PARADISE PAVED

I think that I shall never see,
A project lovely as a tree...

- with apologies to Joyce Kilmer

~ o ~

October 3, 2008

Burial council hears
outrage over home site

By Tom Finnegan

LIHUE » Dozens of Hawaiians and their supporters testified yesterday in tears and with shouts and voices crackling with emotion before the Kauai Niihau Burial Council.

After about five hours of testimony, the council deferred to its Nov. 5 meeting the issue of construction on a Haena property that contains at least 30 ancient Hawaiian burials.

"The state has made a mistake, a big, major mistake," said Jim Medeiros, a Big Island resident. "Once you start building on the graveyards, it will become a (precedent) in the state."

The property has been the source of numerous lawsuits during the past five years, and a judge's decision last month sent the item back to the council.

Joseph Brescia, who bought the land in 2000 from actor Sylvester Stallone, has received permits from the county and state to build the home and has already poured the fittings for the home and a concrete cap for the five burials underneath the home.

But Judge Kathleen Watanabe decided last month that the burial council was not consulted on a revised burial treatment plan adopted by the state Historic Preservation Division.

The burial council had decided to preserve the seven graves in place that were to be under the house plot, but only five were actually under the home.

Members of the council testified at last month's hearing that they believed keeping the bones in place would halt the project, rather than allow Brescia to continue building the house.

"The building should not be there, period," said council member Barbara Say yesterday. "I didn't know they were going to be cemented. ... What is wrong with this man?"

The speakers implored the council yesterday to do everything in its power to stop the building of the home and protect the bones.

"It's been such a personal and dishonorable struggle that we have faced," said Hale Mawae. "The procedures and ... rules are ... fictional."

The permits given to Brescia are akin "to permitting desecration," said Hanalei Fergerstrom, a Big Island resident who flew in to attend the council meeting. "It is very important to nip this in the bud now."

Alan Murakami of the Native Hawaiian Legal Corp., who sued the state to get the item back on the agenda, said the council had the power to send the items back to the Kauai Planning Commission with a note that the conditions of the council have not been met.

The planning commission approved the permits with the provision that the burial council approve the treatment plan.

"What you do today will reverberate," Murakami added. "Let the planning commission play a role."

While speakers said the council was misinformed, they reserved their criticism for state archaeologist Nancy McMahon, who testified at the court hearing that she believed the area was not a cemetery, but 30 individual burial sites.

The land is not only a cemetery, many speakers said, but a special place of immense spiritual and cultural importance.

Brescia's attorney, Walton Hong, who watched the meeting, would not comment afterward.

Burial council hears outrage over home site - News - Starbulletin.com

http://www.voy.com/129276/1251.html

~ ~ ~

For Immediate Release: February 19, 2005

Judge Kathleen Watanabe

GOVERNOR LINGLE APPOINTS KATHLEEN WATANABE
TO THE CIRCUIT COURT

HONOLULU – Governor Linda Lingle has named State Human Resources Director Kathleen N. A. Watanabe to the Fifth Circuit Court on Kaua`i.

Watanabe, who served as a per diem judge for the District Court of the Fifth Circuit from 1995 to 1998, as well as Kaua`i County Attorney from 1990 to 1994, will fill the seat previously held by Judge Clifford Nakea, who retired. Her appointment is subject to Senate confirmation.

“The comments of support I received from numerous people from Kaua`i and throughout the state who have worked and interacted with Kathy, confirm what I have seen first hand while working with her these past two years,” said Governor Lingle. “Kathy has an outstanding work ethic, she treats people with fairness, respect and compassion, and her integrity is beyond reproach. I appreciate the contributions Kathy has made to my Administration and to the state, and now I am proud to appoint her to the bench, where she will continue her career as a dedicated public servant.”

Watanabe has served as the director of the state Department of Human Resources Development since January 2003. Prior to that she headed the department’s Employee Relations Division, which involved overseeing labor relations issues, negotiation of collective bargaining agreements, employee relations, benefits, training and safety.

Previously, Watanabe was supervising deputy attorney general in the Employment Law Division of the Department of the Attorney General, where she supervised numerous trials and appeals in both state and federal courts. She also was supervising deputy attorney general for the Individual Claims Unit.

She has also served as a hearings officer for the Hawaiian Homelands Commission, a social worker for the Department of Health, a guidance counselor for Kamehameha Schools and Alu Like, a tutor with the Department of Education, and a law clerk with the State House of Representatives.

Watanabe also had a private legal practice with an emphasis in administrative and employment law.

Watanabe is a member of the Hawai`i State Bar Association. She is the vice-chair of the Hawai`i Employer-Union Trust Fund, chair of the State of Hawai`i Deferred Compensation Board of Trustees, and a board member of the Judiciary’s Center for Alternative Dispute Resolution.

