VOICES: Please, help stop Hokua Place

We can stop the 760-house development, Hokua Place, behind the Kapa‘a Middle School. If you love Kaua‘i, please testify and get this out on email and social media to your friends.

For those who want to testify, either on Zoom or email, about Hokua Place on Wednesday and Thursday, March 10 or 11, please read below. This is the final hearing for Hokua Place that, if passed by the LUC (state Land Use Commission), would change the zoning from agriculture to urban.

Following are the registration links for the March 10 (prefered for public testimony) and March 11 hearing dates for the LUC Zoom Webinar hearings on A11-791 HG Joint Venture LLC (Hokua Place).

Anyone interested in attending the hearing or providing testimony will need to register for the meetings using the links below. After registering, you will be sent a meeting link to be used to enter the meeting. We recommend if anyone has questions about using Zoom, they visit the Zoom website, where they have a number of easy-to-understand videos and explanations on how to use the features with either a computer or phone.

Also, we encourage anyone planning to provide testimony to submit a copy to the commission via our website at least 48 hours prior to the hearing so we can post it to our website. Otherwise, there is no guarantee the testimony will be received in time if submitted closer to the hearing date. The LUC meetings start at 9 a.m.

• Land Use Commission website: dbedt.luc.web@hawaii.gov;

• March 10 registration link: us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ch2t6gjaRAeY_zBBXkedYw;

• March 11 registration link: us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_fgV4tXKyRYS6fHM_Y5ELHw.

Here are some points for use to testify on March 10 or 11. The 10th is prefered. Please do not copy. Rather, write your testimony in your own words with your own experiences:

1) Lack of water availability is far-reaching in the Kapa‘a area. Hokua Place developers dug a well, which failed to provide water. It’s not clear whether the county can provide water to this huge, 760-house development. A water permit hasn’t been issued to Hokua Place by the county Department of Water. There are several lots in Kapa‘a that can’t get permits, e.g., Waipouli Road;

2) The unbearable traffic in pre-COVID-19 time will soon return with an increase in tourism. An outdated traffic study done by the state is not valid. Hokua Place at full capacity would bring about 1,300 additional vehicles to the bypass, the roundabout and downtown Kapa‘a;

3) Aging infrastructure: Besides bursting sewage covers on Kuhio Highway blowing off and contaminating the Wailua River and ocean, two floods were recently created by logs and sand blocking water passage under the Wailua bridge. It’s no wonder, since the sewer design standards used by the county Department of Public Works were based on 1973 and 2008 references. The Wailua Wastewater Treatment Plant will have to be moved inland at some point due to rising sea levels;

4) Affordable? Not really! It’s likely that owners of condos at Hokua Place will have to pay a sizable maintenance fee each month, from $800 to $1,100. That fee is ongoing, unless you sell it;

5) There’s a lack of teachers in the Kapa‘a schools, which are already at or nearing capacity;

6) Food on Kaua‘i: 90% is imported. That’s why we have to keep a stash of food and water at home, in case of a hurricane or other disaster. HP land is zoned agriculture. A better use would be to grow food, rather than houses;

7) The county DPW Wastewater Management Division hasn’t given Hokua Placle a permit to hook up to the Wastewater Treatment Plant in Wailua. The county is unaware of how much flow will be produced by Hokua Place and whether the existing sewer system has enough capacity to accommodate this flow.

•••

Gabriela Taylor is a resident of Kapa‘a.