Park will be ADA-compliant LIHU’E – The Kaua’i Planning Commission Tuesday unanimously approved permits necessary for improvements at Lydgate Park in Wailua. The permits pave the way for a pedestrian bridge and play area to be built by the island’s
Park will be ADA-compliant
LIHU’E – The Kaua’i Planning Commission Tuesday unanimously approved permits necessary for improvements at Lydgate Park in Wailua.
The permits pave the way for a pedestrian bridge and play area to be built by the island’s residents, as well as new trails, comfort station, sports fields, camping areas and off-street parking.
The community’s building of the bridge and play area is on track to be done in late October and early November this year.
Secured in amendments to conditions attached to the permits is protection for the Hikinaakala area near the Wailua River, a significant religious area for Native Hawaiians.
A portion of a bike and pedestrian trail eventually planned to run from Kalapaki Beach to Anahola along the coastline was originally aligned to pass close by the Hikinaakala site, tucked between the Holiday Inn, Lydgate Park and the Wailua River.
But that plan was abandoned after Native Hawaiians including Cheryl Lovell-Obatake said the path should not go near the sacred site. She asked Tuesday for a 100-foot setback from the site.
Doug Haig, representing the county Department of Public Works, said the finished Lydgate Park improvements will be “an awesome asset” to the county, with all the improvements compliant with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Also gaining unanimous commission approval, with amendments, was Mark and Hedy Nanbu’s request for permits necessary to re-establish a fruit stand at the corner of Kuhio Highway and North Waiakalua Road near Kilauea.
Conditions of the permits were amended to allow the Nanbus to sell any produce grown on Kaua’i on the site, and that the couple must meet all state Department of Transportation Highways Division traffic improvement requirements before operating the fruit stand.
But the commission upheld the Kaua’i Planning Department’s recommendation that the subject permits be issued to the applicants and do not run with the land.
The Nanbus objected to that, saying they want to pass the business onto their children one day, and that will be difficult with the permits issued in their name and not running with the property.
Commissioner Randy Nishimura said he has problems with permits running with the land, and Planning Department Director Dee Crowell discussed concerns about “the special permit as a commodity to be sold with the land.”
Mark Nanbu said the property wasn’t bought with speculation in mind, and that he and his wife plan on building their family home on the property and eventually passing on the business to their children.
But Crowell said things sometimes change over time, and that both the department and commission have for years struggled with fruit-stand permitting.
When Crowell thinks of a fruit stand, he sees the one along the Koloa bypass road, with no running water or electricity, sometimes open and manned and sometimes not, and sometimes with fruits and sometimes without, “clearly accessory to the surrounding agricultural uses.”
The Nanbus’ Kilauea fruit stand features a kitchen, and it’s likely to play a big part in whether or not the family farm is a financial success, Crowell continued.
“Our vision is an honorable one,” Mark Nanbu said.
“I hope you sell a lot of Kaua’i produce,” said Commissioner Jay Furfaro, applauding the couple for addressing the commission to express their concerns about conditions of the permits before the permits were approved.
Also approved unanimously were permits necessary for Kikiaola Land Company to construct a grassed, 50-stall parking lot adjacent to Kikiaola Small Boat Harbor near Kekaha.
Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