She is a graduate of the University of Hawai`i William S. Richardson School of Law, University of Puget Sound, and Kapa`a High School.

Governor Lingle selected Watanabe from a list of six candidates that was submitted by the Judicial Selection Commission earlier this month. Watanabe is Governor Lingle’s seventh appointee to the Circuit Court bench. The Governor has also appointed one justice to the Hawai`i Supreme Court and two to the Intermediate Court of Appeals.

~ ~ ~

August 13, 2008

Unearthing burial laws

Kaua'i protestors await court decision

by Joan Conrow

When more than 1,000 ancient burials were unearthed in 1989 to make way for the Ritz-Carlton resort at Honokahua, Maui, it caused such a public uproar that the state Legislature passed a bill in its very next session that changed the way Hawaiian burials would be handled.

“I believe that after Honokahua, people certainly believed the law that was put in place would actually prevent the kind of thing that is happening now on Kaua’i, which is essentially building a house on top of a burial ground,” said William Aila, a member of Hui Malama I Na Kupuna ‘O Hawai’i Nei, which formed after the Honokahua incident.

The Kaua’i project has been the focus of ongoing controversy, including a demonstration last Thursday in which seven men temporarily stopped construction by linking themselves together with a PVC pipe.

“We’ve seen the same thing happen with General Growth Properties and Wal-Mart on O’ahu, where numerous burials were found, and still the construction continues,” Aila said. “The hope and belief was that these things would be stopped.”

But the construction hasn’t stopped, those involved in burial issues say, because the law has been very misapplied and misinterpreted, and top administrators have failed to allocate sufficient funding for the State Historic Preservation Division (SHPD) to do its job.

“Obviously, if people don’t want the law to work, it ain’t gonna work,” said Alan Murakami, an attorney with the Native Hawaiian Legal Corp (NHLC), who has represented Hui Malama. “It requires the governor to say, ‘we value this and want to give it priority.’ We’ve asked [Gov. Linda Lingle] to say that and she will not.”

“If you don’t want it to work, you should be honest about it, not cripple it with inadequate funding and staffing and what looks like an attempt to make it collapse from within,” Murakami said.

Efforts also have been made to get the state Legislature to provide oversight of SHPD, which Murakami said is plagued with “systemic and chronic” problems, but that hasn’t been a priority with lawmakers.

“Essentially, the only thing keeping developers from doing what they want are major conflicts and lawsuits,” Murakami said. And that’s exactly what’s happening at Naue, on Kaua’i’s north shore, where several demonstrations have been held. The NHLC is seeking an injunction to stop Joe Brescia, a California developer, from building a house on an oceanfront site where 31 burials have been found. A hearing is set for Thursday, August 14 in Kaua’i’s Fifth Circuit Court.

The key issue of the suit, Murakami said, is that the Kaua’i Island Burial Council determined the burials should be preserved in place, but the SHPD is taking the position that capping them in concrete and building a house on top constitutes preservation.

Murakami said the state attorney general’s office frequently provides island burial councils with poor legal advice and bad interpretations of the law. As a result, the councils often aren’t aware of all their options in dealing with a burial site.

Palikapu Dedman, a longtime Hawaiian activist from the Big Island who was involved with Honakahua, said the burial councils are unduly influenced by the state, so their decisions tend to reflect the state’s perspective, rather than traditional practices.

He said that the burial councils do have authority to make reports to the Legislature on holes in the law so that those problems can be remedied. But the councils have never done this, Dedman explained, because they aren’t advised of the full scope of their powers. “I don’t think they were encouraged to be stronger in that function,” he said.

Both Aila and Murakami said many developers have found ways to circumvent the burial councils, which have authority only over known burials. The problem is that the SHPD determines what should be done with burials that are discovered “inadvertently” during construction.

“Their [developers'] strategy now is to make as many inadvertent burials as possible because then the burial councils don’t have jurisdiction, and they seem to be getting more favorable treatment from the SHPD,” Aila said.

Murakami added: “They’re all trying to avoid finding the burials in advance.”

Aila and others have been meeting with state legislators since the end of the last session to discuss amending the law to require developers to do a full archaeological survey before proceeding with any plans or permits.

“You have to have a thorough knowledge of what you can expect to find so you can design the project accordingly,” he said. “The way business is done in Hawai’i needs to be changed.”

Some lawmakers, including Senators Jill Tokuda, Clayton Hee and Colleen Hanabusa, have been supportive, Aila said, as well as developers who recognize the value of avoiding the bad publicity, litigation, construction delays and “hewa, a heaviness or burden.”

Murakami agrees that “some minor tweaking could be done with the law,” but said that’s not enough in itself to resolve the problems.

