Neglected Varona Village plantation community in Ewa awaits redevelopment plans

Eusebia Batalon would like to think she will live to see the day she buys her city-owned home under a government initiative announced 39 years ago to preserve several now-historic Oahu sugar plantation housing camps.

Batalon, whose husband worked for Oahu Sugar Co. and died in 2005, turns 88 today .

“Long time we are waiting to buy,” the sprightly widower said, referring to herself and her neighbors in Varona Village, a community on the Ewa Plain that once was filled with 93 homes rented by employees of Oahu Sugar’s Ewa Plantation.

Today, 46 homes remain, including several that are boarded up after being ravaged by time and poor city upkeep after Oahu Sugar shut down in 1995.

> PHOTOS: Former sugar plantation community Varona Village on cusp of revival

Even fewer Ewa Plantation retirees or their relatives still live in Varona, decades after the city fumbled a series of plans to sell the homes to the retirees and preserve a unique community from Hawaii’s bygone sugar era.

Quite plainly, Varona Village has been slowly dying.

On Wednesday, the Honolulu City Council approved a new plan in which the city will sell the 26-acre neighborhood close to Ka Makana Ali‘i shopping center to a private developer that would fix up some existing homes, build 87 new plantation-style houses and sell the residences at below-market prices to existing tenants along with mainly others who have family employment connections to Ewa Plantation.

However, some deal elements have yet to be ironed out, including firm home prices and whether roads and other infrastructure will be a maintenance responsibility of the city or homeowners.

Peter Savio, a local developer who partnered with the nonprofit Hawaii Habitat for Humanity to restore Varona, said it could take a year to complete property surveys and condominium lot divisions before homes can be sold for perhaps as little as $100,000.

For some Varona residents, tentativeness in the plan raises concerns about how far off the horizon home sales may be.

“We can’t tell if we can wait that long to buy our home,” said 88-year-old Varona resident Juanita Rodriguez, who has lived in her house since 1967 and lost her husband last year.

Crescencia Malate, a next-door neighbor of Rodriguez since 1971, is more skeptical about home purchase offers.

“I don’t believe that until they do it,” said Malate, who is 80 and lives with her husband, Benjamin, a retired Ewa Plantation plumber.

Malate’s suspect view stems from a long history of inaction and neglect by the city. In 1981 the city advanced a plan to preserve eight Ewa Plantation villages by rehabilitating and selling homes, most of which were built between 1900 and 1940, to Oahu Sugar workers. The move to sell the homes came amid growing uncertainty over the long-term viability of Hawaii’s sugar industry.

Unfinished plans

“It’s no secret that Oahu Sugar wants to get out of (the) plantation housing business,” city Housing Director Joseph Conant under Mayor Eileen Anderson said in a 1981 Honolulu Advertiser story.

The original plan involved the city buying 676 homes on 243 acres Campbell Estate leased to Amfac-owned Oahu Sugar.

City officials anticipated carrying out the plan in phases over six to eight years, and said affordable sale prices would cover city costs.

An initial phase was completed on Fernandez Village where 229 homes were improved and sold for $1 plus $5 per square foot of land.

Charlene Richardson recalls that her parents bought their Fernandez home for $26,000.

But because of a change in city administrations and other things, future phases stalled.

New urgency to rekindle the initiative arose several years later with the approach of Oahu Sugar’s land lease expiring in 1995.

Under Mayor Frank Fasi, a more ambitious “Ewa Villages” master plan was finalized in 1991 and involved acquiring about 600 acres to preserve Ewa Plantation villages and create new affordable and market-price housing communities along with parks and a municipal golf course to alleviate flooding.

However, village preservation got scaled back to cover only three of the seven untouched plantation communities.

To be preserved were Renton, Tenny and Varona villages while Mill, Middle, Lower and C villages were razed.

The city completed its purchase in 1992, and home sale prices for plantation workers were estimated at $45,000 to $55,000 without improvements and $110,000 to $130,000 renovated.

Work on all three villages was projected to be done by 1998 under what was being hailed as a national model.

Home sales began in 1995 at Renton and Tenny villages during the administration of Mayor Jeremy Harris in which a scandal erupted with city housing official Michael Kaha­pea convicted of leading a scam to steal $5.6 million from the project.

Work was completed at Renton, also known as Haole Camp, and at Tenny, otherwise known as Japanese Camp, along with Ewa Villages Golf Course, parks and new residential communities.

Yet Varona, also known as Filipino Camp and Banana Camp, got sidestepped as some city officials pushed for demolition because homes were too run down.

