Haleiwa family caught between 2 shopping centers

Wilma Ward had peacefully lived in a rural part of Haleiwa behind the town’s business strip for nearly all her 71 years.

But the last couple of years, she has been caught in a crossfire between two shopping center owners that has left her without clear access to the home that’s been in her family for three generations.

On one side: Kameha­meha Schools, the state’s largest private landowner, which built the Haleiwa Store Lots retail complex anchored by Matsumoto Shave Ice in 2015.

On the other side: a businessman who owns Haleiwa Town Center on land leased from the $9 billion trust that benefits Native Hawaiian children.

Ward, a petite Native Hawaiian woman battling brain cancer, is fed up.

“This Hawaiian was stepped on,” she said. “That’s why I’m doing what I’m doing.”

What Ward is doing is gearing up for a legal battle that includes conflict-of-interest allegations against a city official who rejected her complaint about Haleiwa Store Lots and was previously a principal of a company that did work on the project for Kamehameha Schools.

Ward’s problem is that the only road to her home has been “moved” three times and is currently a main entry to Haleiwa Store Lots. That means Ward’s family members must drive through the retail center’s parking lot to reach a gravel path leading to their house.

What’s worse is that the gravel path starts between a truck loading zone and customer parking, which Ward said often results in strangers blocking access to her house even though a sign says not to.

“We have people park here almost every day,” said Ward, who lives with husband Ronald, a son, a daughter, a son-in-law and two grandchildren. “All we like is get home — and we can’t.”

The road at issue is Kewalo Lane, which Kameha­meha Schools originally envisioned as one of two driveways for its retail project while also serving neighboring homeowners.

Plans in 2011 for the project, which needed a zoning change for the site zoned mainly for residential and agricultural use, called for refurbishing a few historic retail buildings and adding new buildings resembling plantation-era stores that were part of Haleiwa’s original commercial settlement around the late 1890s.

But what Kamehameha Schools initially identified as Kewalo Lane was actually a private driveway owned by the trust but leased to the adjacent Haleiwa Town Center. The actual Kewalo Lane, based on survey maps, was on the edge of the 4-acre Haleiwa Store Lots site and largely overgrown.

To fulfill its original plan, Kamehameha Schools discussed sharing the driveway with Haleiwa Town Center owner Will Schoettle, but in May 2012 the trust terminated negotiations.

At that point the trust had already published a final environmental assessment that included a traffic study and had received Honolulu Planning Commission approval.

By an August 2012 City Council hearing, Kameha­meha Schools and planning consultant Group 70 had revised plans by moving the “Kewalo Lane” entry within the new retail site. Yet concerns remained.

As part of a special district permit consideration in 2013, the city Department of Transportation Services “strongly” encouraged use of the original entry plan. The North Shore Neighborhood Board supported the project but expressed “severe reservations” over the revised entry, according to a city Department of Planning and Permitting report.

DPP approved the special permit in April 2013, saying it encouraged Kamehameha Schools to consider pursuing the shared driveway but that the city “is not in a position to mandate or interfere with negotiations between private parties.”

The decision was made by George Atta, DPP’s director designate, who was a principal at Group 70 when the company did planning and permitting work for Haleiwa Store Lots.

After construction began in 2013, Schoettle said he had problems with contractors and others from the Haleiwa Store Lots site using his parking lot at the expense of his tenants — especially a family medical clinic — and he feared the situation would worsen. So he decided to fence off the driveway he has been leasing.

Haleiwa Store Lots opened in mid-2015. Around the end of 2015, Schoettle’s fence cut off use of his driveway for everyone, including the Wards.

Schoettle said he understands the frustration of the Wards and one other homeowner who had the same sole access.

“I feel for my neighbors and am concerned about their safety and well-being,” he said.

Ward said she initially was mad at Schoettle but understands he was trying to protect his business.

As for Kamehameha Schools, Ward is still mad because she believes the trust should have restored the overgrown Kewalo Lane on its Haleiwa Store Lots site. That original lane used by the Wards long ago got encroached upon by businesses and vegetation, which led the Wards to use the Haleiwa Town Center driveway. Today, Uncle Bo’s restaurant at Haleiwa Store Lots is on part of the historical Kewalo Lane.

Hilarie Alomar, a Kameha­meha Schools planning and development manager, said the city wouldn’t allow use of the original Kewalo Lane because two driveways next to each other are a traffic hazard.

In October 2015, after Haleiwa Store Lots opened but before Schoettle’s fence went up, Kamehameha Schools notified DPP that it had provided access to the homes of Ward and her neighbor, Adela Valmoja, with a new Kewalo Lane through its parking lot.

“This access was created with the consultation of these owners and has been acceptable to them,” Gary Evora, a trust senior asset manager, wrote to DPP.

Ward disputes this, and wrote to Mayor Kirk Caldwell to complain after the fence went up, pointing out that firetrucks can’t get to her property and noting her neighbor had called an ambulance that was delayed because of the new route.

Atta, DPP’s then director, wrote back at Caldwell’s request and dismissed Ward’s concerns.

Ward then retained former state Attorney General Margery Bronster, who had helped Schoettle determine that his driveway wasn’t Kewalo Lane.

After Bronster reiterated Ward’s concerns to Atta in a letter, Atta replied that it is DPP’s position that Haleiwa Town Center closed off Kewalo Lane, and Kameha­meha Schools resolved the issue by establishing a new Kewalo Lane.

“In our view, KS has taken reasonable steps to accommodate access for the Wards and the other parcels behind (Haleiwa Store Lots),” Atta wrote.

Bronster, who believes Atta had a conflict of interest given his previous position at Group 70, advanced Ward’s complaint to the city Department of Corporation Council, which stated in a September 2016 letter that DPP had to conduct a factual investigation.

City officials said Atta didn’t work on Haleiwa Store Lots while at Group 70. He left DPP around the end of 2016 because of a medical issue. Since then Bronster said she’s received no information regarding an investigation.

Meanwhile, Ward and her family continued to suffer inconveniences, sometimes having to track down delivery truck drivers and car owners to get them to move their vehicles from blocking the path to their home.

“I’m still fighting people to move their truck or car,” she said, adding that last year when her son found her unresponsive at home, he had to pound on Uncle Bo’s door to have a delivery truck move before an ambulance arrived. It was during that medical emergency, Ward said, when she was diagnosed with a brain tumor, which is being treated.

Bronster in December filed a petition with DPP seeking a ruling that Kamehameha Schools obtained approvals based on its original access plan. DPP in April said such a petition isn’t a proper means to contest the issue. Instead, DPP forwarded the allegations to its customer services division “as a complaint and request for investigation.”

Sunny Lee, another attorney representing Ward, said DPP’s latest response was exasperating. “We’ve made lots of complaints,” he said.

Bronster said they now plan to contest the issue with the city Zoning Board of Appeals, and if that fails they can sue.

“I’m determined I’m going to fight until I get what I want,” Ward said.