“We’ve got some major issues administratively, including the need for more resources,” he said.

There’s also some discussion over whether the Department of Land and Natural Resources should no longer have jurisdiction over the SHPD. Dedman said the counties should assume responsibility for burials. Murakami, in turn, advocates citizen oversight panels with “some power to keep the persons in charge accountable.”

In the end, they all say, the same kind of public outcry that erupted over Honakahua is needed now to stop the ongoing disturbance of burials throughout the islands.

“This has been going on for too long,” Murakami said.

“You can put any kind of twist on it, but it comes down to a moral human respect issue,” Dedman said. “These things can’t be directed by money. They have to be directed by the soul.”

Editor’s Note

Over the past year, many of our readers have enjoyed reading Brian Schatz’s fresh and engaging “Straight Schatz” columns in these pages, as have we. Unfortunately, Schatz’s recent election as Chairman of the Democratic Party of Hawai’i makes his presence as a regular columnist unworkable in the context of our responsibility to report fairly and without the appearance of favoritism on issues facing our community.

“Straight Schatz” will no longer appear in Honolulu Weekly. We are grateful for Brian’s contributions and wish him the best of luck.

–Ragnar Carlson

http://honoluluweekly.com/diary/2008/08/unearthing-burial-laws/

http://kahea.wordpress.com/

May 29, 2008

Turtle Bay exec:
further development needed

By Kristen Consillio, Star-Bulletin

The new interim manager of the Turtle Bay Resort has determined that further development at the controversial North Shore property is necessary to keep the operation viable.

Local developer Stanford Carr, installed last week by resort lenders to head operations and find a buyer, said expansion outside of the existing resort's footprint is an option, since a new owner would need to satisfy the conditions of a 1986 agreement that calls for public parks and other amenities to be built by a developer - who would need to recoup the investment.

"It's got to have economic equilibrium - they can't maintain a vast amount of land like that," said Carr, who was recruited by the property's lenders, including Credit Suisse and Wells Fargo, because of his expertise in the Hawaii real estate market. "Raw land is probably the worst investment, you can't depreciate it. You just don't have the economies of scale at the moment."

Due diligence, feasibility studies and quantifying the costs of public improvements must be completed before determining the scope of any expansion, he said.

The isolated character of Turtle Bay located on one of the island's last remaining rural coasts has been an attraction for visitors seeking a neighbor island-type of resort on Oahu.

"It's very pristine and so that has an attraction, but again you have to have the right execution of the product," he said. "Like anything, it's got to be responsible development."

His first priority is to meet with the community to gain an understanding of their concerns and also with local representatives of resort owner Oaktree Capital Management L.P. to resolve maintenance issues at the 858-acre property with money budgeted by lenders.

New York-based Eastdil Secured LLC is preparing material to begin marketing resort assets, possibly within the month, Carr said.

Eastdil ceased marketing when Credit Suisse filed a $283 million lawsuit last December against Oaktree's local entity, Kuilima Resort Co.

Meanwhile, Gov. Linda Lingle has been campaigning for the state to acquire the resort to protect it from plans to build an additional 3,500 hotel and condominium units on the property.

Carr, a Lingle supporter, hasn't seen a proposal from the state yet, but said his role doesn't mean a state acquisition will be easier.

"Sometimes it could be even more difficult, it could go both ways," he said.

There is a "mutual trust" because of the long relationship he has with the governor, but the decision ultimately lies with the owners and lenders, he said.

"The state is competing much like the rest of the other interested buyers," Carr said. "Everybody wants a win-win situation. I'm born and raised here, I'm fifth generation, I'm going to do the right thing."

http://starbulletin.com/2008/05/29/business/story01.html

May 24, 2008

Turtle Bay under
new management

By Rick Daysog, Honolulu Advertiser

Local developer Stanford Carr has taken over management of the Turtle Bay Resort and the controversial plan to build five new hotels with 3,500 rooms and condominium units on O'ahu's North Shore.

Carr replaces Los Angeles-based Oaktree Capital Management LLC as Kuilima Resort Co.'s interim manager.

He also will be in charge of securing new investors for the 848-acre property, whose redevelopment has sparked opposition from community groups and has prompted Gov. Linda Lingle to seek a state buyout to preserve the land.

"There's a lot of work to be done on the property and there's a lot of work to be done in communicating with the community," Carr said in a telephone interview yesterday.

Carr's appointment is part of an agreement by lenders Credit Suisse and Wells Fargo & Co. and Kuilima to restructure the development company's $400 million loan, which had been the subject of a foreclosure suit.

Under the terms of the restructuring, Oaktree exits from day-to-day management of Kuilima but retains ownership of a 470-acre agricultural property just mauka of the resort.

The 470-acre property does not include the site of the controversial redevelopment plan.

