LIHUE — Members of the community are expected to show up in force at a county meeting today in opposition to a development that would be located behind Kapaa Middle School.
The development of nearly 800 homes will be built on former agricultural land. Opponents say the development will increase the number of vehicles on the roads and that there simply isn’t the infrastructure to support that kind of growth on Kauai.
They also say the reduction of agriculture land on Kauai will reduce future food security and sustainability.
Today’s meeting amending the General Plan will begin at 8:30 a.m. in the Historic County Building, on the agenda at the County Council meeting.
Also on the agenda is a real estate developer who announced his support for down-designating his previously planned resort in Princeville, thereby removing the proposed resort designation from the draft General Plan.
In a letter to Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr., Jeff Stone, CEO of PRW Princeville Development Company LLC, said he is “amenable to the removal of the Princeville Central Plateau Makai Resort Designation.”
Sarah Blane, the mayor’s chief of staff, said the area of Princeville in question was given a “resort” land use designation in 1983 and has been designated as a “resort” in every General Plan since that time.
“In 2014, the Princeville Development Company proposed to develop Princeville Phase II,” Blane said. “This proposal prompted community concern and during ongoing discussions on the Draft General Plan update, many residents asked that the resort designation for this area be removed and instead designate that area for agriculture land use,” Blane said.
What this means, according to Blane, is the removal of the “resort” designation, will preclude any new development proposals that could include a resort for that property.
“The removal of the designation will prohibit the possibility of those ranch home sites to be converted to transient vacation rental use,” Blane said.
The mayor urged the council to implement this compromise that represented months of discussions between the administration and Stone’s company.
“This is the appropriate course of action for responsible development on the North Shore,” Carvalho Jr. said.
The development of the North Shore Preserve will include 75 equestrian and ranch home sites on 650 acres, “which continue the cherished 150 year tradition of ranching in Princeville,” Stone said.
Carvalho jr. said? Or was this mayor Caviao? I don’t remember Carvalho jr. the big guy, as mastery of details. All I knew was that he lifted weights, ran a lot, and worked out. Who told him to start thinking? The former football player, six foot-six inch man? That guy?
I have no reason to consult with him.
Actually, I only give him kids credit. You know, pop warner and KIF relations into the voting public. Medical plan.
Really. I’m not sure still though. To me, he called out “eleven” every time in a lineup. Too scary.
How did they vote? There is no company. Hokua place. Build or no build.
A review of history will reveal to anyone with a few active brain cells that central planning has always been, always will be, an abject failure. It has produced more misery and death than is comprehensible…literally 100s of millions of deaths through starvation and murder by the state. (USSR, China, N. Korea, Cuba, Cambodia, Venezuela etc. etc.)
All the talk of a General Plan is nothing short of centralized planning and it will fail. It is especially onerous when backed by the mob…sorry, I meant to say “community”. I must say though, that I am not exactly sure what is the “community” in this case. Perhaps in the mix of this so-called “community” are some of the same people that whine about affordable housing. They are under the delusion that restricting the supply of housing will somehow increase the supply of affordable units? Irrationality and economic illiteracy are at the helm here.
RG DeSoto
The type of development planned for Kapaa is not appropriate at this time. The roads just cannot handle all the traffic that 800 new homes will create, not to mention when they are building them, all of the mess they will create with construction traffic! Why don’t the Kauai engineers learn from the mistakes of California and Oahu? Look at how horrible it is in those places because of development. Money, money, money! We voted for council members to look out for out island, and they are selling us out to developers!