Neighbor objects to warehouse in Fagaima

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A family living in front of the property where a large commercial warehouse is being built across from the Methodist Church in Fagaima wants the project stopped.

KHJ News obtained a letter that Mrs. Marie Ripley wrote the Zoning Board chairman Senator Ponemafua Tapeni on April 14th. She and her husband, the late former Attorney General Fepulea’i Afa Ripley registered their objection to commercial development in their neighborhood.

The warehouse is a development by Don and Hope Kruse.

The Ripleys live right behind the property on which the warehouse is being built.

Mrs. Ripley wrote that when they left American Samoa in March of last year for her husband to get medical treatment, they knew nothing about the warehouse plans.

Upon returning to the territory after her husband’s passing in the mainland, Mrs. Ripley said she noticed what was happening on the property in front of their house.

“This is no place for a 14,400 square foot warehouse to be built for many reasons,” she told the Zoning board chairman.

Other local residents have raised objections about the warehouse citing traffic congestion, flooding and that it’s a commercial structure being built in a residential area.

In an April 12th correspondence with the Kruses, the Zoning Board approved a variance to build their warehouse in an area zoned as a watershed conservation in Fagaima. At the time, the building was already under construction.

Conditions were provided for the applicants to meet. These include:

  • One parking space for every 1,000 sq ft (total square foot listed was 9,600)
  • All spaces are to be a minimum of 9 feet wide by 18 feet long
  • All parking lots containing five or more parking spaces shall be paved and striped.
  • The Zoning Board further specified that only the purposes for which the variance is used was permitted.

“Just because the use for which the variance is granted is “commercial” it does not mean that the property is now “zoned” commercial,” explained the Zoning Board in its letter to the Kruses.

“The watershed conservation clarification still persists. However, the variance is now in a manner of speaking an overlay. If the proposed use is different than the purposes for which the variance was granted or an exchange of ownership occurs, then the applicant must reapply to the zoning board.”

A daughter of the Ripleys’ was present at a meeting of the Zoning Board, yesterday. KHJ News and a member of the public Bryan Jackson were told by the board administrator Faau Seumanutafa to wait outside and he would get them in at the appropriate time. This never happened.

At an April Zoning Board meeting where the Kruses’ application was discussed, Seumanutafa ordered out our news reporter and three other residents who were there to object to the project.

This is contrary to the “openness and transparency” policy of the Zoning Board and the Lemanu/Talauega administration.