Nicola Jones, who is stepping down as Kuilima's chief executive officer, said in a news release that the resort and its golf courses will operate as usual and that the restructured loan will make it easier to attract new investors.

"We're very pleased that a settlement has been reached, as this now reopens the door to a wide range of prospective investors," said Jones.

Carr is owner of Stanford Carr Development LLC, one of the largest residential developers in the state.

He also is a longtime Lingle supporter and was part of a local team that invested in Aloha Airlines before it shut down two months ago.

Last year, the Lingle administration awarded an $11.5 million nonbid emergency contract to begin building transitional housing in Ma'ili to a company owned by Carr.

Rev. Bob Nakata, co-chair of the Defend O'ahu Coalition, which opposed the Turtle Bay expansion plan, said Carr's links to the Lingle administration may mean that he's "more susceptible to public pressure."

"He doesn't want a public relations disaster, because he has other business interests in town," said Nakata.

Oaktree, a $54 billion private investment firm, acquired Turtle Bay in 2000 and recently revived plans for a multibillion-dollar development that would include five new hotels and 3,500 hotel rooms and condos.

But the plan immediately ran into opposition from community leaders who want to retain the North Shore's rural way of life.

In December, Credit Suisse filed a foreclosure suit against the company after it defaulted on a $285 million loan.

Earlier this year, state lawmakers passed a Lingle-backed plan, in which the state would seek to acquire the undeveloped portions of the resort. Under the plan, the state would buy areas surrounding nearby Kawela Bay and Kahuku Point while a private investor would take over the hotel, the golf courses and other developed areas.

Ted Liu, director of the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, welcomed the management change, saying it adds clarity to the sales process. Neither Credit Suisse nor Wells Fargo has a local presence, making it difficult to negotiate a deal with all parties, said Liu.

"This presumably creates the type of certainty that makes it better for investors and buyers," said Liu.

January 29, 2008

Bills in Legislature aim
to protect Ka Iwi Coast

By Kim Fassler and Suzanne Roig, Honolulu Advertiser

MAKAPU'U — A controversial proposal to build vacation cabins across from the Ka Iwi Coast is spurring legislative measures designed to preserve the land from development.

The bills target two parcels: a valley behind the Hawai'i Kai Golf Course and the land across from the entrance to the Makapu'u Lighthouse trail. Developer QRM LLC wants to build 180 cabins on the parcels, which are across from the Ka Iwi Scenic Wilderness area.

Measures introduced this session in the state House include a bill that asks the state Land Use Commission to reclassify the area from urban to conservation land. Another measure would set aside money to purchase the remaining undeveloped land in Hawai'i Kai and preserve it as open space.

Hearings have not been set yet on any of the measures before the House and Senate.

The legislation is part of a "multipronged approach" to prevent East O'ahu from becoming "a tourist attraction," said state Rep. Gene Ward, R-17th (Kalama Valley, Queen's Gate, Hawai'i Kai), who introduced several bills to stop the Ka Iwi development.

"Nobody wants this, and there's no reason this should be a reality," said Ward.

State Sen. Clayton Hee, D-23rd (Kane'ohe, Kahuku), chairman of the Senate Water and Land Committee, introduced a measure to extend the park boundaries to include the two pieces of land by using the Legacy Lands fund or public-private partnerships.

"When you look at the exponential development on O'ahu, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that people will cherish open spaces," Hee said. "On an island like O'ahu, open space is becoming so much more of a precious commodity."

OTHER LAND BUYS

Buying land and preserving it as open space is not without precedent along East Honolulu, the only open and accessible coastline except for Ka'ena Point on O'ahu. The city in 2003 paid $5.4 million in cash and a land swap for two parcels, totaling 32 acres, across from Sandy Beach.

And after disputes dating back to the 1970s, the state paid $12.8 million to Kamehameha Schools to purchase 600 acres along the south shore at Queen's Beach.

Dollar figures were not included in the current Ka Iwi bills. But QRM's attorney, Bill McCorriston, said the land is worth about $20 million.

McCorriston, reacting to the legislative proposals, said, "It seems like everyone's against something without any concrete proposal to work something out."

QRM Inc. wants to build 181 800-square-foot vacation cabins with lanai, recreational centers, pools and tennis courts. All would be secondary use to recreation, the primary land use allowed on preservation-zoned land.

FIRST PLAN REJECTED

This is the second time the developer has put forth plans for 181 acres, called Queen's Rise and Manu'uwai.

The first plans were rejected by the city in 2006. The developer plans to reapply with the city after the Hawai'i Kai Neighborhood Board discusses the issue at 7 tonight at the Haha'ione Elementary School cafeteria.

Several residents and visitors said they support preserving the area.

