Zoning change sought for industrial park work

The planned expansion of an industrial park next to Kawainui Marsh is drawing the ire of the Kailua Neighborhood Board and environmental groups worried about the project’s impact.

But the kamaaina family that owns Kapaa Industrial Park insists it is taking all the steps necessary to ensure the expansion is safe for the area, which encompasses Hawaii’s only recognized internationally significant wetland, adding that the development would fill a badly needed niche for the Windward community.

The City Council is expected to hold a public hearing at 2 p.m. Wednesday on a bill for a zoning change that would clear the way for the project. Bill 45 involves two parcels totaling 27 acres on each side of the existing Kapaa Industrial Park, all of which are owned by the King family.

The family began operating an industrial park in the area more than 15 years ago behind the existing Kailua transfer station and next to the Ameron Quarry. It consists of 31 warehouses, many of them World War II-vintage Quonset huts, that are home to a variety of industrial and commercial interests from auto body shops to woodworking.

Paul King said his family is trying to fill a need in the community by creating a new light industrial park that would take up the two flanks of the existing operations.

King said he and his sister grew up in Kailua and that his family has tried to be good stewards of the land.

"We take great pride in what we do here," he said.

The family said the amount of industrial property available in the Windward area has declined significantly since 2000 and that the current industrial park is near capacity.

Manfred Zapka, principal of Sustainable Design & Consulting LLC, was hired by the Kings to develop the project. Zapka said the new light industrial park is being developed with environmental sustainability in mind. Stormwater will be detained in basins and treated, stored in underground tanks and then used for irrigation, he said.

Waste water will be treated in septic tanks, pumped through an aerobic sand filter and then recycled through drip irrigation into a vegetative buffer zone, Zapka said. Connecting a 2-mile-long pipe to the city sewer system would be cost-prohibitive and could hurt the environment, he said.

Meanwhile, the buildings are being designed to meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification standards, set up by the U.S. Green Building Council to emphasize environmental responsibility and resource efficiency.

The city Department of Planning and Permitting has recommended approval of the industrial park expansion. Deputy Planning Director Art Challacombe told members of the City Council’s Zoning and Planning Committee on Aug. 22 that he was impressed by the environmental efforts of the developer.

"This project is definitely unique," he said.

But Kailua residents and environmental groups say they aren’t satisfied by the developer’s answers and remain convinced that expansion of an industrial park atop a former landfill next to Kawainui Marsh is inherently a bad idea. The marsh was Hawaii’s largest ancient freshwater fishpond is and one of the most environmentally sensitive areas in the state.

Chuck Prentiss, chairman of the Kailua Neighborhood Board, said an effort at LEED certification and other environmental initiatives being undertaken by the Kings are impressive but do not address a fundamental concern that any overflow during a heavy storm would end up in Kapaa Stream, Kawainui Marsh and eventually Kailua Bay.

Prentiss said the sewage and drainage systems proposed by the developer are designed to sustain 10-year storms, not 50- or 100-year storms that have been known to hit the area with greater frequency than other parts of the island.

"It can be very frequent that the system could be overwhelmed if we get a rain here more than a 10-year flood," Prentiss said. "That specific spot gets a lot of heavy rain."

Donna Wong, executive director of the environmental group Hawaii’s Thousand Friends, said the new industrial park will sit atop a "landfillcovering residential waste that was dumped into the wetland between 1965 and 1972."

"The owners of the land are asserting … that once they cement over this landfill and just cap it on the top, and the stormwater runoff goes through all its machinations, it will be deposited cleaner into Kapaa Stream," Wong said. "But that just doubles the stormwater runoff that’s coming out. Plus you’ll still get leaching from the landfill because it is not immune to water."

Zapka said city laws require that projects 100 acres or less need to address drainage problems that would occur only within a 10-year recurrence period. The area being considered is much smaller, he said.

The opponents disagree with Zapka’s interpretation.

Wong said the Environmental Protection Agency restricts the amount of harmful nutrients that the landowner allows into the stream, something that is supposed to be monitored by the state Health Department. To her knowledge, that hasn’t been done, she said.

The Hawaii Audubon Society submitted testimony voicing its concern that light pollution from the new industrial park area would disorient endemic and endangered water birds — including the Laysan duck, the Hawaiian stilt, the Hawaiian coot and Hawaiian gallinule. Society President Linda Paul said her organization is also worried that the increased contaminants placed into the detention ponds and drained into the watershed area would make the birds more susceptible to toxins.

"Ultimately, the toxic water in these ponds will be released into the environment and there is no way to prevent the contaminants from entering the marsh and permanently damaging its wildlife and resources," Paul said.

Zapka said reducing light pollution is part of the project’s LEED certification plan.

Opponents of the project have also raised concerns about the impact of more trucks on Kapaa Quarry Road, used by many motorists to travel between Kane­ohe and Kailua.

Council Zoning Chairman Ikaika Anderson recommended approval of the project. He asked that the approval include requiring the developer to address stormwater runoff and lighting issues.

Anderson said he believes the project will include protections that don’t exist with the current industrial park. He said he also agrees that there is a critical need for more industrial space by Windward businesses.