Church tests
county restrictions

Worshippers gather on
Maui farmland where
zoning rules prohibit a chapel

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By Gary T. Kubota
gkubota@starbulletin.com

PUKALANI, Maui >> A group of 40 people gathered under a tent on farmland in Upcountry Maui yesterday to hold religious services, challenging a county zoning decision against them building a chapel.

Hale O Kaula pastor David Jenkins said the county has failed to respond to the group's latest inquiry about whether it can hold religious services without a building, so parishioners are moving forward and holding religious gatherings.

"We feel we've got our constitutional right to worship with our Lord," said Jenkins.

"We're assuming it's all right."

The services on the agricultural parcel located mauka of residential Pukalani follow a federal court decision to take no action against the county until the church can clearly show it has been denied the right to worship on the land.

The church had sought a preliminary injunction to allow immediate religious activity on the land.

U.S. District Judge Samuel King said until a specific prohibition is enforced, the matter was not "ripe" for a ruling.

Jenkins said a former county planning director told him in 1993 that even without the building, the church could not hold services on the farmland without a county special use permit. The conflict centers on the church's right to worship vs. the rights of property owners to maintain farmland.

The church parcel, which now contains a two-story parsonage and a one-story agricultural building, is located at the end of Anuhea Place along a private road, where a number of landowners raise horses. Jenkins and a few other church families also live on the street.

The county twice denied the group a special use permit to build a chapel on the same agricultural parcel -- once in 1995, and another time in 2001.

Several property owners say allowing religious services on the parcel would ruin the quiet rural atmosphere.

County officials said building a chapel would create unacceptable levels of traffic and noise and that the church parcel lacked pipe water and adequate waterlines for fire protection.

Jenkins said the church is willing to meet whatever water and safety standard requirements are necessary to develop the chapel. He said other activities along the road, including a horse-riding arena, generated as much traffic.

Jenkins said he knows of at least one church in Upcountry Maui that lacked similar requirements but was able to build on farmland. Hale O Kaula congregation is part of the Living Word Fellowship with churches in the West and Midwest, and has been meeting for the past 30 years in a 1,200-square-foot chapel about 30 minutes away in Haiku.

Jenkins said the group bought the 5.8-acre parcel for $305,000 in 1990 because it was cheaper than urban land and more suitable for fostering their beliefs. He said part of the ministry involves parents working with their children in the nearby nursery and planting various crops.

Jenkins said 90 percent of the 60-member church live within five miles of the farmland location, and a church should be located where the members reside.

He said the area is no longer strictly agricultural, and the church is just across a nearby gulch from a shopping center under construction and Kamehameha Schools.

Several church members said they were happy to be at the services, and they were waiting to see whether the county would respond to its latest action. Thom Foster said his church was one of many having difficulty finding a place to worship.

"It's not just this place here. It's all around the nation," he said.