Plan would save Kahuku houses
The proposal from a Florida firm also seeks to build at least 20 luxury homes
Seventy families in Kahuku would be able to buy their decades-old plantation homes, Kahuku's picturesque nine-hole golf course would be saved and at least 20 multimillion-dollar homes would be built along the shoreline, under a compromise being offered by Mayor Mufi Hannemann.
The proposal was presented yesterday during a community meeting of about 150 people at the Kahuku High School cafeteria. Some Kahuku residents applauded the plan, while others shouted that it "was a sellout."
Tempers flared as neighbors angrily debated the plan, leading Hannemann to seek some harmony by asking the community to sing "Hawaii Aloha" and hold hands together.
But before the group started to sing, Hannemann had his own hard words for the North Shore community.
"The bottom line is, don't think the city has all the money in the world. We are concerned, we want to help you, but there is a limit to our help," he said.
Council Chairman Donovan Dela Cruz, who represents the area, has made too many offers of help, raising the community's expectations, Hannemann said.
"I could have done what every other mayor has done and let a private developer do his deal, and we sit back and say, 'Too bad, too sad, too glad,'" Hannemann said. "I took this extra step because you had a councilmember who was raising the expectations way too high; he was making promises that the rest of the Council was getting nervous about."
Dela Cruz told the Star-Bulletin that the Council wanted to work with the Hannemann administration, and noted that councilmembers had passed several resolutions in support of the Kahuku residents.
Dela Cruz said he has introduced resolutions regarding possible city purchase through condemnation of the property, but the resolutions have not move out of committee.
The plan offered by Hannemann is aimed at helping the 70 families who live on a portion of the 2,000 acres that Campbell Estate plans to sell this year. Residents of the Kahuku Village V parcel fear they will lose their homes.
One resident, Angel Adversalo, who will be 84 next month, hobbled up to the microphone to explain his plight.
"The house is very important," he said, "If no more, where we stay? Where do I go?"
Hannemann said that in his discussions with Campbell Estate, he has told the company that the city would not permit evictions in the area.
The proposal Hannemann offered was brought to him by Continental Pacific LLC, a Florida-based firm that, according to its Web site, buys and sells large properties of valuable land.
"Continental Pacific's core business is to focus on purchasing large land tracts, ranging in size from thousands of acres to several hundred thousand acres, and reselling those tracts as smaller parcels," according to the Web site www.cplandco.com.
Eric Morrison is manager of the firm's Kahuku project and had worked with the company's Big Island holdings.
Under the plan, Continental Pacific would buy the land and sell the existing land and homes to the tenants for $75,000 each, give the golf course to the Kahuku Village Association or the Kahuku Community Association, provide access to the beach and then get zoning for at least 18 oceanfront and near-oceanfront luxury homes.
Others, including Kahuku resident and developer Joe Pickard, said the plan was a poor one, and urged the residents to reject it.
Hannemann, who has been supported by Pickard in his political campaigns, said Pickard had come to him earlier with a possible developer but never continued the discussions. Hannemann said he was willing to consider other proposals.
Margaret Primacio, Kahuku Villages Association vice president, urged Hannemann to find someone to buy the Campbell land "who will stay true to what most of us want, which is to stay in our homes and preserve the area and the open space for everyone."
Association members said they will discuss the new proposal but would not be able to come to a decision for at least two weeks.
