County body rules company needs a better site for project LIHU’E – It’s back to the drawing board for Kaua’i Electric, which hoped to construct an electric substation at Hanama’ulu to replace one on the Kapa’a side of Wailua Golf
County body rules company needs a better site for project
LIHU’E – It’s back to the drawing board for Kaua’i Electric, which hoped to construct an electric substation at Hanama’ulu to replace one on the Kapa’a side of Wailua Golf Course.
The Kaua’i County Planning Commission yesterday voted unanimously to deny permits for the site, which is the intersection of Kuhio Highway and Kapule Highway.
The county Planning Department stated in a report that the proposed electrical substation “does not meet the criteria for a Use Permit in that it is not a compatible use at the proposed location.” The department also said Kaua’i Electric had not “demonstrated that they have exhausted alternative sites along the existing transmission line which could function adequately and which are less visually prominent from existing highways.”
The substation also would have been less than a mile from the recently completed Lihu’e Gateway project and would have been at least partially visible from the highways, the department concluded.
“We’ll go back and start over,” a disappointed Jack Leavitt told the commission. Leavitt is the manager of service assurance for Kaua’i Electric, which needs the substation to help distribute power to customers in the area.
Though the company predicted it wouldn’t need to be developed until 2006, the matter was brought to the front burner when Kaua’i Electric was notified that Amfac would sell the beachfront parcel stretching from Hanama’ulu Bay to Wailua Golf Course.
The 440 acres has been sold to a mainland company, which is formulating plans for the property, according to attorney Walton Hong, who represents the new owners.
Kaua’i Electric could reapply for the permits after six months, but had worked out an agreement suitable to adjacent landowner Pamela L. Smith-Chock, owner of Kaua’i Fruit and Flower Company on Kuhio Highway on the Lihu’e side of the Radisson Kaua’i Beach Resort.
Several months were spent, apparently now in vain, working on a compromise location and landscaping and access issues agreeable to the utility and Smith-Chock.
Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
