Why not take 50 acres and a Donkey (Beach that is)?

Analysis

Anyone unfamiliar with Kaua’i politics might have wondered Thursday night why 20 of the 22 citizens commenting on a developer’s proposed “gift” of more than 50 acres of beachfront, told the Kaua’i County Council they didn’t want anything rammed down their collective throat.

After all, the deal had been in the works since at least 1997.

But although the council’s Planning Committee eventually moved the proposed deed for the 50 acres, including Donkey Beach, to a spot on next week’s full council calendar, it is still not a done deal.

Citizens testified they had not been aware of the details of the project, which had been heartily recommended for passage by Mayor Maryanne Kusaka and her administration.

Critics contended that Kusaka was pushing the deal because she was getting one of the house lots from the developers.

The mayor denied that accusation last week.

Her public information officer Beth Tokioka said last Thursday that the rumor of a sweetheart land deal for the mayor was “absolutely false.”

The primary complaint of the citizenry about the project itself, heard loud and clear by the repetitious nature of much of the public testimony Thursday evening, was: 24-hour access (to the beach) is essential, and there is no place (or need) for private security either.

Council members Gary Hooser and Kaipo Asing both championed the open access and no-security-necessary positions.

The developers of Kealia Plantation Company’s Makai Holdings changed their tune Thursday evening, after a sometimes heated four-hour discussion, and agreed to 24-hour beach access for everybody and not just local fisherfolk.

But no decision could be reached concerning private security down on the beach, for the proposed large homes on the bluffs above the controversial deeded property

The problem last Thursday night, was that developers Justin and Michele Hughes, who had been negotiating with the county for almost half a decade, were no longer empowered to make business decisions.

Their former partner, Thomas McCloskey, a Colorado developer with a residence on Kaua’i, had become “the man,” and he wasn’t available.

Another McCloskey representative John O’Carroll, of Colorado and Kaua’i, was at the meeting but evidently did not have decision-making powers either.

Many of the citizens who spoke to the council Thursday night made it clear that they wanted Donkey Beach open 24 hours.

The developers had resisted that because the public access, used for years, would be transformed into nighttime jaunts through the estates being planned.

But they caved on that issue after Hooser and Council Chair Ron Kouchi made it clear 24-hour access was necessary before the county council would accept the deeded “gift.”

Beach access is mandated by state law.

Security for the homeowners was also a concern of the developers.

And that was the sticking-point issue — private guards patrolling the public’s beach to protect (private) Kealia Kai property.

None of Thursday’s concerns were really new.

The project has been mired in difficulties since its inception.

The issue a few years ago, when activists threatened the proposed development with a lawsuit, was that the proposed houselots (and eventually homes) were too visible from the beach.

The developers eventually agreed to move the lots back off the tip of the bluffs overlooking the beach, to avoid a long drawn-out legal battle.

But no one knows whether McCloskey will accede to the council’s latest wishes. Or if someone does know, they aren’t speaking publicly.

Susan Wilson, a Director of the Kaua’i League of Women Voters who worked on the original Kaua’i General Plan between 1979 and 1983, said the newly updated GPU plan calls for a version of the neighborhood community advisory groups that were once active on Kaua’i.

Wilson said such groups might have averted the angry discussions of last Thursday night, because citizens would have been able to work on their objections to the planned development long before the proposal came to council for a make or break vote.

“I thought they worked very well as long as you had citizens willing to participate. That was definitely … an early alert system,” Wilson said.

Carol Bain, who teaches at Kaua’i Community College, agreed.

“In the (General Plan) it clearly states that citizens need early notification on land-use decisions like this. I think the conditions (of the proposed gift) were known months ago. But the public just learned last week,” Bain noted.

Obscured by the controversy over the Donkey Beach “gift,” is the fact that Council is expected to pass Bill #1968 next Thursday.

That bill will mandate beach and mountain access on all future subdivided developments. But #1968 is not retroactive.