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Every Sunday, “Back in the Day” looks at an article that ran on this date in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. The items are verbatim, so don’t blame us today for yesteryear’s bad grammar.
LANAI CITY » A Castle & Cooke subsidiary yesterday won preliminary approval for hotel and resort development of more than 1,000 acres of the Pineapple Isle.
At a crowded public hearing, the six-member Lanai advisory committee to the Maui County Planning Commission unanimously endorsed the rezoning sought by the Lanai Co. at Koele and Hulopoe Bay.
A spokesman for the Filipino immigrants who make up a large part of the work force in the Island’s Castle & Cooke-owned pineapple fields said the workers want the new job opportunities such development would bring. The Island’s only hotel now is the 10-room Hotel Lanai.
After Castle & Cooke merged with the New York-based Flexi-Van Corp. last week, new Chairman David H. Murdock said Lanai’s development is a top priority.
Both company-owned sites discussed last night are zoned for urban interim use. The rezoning requests will now go to the planning commission and the County Council for action.
One development proposal is for a site bounded by Manele and Hulopoe bays on the Island’s south coast. The planned resort would include a 50-acre, 400-room hotel complex; 155 acres of residential lots with up to 300 units; 66 acres of park space; five acres for commercial areas; and 117 acres left in open space. Lanai Co. wants the first 100 hotel rooms built by 1989 and the first 30 residential units in place by 1991.
The other development site is just northeast of this village in the Koele district, at the foot of the Lanaihale mountain range. The land now is used for pineapple fields, several residential lots and a golf course.
The resort proposed by Lanai Co. for the site would include a 21-acre, 250-room hotel; 258 acres of residential housing for Island residents; nine acres for park; and 337 acres left in open space.
The company hopes to begin construction of the residential phase of the Koele project in the year 2000. Hotel construction would follow.
About 20 people testified at last night’s hearing, which drew more than 150 people to the cafeteria of Lanai Elementary and High School. The turnout was said to be one of the largest in years at a public hearing here.
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