A proposal to build a sawmill in Hilo has been withdrawn after backlash from neighbors of the project.
According to documents submitted to the Hawaii County Planning Department, property owner Jeremiah Leonard — doing business through the company Farm Forest Products — planned to build a sawmill on his agricultural-zoned 2.7-acre parcel at 170 Makalika St. in Hilo.
The Planning Department on Sept. 17 issued final plan approval for the project. But on Wednesday, Leonard wrote a letter to the department asking to withdraw or cancel his permit for the project in the face of concerns by neighbors of his property.
“I would like to alleviate the concern amongst my neighbors before attempting to install this very small mobile sawmill that I had requested as I feel getting along with my neighbors is more important,” Leonard wrote in a letter sent to the Planning Department.
Leonard’s letter doesn’t specify any particular neighbor, but Tierney McClary, who lives on an adjacent parcel, has sent multiple complaints to the Planning Department about Leonard’s plan, alleging numerous inadequacies both in Leonard’s plan and in the Planning Department’s approval process.
McClary told the Tribune-Herald that Leonard previously had been using the 170 Makalika parcel as an unpermitted construction base yard for his company Sun Construction Inc., which prompted the McClarys to send a complaint to the Planning Department.
“Then, (Planning Director) Zendo Kern became the owner’s best friend,” Tierney McClary said, alleging that, although Leonard was made to relocate the base yard, the sawmill project advanced despite zoning violations.
A complaint the McClarys submitted to the Planning Department alleged that, among other things, there are no building permits for structures on the Leonard property, nor has any grubbing and grading permit ever been approved for the site.
The complaint repeatedly raises Hawaii Revised Statutes 46-88, a law allowing certain agricultural buildings to be exempt from the need for a building permit. According to the complaint, Deputy Planning Director Jeff Darrow told the McClarys that “there was no way that my neighbor could get away with running a commercial construction business, a base yard or industrial wood mill from this structure,” and that only structures used for agricultural purposes would be allowed under HRS 46-99.
“If Mr. Leonard is allowed to continue in these nonagricultural, contractor-based commercial activities on agricultural land, the (county) is supporting that HRS 46-88 applies to any commercial activity, not just farmers and ranchers,” the complaint read. “That any structure can be built by anyone on agriculturally zoned property without inspection.”
Leonard’s letter to the Planning Department stated the project was not intended to be a large industrial sawmill, but a small, portable sawmill that would be occasionally used for agricultural processing.
McClary challenged that claim, saying that while Leonard has claimed to run an agricultural operation on the property, the supposed crop for Leonard’s sawmill is a grove of extremely young mango saplings that are clearly too young to be usable for lumber and are spaced too close together to grow to a sufficient size.
“Mr. Leonard built this property as a commercial base yard for Sun Construction Inc., and he built the industrial sawmill/cabinet shop … to process mango trees purchased from other suppliers to be manufactured into doors, trim and customer cabinets for Sun Construction Inc.,” summed up a letter Tierney McClary submitted to the county Board of Appeals. “There is no actual agricultural activity taking place on his lot.”
Kern told the Tribune-Herald in September that section 25-5-72 of the County Code includes “mills” and “milling” — although not “sawmills” or “sawmilling” as permissable operations on agriculture-zoned land, such as Leonard’s. He also cited a 2007 bill establishing that the Planning Department can issue final plan approval for “major agricultural products processing facilities” in the ag district if the applicant meets certain conditions.
According to the final plan approval for the Makalika sawmill, those conditions include a stipulation that the project’s plans cannot be modified without prior written approval, that the applicant abide by state noise control rules, and that the facility only operate between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays.
But McClary claimed the final plan approval was only issued two days before Leonard allowed a county inspector onto the property.
McClary alleged Kern knew about many or all of the sawmill project’s violations, but still personally helped it go through. She lamented that other properties in the area have seemingly been able to elide county zoning restrictions by currying favor with county officials.
Now that the sawmill project seems to be on ice for the time being, McClary on Friday said she and her husband are “waiting for the other shoe to drop,” and that she hadn’t heard from Leonard since he submitted the letter on Wednesday.
Leonard did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.