"I've lived here all my life and I've seen so many changes, just in Hawai'i Kai alone," said Rielle Rasmussen, a Hawai'i Kai resident. "It's enough. This is the last bit of open space."

Eve Anderson, a member of the Save Queen's Beach and Save Sandy Beach groups, said: "We have to protect it somehow. We need to preserve natural open space."...

Looking at the view, Liz Watson, who was on vacation from Lake Tahoe, said any development in the area would mar the scenic beauty.

"It would be a shame to have something like vacation cabins on this side of the island," Watson said.

"It's quiet, pristine and beautiful. It's so important to preserve open space for hiking and biking and just for fun."

House Finance Chair Marcus Oshiro said his committee will need to weigh the request against others, including Gov. Linda Lingle's proposed purchase of Turtle Bay on the North Shore, where five hotels are being planned with 3,500 rooms and condominium units and four public parks.

SCALED-BACK PLAN

Earlier this month, QRM offered to scale back its plan to build on 181 acres and build on only one of the parcels, Manu'uwai, an 83-acre parcel. The other parcel, the 98-acre Queen's Rise, would be turned over to a nonprofit or other group for the purpose of preserving the land.

"I think we've been very generous in what we've offered," McCorriston said. "It's unprecedented to offer somebody 100 acres in Urban and East O'ahu for nothing."

In the new proposal, the cabins are also grouped in clusters of eight or 12 and take up less total space on the hillside than in the original plan, he said.

McCorriston said the developer would wait until after today's meeting to submit a proposal to the city Department of Planning and Permitting.

Reach Suzanne Roig at sroig@honoluluadvertiser.com.

www.kycbs.net/Ka-Iwi-Coast.mht

July 3, 2006

Hawaii Kai project draws ire

Developers want to build 180 cabins on a
parcel surrounded by conservation land

By Diana Leone, Star Bulletin

Veterans of past battles to block development on Oahu's Ka Iwi Coast are "reactivating" to join other Hawaii Kai residents in fighting 180 proposed vacation cabins on mauka preservation land.

Dave Matthews and Phil Estermann, key players in the Save Sandy Beach Coalition in the 1980s, are joining with the nonprofit Liveable Hawaii Kai Hui and other East Honolulu residents against the project.

The two were among more than 200 people last week at a Hawaii Kai Neighborhood Board meeting, objecting to developer QRM's plans for clusters of 800-square-foot cabins with "unobstructed ocean and mountain views."

QRM development director Aaron Eberhardt said in a news release about the project that it would meet the "demand for increased recreational opportunities for a growing portion of East Honolulu" by offering hiking, mountain biking, rock-climbing, swimming, tennis, volleyball, golf, horseback-riding, fishing, snorkeling and scuba diving to visitors.

Queen's Rise Recreation Center would be built on a 98-acre parcel of land surrounded by conservation land, while the Mauuwai Recreational Center would be on 83 acres mauka of the Hawaii Kai Golf Course, the release said.

But Eberhardt didn't have answers for most of the questions residents asked him at Tuesday's meeting, neighborhood board member Dolores Elms-Beattie said.

"His presentation was pretty lame," she said. "He didn't have a traffic study or an environmental impact study and he was quoting from a cultural study 10 years old."...

Estermann said the developers are "trying to turn the land use ordinance upside down" by seeking one cabin per acre of land under the city's preservation zoning. "These guys have proposed a kind of resort with vacation cabins."

One reason people are concerned about the project is that the city Department Planning and Permitting could approve the cabins without a public hearing, said Elizabeth Reilly, a neighborhood board member and spokeswoman for Liveable Hawaii Kai Hui.

"This isn't about stopping development," Reilly said. "It's about protecting the scenic value of that coastline."

Another concern is that, if approved, the development could set a precedent for preservation land development, said Gary Weller, a Kamilonui Valley entrepreneur and farmer. The allowance for one cabin per acre was "originally designed for something like Boy and Girl Scout camps," he said. "It was never intended to be what they're trying to turn it into."...

"I would have thought we would have stopped it," he said, referring to the Save Sandy Beach's 14-year struggle to halt planned development on the makai land between Sandy Beach and Makapuu....

Read the complete story at...

http://starbulletin.com/2006/07/03/news/story02.html

<<< FLASHBACK <<<

February 21, 2002

Sandy Beach dispute settled

Everybody's happy with a land swap that preserves
open space and precludes a trial

By Debra Barayuga, Star Bulletin

The city has agreed to turn over the proceeds from the sale of 46 acres in Manana in exchange for 32 acres of privately owned ocean-view property near Sandy Beach for use as a public park.

The land swap, which includes the sale of 20 acres in Manana to Wal-Mart Stores Inc., was at the heart of a settlement the city reached early yesterday with Kamehameha Schools, the state's largest private landowner, and lessee Maunalua Associates.

