An Omaha, Nebraska, couple seeking to rezone and subdivide their North Kona property will have more time to meet the neighbors after the County Council on Wednesday postponed a decision so the owners could address community concerns.
Timothy and Kay Ward want to build six 1,700- to 1,800-square-foot homes on their property on Mamalahoa Highway, about 300 feet south of its intersection with Kaiminani Drive. They would be rented on one-year leases for what the Wards hope will be affordable family rentals. They couldn’t pinpoint a price range, but said they would be as affordable as they could make them, although not part of the kind of subsidized housing that’s generally how affordable housing is defined in Hawaii.
The Wards, who are currently building a home in Kailua-Kona they plan to move into early next year, said they own townhouses in Nebraska they rent out and they wanted to do something similar with single-family homes in Hawaii.
“We do understand and appreciate the concern the neighbors have. They don’t know us. We don’t live there yet.. .. They don’t know who we are and what we represent,” Kay Ward told the council via Zoom.
She said people on the island have told her about the shortage of rental properties.
“We have rentals and we know that business,” she said. “We have the ability to put the investment into that piece of land.”
Although the Leeward Planning Commission sent the council a favorable recommendation on the project, two dozen testifiers wrote in Opposition to the project, citing cultural and environmental concerns.
There’s a lava tube on the 4-acre site that has cultural significance, several said. Others pointed to the loss of agricultural land in the area and the need for sustainability.
Community character is also important, said North Kona Councilman Holeka Inaba. He noted no one testified in support of the project.
“I think it’s very clear what the community has talked about and I completely agree,” Inaba said, urging fellow council members to vote the project down.
Instead, the council voted 5-4 to postpone Bill 53, creating the subdivision and 6-3 to postpone Bill 52, rezoning the property from agriculture to urban. In addition to Inaba, Kona Councilwoman Rebecca Villegas and South Kona/Kau‘u Councilwoman Maile David voted no on the postponement of both bills. Puna Councilman Matt Kanealii-Kleinfelder voted no on postponing Bill 53.
Kohala Councilman Tim Richards said the region’s community development plan envisions the area developed as infill.
“I want our communities to go forward and I don’t think categorically eliminating any development is the way to go forward,” Richards said. “We need housing and we need all scales of housing.”
Puna Councilwoman Ashley Kierkiewicz, chairwoman of the council Planning Committee, agreed.
“I do think the Wards can do much better job connecting with the Kona community and really understanding their values. However, we are not here to make a decision on whether or not they are connecting with our community the right way,” Kierkiewicz said. “It’s very clear these are the pockets in which we want to encourage infill.”