SPACE to plead its case today

By PETER SUR

Tribune-Herald staff writer

A popular performing arts center in Kalapana Seaview Estates is facing a possible shutdown today by the Windward Planning Commission.

Planning Director Bobbi Jean Leithead Todd recommends that the commission revoke the 2001 permit for the Hawaii Volcano Circus. The permit allowed the establishment of a performing arts educational center on 2.5 acres of land within a larger 10-acre site within a State Land Use Agricultural District.

Since then, under the direction of Graham Ellis, the center has grown to include the Seaview Performing Arts Center for Education, or SPACE, and an “eco village” called Bellyacres. Kula Kalapana, a satellite program of the Hawaii Academy of Arts and Science public charter school, is also based at the center.

Neighbors of the property have complained to the Planning Department about public performances, unpermitted structures, a weekly farmer’s market, a weekly bazaar, loud parties and even weddings. The permit allows none of these things.

In March 2010, Leithead Todd sent Ellis a cease-and-desist letter for unpermitted activities, but Leithead Todd allowed the Saturday farmer’s market and Wednesday bazaar to continue temporarily while Ellis prepared an amendment to the special permit. The amendment was never approved.

The event that prompted today’s possible permit revocation came in late February.

According to the Planning Department, several complaints were received in February 2012 about a 25th anniversary party for Bellyacres. Leithead Todd sent a letter to Ellis, informing him that the Feb. 24-25 event was “way beyond what I allowed” and that “you should not hold this two-day event or you will be in jeopardy of receiving a violation notice and/or in jeopardy of your permit.”

She added: “I have been more than patient allowing certain unpermitted uses to continue. I cannot continue to allow these unpermitted uses without an amendment approval from the Planning Commission.”

Ellis held the party, and Leithead Todd responded March 16 with an order to appear before the Windward Planning Commission.

Ellis responded with a public statement in which he said, “the (SPACE) Board (of Directors) decided not to evict 36 school kids and their team of dedicated teachers, to keep the farmers market open to ensure that our community did not suffer from the loss of essential economic and social benefits, and to keep running our HICCUP circus performance arts programs that have served large numbers of children and adults in lower Puna for over 20 years.”

The Planning Department characterized this statement, part of a longer open letter posted online, as “the applicant’s continued defiance to comply with the conditions” of the permit.

“A review of the record will clearly show that the Planning Department has spent a considerable amount of time and effort in dealing with the noncompliance of this applicant,” the department said in its recommendation to the Planning Commission. “It is also clear by the record that there has been no regard by the applicant to resolve these matters with the Planning Department as well as with the surrounding community. It is difficult to believe that the applicant can be trusted to comply with the conditions (of the permit) given the past examples of noncompliance.”

Ellis told the Tribune-Herald that SPACE is an example of people-driven growth, rather than permit-driven growth. He said the special permit process was not envisioned as the appropriate way to deal with the growth of SPACE.

“We’re hoping that tomorrow the commission will see that and will understand our situation,” Ellis said. At the same time, he acknowledged that the Planning Commission didn’t have the authority to change land use laws. Ellis said Council Chairman Dominic Yagong would be among those testifying in favor of SPACE, and he expected more than 200 other people to be present at the meeting.

“He (Yagong) said he wants this to be replicated around the island,” Ellis said.

Many of the complaints came from one next-door neighbor who has since sold the house in April 2010 and moved out of state.

Ellis acknowledges that at times SPACE has held public performances in violation of the permit, and that he would apologize to the commission for it. But he says the center has been in strict compliance since the 2010 cease-and-desist letter.

“We had always done performances here,” Ellis said, but he never considered them public, in that they’ve never been advertised to the public.

“The planning director has defined the words ‘public performance’ very generally,” Ellis said. “She is making no exceptions. A guitarist or an ukulele player at a farmer’s market is a public performance in her opinion.”

Supporters of SPACE have submitted more than 250 letters of support to the commission and a petition with 977 signatures, Ellis said. The Tribune-Herald could not confirm those numbers, but there is a stack of letters in the Planning Department several inches thick, all in support of SPACE, along with a few letters opposing the center.

Ellis is crossing his “fingers and toes” that the commission will keep SPACE alive, because he doesn’t have a backup plan in the event the permit is revoked.

“We’re optimistic about the Planning Commission realizing that we’re doing good,” he said, citing support from the governor and Hawaii’s two U.S. senators.

Or, as Ellis wrote on April 18 to Windward Planning Commission Chairman Zendo Kern:

“It is common knowledge that many community groups serve their communities but act outside of county or state ordinances. Most of them intentionally keep a very low profile and have their energy and success stifled by the fear of official retribution.”

Today’s commission meeting is scheduled to begin 9 a.m. at the Aupuni Center Conference Room, 101 Pauahi St., in Hilo, and the SPACE permit will be discussed beginning at 10 a.m.

Email Peter Sur at psur@hawaiitribune-herald.com.