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Kauai urges
Amfac/JMB to
disclose plans
for cane land

By Anthony Sommer
Kauai correspondent

LIHUE -- The Kauai Planning Commission has called for the Chicago-based president of Amfac/JMB to attend a commission meeting to discuss the company's plans for its land.

The commission has targeted meetings Aug. 10 or 24 to hear from Amfac/JMB President Gary Grottke particularly about former sugar-cane fields that are no longer being used.

The commission is about to vote on a new General Plan for the county and the future of the former sugar-cane properties is a major policy question. Beyond acknowledging much of it is, or soon will be, for sale, Amfac/JMB repeatedly has refused to talk about its plans to dispose of the property.

Amfac/JMB, once one of the Big Five sugar companies in Hawaii, is the second largest property owner on Kauai with 28,000 acres. Gay & Robinson, the only other surviving sugar company on the island, has 51,000 acres. Coincidentally, Gay & Robinson also was before the commission yesterday for a hearing on its plan to convert part of its sugar land into a resort.

About 10,000 acres of the Amfac/JMB land is fallow and is being sold off piece by piece.

Yesterday's hearing involved a parcel sold to a church. The largest recent sale was to entertainer Bette Midler, who paid $4.5 million for 1,400 acres adjacent to Kapaa late last year.

The commission several times in the past year has delayed action on other zoning permits for land being sold by Amfac/JMB in an attempt to pry information out of the company. The session yesterday was, by far, the most critical of the company.

Dottie Beckert, Amfac/JMB's land manager on Kauai, told the commission the company is not subdividing any of the land it sells so there is no need for Amfac/JMB to come to the county for permits. Whatever approval is required is the business of the buyers of the land, she said.

"I think there is an obligation of the seller to the buyer and I think it shows a corporate insensitivity to the island," said Ed McDowell, a commission member and real estate broker.