Outrage, not a meadow, grows in Royal Kunia subdivision

When John Petriches bought a home at Royal Kunia 15 years ago, he expected to one day see the tee box of a verdant par-4 dogleg hole at a long-planned golf course just beyond his backyard.

Today, the area is covered by a patchwork of grey and tan tarps on the ground amid tall brown grass and weedy haole koa.

Also close by are several makeshift trellises guiding dragon fruit plants, tires, a bed frame, plastic pots, a couple of chairs, toy wagons, a hulking piece of rusting yellow machinery and two hand-painted signs rivaling the size of some big-screen TVs with the messages: “Keep Off” and “Private Property. No Trespassing.”

All of this infuriates Petriches. And he’s not alone.

The condition and use of 132 acres at Royal Kunia once advertised as the spot for a planned golf course has been perturbing much of the roughly 2,000-home community over the past three years, including about 300 residents whose homes border the old golf course site.

“It affects all of us,” said Juanita Warren, who bought one of Royal Kunia’s last new homes in 2003. “It’s an eyesore when I walk by. It’s like a homeless camp in the making.”

Brenda Mariano, who like Warren doesn’t live immediately next to offending areas, said owners of the 132-acre property, led by local real estate agent Augusto “Gus” Concepcion, have made things worse since they bought the land in 2017 with an expressed intent to use it for agriculture.

“It makes me angry,” Mariano said about some sites that have received violation notices from the city. “It’s like a squatter camp. It looks like a junkyard. We thought we were going to be living in a residential environment.”

The discord stems from a failure by the developers of Royal Kunia to nestle the master­-planned community around two golf courses — a task that was made exceptionally difficult by city officials.

Faulty master plan

Royal Kunia was envisioned in the late 1980s by local developer Herbert Horita with 4,000 homes, three golf courses and other elements to be built in two phases on land once planted in sugar cane.

A second phase was derailed by financial difficulties, but Horita, who died in 2010, managed to produce and sell homes in the first phase with Castle & Cooke Homes over nearly two decades starting in the 1990s.

The two golf courses in the initial phase, however, faced extra challenges with “community impact fees” arranged by the city.

These fees negotiated by the City Council required the developer of each golf course to pay the city $25 million and allow public play at reduced rates comparable to municipal greens fees.

A Japanese company completed Royal Kunia Country Club in 1994, but the course didn’t open until 2003, when a $13 million unpaid impact fee balance was negotiated down to $2.5 million plus $1 per round for the life of the course.

Royal Kunia’s developers sold the second golf course site covering 172 acres to a different Japanese company, Koei Hawaii Inc., in 1989 for $13.5 million. But Koei couldn’t make an initial $3 million impact fee installment, and this land is what troubles Royal Kunia residents today.

An affiliate of California-based 3D Investments bought the property for $3 million in 2005 and explored plans to build homes. Such a move would have required rezoning the land from general preservation to urban use, and faced community opposition.

In 2016, 3D’s affiliate, Central Oahu Associates, led by local developer Jon Gomes (no relation to Honolulu Star-Advertiser writer Andrew Gomes), created 13 land condominiums on the bulk of the 172-acre site, a contiguous 132 acres, and sold these condos in 2017 with Concepcion as the project’s real estate broker.

Concepcion found about 100 investors to join 13 limited liability companies that bought the 7- to 16-acre land condos for an average of $615,000, or $8 million in all.

Concepcion also acquired two ownership interests in the project that 3D named The Meadows at Royal Kunia.

It appears that members of the 13 companies divided each land condo into smaller pieces for individual use.

Initial complaints

Shortly after the condo sales, neighbors began to complain about use of the property, which has no water, electricity or legal vehicular access.

Early complaints included use of a wheelchair sidewalk ramp as a driveway, vehicles parked on sidewalks, stirred-up dust and unpermitted industrial tents. Homeowners also expressed concerns about storm water drainage and use of pesticides and herbicides.

Concepcion addressed a 2017 Waipahu Neighborhood Board meeting in defense of the new owners, some of whom had said they intended to farm the preservation-zoned land, which is an acceptable use under city zoning regulations.

Royal Kunia residents and neighborhood board Chairman Rito Saniatan were skeptical.

At that meeting, Saniatan asked Concepcion whether the new owners intended to misuse the property as was done at a nearby site called Kunia Loa Ridge Farmlands, where the city has struggled to enforce land-use regulations after property owners built illegal homes.

“Is your plan to turn the Meadows into another Wild Wild West like (Kunia Loa) where anything goes?” Saniatan asked Concepcion, who brokered sales at Kunia Loa.

Concepcion said this was a misconception, and he gave assurances as the president of the Meadows condo board that owners would avoid unpermitted work, put up dust screens, produce a master farm plan, install bulletin boards and limit work to normal business hours.

Since then, however, some of those pledges have gone unfulfilled, complaints have escalated and Concepcion has worked to resell his Meadows property.

Ongoing frustration

Petriches recently shared photos of a truck carrying a round tank and hoses parked on the sidewalk next to a Meadows parcel, and another truck parked on the street with a hose looped over a nearby tree to reach a Meadows parcel where an owner has fenced an area containing four goats, a table and chairs under a pop-up tent and a security camera on a high post.

Castle & Cooke, which still owns sections of major streets in Royal Kunia, placed concrete barriers to prevent Meadows owners from driving onto their property over sidewalks in two places. But Petriches said these barriers and repeated complaints to city officials haven’t been totally effective.

“That’s the frustrating part,” he said.

The city Department of Planning and Permitting on Aug. 17 issued a violation notice to owners of one Meadows condo for 120 feet of chain link fence and a gate installed without a permit. This same site also drew a violation notice on Aug. 20 for a “No trespassing” sign bigger than 12 square feet, which was subsequently taken down.

On Thursday, DPP issued a violation notice for unpermitted structures on the property with the goats.

Concepcion did not return a call and an email seeking comment for this story.

According to recent real estate listings for Meadows parcels owned by Concepcion, applications have been submitted to DPP for access and utilities.

One listing for a portion of one condo representing 1.6 acres describes the offer as a “rare chance to be a part of this raw land, waiting to be developed once access permit is granted.” This stake is listed for $220,000.

Another partial condo interest owned by Concepcion representing 1.2 acres was sold in June for $180,000. This site was described as “nice level land waiting to be developed once access permit will be granted, which is being applied at the DPP.”

Mariano, who is a real estate broker, said Meadows owners have made Royal Kunia homes harder to sell and less valuable.

“It’s getting worse,” she said. “It’s to the point where we need legal help.”