Kauai businesses back
Lihue Airport runway
extension

By Anthony Sommer
Star-Bulletin

LIHUE -- Kauai's business community showed up in force at a hearing on a proposed County Council resolution backing expansion of Lihue Airport's main runway.

The meeting yesterday was in sharp contrast to a state Transportation Department scoping session last fall, where opponents dominated and business leaders were scarce.

The opponents were in the minority yesterday. They accused the Council of acting in bad faith by endorsing a longer runway before a draft environmental impact statement, due to be made public in July, is considered.

The debate over lengthening the runway to accommodate jumbo jets from Asia is in its infancy on Kauai. The same issue has been a bitter battle on Maui for years.

The business leaders who showed up to support the extension were operating under the name of a new coalition, Pono.

The resolution was sponsored by Councilman Jimmy Tokioka, a close ally of Mayor Maryanne

Kusaka, who calls herself a "pro-business mayor" and who has been at odds with environmental groups on many issues.

Speaker after speaker told the Council that a longer runway is needed to market Kauai as a tourist destination and to ship fruit, vegetables and flowers to mainland buyers.

United Airlines is the only carrier with scheduled daily nonstop flights to the mainland, and the current 6,500-foot main runway limits it to using Boeing 757s, the smallest of its long-distance aircraft.

Laurie Yoshida, Kauai Chamber of Commerce director, said a longer runway will mean more visitors.

But she and other speakers emphasized it would not automatically mean more hotels because those would have to be approved by the county Planning Commission.

Environmentalists and no-growth advocates asked the Council to hold off voting on the resolution, even though it is not binding.

"It's highly improper for the Council to make a decision before the EIS is available," said former Mayor JoAnn Yukimura.

Opponents are concerned both about new development on the island and the introduction of alien species of plants and animals.

State planners say increasing the runway to 10,000 feet would allow nonstop DC-10 flights from Chicago or Tokyo, and nonstop 747 flights from as far away as New York.

The council has not set a date for a vote on the resolution.