Community organizations plan to wage a battle against a project with proposed large residential units that they contend will spoil the view of a ridgeline north of Kauai’s Hanalei River.
Joel Guy, president of the Hanalei-to-Haena Community Association, said in a letter sent to the developer’s consultant, "Unless they are fully mitigated, the visual impacts of the proposed project would irremediably damage the scenic and environmental qualities that have made Hanalei Bay the most unique and iconic place in the state of Hawaii."
The Office of the Environmental Quality Control on Sunday released the Hanalei Plantation Resort’s environmental impact statement preparation notice. Ohana Hanalei LLC proposed the resort to include a hotel and single-family units on a 65.5-acre lot north of the Hanalei River. The land is owned by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar.
A draft EIS is expected to be released in the spring.
Developers plan to construct 86 bungalows: 50 single-story units on stilts along the mauka boundary of Puu Poa Marsh, and 36 one- and two-story units adjacent to Waileia Stream, according to the notice. Thirty-four land units are also proposed along the Kaukaniunu ridgeline to range from 15,000 to 18,000 square feet. A restaurant, spa, meetings rooms and a pool are also planned. Developers also want to revitalize the marsh, also known as Kamoomaikai Fishpond.
While the Hanalei Bay Coalition and the Hanalei community association worry about the ridgeline, the developer says proper guidelines will be followed.
Ohana Hanalei spokeswoman Michelle Swartman said strict guidelines will be involved in the design to protect homeowners as well as preserve the view. More details of the structures will be included in the draft EIS next year, she said.
Swartman said the project site is the location of the Hanalei Plantation Hotel in the 1960s. The hotel comprised 210 hotel units, including 49 single-story cottages lined in two rows along the ridgeline, and included a restaurant, bar and swimming pool. The hotel also had two multistory structures, each four to five stories, which contained 161 hotel rooms, a store and recreational building.
Today the site has swarms of mosquitos and is covered with overgrowth of bull grass and hau trees, choking the flow of the stream. "If we were to restore it, it would be a huge improvement to what it is today," Swartman said.
"We truly believe that once we put our plans in place, we will definitely leave it better than what we found it. Currently it’s just choked with invasive species. We’re planning to restore it once again into a thriving environment," she added.
"We have a long road ahead of us," Swartman said, noting the EISPN is just the beginning of the environmental review process.
Carl Imparato, a member of the Hanalei Bay Coalition, said the group opposes development of the land units, which he described as luxury vacation rental mansions on the ridgeline.
"That’s where the big fight will be, the fight of the view plane," he said.
"We are prepared to fight on every front: legal front, legislative front," he added.
A lot of space for the units exists on the parcel, Imparato said, where Ohana Hanalei can develop without destroying the view plane.
The coalition also wants developers to provide a true rendering of the proposed project to the public instead of renderings presented at a November 2012 community meeting. "The renderings continue to be the ones that they had a whole year ago," Imparato said.
Guy said, "We really got to be sensitive to the view plane of the ridge."
According to the preparation notice, the hotel later operated as Club Mediterranean from the mid-1970s to 1978. A year later the parcel was acquired by Hanalei Investment Corp. and Hanalei Development Inc., represented by Starks Entities, to redevelop the site with a new resort.
The Kauai County Planning Commission approved development of 204 transient accommodation units. The old hotel was demolished, and developers constructed below-ground infrastructure, building foundations and framing but the resort was never completed.
The preparation notice said the Hanalei Plantation Resort will revitalize economic activity in the region by stimulating new business growth while maintaining and enhancing the scenic and historic heritage of Hanalei.