Romy Cachola, chairman of the Council's policy committee, helped broker the deal, which was approved by the nine-member Council late yesterday.

The settlement package -- estimated at $60 million to $70 million -- ends nearly 15 years of litigation and controversy over two parcels of land known as Golf Course 5 & 6.

Developer Maunalua Associates had obtained a special management permit to build 171 residential units there in 1988, sparking a referendum to preserve the land.

The settlement also warded off a trial, scheduled to begin next week, that could have cost the city more than $120 million in damages and attorney's fees, Cachola said.

"This global settlement will save the city and taxpayers a substantial amount of money," Cachola said. He had previously said the city may have to raise property taxes to pay for damages.

Mayor Jeremy Harris noted that "the settlement will protect 30 acres of the Ka Iwi coast from development by designating the area for park use in perpetuity."

Hamilton McCubbin, Kamehameha Schools chief executive officer, praised the settlement, saying it reflects an acknowledgment that the actions the City Council took in 1989 were unconstitutional.

It also provides "fair value to Kamehameha Schools in compensation for the taking," McCubbin said....

The coalition sparked the initiative in which 160,000 people voted against developing the property.

Although the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled that the 1988 initiative was illegal, and even after developers had obtained a special management permit, the city enacted a moratorium on issuing permits for the property, then passed an ordinance downzoning the parcels to preservation.

Developers Maunalua Associates and KRDC Inc., successors to Kaiser Hawaii Kai Development Co., sued the city in 1989. The trial would have settled how much the city owed developers for their losses....

Under the settlement, the city will pay $5 million to the plaintiffs within 30 days after notifying the court that the parties have agreed to the settlement. The city included the $5 million in its 2001 budget.

Closure of the Wal-Mart deal -- four parcels with a net worth of $17.5 million -- will end the lawsuit forever, Cachola said....

Ken Kupchak, attorney for Maunalua, said the agreement has the prospect of a "win-win situation" but the parties must work hard to achieve the best and highest price for the parcels....

http://starbulletin.com/2002/02/21/news/story2.html

The Wise Ol’ Owl asks: And just who-o-o is Maunalua Associates???

According to an organizational chart for the Zurich Group, Maunalua Associates is a member of a ‘Holding Company System’ whose members include The Maryland Casualty Insurance Company, and The Kemper Group. The ultimate parent of the Company is Zurich Financial Services, Zurich, Switzerland.

(...so is THAT where Hawaii tax-payer’s money went ... to Switzerland? ? ?)

March 9, 2006

Proposed development at Turtle Bay
bothers residents

Some are concerned about renewed
plans to build 3,500 units

By Allison Schaefers, Star-Bulletin

On a big wave day at the North Shore, it takes Peter Cole an hour and a half to get from Haleiwa to his country home at Sunset Beach....

The popularity of the North Shore has inflated property values, stretched community services and created traffic jams -- and resurrected a two-decade-old master plan at Turtle Bay Resort that would bring 3,500 new hotel and condominium units to an otherwise rural area stretching from Kawela Bay to Kahuku Point.

"That would just be immense," said Cole, who first opposed the plan when it was presented in mid-1980s because of potential negative impacts on the region's environment, traffic conditions and quality of life.

Turtle Bay Resort's master plan, which included five lodging structures, was expected to be completed by 1996 but never came to fruition due to its then-struggling financial position. Oaktree Capital, which acquired Turtle Bay in 1999 and has spent $60 million upgrading the once-dilapidated hotel, is now moving forward on the original development master plan that was approved years ago, said Doug Carlson, a spokesman for Kuilima Resort Co., the developer of Turtle Bay....

While hotel workers union Local 5 supported the development in the 1980s, the union is now opposed to the project.

"We don't think it's going to create the quality jobs that our workers need," said Eric Gill, financial secretary-treasurer for Local 5. "Turtle Bay Resort pays workers less money and offers substantially less benefits than our other Oahu hotels."

The union, which has been involved in a consumer boycott of Turtle Bay Resort since 2003, has filed an injunction to stop the Honolulu Department of Planning and Permitting from giving Kuilima Resort Co. the necessary permits to move forward on the project, Gill said.

Local 5 joined North Shore community groups to rally in front of the resort in January to protest further development of the area, and the region's neighborhood board members have been flooded with calls, said Creighton Mattoon, chairman of the land and planning committee for the Koolauloa Neighborhood Board....

"I think community sentiments on development vary from total support to total opposition to many positions in between," Mattoon said. He gets two to three calls a week about the proposed project.

While some have told Mattoon that the project would be good for economic development and would create jobs, others are concerned that its environmental impact statement is too old and needs to be re-examined....

