Dole Plantation seeks relief from farming-related restrictions

One of Oahu’s biggest tourist draws, Dole Plantation in Wahiawa, wants to rid itself of a couple of restrictions imposed by the city 15 years ago to help support local agriculture.

The owner of the visitor attraction that began as a fruit stand 67 years ago amid thousands of acres of pineapple and sugar cane fields is seeking to amend a special-use permit so it can close a farmers market and allow kiosks to sell items not related to Hawaii agriculture.

Castle &Cooke Properties Inc., Dole Plantation’s owner and a sister company to Oahu pineapple producer Dole Food Co., is pursuing the changes because it contends the existing requirements aren’t commercially viable.

A consultant for the company said the daily farmers market has only one farmer while only three of 19 permitted kiosks operate because kiosk vendors must sell only local agricultural products and crafts.

Requirements for the farmers market and kiosks were imposed in 2003 as conditions for expanding the visitor attraction that is on farmland with features that include a retail pavilion, train ride and garden maze.

“The farmers market just hasn’t worked,” said Keith Kurahashi, the Castle &Cooke consultant. “We’ve tried for 15 years.”

Kurahashi also said kiosks are inhibited by the sales restriction because retail operations inside the visitors center may have up to 49 percent of display space for products not related to Hawaii agriculture.

“We feel the kiosks should operate under the same rules as retail within the pineapple pavilion,” he said.

Kurahashi, a planner with R.M. Towill Corp., made a presentation to the North Shore Neighborhood Board Tuesday — a required early step for Castle &Cooke to amend its permit from the city Department of Planning and Permitting.

Castle &Cooke sought the neighborhood board’s support for the same change in 2011 but failed, the board vote split with four in support, five opposed and four abstaining. At Tuesday’s meeting, the vote was 10-2 in support.

Some board members recognized Dole/Castle &Cooke as good corporate citizens with farm operations and charity work.

Dole in recent years has sold about 5,000 acres of North Shore farmland and is trying to sell another roughly 15,000 acres but still grows pineapple on 4,100 acres plus coffee and cacao on another 200 acres.

Board member Blake McElheny, who cast one of the votes opposing a permit change, noted that past compositions of the board felt the restrictions placed on a tourism business using 11 acres of farmland was important.

“We’re backing off on conditions that this board supported in order for this massive commercial operation to take place on ag land,” he said. “I think it’s pretty outrageous for this board, which has consistently supported perpetuation of agriculture, to take that position.”

The other no vote was from SharLyn Foo. Board member Leif Andersen said his support was reluctant.

Bob Leinau, another board member, said he understood McElheny’s concern but also recognized that Dole Plantation does a lot to support agriculture with sales of products that include pineapples, pineapple juice, coffee, chocolate and honey.

Kurahashi said the trouble with the farmers market is that other farmers markets have opened since 2003 closer to where North Shore residents live, such as Waialua and Waimea Bay. Operating hours from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. every day also adds to the difficulty, he added.

“We’ve had a lot of trouble getting farmers coming out,” he said.

More than 1 million visitors go to Dole Plantation annually. That’s around how many visit Diamond Head State Monument, roughly twice as many as the Honolulu Zoo gets and half as many going to the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial.

Originally, the site for Dole Plantation was a fruit stand that opened in 1951. The retail building along with parking were approved in 1988, and the “Pineapple Experience” attraction opened a year later. The 2003 expansion allowed Castle &Cooke to more than double its area for commercial use from 5 acres to 11.2 acres. As part of the expansion, the company was permitted to add 19 kiosks, a restaurant, more parking and a “plantation village” with nine buildings.

Besides the two conditions now being deemed onerous, Castle &Cooke had to preserve 240 acres for open space, recreation or agriculture through a conservation easement. Kurahashi said that remains in place and that Castle &Cooke is not seeking to add more commercial uses than already permitted.

If the company is allowed to remove the farmers market, which operates in a building, that building would be replaced by a new one housing a chocolate factory, Kurahashi said.