A South Kona woman explained Friday how she took on the job she thought county planning officials would, seeking out information about endangered and native species living on her and her neighbor’s property.
Attorneys for the neighboring landowner and the county responded with questions about how she was using her own land’s agricultural designation and whether she was aware the property next door could be cleared and farmed.
Patricia Missler took the stand before the county’s Board of Appeals to explain her objections to a proposed development at Waikakuu Ranch. When a county planner did not visit the Waikakuu property and accepted the owner’s comments that the property was mostly covered with invasive and nonnative species, Missler began contacting state environmental agencies and collecting information about the Waikakuu Ranch property, which is located south of her Kaohe Ranch lot.
During her research, she identified six endangered Hawaiian palms growing in Kaohe Ranch, four of which are close to the Waikakuu Ranch boundary line.
“The significance is that there might be all kinds of stuff” growing on the Waikakuu property, Missler said. “Without doing an inventory, you might be destroying them. You don’t know.”
Missler and her husband, Richard, filed the appeal after Planning Director Bobby Jean Leithead Todd approved a 14-lot subdivision of the property. The subdivision plan would create 13 2-acre lots and one large lot, concentrating development on the upper area of the property. The Misslers said the approval was for a plan contrary to the Kona Community Development Plan, and that the proposed development will have a negative impact on the area’s watershed. Previous hearings included testimony from a Planning Department employee who said he did not visit the site, nor did he investigate the applicant’s claims that no endangered or endemic species were living or growing on the land.
Missler and botanists she consulted estimate some of the ohia trees on the property are 800 to 1,000 years old.
Deputy Corporation Counsel Amy Self asked Missler whether she was aware that, because the land is zoned agriculture, the owner could just apply for a grading permit and cut down all of the trees.
“We’ve been given that threat before,” Missler said. “That’s a watershed, that’s a forest. I don’t know they can do that.”
Attorney Steven Lim, who represents Malama Investments and the Saxton Trust, which own the property, questioned Missler about how she was using her own 5-acre lot, which is also zoned agriculture. She said her husband has cleared by hand most of the trees they needed to cut down for the house pad and water catchment system. That method is less damaging to the remaining ohia trees, she said. She has a garden on the property, she added.
Owner Vince Saxton also took the stand. He said he shared the Misslers’ goals of preserving the property’s forested nature, which is why he went ahead with a plan to cluster the development as part of a planned unit development.
“I love the forest up there, as well,” Saxton said.
The property is on the market, he said. He and his parents, who purchased the land in 2004, were in escrow with two developers, who later backed out.
“We are looking for somebody to help us with the development,” Saxton said. “We want to exercise our right as property owners.”
Under Self’s questioning, Saxton acknowledged a condition in the subdivision approval that precludes any development of the large, lower lot, aside from approved agricultural uses.
Testifiers asked Board of Appeals members to overturn Leithead Todd’s approval of the development plan.
Walter Kahiwa, who identified himself as a kupuna of Milolii, gave board members a short lesson on the meaning of Waikakuu, which he said refers to an action “like casting your net to find water.” Milolii residents would paddle along the shoreline to Waikakuu during dry times to get “sweet, sweet” water from Waikakuu, he added.
“The land was and continues to be a major watershed and source for the area,” Kahiwa said. “Our rainfall is poor.”
The hearing is scheduled to continue May 11 in Hilo.
