LIHU‘E — With little fanfare, members of the Kaua‘i Planning Commission unanimously approved zoning permits to allow a new Costco warehouse and gas station at Kukui Grove Village West yesterday, one more hurdle cleared before the wholesale-supply store starts construction.
LIHU‘E — With little fanfare, members of the Kaua‘i Planning Commission unanimously approved zoning permits to allow a new Costco warehouse and gas station at Kukui Grove Village West yesterday, one more hurdle cleared before the wholesale-supply store starts construction.
Costco Wholesale Warehouse leaders will be required, however, to follow certain conditions, including making traffic improvements in the area, abiding by recommendations made by state and county agencies, and following an original landscaping and lighting plan.
Despite emotional testimony from both sides in previous public hearings, no members of the public testified at the morning meeting in the Lihu‘e Civic Center Mo‘ikeha Building.
However, a letter from Cheryl Lovell-Obatake imploring members of the Planning Commission to impose conditions involving drainage and water run-off, was accepted into the public record.
The majority of discussion prior to commission members’ vote focused on traffic issues and, prior to building-permit approval, Costco officials will have to finalize plans to improve traffic-flow plans around the store.
The “big box” warehouse giant is planning to build an 150,000-square-foot supply store and a self-service gas station on a 15-acre plot next to and including a portion of the Home Depot site. The site is expected to have eight entrances and exits, from Kalepa, Nuhou, and Ulu Maika streets. It also borders Pikake Street.
The whole complex is on a parcel formerly owned by Grove Farm that currently houses the Kukui Grove Center park and pavilion, which is expected to be demolished this summer.
Costco leaders have proposed to have both the gas and warehouse facilities opened for business by the fall of this year.
But before construction begins, however, certain conditions imposed by members of the Planning Commission must be met.
Costco builders must first have a traffic plan approved by the state Department of Transportation Highways Division and the county Department of Public Works, to minimize traffic delays around the store.
“It’s still being worked out,” said Kim Sanford, Costco development manager.
They also must use outside lighting that minimizes adverse impacts on seabirds, such as the Newell’s Shear-water, which get distracted by certain spotlights.
An added condition would encourage the Costco builders to hire as many Kaua‘i contractors as possible.
But the most, perhaps-precedent-setting condition came from the commission’s newest member, Imaikalani P. Aiu.
Aiu proposed a condition that a certain percentage of the landscaping be native plants, common or endemic to the area.
After a debate, Michael S. Chu, an authorized agent with LP&D Hawaii for Costco, and the project’s landscaper, agreed that 60 percent of all warehouse landscaping, much of which will be used to hide the “big box” feel of the building, will be endemic, common, native, and Polynesian-introduced.
“We have made an effort to put in native plants from the outset,” Chu said.
But the condition may have far-reaching affects, as Commissioner Theodore “Ted” Daligdig III said. It may become a precedent other builders may have to follow.
Aiu, the commission’s environmentalist, said the commission should encourage people to use plants native to Kaua‘i, to give back to the land as it is developed.
Commissioner Sandy Kato-Klutke agreed.
“We should encourage people” to use native plants, she said.
A final landscaping plan will be submitted with the building-permit application.
- Tom Finnegan, staff writer, may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) or tfinnegan@pulitzer.net.
