Lara Butler has a dream: She wants to conduct trail rides and riding lessons on 156 acres of state land mauka of Kalepa Ridge in Kapaia and Hanama’ulu. Butler’s plan to make her dream come true was denied last year
Lara Butler has a dream: She wants to conduct trail rides and riding lessons on 156 acres of state land mauka of Kalepa Ridge in Kapaia and Hanama’ulu.
Butler’s plan to make her dream come true was denied last year by the Planning Commission, by a 3-2 margin. She had submitted a request for county permits to operate her Kapa’a-based, horse-riding company, Keapana Horsemanship, on the land.
On Tuesday, her proposal came up again during a planning commission public hearing at the Lihu’e Civic Center.
Last year the planning commission decided that the project failed to fall in line with true agricultural use of the land. Others objected because the state Department of Land and Natural Resources had yet to develop a master plan for her parcel and about 6,600 adjoining acres.
The acreage is part of 6,800 acres on the mauka side of Kalepa Mountain Butler and nearly a dozen other Kauaians – farmers and ranchers – use through a month-to-month revocable permit from DLNR.
Butler now hopes to get her proposal pushed through this time because it is scaled back and because buildings and other permanent structures have been removed from the plan.
“My breeding, boarding, training and my horse operation are all within county regulations already,” Butler said. “I am just asking today, let me take tourists out there.”
She represented herself during hearings last year. This time, she has hired attorney Mark Zenger to help her.
Butler is seeking a use permit and a Class IV Zoning Permit for her proposed project, located on land formerly used for cane cultivation and grazing.
In a preliminary evaluation, the county planning department noted Butler’s proposal is compatible with surrounding agricultural areas and uses.
Agency staffers noted Butler’s proposed equestrian uses are recognized as “legitimate agricultural activities” within the government “agricultural district” land.
No action by the commission was planned, however.
A planning department report noted Butler proposes to establish a commercial horseback trail facility, to include commercial equestrian trail rides and riding lessons on 156 acres through the state permit, which expires Dec. 31, 2003.
In documents she sent to the commission, Butler makes these key points about her project:
- The property has views of the canyon rim of the south fork of the Wailua River and views of the mountains.
- Trail rides and riding lessons would be run from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. from Monday to Friday, all to occur within 165 acres, although the county maintains the proposal involves only 156 acres.
Butler said trails account for some of the difference in tallying up the number of acreage to be used.
- Horse keeping, riding, training, breeding boarding are allowed by state and county laws.
- Her proposal is consistent with the goals of the Kaua’i General Plan.
- The land was used by livestock – donkeys, horses and oxen – before sugar plantations turned to mechanization for the cultivation of sugar cane.
- Little visible change will occur with the conversion of the cane fields to pasture land.
- As a member of the East Kauai Water Uses group, Butler said she will help maintain the Hanama’ulu ditch, which runs through the 156 acres. She said she will not be using county water for her operation.
- She will establish 15 miles of riding trails.
- She proposes to build a fenced arena that will not be permanent.
- For horse riding activities, a guide will carry a cell phone, and minors who ride will be required to wear helmets.
- Her customers will be using Ma’alo Road, a state road and not a county road, to get to a parking area on her parcel that will accommodate up to 10 vehicles.
- Butler plans to expand her operation in the future and will seek a long-term use permit for her parcel from the DLNR.
- Her business will most likely use local services.
She said her project will be an economic boost to the local economy. “My application is exactly the type of project that Kaua’i needs to expand her financial diversity,” Butler wrote in documents sent to the county planning department.
Staff writer Lester Chang can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 225) and mailto:lchang@pulitzer.net
