Punalu'u Showdown
Do the good guys always wear white?

by Alan D. McNarie

Ka'u often turns out large crowds at public hearings-but on June 4, the district outdid itself. Some 400 people showed up for a meeting of the County Council's Finance Committee at Na'alehu School. It was one of the biggest public hearing on the island since former Governor Ben Cayetano sparked the district's wrath by proposing a prison in Pahala. This time two-thirds supported a resolution sponsored by Councilmember Bob Jacobson that would authorize the county to purchase 150 acres bordering Punalu'u Black Sand Beach.
The land is mostly owned by company Roberts Hawaii, which bought it from the Japanese company that started, then abandoned, the original Sea Mountain development in the 1980s.
Roberts has signed a letter of intent with the current Sea Mountain Five group-but first developers must secure the necessary shoreline Special Management Area (SMA) approvals from the county. The company has filed a draft Environmental Impact Statement proposing two hotels and up to 1,502 new housing units at Punalu'u, but has yet to apply for the SMA permit.
A vote for Jacobson's resolution is vote against Sea Mountain Five.
"This resolution would kill our project," testified George Atta of Group 70, the firm that Sea Mountain Five has hired to shepherd the development through the legal process. Atta maintained that Group 70's plan would preserve the beach by expanding the current beach park from seven acres to about 17, plus a "reserve towards Ninole Cove."
Atta later told HIJ that the reserve would include about 39 acres, but admitted later that would include two holes of the redesigned golf course.
Atta also said that since the Draft EIS was produced, the company had revised the planned housing downward to 1,050 residential units but expanded the number of hotel units to 350.
Of the 120 people who signed up to testify, 61 were in favor of the purchase, 31 opposed, three took no clear side, and the remainder left without testifying as the hearing dragged on toward 11 p.m. As in previous meetings, Sea Mountain Five supporters wore white T-shirts, but the vast majority of the audience wasn't wearing the team color. Most of those who supported Jacobson's proposal also supported Ka'u Preservation, which wants to turn the area into an "open air classroom" with an education center and a restaurant. Jacobson's bill has been dubbed the "Keolalani Hanoa Resolution" after the late co-founder of Ka'u Preservation, who ran summer classes for Hawaiian youth at the beach for years. Ka'u Preservation claims that its plan represents the vision of the bay's future that Hanoa was working toward when she died.
Jacobson was criticized for showing favoritism toward a single organization.
"We have a councilman who has one vision and that vision is that of Ka'u Preservation," maintained Julie Enriquez, the president of O Ka'u Kakou, who opposed the bill.
"Ka'u Preservation Inc. is currently working on a management agreement and plan for the area, that will include best practices for resource management and use," states Jacobson's resolution, but it does not require the group's plan be adopted.
Jacobson also drew fire for citing the wrong tax map keys in the original draft of the resolution, including the keys for some long-time family residences along the beach (but not the Hanoa's beachfront lot). Jacobson said that was simple error, caused by trying to read computer tax maps that weren't entirely clear.
"I screwed up," he told HIJ. "At the next meeting, all the TMK numbers will be passed out and should be accurate."
Jacobson's opponents also claimed that his bill requires tax dollars to do what Sea Mountain Five would do for free. The company said it would donate the expanded 17-acre park to the county-and help with the maintenance.

The same smell
Those testifying at the hearing had relatively little to say about the specifics of either plan. One biologist criticized "what passed for science" in Sea Mountain Five's Draft EIS; a Sea Mountain Five supporter wondered why Jacobson wasn't required to do an EIS for his proposed land purchase. An archeologist stated Punalu'u was exceptionally rich in archeological features and opined that many such features probably hadn't been identified yet, but couched her testimony as a general plea for preservation (and thus support for Jacobson's bill) rather than a critique of either plan.
"Yes, the people of Ka'u need jobs. Yes, we need jobs that are sustainable. But is tourism sustainable?" asked one woman, who was laid off for three months from her resort job after 9/11. She and others pointed out the fragility of the tourist economy in a world of terrorism and skyrocketing oil prices. Others advocated for more agricultural jobs instead.
The Ka'u divide
Both sides claim that the other was spreading misinformation and dividing the community, but in truth, it was already divided. Keolalani Hanoa and her mother, Pele, led supporters against the first Sea Mountain project. They have been feuding with Guy Enriques, who runs a souvenir stand on the beach, since at least the '90s. Last year Enriquez helped organized O Ka'u Kakou, an organization that claims to be neutral but has accepted funding from Sea Mountain Five and has consistently spoken out for the developer and against Ka'u Preservation.
This is not a fight between kama'aina and malihini. Old local families testified on both sides, as did newcomers. Nor is this a fight between native Hawaiians and non-Hawaiians: Hawaiians spoke both for and against Jacobson's bill, and some haoles testified that they felt Hawaiians should get Punalu'u back (and the rest of the state as well). Some Hawaiians opposed the idea of any branch of the "occupational" government controlling more land. Others said the land was safer in government hands than in private developers.'
"You owe it to the Hawaiian people to buy every piece of land that you can get your hands on," maintained Palekapu Dedman. "You stole it from the us. Now you've got to buy it back!"
In Ka'u, as in most communities, the real rift seems to be between those who live there for what it is and those who live there for what it could become.
"I was born and raised in Ka'u and it used to be my playground, and still is. It is now my children's playground," said Faith Garrison.
Others wondered how their kids would find jobs without leaving the district.
"If you want to preserve Punalu'u, fine, but who's going to go there when there's nobody here but retirees?" one asked.
Sea Mountain is continuing to make revisions and concessions to try and alter that two-to-one margin against it. The company's latest plans call for minimum shoreline setbacks of 300 feet and average setbacks of around 600 feet for its houses, and more parking and restrooms in the beach area. The company also plans to pay some of its profits into a community fund to support local projects such as school or hospital improvements.
These concessions may not be enough opponents. Most of the testimony of submitted in favor of Jacobson's bill wasn't so much against Sea Mountain's plan, as it as against any resort.
"I'm going to stay there and fight, and you gonna have to run me over with your bulldozer!" shouted longtime resident Earl Lewis. And most of the crowd roared its approval.
On the Web
Punalu'u: Dueling Visions
hawaiiislandjournal.com/2006/1104e.html

Top of Page