The state Department of Transportation Airports Division has shelved plans to expand Port Allen Airport near Hanapepe. The state’s recent action brings to an end, at least for now, a contentious, town-splitting division that had erupted over those for and
The state Department of Transportation Airports Division has shelved plans to expand Port Allen Airport near Hanapepe.
The state’s recent action brings to an end, at least for now, a contentious, town-splitting division that had erupted over those for and against the proposed expansion.
A contested-case hearing before the Kaua’i Planning Commission also ends with the state’s withdrawal of an application for various county permits necessary for the expansion.
“This has been a long and tortured story,” said Dee Crowell, director of the Kaua’i Planning Department. And, he’s not totally sure it’s over yet.
The proposed improvements, partially funded through airport special funds appropriated by the state Legislature (including at least $1,250,000 over the next two years), would have provided for a permanent building and room for three additional helicopter pads, one fixed-wing aircraft tie-down location, and other facilities.
Two helicopter companies, Bali Hai and Inter-Island, operate daily out of Port Allen, which is a public airport.
The head of the DOT Airports Division’s engineering program also said that if a helicopter fuel tank on the site also known as Burns Field is not permitted by the County of Kaua’i, the tank will have to be removed.
It is un-permitted, said Crowell.
“If the county says it’s not allowed, it’s not allowed. We’re going to follow whatever the county requirements are,” said Dennis Higa, DOT Airports Division engineering program manager.
That means having the tank removed if the county says it must, Higa said.
The county had come close to filing suit against the state for allowing the un-permitted tank to be erected on the airport grounds, said Crowell.
Higa said the state has no plans to apply for permits necessary for additional tanks.
“We decided that we just want to keep the airport status quo, or just keep it the way it is now,” said Higa. “It just means the facilities will stay the way they are (now). We’re just not going to add anything more to it.”
Crowell said the state could authorize one of the helicopter operators to come in for an after-the-fact permit for the tank.
The state last month sent a letter to Crowell officially withdrawing its application for various permits necessary for the planned improvements, Higa said.
That letter will likely be received for the record by the commission at its meeting Wednesday, June 12, officially and formally ending the state’s current permit application, said Crowell.
The permit process was interrupted during the contested-case phase when the state was ordered to prepare an environmental assessment that included an alternative to the proposed improvements that looked at locating all tour helicopter operations to Lihu’e Airport instead of expanding Port Allen Airport.
The state had completed that environmental assessment update, and had requested back on the commission agenda for potential approval or at least action.
During those discussions between the county and state, the issue of the fuel tank and office trailers at the airport came up, and according to Crowell the state said it did not want to include those structures as part of its application.
Crowell replied to the state that if the structures in question aren’t to be part of the application before the commission, “that stuff should be removed.”
A few weeks later, the state responded with the withdrawal letter, Crowell said.
Before the state requested back on the agenda, the county was “this close to taking them to court, because nothing was moving,” both in terms of either withdrawing or moving forward with its application, Crowell said.
At one time, Crowell thought the re-do of the state’s environmental assessment was going to include both the fuel tank and trailers, “but somehow that didn’t happen,” said Crowell.
The county had sent the state letters saying the fuel tank is an un-permitted structure, and Crowell was not looking forward to having to take what was appearing to be the next step. “We don’t get into suing the state lightly.”
The county’s General Plan Update in 2000 re-designated the Pu’olo Point area that includes Port Allen Airport as open zone, from public facility.
A long-range vision for the Port Allen Airport area is as part of an expanded adjacent Salt Pond Park, or at least a state park on the state land that is now the airport.
For the foreseeable future, though, it will remain a public airport, Higa said.
Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
