KILAUEA — Two dozen community members, planners and building designers shuffled between marked bamboo poles yesterday morning on a ridge overlooking Kilauea Stream as the county Planning Commission scoped California resident Charles Somers’ proposed home site. Some residents fear the
KILAUEA — Two dozen community members, planners and building designers shuffled between marked bamboo poles yesterday morning on a ridge overlooking Kilauea Stream as the county Planning Commission scoped California resident Charles Somers’ proposed home site.
Some residents fear the upscale project off of Kahili Quarry Road will wreck a cherished valley view and destroy the character of a coastal environment locals have enjoyed visiting for decades.
But others view it as an opportunity to limit the development on the 164-acre property to a cluster comprised of the proposed two single-family residential dwelling units, barn and accessory improvements.
Gary Tobey, the project’s building designer, said Somers has no intentions of constructing additional homes on his special-management-area land, although the allowable density is some 30 units.
The main house would be roughly 8,700 square feet, Tobey said, with a nearby 1,400-square-foot caretaker’s cottage and 2,600-square-foot barn.
Residents who have referenced the permit applications say the total lot coverage — which includes paved driveways, decks, a pond and a pool in addition to what falls “under roof” — would be 36,517 square feet.
Kaua‘i Public Land Trust President Gary Blaich said in a Jan. 22 letter to the commission that Somers’ parcel is being sought to conserve open space and as part of the Kilauea Wildlife Refuge expansion effort.
Tobey acknowledged this yesterday at the staked out home site, where he answered questions from commissioners and county planners about the architectural drawings.
The ranch project has been in the works for more than two years, he said, adding that the federal government has at times held it up when trying to acquire the parcel to protect fragile habitat.
But there has been insufficient federal and state funding to complete that effort, Tobey said.
The land is ideal for nene and endangered water fowl, Blaich said, and “essential to the health and protection of the estuary and to providing managed public access to Kilauea Falls.”
Somers needs the commission to approve a use permit, a special management area use permit and a zoning permit before he can move forward with the project.
The vast majority of letters and petitions submitted to the Planning Department in recent months have urged the commission to deny the permits.
“This project would be a lot easier to stomach if it included a comprehensive plan on how to minimize the impacts on the area around it, perhaps by limiting the amount of square footage of the combined buildings and implementing a zeroscape plan for the surrounding landscape to eliminate the possibility of nitrification of the wetlands below,” Emory Griffin-Noyes states in testimony received Feb. 26. “It will be a sad day when money and development are prioritized over the beauty and health of the land; truly the integrity of our home is on the line when we are making decisions of this kind.”
Tobey said Somers intends to live on Kaua‘i part-time while operating a nationwide business.
Some of the residents who would be Somers’ neighbors expressed their conditional support for the project.
“Considering the applicant’s potential willingness to forgo future development of the property, I clearly view this as an invaluable benefit to the entire Kilauea neighborhood,” Jorgen Lien said. “As a resident of Seacliff Plantation who views the Somers property, I would like to offer my support for the proposed plan should Mr. Somers agree to forfeit all future density for the property.”
The state Historic Preservation Division, citing known historic sites in this area such as terraces, offered its comments on the pending permits.
Acting Archeology Branch Chief Nancy McMahon recommended the county impose conditions requiring an archaeological inventory survey be conducted and mitigative measures taken should burial sites be found on the property.
Somers, who could not be reached for comment at press time, runs a Sacramento-based janitorial service that he reportedly built from the ground up.
For more information, visit the county Planning Department at the Mo‘ikeha Building in Lihu‘e.
• Nathan Eagle, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 224) or neagle@kauaipubco.com.
