City gets prime land in Kapolei

The city gained 34 acres of prime Kapolei real estate yesterday in exchange for finishing the construction of Kapolei Parkway and the resurfacing of Kamokila Boulevard, the city said.

While Kapolei Property Development had been required to complete the roadway as a condition for a subdivision approval, the developer notified the city that the work would be delayed because of the recession.

The city agreed to do the work in exchange for the land, which is near Kapolei Hale and includes eight lots fronting Kapolei Parkway. The city expects to finish the roadway by early 2014 with a net benefit to the city of $24.6 million.

“;Completion of Kapolei Parkway will not only enhance the value of the adjoining properties, but all of Kapolei,”; Mayor Mufi Hannemann said in a news release.

Hannemann yesterday signed the agreement, which was authorized by the City Council on March 17.

Conservation groups sue Kauai Island Utility

A coalition of conservation groups is suing Kauai Island Utility Cooperative to halt the decline of threatened and endangered birds on the Garden Island.

Lawyers for Earthjustice filed the lawsuit in federal court yesterday on behalf of Hui Hoomalu I Ka Aina, the Conservation Council of Hawaii, the Center for Biological Diversity and the American Bird Conservancy.

The groups claim power lines of the former Kauai Electric Co., other utility structures and utility-owned and operated streetlights are substantially responsible for a 75 percent decline in the number of Newell's shearwaters on Kauai between 1993 and 2008.

The lawsuit also claims the utility's operations kill and injure Hawaiian petrels.

The federal government lists the Newell's shearwater, also known as the Hawaiian shearwater or a'o, as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.

It lists the Hawaiian petrel, or ua'u, as an endangered species.

NEIGHBOR ISLANDS

Kauai County offices moving temporarily

LIHUE » The Kauai County Council is moving. So is the Office of the County Clerk-Council Services Division.

They're temporarily relocating from the Historic County Building in Lihue to the former Hale Kauai building on Wilcox Road in Nawiliwili.

County officials say the relocation is part of the county's long-standing plan to renovate the Historic County Building. The project has been in the county's capital improvement program budget for nearly 10 years.

Relocation is anticipated to take two weeks. The Office of the County Clerk-Council Services Division expects to be fully operational in its new location April 5.

During the transitional period, the public will have limited access to council records because they are being reorganized at the new Wilcox Road facility.