Others are worried that the region's two-lane main transportation artery cannot support the development, he said.

Population and visitor growth has created "a mathematical problem that didn't exist 20 years ago," said Carol Philips, president of the North Shore Neighborhood Board....

"People like the country: That's the sole reason that we live in the North Shore," she said. "The atmosphere of the North Shore will change as a result of this development. I think it's just starting to sink in for the community that this could be an impending reality."

Read the complete story at...

http://starbulletin.com/2006/03/09/business/story01.html

~ ~ ~

For more, GO TO > > > The Pirates of Punaluu

January 23, 2006

Kamilo Nui farmers hope
to stave off development

By Suzanne Roig, Honolulu Advertiser

HAWAII KAI - Rows of vivid red and pink poinsettias fill the entrance to Dean Takabayashi’s farm in Kamilo Nui Valley.

Likewise, up the street rows of blossoming roses of all colors greet visitors at R&S Nii Nursery, roosters and chickens roam freely, pecking at the dirt.

This piece of country living is wedged in the back of suburbia and has been here for decades. Every day, customers ask if the farmers will be here next year.

Takebayashi and the Nii family don't know how to answer that.

They'd like to continue farming in the quiet valley in Hawai'i Kai as they have for the past 40 years or so, but their landowner, Kamehameha Schools, wants to sell the land.

There's no value in holding on to the land in agriculture, particularly since the 14 farmers are paying slightly more than $200 a year per acre in lease rent, the landowner has said. Their leases expire in 19 years.

Because Kamehameha Schools has entered into an agreement with local developer Stanford Carr Development, which has agreed to purchase the 87 acres and develop it, Kamehameha Schools is left waiting for Carr to make a move.

This is the last chunk of land that, until recently, residents thought would remain in agriculture and not be turned into homes.

Residents who want to see the land remain for farming have organized a meeting with the landowner, the community and the farmers for the second time in six months to discuss its plans for the land.

That meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday at the Haha'ione Elementary School cafeteria.

In September, more than 100 people showed up at the community meeting to voice concerns.

Land use has become a murky issue, as half of the 14 farmers would like to stay and farm and the other half want to retire. The problem is that many of their leases begin renegotiating as early as next year, and banks do not like to make loans to prospective buyers with such unknowns as what the lease rent might be or whether the owner will demand the land back.

And without an agreement from the landowner to write a new lease, farmers don't know where to turn.

"If I stay," Takebayashi said, "I want to renegotiate the lease rent for something that is economically feasible. I'd like to stay and continue my business if the lease rent is reasonable. I can't do my business if it's not.

"It's not easy being a farmer."

Kamehameha Schools has said that it won't negotiate with individual owners, but only the Kamilonui Valley Farmers Cooperative, an organization formed when the farmers first moved to the valley as a way to fund road, sewer and water improvements more than three decades ago.

"There is nothing new from Kamehameha Schools perspective," said Kekoa Paulsen, the landowners' spokesman. "The proposal (from Stanford Carr) is still out there. Stanford Carr is the one to make the deal happen."

Residents say the valley plays a vital role in preserving Hawai'i Kai's ecosystem. It is a watershed, a green belt. Mostly, it's the last valley in Hawai'i Kai to remain free of homes.

"Once it's gone, it's gone forever," said Tai Hong, a member of the Livable Hawai'i Kai Hui, a group formed to preserve open space in the community. "The land is very valuable now, but we want to strike a balance between preservation and development."

The land lies outside the city's designated area for development. Being outside the urban growth boundary and being designated as agriculture land, should offer protection, but rezoning has happened before on farm land in Hawai'i Kai. More than 1,000 new homes have been added to the community during this recent spate of development and is not reflected in current census figures that show there are 27,657 people. That's a 0.8 percent increase from 1990 to 2000.

City Councilman Charles Djou, who will be at Thursday's meeting, said that he believes the land should remain agricultural and not be developed. And while the community of farmers and residents have been discussing the future of the valley as if a proposal is before the city for a housing development, no plans have been submitted to the city for review, Djou said.

The process, should plans come forward, would take at least two years from re-zoning to the start of construction, he said.

"Kamilo Nui's future rests with the City Council," Djou said. "The zoning code is the law of the land and the law of the land says this parcel is designated as agriculture."

Those trying to keep the valley undeveloped and in agriculture believe they have to remain vigilant, despite Djou's promise of many public hearings. It happened before where a piece of agriculture land was carved out to make room for 65 homes built by Schuler Homes. That was nearly four years ago.

Richard Nii, who has spent his whole life farming, sees the area differently.

He sees it as home, the place where he was raised and where he has raised his children.

He has been in Kamilo Nui Valley since his dad's farm was moved from Mariner's Cove in the late 1960s to make room for a housing development. That was the family's second move because of a shift in land use.

