Waialua seed corn plant
arouses mixed reactions

By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Star-Bulletin

Waialua resident Chester Shigeoka sees both the benefits and drawbacks of an 11.5-acre seed corn processing plant near the community's high school on Kahui Street.

"If I had no choice, I would say, 'I no like,'" said Shigeoka, who lives near the proposed project. "But for overall, it's for the better. I'd like to see employment for the young guys."

For lifetime residents like Shigeoka, the fear of new technology and its encroachment into the quiet plantation lifestyle is butting up to the reality that something is needed to make the area's economy stir from the slumber it has been in since Waialua Sugar Co. closed sugar operations three years ago.

Pioneer Hi-Bred International, the world's largest seed corn processing company, yesterday announced it will modify its proposed Waialua facility to meet resident concerns about noise, dust pollution and visual impacts.

Jake Ng, a North Shore Neighborhood Board member and critic of the plant's location, said he wants a better picture of the improvements before endorsing them. People who live at the Waialua Ranch Camp, which is adjacent to the planned facility, "are very concerned about the dust and the noise and the potential health concerns," he said.

Residents may ask the city to impose conditions ensuring that dust and noise problems have to be mitigated, Ng said.

Among the conditions Pioneer has agreed to are:

Redesigning its site by placing a warehouse between a dryer building and the ranch camp 640 feet away. Camp residents, who number about 100, raised concerns about noise from the dryer.

The company also has agreed to raise to 20 feet a landscaped berm that will sit between the warehouse and the camp. The existing berm is about 10 to 15 feet high.

With the improvements, noise from the dryer is expected to be no more than 30 decibels at the ranch camp. Under the old scheme, noise at the camp was projected to be between 30 and 40 decibels.

Paving roads so that trucks won't need to travel along dirt paths. Residents feared pollution would be kicked up by the dust.

Overhauling the architectural design of its structures to reflect a Hawaiian plantation-style theme. Residents had complained previous designs looked like a Midwestern warehouse.

Pioneer Hi-Bred last week threatened to abandon its project if the city Department of Planning and Permitting bowed to the concerns of the residents.

Department Director Jan Sullivan determined the planned facility required only a "minor" planned review use permit. A "major" permit process requires City Council approval.

Pioneer production manager Don Miles said the additional improvements will add about $500,000 to the project's original cost estimate of $7.5 million.

"We feel it is important to be a responsible member of the community," Miles said.

The company will employ 30 to 40 people, half of whom would be seasonal eight-month workers. It also intends to buy unprocessed corn feed from farmers on the North Shore and from Central and Leeward Oahu farmers.

Waialua residents say they want the plant, with those raising objections saying they wish it were elsewhere. But Pioneer officials say the site was the only land offered them by landowner Dole Food Co., which owns most of the agricultural land in the region.

"There's quite a bit of acreage around there. They could have moved away half a mile toward Kaena Point or somewhere else away from residents," said Dan Gora, another Waialua resident who has raised concerns.

But Gerry Richards, who's lived near the proposed plant site for two years, concedes that Waialua can't stay the same forever.

"I think the seed corn facility is probably the lesser of any of the evils," he said. "And it seems like they are at least trying to make it as good as possible for what their operation is."