The Leeward Planning Commission on Thursday approved four of the five agenda items, with one headed to mediation after being granted contested case standing.
Waikoloa Village Center LLC was seeking a change of zone from open to industrial commercial mixed-20,000 square feet zoning district for a 26.052-acre portion of a larger 29.610-acre property. The property is located on the south side of Pua Melia Street, approximately 0.2 miles southeast of its intersection with Waikoloa Road, with plans to build a self-storage facility along with other buildings to be used as industrial-commercial.
The change of zone was approved by the commission.
The application from Lili‘uokalani Trust requested to amend certain requirements to build a commercial structure in the Kona Old Industrial Area. The .874-acre property is located along the makai side of Queen Ka‘ahumanu Highway between Eho Street and the Kona Coast Shopping Center.
The trust sought to delete a condition relating to the time to submit and secure final plan approval, time to commence construction and Eho Street improvements. They also want to delete the condition of Eho Street/Queen Kaahumanu Highway intersection improvements, and an administrative time extension.
The application was approved.
Hawaii Island Community Development Corporation was seeking a 5-year time extension for final subdivision approval of approximately 18.38 acres of land from an agricultural 20-acre to a single family residential-15,000 square foot, single family residential-10,000 square foot, single family residential-7,500 square foot and open zoning districts for the construction of affordable housing. The property is situated along the makai side of Akoni Pule Highway approximately 600 feet west of the Kohala High and Elementary School complex and was exuberantly approved by the commission.
Several testifiers were opposed to two proposed developments in the heart of Kona.
Phil Tinguely, managing member of Walua Partners LLC and president of Tinguely Development, was applying for a Special Management Area Use Permit to develop 18 multiple-family residential vacation units in two two-story townhouse buildings, and three one-story duplex buildings on Walua Road, approximately 600 feet southeast of its intersection with Alii Drive next to Kona Mansions. The complex would also include three private pools, an office building, and related development.
Kona Hawaii Development LLC applied for a SMA use permit to develop a 100-room hotel using a partially completed foundation structure on a 1.76- acre parcel situated in the Special Management Area. The parcel is on the makai side of Alii Drive north of the Kona Reef and south of the Royal Kona Resort. The property owner is listed as DPM Acquisitions, whose controlling company is Diamond Resorts International out of Las Vegas. Kona Hawaii Development, based out of Colorado, registered to do business in Hawaii in May.
The county first issued a SMA permit for a 48-unit condo project at the site in 1998, but delays in development, numerous five-year extensions and change of ownership stalled the project.
In 2020, the Leeward Planning Commission approved a fourth-five year extension for the project. With a new developer on board and the change of plans from a 48 unit condo project to a 100 unit hotel, a new SMA Use Permit must be obtained.
The common theme among those testifying Thursday about those two projects was traffic concerns and more wastewater entering an overburdened sewage treatment plant that is currently undergoing litigation.
“The downtown Kailua-Kona area is nearly the dead golden egg goose killed by greed, a lack of vision, planning, compassion and intelligence,” said Janice Palma-Glennie in her testimony regarding both projects. “You don’t want to be the ones who deal the final blow to that ailing creature that is our beautiful but disintegrating town.
“… The proposals are untenable. Approval would open up the county to more lawsuits regarding wastewater treatment.
Only people in an alternate reality would approve these projects at this time. The two development companies are blindly ignorant, inconceivably gutsy, think no one is looking, or think our leaders don’t care about their town.”
Kilihea Inaba testified in opposition to Tinguely Development’s application, citing archaeological sites on the property.
“There are five archaeological sites on the property including one burial,” she said. “The plan to create a buffer zone and stone walls in an attempt to protect the burial caves is insufficient.”
Most of the testimony received was in opposition to Kona Hawaii Development’s application.
“That proposed project’s approval is more than 25 years old with no completion,” Mark Van Pernis said. “”It was misrepresented in the 1990s that all would be done in five years. A few years ago a new developer wanted another delay and a change in the obsolete design without penalty and without a requirement to finish construction by any date and without a contemporary traffic study. Have that cement monstrosity removed.”
Three individuals were granted standing for contested case on the Alii Drive hotel project. The developer had no objections, preferring to have it done now, rather than down the road. Those cases are headed to mediation.