Makakilo group sues
housing developer

Castle & Cook is accused
of failing to report on impacts
of its Palehua East B

The Friends of Makakilo has filed suit in Circuit Court, alleging that Castle & Cooke Hawaii has violated county and state laws by failing to conduct required environmental assessments for its planned Palehua East B residential project.

The project will have a significant impact on plant species in the area and will dramatically alter land use, the group contends.

The Palehua East B project is planned on roughly 35 acres of land owned by Castle & Cooke in Makakilo. It is expected to include 137 residential lots and two sewer pump stations.

An environmental assessment is required under a recently amended state law for any waste-water facility that serves 50 or more single-family dwellings, the suit says. It is also required whenever county land is to be used in a development project. The developer's proposal includes the widening of Makakilo Drive, which is on county land.

Castle & Cooke has already begun construction on the Palehua East B pump station that will connect with the city's Honouliuli Wastewater Treatment Plant, but has yet to complete an environmental assessment or obtain a permit to connect the pump station to Honouliuli, the suit said.

Richard Mirikitani, senior vice president and corporation counsel for Castle & Cooke Homes Hawaii Inc., said the property has been zoned residential for many years, and an environmental impact statement has already been done. "There is no requirement for another EIS, and so we're inclined to believe that the lawsuit has no merit," he said.

The Friends of Makakilo, which has pushed for a moratorium on all development in Makakilo until all infrastructure is in place, has called in the past for an update to the environmental impact statement, which was completed in 1979.

A spokesman for Mayor Mufi Hannemann said they could not comment because they had not seen the suit.