Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 19, Number 5, 1 May 2002 — Hōkūliʻa project up in air with court's ruling [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Hōkūliʻa project up in air with court's ruling

Judge finds luxury South Kona project bypassed state zoning laws By Māhealani Kamau'u In a ruling issued on April 7, Circuit Judge Ronald ībarra said that the l,540-acre Hōkūli'a development planned for South Kona violated state land use laws because it is an urban development in an agricultural district, The $645 million project includes more than 700 luxury residential lots, a golf course, lodge, clubhouse, pavilion, tennis courts and other amenities, Lot prices range from $750,000 to $2.6 million. The judge indicated the County of HawaLi made a mistake when it allowed developer 1250 Oceanside Partners to obtain its land use permits from the County instead of going through the more rigorous and comprehensive state Land Use Commission process, Judge ībarra's order sided with the Protect Keōpuka 'Ohana (PKO), whose members took legal action to prevent further damage to burials and an ancient trail bulldozed by the developer, According to the judge, "The counties must take before-the-fact

measures to ensure preservation of prime agricultural land, and when investigation shows that a proposed subdivision in an agricultural district will in all likelihood not be used for agricultural purposes and may be an attempted circumvention of the land use district amendment procedures and controls ,,,, the county should disapprove the subdivision," NHLC Attorney Alan Murakami said the decision sends a clear signal to developers who attempt to avoid the appropriate approval process, "Our clients have been saying all along that this project was really an impermissible urban development in an agricultural district," he said, The trial will now deal with the issue of whether Oceanside has vested rights whieh would allow it to continue the project, Other issues to be decided include alleged destruction and disturbance of burial sites as well as the alaloa (ancient trail), The developer previously settled another lawsuit with Kona residents who complained that muddy runoff from the project site had severely damaged water quality and reef life in adjacent shoreline areas, The Hōkūli'a case is yet another unfortunate illustration of the heavy toll exacted when developers and members of the community are unable to resolve their differences

and resort to the courts, The personal and financial toll is great, For example, PKO members face some opposition in their own community because of the tremendous eeonomie impact such a project exerts, Attorneys representing various parties spend countless hours researching, writing and reviewing thousands of documents to prepare for trial, Oceanside, and by extension the Hawai'i economy, risks losing millions of dollars, At the root of these problems is the now familiar clash between Hawaiian and Western values too often played out in the courts, The traditional Western view of land as a commodity for weahhbuilding that ean be bought, sold, developed, or leveraged as collateral contrasts sharply with the traditional Hawaiian belief that land is our ancestor, For Hawaiians, land is an unbroken link with our kupuna; to be cared for as we have been cared for by our kupuna; and that when it is cared for, it reveals itself

to us as a living source of physical and spiritual nurture, When a developer carelessly allows project runoff to destroy fishing grounds; when he dynamites sacred places to create an artificial landscape; when he bulldozes burials; when he continues to obliterate revered places; the injury suffered by Hawaiians as a people becomes increasingly acute and irreparable, The corrosive effects and long history of these con.tin.uing harms have severely undermined our ability to be a community, The aloha spirit has been steadily and palpably eroded, For many complex reasons, native wisdom, perspective and judgment are underrepresented, mistranslated, misunderstood, marginalized and largely absent when important decisions are made in this state, Until we resolve to address this as a community, our state will fail in its potential for greatness, Māhealani Kamau'u is the executive director ofthe Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation. ■

Kūkākūkā

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MILLION-DOLLAR VIEW from Hokuli'a clubhouse deck.