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Trouble brews over an earth wall
built by retired auto dealer
Jimmy Pflueger

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By Anthony Sommer
Star-Bulletin

KILAUEA, Kauai -- "I'm not a developer. I'm just a yard man," says retired auto dealer Jimmy Pflueger, 75 .

He steers his pickup truck across 480 acres of north shore Kauai land that he is converting into an immense lawn that resembles, more than anything, a championship golf course without holes.

The rolling hills are covered with grass, perfectly manicured, completely irrigated with underground pipes. There are several streams, a botanical garden, a beach and a couple of man-made ponds. Landscaping on a grand scale is Pflueger's passion. His current project stretches from Kuhio Highway to the ocean.

Pflueger stops to admire a waterfall connecting the two ponds.

"I love this," he says. "If the environmentalists could see this, they would love it."

Maybe. Maybe not.

By Anthony Sommer, Star-Bulletin
Many north shore Kauai residents are furious that Kauai
County allowed retired auto dealer Jimmy Pflueger to build
the 15-foot berm pictured above without a grading permit and
then gave him a permit after the work was done. Pflueger is
now seeking permits for other work already done on this lot.
This is the east end of the berm, which stretches for nearly a mile.

The Kilauea Neighborhood Association has written Kauai County asking how Pflueger was able to move tens of thousands of cubic yards of dirt to wall off his land with a 15-foot tall berm nearly a mile long without a grading permit. The grading started on Feb. 15. The permit was issued by County Engineer Cesar Portugal on April 26.

"He does what he wants to do and there's nothing we can do about it," said Rodney Yadao, president of the Kilauea Neighborhood Association. "He's very well connected."

Many north shore residents are furious at Pflueger for building the berm, which completely blocks their view of the ocean from Kuhio Highway. They're also angry at Kauai County for doing nothing to stop him.

"In any other place but Kauai, the county would have issued a cease and desist order and seized his bulldozers if he ignored it," said Beryl Blaiche, environmental activist and longtime Kilauea resident.

"The problem goes way beyond Jimmy Pflueger," Blaiche said. "Many other large landowners on the north shore would like to do the same thing and wall off their land. When they see him going ahead without any permits and the county takes no action against him, that's a bright green light."

Critics point out the berm was designed by civil engineer Yolanda Portugal-Cabral, daughter of the county engineer, and say she would have lost a large fee if her father shut the project down. The county responds that the Kauai Ethics Board decreed Cesar Portugal did not have a conflict of interest.

Meanwhile, the County Planning Commission has granted Pflueger a permit to subdivide the land for houses, subject to a long list of conditions. Pflueger insists he has no plans to build homes on the land himself, but won't rule out selling the property to a developer.

One of the conditions requires Pflueger to "preserve ocean view corridors as viewed from Kuhio Highway."

Both Commission Chairman Gary Baldwin and Planning Director Dee Crowell insist the condition addresses only buildings and not the berm.

"Grading issues belong to the County Engineer," Crowell says.

Pflueger also has applied to the state Commission on Water Resource Management for after-the-fact permits that would bless his diversion of water from Waiakula Stream for his ponds and sprinkler system. And he wants an after-the-fact state permit for grading already done along the stream near where it enters the ocean.

By Anthony Sommer, Star-Bulletin
Above, the 15-foot earthen berm built outside Kilauea by retired
auto dealer Jimmy Pflueger to separate Kuhio Highway from
property he plans to subdivide also blocks the view of
the ocean from the highway.

The stream empties onto one of the most pristine reef systems in Hawaii.

"There have been times when Waiakula Stream has been so clogged with mud from his grading that you could float a crowbar in it," said marine biologist Don Heacock, Kauai manager of the state's Aquatic Resource Division.

The Commission on Water Resources Management had hearings scheduled for this summer, but they've been put on a back burner.

"We've fallen way behind schedule and I don't know when we'll get to them," said David Higa, the commission's stream management expert.

The Kilauea Neighborhood Association filed its complaint with the county on July 18. On July 20, Deputy County Engineer Ian Costa notified Pflueger that although the permit for the berm calls for a maximum height of 5 feet, he built it 15 feet high instead and thus is in violation of the permit conditions.

Costa told Pflueger the county will not refund his $46,800 cash bond until the problem is resolved.Pflueger vacillates between bewilderment and anger.

When Pflueger gives the Star-Bulletin a tour of the area, he drives up and down Kuhio Highway.

The roadside scenery includes many old berms and hedges that have blocked the view of the ocean for decades.

"Where's the ocean? Can you see the ocean?" he asks. "Why are they picking on me?

"Let me ask you this: how tall is sugar cane? I'll tell you -- when the tassels are on it, it's 28 feet tall. This land used to all be sugar and except at harvest time nobody saw the ocean from the road."

Pflueger insists he is beautifying the land by taking out old scrub plants and replacing them with grass.

But asked why he doesn't invite his critics for the same tour he provided the Star-Bulletin, his mood turns darker: "My family has owned this parcel since 1871 and I've lived all my life in Hawaii. What I want to do with it is no business of someone who just moved here from Michigan. I don't have to explain anything to those people."