LIHU‘E — A court-appointed hearings officer on Thursday granted a petition from county Planning Director Michael Dahilig to revoke demolition and re-development permits at the former Coco Palms Resort in Wailua — but also granted a 30-day stay for the
LIHU‘E — A court-appointed hearings officer on Thursday granted a petition from county Planning Director Michael Dahilig to revoke demolition and re-development permits at the former Coco Palms Resort in Wailua — but also granted a 30-day stay for the project team to regroup.
The permits to rebuild the dilapidated hotel expired Jan. 25. The Kaua‘i Planning Commission in February, following Dahilig’s recommendation, issued an order to show cause and moved to revoke a special management area use permit, a project development use permit, a variance permit, a class IV zoning permit, and other use permits held by Coco Palms Ventures LLC.
Court-appointed Hearings Officer Richard Nakamura agreed Thursday that the commission had cause to revoke the permits held by Coco Palms Ventures LLC. He stayed the enforcement for 30 days to allow the project developer to explore the issues involved.
“Our County Attorney’s Office did an admirable job arguing on our behalf in the hearing today,” Dahilig said in a press release. “We are ultimately pleased with the oral recommendation rendered by the hearings officer in favor of our position to revoke the permits.”
The order states that only the Planning Department is allowed to ask for an extension of the stay. If no request to extend is made, then the order will take effect and the commission may take the matter up for adoption, modification or rejection.
“We feel confident the Planning Commission will concur with his recommendation,” Dahilig said of Nakamura’s decision. “Hopefully this will bring clarity to the healing process for what has been an unfortunate and sad situation for the people of Wailua and Kaua‘i as a whole.”
Mayor Bernard P. Carvalho Jr. said that moving on the demolition and remediation of the Coco Palms property was always an important goal of his administration.
“I applaud the decision of the hearings officer and share the sentiments of many in our community that it’s time to explore new opportunities for the historic property,” Carvalho said in a press release. “We await the final decision of the commission so the process of getting Coco Palms addressed can move forward without delay.”
Patrick Duddy, of Relax Hotels and Spas and Maxum Construction of Hawai‘i LLC, is a project partner with Prudential, Phillip Ross of Coco Palms Ventures, and a reported new “large Hawaiian company.” He said there is still an opportunity to convince the county to allow the project to go forward.
“We are pleased with the additional time,” Duddy said on a phone interview Saturday. “I have two year’s of my life and a lot of money invested in this. We are ready to build this hotel. We have the money.”
Duddy said the project was sidelined by the loss of his father last October. After informing the county that he had struck a deal and the team was ready to go, he said the county still went ahead with efforts to pull the permits.
The project’s team will work to keep the project even if the permits are pulled, Duddy said. They have the cash required for phase one, and they need to show that investors are lined up for the three remaining phases, he added.
“We don’t want to fight this, but we want to build this hotel,” Duddy said. “It would be a $40 million investment for Kaua‘i, and put 500 people back to work.”
The issue of project entitlements and control of the beach is central to a project that intends to recreate the Coco Palms as it looked in its prime, Duddy said. If that is lost then the deal is dead because the hotel needs that element for its marketing goals, he added.
The resort zoning area is for 16.4 acres, of which 12.93 acres are considered the hotel grounds and Seashell Restaurant on the ocean side of the highway. Another 17-acres included the coconut grove that is zoned conservation district and leased from the state Department of Land and Natural Resources. All the property is below the FEMA flood plane level.
The Hawaiian royal property opened the first hotel under Queen Deborah Kapule in the mid-1800s. She sold it to William Lindeman in 1896, who planted the coconut grove and ran the lodge until his family sold it to Lyle “Gus” Guslander in 1953.
Guslander and manager Grace Buscher married and expanded to nearly 400 rooms and cottages by the 1970s under the Island Holidays/AMFAC banner. Guslander died in 1984, and Wailua Associates purchased the property in 1985.
Subsequent owners were successful in completing plans to renovate or redevelop the property. The hotel suffered damages during Hurricane ‘Iniki on Sept. 11, 1992, but insurance records show the hotel could be rebuilt. Years of inaction, an later a a fire, put the hotel site into disrepair.
Since 2007, the commission denied a health and fitness spa project, and an effort to build a condominium, housing and hotel project was abandoned. With permits in place, Coco Palms Ventures started the current project that has yet to break ground.
Friends of Coco Palms has worked since 2007 to block permit renewals or transfer, and for any development. The group wants to preserve cultural and historic areas for the public benefit. Its fiscal sponsor, Hawaiian Islands Land Trust, has a $276,000 grant-in-aid request being considered by the state Legislature to kick start a planning and fundraising effort to acquire the property for the public.
HILT has the support of the Kaua‘i County Council for its intention to either purchase the site, or to lead a community approach to enact easements in cooperation with owners to protect the cultural significance of property.
• Tom LaVenture, staff writer, can be reached at 245-0424 or tlaventure@thegardenisland.com.
