BREAKING NEWS!

Posted 12/17/2024

Aloha All,

Happy Holidays. Greetings from the FOM Board of Directors. We are pleased to share that we have had another success that may lead to a really large success. When Governor Josh Green was elected, one of his largest campaign contributors was Pacific Resource Partnership (PRP), an organization that represents the Hawaii Regional Council of Carpenters and more than 240 of Hawaii’s top contractors. Shortly after his election, he began work on an Emergency Proclamation to fast track the construction of homes in Hawaii. The proclamation was packaged as something that would more rapidly and effectively address the housing shortage for Hawaii’s residents. When we read the Proclamation, however, there were no controls over the value or sale price of the housing and condos that would be rapidly permitted, by the Governor’s Order which gave developers an exemption from the normal permit application process. FOM challenged the Proclamation on behalf of our members because we understood that absent some curtailment on the price point, the developers would build luxury homes and condos, further compounding the housing shortage for the workforce and average local residents. We challenged the order on the grounds that the housing shortage had been developing in this state for the past 30 years because our public officials have not effectively limited luxury development and required the construction of much needed affordable housing for the workforce. Hawaii is a very beautiful place. Kauai the Garden Island is right now suffering from the siege of developers with the effort to construct a new 350 room luxury resort at the site of the former Coco Palms. On the south shore, developer Gary Pinkston and his company Meridian Pacific have nearly 400 units, all luxury, planned with construction underway. FOM’s challenge to the Proclamation was dismissed by the lower court who found against our strong belief that affected residents have the right to challenge such Proclamations. We appealed to the Interim Court of Appeals and then filed a Brief with the Hawaii State Supreme Court asking the Court to interrupt the normal appellant process because the issue was of significant public interest. If we had had to wait for the Interim Court of Appeal to decide the issue, that would have taken another two years. The high court agreed with our Petition to transfer the matter, thereby cutting short the appellant process as we are now right before the Supreme Court of the State of Hawaii. All five justices unanimously signed the Order transferring the matter to their docket. Our legal team needs to be congratulated and hopefully we will defeat the Emergency Proclamation which is nothing more that a veiled attempt to encourage large scale development of visitor industry accommodations.

We have had some successes this year. After our challenge of the KIUC application for what would have been a significant rate hike for Kauai’s residential community, without equal rate increase for commercial and other electric customers, KIUC agreed to a substantial reduction of their rate hike request. We have appealed the County’s approval of Pinkston’s development without a Master Drainage Plan and without compliance with the County Ordinance that requires post development run off not exceed pre-development run off. Our County has that Ordinance passed to protect from the type of flooding that occurs when rain falls on concrete after bare ground is covered by construction and development.  On the south shore there is a chronic problem with flooding of the archaeologic site, Kaneiolouma and beach parking lots. In just some of the tropical storms from this past year, cars were flooded and beach goers were unable to park in those parking lots for longer than two week intervals while the County worked to pump out the water. Our ocean is impacted and water quality if affected.

We have also appealed the County’s denial of our Petition to Revoke the Coco Palms permits. At present, despite the fact that Coco Palms Hui, LLC was recently determined to be the owner of the fee simple property of the former hotel site, building permits have been given to RP21, LLC, a separate corporate entity unrelated to Coco Palms Hui, LLC that regained title to the property this past year when the Court of Appeal reversed a 2019 Foreclosure Action.Sometimes it seems there is more to work on that hours in the day. Our coastline island wide is being negatively impacted by development. The coastal beach front just west of Anini has also been adversely impacted by an attempt to block public access and sell exclusive luxury residences. You may recall that the shrimp farm and the ADC agricultural operations are asking for a permit to dump more than 20 million gallons a day of untreated waste water (including pesticides, herbicides and the excrement from 40 large shrimp ponds) through the Kekaha ditch system and out to the ocean. FOM joined with Surfrider and filed a strong objection requesting that the State require these operators to install waster water treatment systems just as the cruise ships have been required to do rather than dump into the ocean threatening the health of both the public and the environment.

Our supporters have been generous and we truly appreciate every contribution. You may still make a tax deductible donation by visiting our website, friendsofmahaulepu.org and using the donate button. You may also mail a check to the address below. We send an acknowledgement letter with our tax id # to every donor as your contribution can be an offset of your taxable income.

Mahalo nui,

Bridget Hammerquist, President
Friends of Maha`ulepu, a 501(c)(3)
Kia`i Wai o Wai`ale`ale, Co-founder
PO Box 1654
Koloa, HI 96756
Donate
friendsofmahaulepu.org
[email protected]
(808) 742-1037 home
(808) 346-1973 cell

Posted 11/14/2024