such developments.
The County currently has no plans to provide infrastructure to accommodate commercial uses
along the Pahoa Bypass Road; therefore, it would not be prudent to sanction to spread of such
traffic generating commercial uses.

Again, we talked about some traffic safety concerns. The Planning Department and members of
the public have serious public safety concerns over the potential traffic hazards caused by
locating a retail/commercial use along the Pahoa Bypass Road, and particularly in this area that's
along a curve. It's—the parcel is located on the inside of a blind curve of the Bypass Road on a
hill with limited sight distance potentially making turning movements in and out of the proposed
business hazardous and impeding traffic functions on the Bypass Road.

We got some comments from the Department of Transportation. This is a Department of
Transportation road so to determine that the access is safe and appropriate for commercial uses,
State DOT is recommending that prior to the Planning Commission granting a Special Permit,
the Applicant be required to submit an access assessment prepared by a professional engineer for
review and acceptance by the DOT. The assessment should include verification of sight distance
and an evaluation of the driveway for commercial operation, the idea here being that if DOT is
not going to grant access for a commercial use here, it doesn't make sense for the Planning
Commission to approve a Special Permit.

The Applicant has chosen not to conduct the required access assessment prior to the Planning
Commission hearing. The Planning Director cannot support a Special Permit for a commercial
use if safe access for that commercial use cannot be ensured.

Sorry, we're going to switch out our presenters here. Not me, the technology. Pardon me, sorry
about this. So, the request is contrary to the General Plan and Puna Community Development
Plan. Specifically, the General Plan has a course of action that is explicit about where
commercial activities should be in this area. It says, "Centralization of commercial activities in
Pahoa Town, rather than along the Pahoa Bypass, to serve the residents of Lower Puna shall be
encouraged."

The subject property is located outside of the Pahoa Regional Town Center boundaries
designated in the Puna CDP; therefore, it's inconsistent with the preferred CDP land use pattern.
And, in response to the CDP being adopted in 2008, the County Council in 2012 passed
Ordinance 12-89 amending the Land Use Pattern Allocation Guide Map in the area to support
the concept of developing Pahoa as a regional town center by designating the land area for higher
density urban uses in the town center and directing commercial and industrial uses away from
the Pahoa Bypass.

Finally, the Planning Director typically does not recommend approval for Special Permits on
lands located in Urban General Plan designations as changing the zoning of the property is a
more suitable land use entitlement process than a Special Permit.

I just want to point out, too, at the beginning of this process, the Applicant's representative came
in, and we talked story about all of these issues, and we did indicate to them at that time that this
was an inappropriate location for this, and generally for the reasons that we've highlighted here.
They've chosen to move forward with the request so based on those reasons that we stated, the
Planning Director is recommending that the Commission deny the application for a Special
Permit in this area.

[Chas]

Yeah, I can see strip malls and hundreds of retailers just swooping in to take advantage of them "opening the floodgates" if they would have approved this.

[kalakoa]

If the intent is a no-development zero-growth policy, then let's mull it through Council and let the people weigh in.

Sort of a "community development planning" process.