Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.

Land Board
nixes Kealakekua
farmland project

The Sierra Club wins
its bid to prohibit the gated
community at Keopuka

---

By Rod Thompson
Star-Bulletin

KAILUA-KONA -- The state Land Use Commission unanimously rejected a gated community for the wealthy on mostly barren, but agriculturally designated lands near Kealakekua Bay in South Kona.

The Sierra Club declared victory following yesterday's ruling against Pacific Star LLC, which sought to develop 125 house lots, a 100-room hotel-like "hale," and an 18-hole golf course on 660 acres at Keopuka, just north of the bay.

Sierra Club state Chairman David Kimo Frankel put the cost of house and lot packages at nearly $1.7 million.

The developer sought to justify the project on agricultural land by saying each homeowner would be required to participate financially in 30 acres of agriculture in the mauka area of the project.

The developer's representatives said plans for the hale were being dropped, but critics said a new owner could revive them.

Frankel sought -- and yesterday obtained -- a declaratory ruling that the proposed development is urban, and cannot be built on agricultural land.

The developer, Lyle Anderson of Arizona, principal officer in Pacific Star, might still build the project if he were to go through the process of changing the land to urban designation.

However, there were hints the commission would show little sympathy for that possibility.

Acting commission Chairman Stan Roehrig said the situation at Keopuka is "extraordinary" because the land is so near Kealekekua Bay, which is a historic district because of Captain Cook's landing and ultimate death there, and is a marine conservation district because of the abundant sea life in the bay.

Frankel said Anderson should donate the land to the Trust for Public Land and receive a tax deduction.

Anderson's efforts at Keopuka were jinxed by a major mishap a few weeks ago at his project already under way at Hokulia on the north side of Keopuka.

Area resident Rogert Dilts and Michelle Wilkins testified about seeing a major dirt runoff into the sea about two miles north of the bay beginning on Sept. 8. A sediment catch basin on land failed to contain heavy rain runoff that washed the dirt into the sea.

Independently, the state Department of Land and Natural Resources issued a statement yesterday saying a survey showed dirt up to three inches thick covering coral and the sea floor.

Most of the 300 people at the hearing repeatedly applauded critics of the project. One of the rare supporters was John Ray of the Hawaii Leeward Planning Conference, who said the real problem was "less important" lands being incorrectly classified as agricultural.