"I've always known it would come to something like this," Nii said. "We want to continue farming. Many of our customers ask us if we're going to move or stay."

The Honolulu Advertiser

Dec. 3, 2005

Case sued over purchase
of Grove Farm

Shareholders claim Steve Case had insider information
that helped him buy the company

By Stewart Yerton, Honolulu Star-Bulletin

Steve Case, the Honolulu native who created and once ran the world's largest media conglomerate, has been sued by former shareholders of a Kauai company that Case acquired in 2000.

The former shareholders of Grove Farm Co. Inc. allege that Case engaged in insider trading while negotiating the acquisition of privately held Grove Farm for $26 million, or $152 a share. The suit alleges that Case acted on information provided to him by his father, Dan, whose law firm, Case Bigelow & Lombardi, served as counsel to Grove Farm at the time of the acquisition....

Although the suit alleges misdeeds by several people, including Dan Case and former Grove Farm executives, the only defendant named is Steve Case, who according to Forbes magazine is one of the richest men in the United States....

For more, GO TO > > > The Vultures on Grove Farm

October 28, 2005

Rural area was site of FBI search

Noshir Gowadia and his wife are relative newcomers
to the low-key, high-priced locale

By Gary T. Kubota, Star-Bulletin

HAIKU, Maui » In rural Huelo, many of the unpaved rutted roads lead to multimillion-dollar homes with manicured lawns and breathtaking views of the Pacific Ocean.

And it was in one of these homes, federal authorities allege, that Noshir S. Gowadia kept government secrets about one of America's most formidable weapons, a B-2 stealth bomber.

It is an impressive dwelling, Mediterranean style with blue tile roof, white stucco-looking walls and a view overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Many of the homes in this area have recently been sold for about $2 million each. Gowadia and his wife bought the 2-acre lot for $330,000 in 1999.

During an Oct. 13 search, FBI agents seized classified documents from the house.

Agents said the documents dated back from Gowadia's employment with Northrop -- between 1968 and 1986 or to the early 1990s -- when he was a contract engineer at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.

Gowadia, a design engineer for the project, called himself the father of the B-2's infrared suppressing propulsion system. And now, authorities say, he allegedly sold B-2 secrets to about eight foreign governments, violating federal espionage laws.

An FBI agent said Gowadia reported receiving nearly $750,000 from 1999 to 2003, but the income could be greater because he has several bank accounts, some of which are foreign and unreported.

The home that was searched by the FBI sits on the edge of rural Maui, an area favored by residents who want to get away from urban Kahului.

Past the expensive homes, further up on the hillside, there are pineapple fields and farms along nearby Hana Highway, where unattended vendor stands let customers bag their own fruit and put the money in a locked cash box.

A few residents along Holokai Place and adjacent North Holokai Road said they do not know what to think about the alleged charges because they do not know the Gowadias, who are newcomers....

John Papazian, principal broker and owner of Haiku Properties, said many homes in the area have sold for more than $2 million....

The Gowadias have been active in the real estate market on Maui, buying a home in Kihei in 1999 for $75,000 and selling it in 2001 for $121,000.

The couple also bought a house at Keonekai Estates in Kihei for $390,000 in 2001 and sold it for $575,000 in 2003, according to Maui County tax records.

http://starbulletin.com/2005/10/28/news/story03.html

For more, GO TO > > > The Spy Who Came to Maui

September 23, 2005

Kamehameha Schools closer
to sale of farmland

By Associated Press

HONOLULU (AP) _ Kamehameha Schools is preparing to allow development of houses on 87 acres of farm land in Hawaii Kai.

The land trust says Stanford Carr Development needs to meet benchmarks listed in a contract before it can buy the lots.

The farm lots were leased to the Kamilonui Farmers Cooperative 30 years ago. Kamehameha says the land would likely be sold because farming is not bringing in enough revenue.

Kamehameha also says Kamilonui Valley farms aren't meeting five mandates of the trust's land holdings, including cultural, economic, environmental, educational and community capacity for Native Hawaiians.

http://www.kpua.net/news.php?id=6334

September 19, 2005

Developer gains negotiation
rights for Kamilonui farmlots

Kamehameha Schools officials are
expected at a meeting tomorrow

By Mary Vorsino, Star-Bulletin

Developer Stanford Carr has gotten one step closer to moving into Kamilonui Valley -- home to 13 farming plots since the late 1960s.

According to a company letter distributed to the valley's farmers, Carr has reached an agreement with landowner Kamehameha Schools to negotiate the purchase of lots. The news has prompted Hawaii Kai residents opposed to the valley's development to call a meeting tomorrow, in hopes of coming up with a new strategy for fighting off Carr.