Saving Varona

Richardson, the daughter of an Ewa Plantation worker who became involved in village preservation at the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, said she’s pushed the city to save Varona for 25 years in part to continue the work of her late father.

“Many changes have occurred in that period of time,” she told the City Council Wednesday. “Our economy has changed, administrators and management have changed, priorities have changed and senators, representatives and Council members have changed. But what hasn’t changed is the situation at Varona.”

Malate, who describes herself as one of the “young girls” living in Varona, said the community remains a special place deserving of preservation.

Tamarind, mango and calamondin trees drip fruit into yards along narrow paved streets. Neighbors have close bonds. Tourists occasionally visit on foot from the nearby Hawaiian Railway Society train depot and museum to find a community seemingly forgotten by time.

Another ancient Varona feature is monthly rent of $55 the city charges some retirees and spouses.

Varona also has problems of neglect, including junked cars, overgrown empty lots and several decrepit houses boarded up by the city.

Since 1993, 24 Varona homes have been torn down mainly to decay, and some longtime residents died waiting for the city to preserve a community listed on the state’s Register of Historic Places.

New plan

The latest plan has origins in working group of city officials established in 2013 to pursue Varona’s preservation largely at the behest of Councilman Ron Menor.

A city request for proposals was issued in 2017, and the Savio/Habitat plan was picked over one other bid in 2018. After nearly two years of negotiations, the city and the developer agreed in August to blueprint terms that were difficult to reach because of conditions at Varona.

“It’s been like a very challenging development agreement, one of the most difficult ones I’ve worked on, because it’s been 25 years since anything has been done for the tenants of Varona Village, and the infrastructure, everything there, is in a very poor condition,” Sandra Pfund, director of the city Department of Land Management, said at Wednesday’s Council meeting.

Menor said a solution to preserve the community and convey home ownership was long overdue.

“For various reasons the city failed to live up to its obligations — until now,” he said Wednesday. “It is unfortunate that … many of the original tenants are not with us to see this day, but I am hopeful that their children and families will thrive in the affordable housing opportunities that will be available.”

Generally, Varona residents are elated that a new plan exists. But concerning uncertainties also exist.

“I’m ecstatic that there’s hope in the village again,” Patrick Hange, son-in-law of a former Ewa Plantation worker, said at Wednesday’s meeting. “I thank you for sticking with it to get us to this point.”

Agnes Malate, Crescencia Malate’s daughter, said the plan hasn’t been well communicated to residents, some of whom don’t speak English well.

“In general, I support the revitalization of the village but have serious concerns,” she said at Wednesday’s meeting. “This plan has not been vetted by the rest of the community.”

In addition to communications, Malate’s concerns include whether maintenance of roads and other infrastructure will fall on residents, and how elderly residents can keep renovation costs low under the developer’s plan to have residents contribute construction labor.

“They are not able to lift that hammer and pound that nail,” she said.

Uncertainties

Pfund and Savio said it hasn’t been determined yet whether the city will assume ownership of roads, new sewer lines and other infrastructure.

As for home improvements and prices, Ewa Plantation retirees or spouses can buy their existing residence for an estimated $100,000 that includes any necessary basic safety fixes.

This option also is offered to former Ewa Plantation retirees who no longer live at Varona and haven’t owned a home in three years, as long as a current tenant isn’t displaced. Such retirees also can buy a vacant Varona lot for $100,000.

The same deal is offered to Varona residents who don’t have family ties to Ewa Plantation work if they have resided in Varona for over three years, but the estimated price is $150,000.

Under several more priority tiers, other people with or without connections to Ewa Plantation can be considered for homes, possibly through a lottery.

If a buyer wants renovations, they can participate in a community labor program with Habitat or arrange their own work, both at extra cost.

Pfund said ties between Varona residents are expected to make the plan’s sweat equity component viable, with relatives or friends pitching in for elderly residents.

“They have a strong community in Varona and will pull together,” Pfund said.

For new homes, Savio said Habitat has packages expected to cost $350,000 to $400,000 excluding the lot price, which should be 50% of normal cost because of sweat equity.

“It’s going to be really, really well priced,” he said.

Under the development agreement, the developer will earn a 5% fee on the estimated $34 million project that includes developing a community center and paying the city $1.8 million for the land.

Savio said he expects everyone at Varona who wants to buy a home will be able to, though if they can’t then they can continue renting.

Completing the plan, Savio estimated, could take three to four years.