Anti-development protesters picketed in Lihu’e on Monday and Tuesday, protesting county approval for a resort development in Waipouli and the construction of a Home Depot hardware store at Kukui Grove. On Monday, about a dozen Kaua’i citizens stood outside the
Anti-development protesters picketed in Lihu’e on Monday and Tuesday, protesting county approval for a resort development in Waipouli and the construction of a Home Depot hardware store at Kukui Grove.
On Monday, about a dozen Kaua’i citizens stood outside the round building of the Lihue Civic Center and along the Kaumuali’i Highway-Rice Street holding signs condemning action taken on the projects by County’s Planning Commissioners and Planning Department.
The groundbreaking for the Home Depot store is scheduled for this morning.
“It’s developer terrorism,” one woman said, who refused to give her name for what she said was fear of retaliation.
The group wants a moratorium on development and the two development proposals rescinded. The ad hoc group contends that the proposals contradict the County of Kaua’i’s General Plan Update and would bring irreparable urban sprawl to the island.
The group says that none of the planning commissioners are specifically trained or knowledgeable in city planning, and that their appointments as commissioners and the approvals of development projects they make are illegal.
Conflicts of interest with the commissioners and their private jobs prevent them from making wise decisions about the county’s growth, members of the group said.
Sprawl was defined by one protester as: “Long, flat, concrete boxes to house stores, hundreds of parking spaces, where they cover the ‘aina with concrete and ugliness, and it cannot be repaired.”
The group claims that a number of locally-run stores closed following the opening of KMart and Wal-Mart in Lihu’e in the mid-1990s, and that “niche market” shops and boutiques that opened after the large stores opened mainly cater to island visitors.
A condominium project in Waipouli will not only cause more traffic, but block off access to the ocean and land, the group claims, and it will also require ancient burial grounds to be dug up and replaced elsewhere.
The problem starts with tourists who decide they would like to live on Kaua’i, she said. Next is the planning commission, who the groups says can prohibit the ability for outsiders to come in and develop.
“They’re supposed to be the first line of defense for the people,” said George Taguma, a videographer for the group who said he will broadcast the day’s protest on the community cable channel Ho’ike.
“They make all their decisions in back rooms,” he claimed. “If they made a common-sense decision, they wouldn’t be doing what they’re doing.”
Mark Boiser of Kapa’a, an outspoken advocate of Hawaiian Sovereignty and land usage rights, the group believes that the planning commission is being “bought out” by developers.
People have no right to buy or sell land once leased on 100-year terms to sugar cane plantation owners -until those lands are returned to the Kingdom of Hawaii, Boiser claimed.
He said people are “taking lands that don’t belong to them and giving it to whoeverthe highest bidder.”
“We’re protesting the paving of our lands and desecrating of our sacred lands,” said Gilbert Kahele of Wailua Homesteads.
“To dig up all those bones and put it somewhere else, they would never go into Punchbowl and dig up the bones and put then somewhere else,” he said.
“They have no respect,” said Lehua Kahele while holding a sign that read “Desecrate Sacred Land No More.”
“When you come out and buy big tracts of land and don’t show respect, you’re not taking care of the people who are already here,” said Bill Ruman, another Wailua Homesteads resident. His sign read: “No more paving paradise-Go home.”
The problem is that a lot of developers get approved without public notice, Ruman said. “By the time we hear about it, it’s too late,” Gilbert added.
Ohai’s view is that new people coming in to live in Kaua’i have an “out”: “They can go home,” she said. “They don’t want to embrace our culture and they don’t understand the people,” she claimed.
The group met again Tuesday morning in front of the Mo’ikeha Building prior to the planning commission meeting.
County response
Ian Costa, head of the County Planning Department, discussed his views on the development protesters.
“We’re not able to discriminate against somebody new to do something we have a right to do,” he said of Mainland developers.
As to the “buying out” of planning commissioners: “it’s not true,” he said.
When considering new developments, proposals have to meet certain conditions that address infrastructure, to make sure that it makes things better, Costa said.
In the case of Waipouli, the developers have proposed shoreline access. There are burials all over the island, he said, asking if everyone who found bones on their property has stopped construction.
Nothing in the General Plan Update was amended for the Waipouli project, he said. In fact, the area has been zoned for resort development since the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance was adopted in 1972.
“We cannot close off Kaua’i,” Costa said. “I think that we all appreciate some of the things we get from that: roads, people picking up our trash, jobs.”
“I would like to see the clock slowed down or turned back as much as anybody, or more,” he added.
Costa said he recognizes he’s on Kaua’i because he chooses to be, and did not take his job for the money or glory, which he says is little.
“My roots go deep into Kaua’i, the history of Kaua’i,” he said, “I would certainly hate to see somebody who doesn’t have that be in this position.” The quality of life found on Kaua’i doesn’t compare to Las Vegas where many Hawai’i residents relocate to, or any other place, he said.
“One step at a time, trying to make sure I’m looking out for” he said when asked what he can do to protect that quality of life on Kaua’i, “it doesn’t matter what I put there, it’s gonna be shot full of darts.”
“There are some realities in life,” he added. “We are a part of the State of Hawai’i, we have a constitution and we have equal rights. There are no magic answers. If we begin to say no, it would be ‘no’ right across the board.”
Costa said those with concerns about development on Kaua’i should write to the County of Kaua’i Planning Department 4444 Rice Street, Suite 473, Lihu’e, HI 96766.
Staff Writer Kendyce Manguchei can be reached at mailto:kmanguchei@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 252).
