At a Kaua’i County Planning Commission meeting held Tuesday at the Lihu’e Civic Center, Lara Butler, owner of Keapana Horsemanship of Kapa’a, withdrew her request for county permits for her proposed horse riding business on state land near Lihu’e. Butler
At a Kaua’i County Planning Commission meeting held Tuesday at the Lihu’e Civic Center, Lara Butler, owner of Keapana Horsemanship of Kapa’a, withdrew her request for county permits for her proposed horse riding business on state land near Lihu’e.
Butler agreed with the commission’s stand that her proposal to the county body differed somewhat from what was offered to the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, which granted her a revocable month-to-month permit for her 156 acres mauka of the Kalepa Mountain ridge.
She subsequently offered to resubmit new plans to the DLNR and the county commission that will the same, in hopes of moving her project forward.
If Butler had not withdrawn her proposal, and the commission rejected it, Butler could not have brought it back to the body for reconsideration for another six months.
During earlier meetings, Butler has said that her project will help keep Kaua’i’s agricultural industry strong and create new jobs.
Butler is part of the 13-member Kalepa Koalition, which has month-to-month revocable permits with DLNR to use 6,800 acres mauka of the Kalepa Mountain range for agricultural purposes.
The group, comprising primarily of ranchers and farmers, negotiated the use of the state land after Amfac relinquished the property.
The commission accepted Butler’s proposal to withdraw her project after commission chairwoman Abigail Santos and others raised concerns the conditions in the DLNR permit and her proposal to the county for a use permit and a Class IV permit didn’t coincide.
“For me , it is too confusing, two convoluted,” Santos said.
Santos said Butler’s permit application to the county didn’t mention anything about equestrian programs, carriage rides, rodeos and other activities. The DLNR plans only mentioned only commercial horse trail rides and horse riding lessons, Butler said.
Butler said the confusion arose because terms related to the horse riding business used in both proposals were not understood by all who read them and analyze them.
Butler said she proposed after-school horse riding program and a kids day camp for horse riding in the county plan but not in the DLNR plan because she assumed both projects were “understood as being part of lessons (in horseback riding).”
“I mentioned the use of an arena in the county plan, but not in the DLNR plan, but one would assume that you need an arena as part of the lesson operation, Butler said after the meeting.
Commissioner Jay Furfaro again complimented Butler for all her work, but said he couldn’t support it partly because Butler, as do other members of Kalepa Koalition, has only month-to-month permits that are revocable, instead of a long-term lease from the DLNR.
Butler said she thought she worked out the issue by agreeing to a condition in the county plan that should she leave her project or should she lose the month-to-month permit, the next holders of the state permit for her 156 acres would have to approach the commission for permits for their operation.
Furfaro previously voiced concerns that the DLNR has no master plan for its 6,800 acres at this time.
Staff writer Lester Chang can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 225) and mailto:lchang@pulitzer.net