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Cemetery opponents
fear flooding, traffic

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By Mary Adamski
Star-Bulletin

Opponents say a planned Hawaii Kai cemetery will not only cause flooding problems for farms and homes downslope but will affect all of East Honolulu with the traffic flow generated by as many as 600 funerals per year.

The 69-acre site in Kamilonui Valley is shown as a slide area, and is one of the few East Honolulu areas still in agricultural use, under the East Honolulu Sustainable Communities Plan, said Roger Nakano.

"There is no mention of cemetery" in the plan, Nakano said.

He and others at a Mariners Cove Community Association meeting last night objected to developer Kamval LLC's plans for a 44,000-plot burial ground.

"What people object to most is not the grave sites, it's the crematory," Nakano said.

The residents also vented anger at the Hawaii Kai Neighborhood Board, which supported the concept of a cemetery in Hawaii Kai in a 9-2 vote in November. Planner Keith Kurahashi represented developers Bob Gerell and Joe Leone at the meeting.

The issue is on the Tuesday morning agenda of the City Council Zoning Committee. The land is zoned as a preservation district where a cemetery is permitted use. Before the Council is a resolution setting the boundaries of the cemetery, and the lawmakers may impose conditions on the developer to mitigate problems.

Walt Woodall, who hikes frequently to the cemetery site, said a deep gully there signals future trouble.

"It took a tremendous amount of water to create that," Woodall said.

The developer has described plans to terrace the property to divert the flooding, Woodall said, "but then it's our problem, we're going to inherit it."