BREAKING NEWS!

Posted 8/15/2026

Far Reaching Tentacles

Aloha,

Hearing to preserve Rural Historic Koloa Town resumes 9:30am 8/19/26

At the end of this email, you’ll find the Court address, hearing time and a Zoom link for the continued Hearing next Wednesday, at 9:30 am, August 19, 2026. 

FOM and Save Koloa filed its Appeal after the Planning Commission’s development permits were granted to Mike Serpa and SK Investors, LLC, February 24, 2026. 

Many thanks to all who attended last Wednesday and who have donated to support our Appeal. FOM and Save Koloa supporters nearly filled the courtroom. Mike Serpa, his lawyers and lawyers for the County filled the few seats that remained. Most were there to show their support for preserving Koloa and hoping to prevent Mike Serpa’s plan for this large dense development. 

One interesting attendee was Governor Josh Green’s Aid to Kauai. This case and the effort to move on and change Kauai’s historic rural towns has far reaching tentacles. Three hundred and ten dense units like Serpa plans to build on Waikomo Road are currently planned for Kilauea. West side communities are also targeted for similar developments. All but Serpa’s development are planned to be developed with Government funding.

We need to stay strong. Plan to attend next Wednesday, if can. With our Hearing set to start at 9:30 am, plan to arrive by 9:00 am to clear security and make your way to courtroom 6. Remember to silence cell phones and not react in court.

If you can’t make it, you can listen via Zoom for the final part of the Hearing. 

Mike Serpa’s private counsel Ross Shinyama, an additional firm that he has hired from Honolulu, told the Court that we filed our Petition to Intervene late. He said it should have been filed not later than 7 days before the first Planning Commission hearing on Serpa’s permit applications, January 13, 2026. The permit application, however, was somewhat of a moving target. It changed significantly between the first Hearing and the continued Hearing that the Planning Commission scheduled because Mike Serpa had not held a community meeting, despite the size of his proposed development. 

Serpa’s attorney told the Court was that we have to follow the rules. But is Serpa following the rules? 

Serpa amended his permit application after January 13, 2026. The public only had 7 days notice of his amendment. It was a substantial change which included additional offsite parallel parking on some of Koloa’s narrowest roads. This prompted our Petition to Intervene. His attorneys argued that we had no right to Intervene or seek review of what the impact these additional cars and traffic would create.

There is no County ordinance or rule that allows a developer to supplement or change his permits application 7 days before the Planning Commission meets to consider granting the permits. Rather, County ordinance requires that the public has 30 days notice of the developers plan before the Planning Commission acts on a permit application. In fact, the developer has to give nearby residents via certified mail in addition to 30 day public notice provided in newspapers. 

In his supplement to his original permits application, Serpa now plans to add parking spaces, 30 onsite and 25 offsite parallel parking spaces on 3 of Koloa’s narrowest roads; Waikomo, Hapa and Weliweli. There is no parallel parking currently on any of these three roads. He proposes to add 38 new parking spaces to the 213 that he showed in his initial permits application, an 18% increase. His original permits application raised a lot of concern because he was adding 213 parking spaces in Koloa, a small rural town that already suffers from traffic congestion. His supplement heightened a public concern for the number of cars being added to Koloa. They became even more concerned to learn that in addition to the 15 offsite on street parallel parking planned for Hapa Road, he proposes to add five new offsite parallel parking spaces on both Weliweli and Waikomo Roads. The public only had 7 days notice that the total number of cars to be added to Koloa is now 251. 

His plan supposedly is intended to address the housing shortage for people living and working on Kauai. How many of them are going to have just one car? 251 spaces doesn’t even allow for 2 cars per household.

Despite that change, Serpa and his attorneys are telling the Court that they can make substantial changes but we have no right to Intervene or question the changes or its impact to Koloa. 

One of our key objections to this large dense development on just 9.4 acres has always been parking, traffic flow and public safety. 

Another change made in his supplemental is in direct response to FOM and Save Koloa’s discovery that he had a plot plan that showed 16 condo/apartment units to be built on the Jehovah’s Witness lot that abutts Puni and Waikomo Roads. When we studied his initial permits application, we found that he failed to include the TMK for the Jehovah’s Witness property. Had people not shown up in force to testify on January 13, 2026, and had the Commission granted his permits application Serpa would have built on land for which he had no  permits. So the other big change in his supplemental permits application was that he was forced to remove the Jehovah’s Witness property, marking it for “Future Development”. Yet they claim, we have no right to say to the Commission “Wait, there are too many changes here. We need to better study these permits applications before you approve them”. 

Our Petition to Intervene included the fact that the development permits he was applying for to increase density way over that allowed under the zoning ordinance for his lot was an illegal use of the Project Development Use permit (PDU). That permit is limited to developments with State and Federal funding. The PDU permits provide density exceptions, set back variances, changes in housing type as an incentive to getting more housing for the workforce. That permit is not allowed for a private commercial residential development like Mike Serpa proposes. Mike Serpa’s project does not include State or Federal funding. The County will have no control over how much the units are sold for or who buys them. 

Mr Serpa’s attorneys argued to the Court that our Appeal cannot include our Objection to the permits, stating that the only issue the Court can decide is whether our Petition to Intervene should have been granted by the Planning Commission.  

You’ll enjoy the final argument by our attorney, Lance Collins. There is case law that contradicts Serpa’s attorney on what the Court may consider.

Serpa Permit Application
Serpa Supplemental Permit Application

After the Hearing next Wednesday, the Judge will consider the Arguments of Counsel. Judge Char told us she will issue her Decision in about one week. We’ll be sure to email you with the results. Please share this email.
To attend in person Wednesday August 19, 2026 9:30 am (arrive by 9:00 am): 
Courtroom
The Honorable Stephanie R.S. Char, Courtroom 6 
Fifth Circuit (Silence all cell phones before entry)3970 Kaʻana Street, Līhuʻe, HI 96766
To hear arguments by Zoom (be sure video and speaker are muted): 

Join Zoom Meeting

https://courts-hawaii-gov.zoom.us/j/5468791234

Meeting ID: 546 879 1234

Mahalo nui loa,

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
friendsofmahaulepu@hawaiiantel.net
(808) 742-1037 home
(808) 346-1973 cell

Posted 8/13/2026

It’s Not Over

Aloha,

Before we launch into our day in Court yesterday, let me share some good news. 

Our challenge of the Coco Palms development permits to be heard by the Hawaii State Supreme Court

You may recall that we filed a Petition to revoke the Coco Palms County development permits. The basis for the Petition was the developer’s failure to satisfy the permit conditions and that the permits themselves have long since expired. 

If any home owner on Kauai had permits to build that were obtained in 2017 and 2018, those permits would be expired and void. The County wouldn’t let us build with expired permits. Building permits say right on them that they are good for one year and can be extended one time within that year for an additional six months. Our County refuses to enforce the expiration dates on building permits for developers even though the law and the expiration date is the same for residents and for developers. 

The Planning Commission refused to hear our Petition to Revoke the Coco Palms building permits and we appealed. The Appellate Court did not grant our Appeal. After the Appellate Court ruled, we didn’t have an automatic right to have the Hawaii State Supreme Court hear the case. We had to file a special Writ with the High Court. This morning we received good news. Our Supreme Court granted our Writ and is setting our Coco Palms case for Oral Argument. We will keep you posted. We are excited that the High Court found our case worthy of their Review considering that four out of five Writs are denied review by the High Court. 

8/12/26 Hearing on Serpa’s development permits in Koloa: