LIHUE — When the Kilauea Sugar Plantation was shuttered in 1971 after nearly 91 years in business, Malama Kauai co-founder Keone Kealoha said it didn’t take long for developers to eye the company’s former land for homes. Through a
LIHUE — When the Kilauea Sugar Plantation was shuttered in 1971 after nearly 91 years in business, Malama Kauai co-founder Keone Kealoha said it didn’t take long for developers to eye the company’s former land for homes.
Through a land exchange that was eventually forged over time, Kealoha said a parcel of land in Kilauea was set aside for the cultivation of an agriculture park for the benefit of local farmers.
But even after several decades, that vision of a county-owned but community-maintained agricultural park has not come to fruition.
Local residents, Kealoha said, are still waiting.
And the undeveloped 75-acre lot for the park, located across the street from Kauai Christian Academy on Kilauea Lighthouse Road, is now being used as a dumping ground for abandoned cars and growing area for peanuts, bananas and avacados, according to a 2011 county-funded report.
“The community of Kilauea was the original beneficiaries of this land exchange and they’re still waiting for this to happen,” Kealoha said. “I guess at this point it was just like, let’s make this happen. The community is ready. We’re in a great place, so why not have the county allow us, the community, to realize our dream.”
That might happen in the near future, Kealoha said, if the County Council approves an agreement Thursday granting Malama Kauai and a seven-member agricultural park committee stewardship rights to the land.
Finalizing that deal, he said, is the last step needed to grant the community access to the site.
“I think that the point is to get it done, so I think we’re going to use whatever resources we can to see that realized,” Kealoha said. “We’re going to have to look at everything from water and irrigation to electrical improvements and roadways. I think, once we have site control as a community, that will allow us to start tapping on partners who are out there that weren’t engaged before … to help the community realize this project.”
According to county documents, the land for the agricultural park was conveyed to the County of Kauai by the developer of the gated Sea Cliff Plantation community in 2006 as a condition for subdivision approval.
In addition to the land transfer, those conditions stated that revenues derived from the sale of the agricultural lots and school site, created as a part of the Sea Cliff Plantation subdivision, were to be used for the infrastructure and improvements associated with the agricultural park.
Those projects, at the time, included constructing an irrigation system, conducting minor road improvements, building park amenities and providing a $25,000 fee for the Kauai Public Land Trust, the local arm of land conservation nonprofit Hawaiian Islands Land Trust.
Since then, the county has initiated funding for studies for the development of water and other infrastructure for the park; developed a master plan, including design recommendations for the farm lots; and conducted an environmental assessment to supply and develop irrigation for the agricultural park.
The goal of the park itself, according to county documents, is to provide “diversified agricultural opportunities to small scale farmers” by using former plantation agricultural land that is now fallow.
“Barriers to the development of small-scale diversified agricultural farming include high development costs for infrastructure, including grading for access roads and drainage, and the development of irrigation water,” according to a draft version of the stewardship agreement between the County of Kauai, Malama Kauai and the Kilauea Agricultural Committee. “The Kilauea Agricultural Park is intended to remove these traditional barriers which discourage farming. The beneficiaries of the project are new and established small farmers on Kauai, who would establish or relocate their farms to the area because of the availability of new agricultural land.”
In all, there are 10 agriculture parks throughout the state — four on the Big Island, four on Oahu, and one each on Kauai and Molokai, according to the state Department of Agriculture.
The Kauai County Council will consider the Kilauea Agricultural Park agreement beginning at 10 a.m. during their Thursday public meeting in the Historic County Building’s Council Chambers in Lihue.
