URGENT: Stop Hokua Place! Testimony due 9 AM tomorrow, Tuesday Jan 5th

STOP HOKUA PLACE KAPAʻA DEVELOPMENT 

Testimony is due at 9am Tomorrow, Tuesday Jan 5th! 

We are emailing you once again to remind you that if you want to testify in person or submit testimony via email you must submit the request, or testimony, before 9am tomorrow morning, Jan 5th 2021.

Background

Developers are currently attempting to change 96 acres of Agricultural District Land to Urban District Land to build 769 units on the Kapaʻa Bypass Road (across from the church) on the basis of a report that is full of misleading statements, inconsistencies, and incorrect data.  

The developer has presented an inadequate & incomplete Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). The infrastructure, services & waste treatment abilities of the Kapaʻa area cannot accommodate this project and it would majorly compound east side traffic problems. Furthermore, the project is not actually “affordable housing”, despite claims. It is also not a “sustainable” development despite claims in the EIS that it is. This is not the time to be developing these agricultural lands. To top it off there is insufficient water supply and infrastructure solutions to meet the Hokua Place project’s needs. 

Kauaʻi has reached a tipping point. Our infrastructure is over capacity, and failing. It simply cannot sustain this kind of overdevelopment. We should protect our agricultural lands and the kind of future we want for our keiki. Aging and overstressed infrastructure is present all around us and is evident when we sit in excessive traffic delays, drive on roads that are in disrepair, when sewage overflows into the ocean, when or our school classrooms are overcrowded, and our coral reefs and environment buckle under the stress of over development. 

What Can you do? 

·      Email Testimony by 9am tomorrow morning, Jan 5th 2021 to LUC Chief Clerk, Riley Hakoda, riley.k.hakoda@hawaii.gov Subject: Hokua Place, LUC Docket No. A11-791/HG

·      Email and request to testify virtually at the hearing, January 6 & 7 at 9am. 

The most important thing would be to testify (virtually) for this upcoming hearing against changing these 96-acres of Agricultural District land to Urban! 

Because of COVID there will be no in-person testimony.

Sample Testimony from our Kauaʻi Community Organizer  

NOTE: Testimony is always best in your own words. Include where you are from on Kauaʻi and personal concerns about how this project would impact you and your family’s future. You can also use or expand upon the following concerns that have been addressed by Fern:

Aloha Land Use Commission,

I was born and raised in Kapaʻa and live immediately up the road from the 96 acres of Agricultural District Land that this proposal is requesting be redesignated as Urban District Land to accommodate the 769 units that make up Hokua Place.

I kindly and respectfully ask that you do not change the designation of these lands from agriculture to urban for the proposed Hokua Place development. I am in strong opposition to the development of Hokua Place in this location and feel that it will personally impact my day-to-day life given my close proximity and dependency on the Kapaʻa Bypass Road.

The developer has already presented an inadequate and incomplete Environmental Impact Statement using old and outdated data which fails to assess the entire picture or include additional already approved projects in the Kapaʻa area. The report was full of misleading statements, inconsistencies and incorrect data.

This project is not a true affordable housing project nor is it likely to provide average Kauaʻi income earners with homes. Hokua Place is proposed because the developer claimed Kauaʻi needs housing, but this is not the type of housing we need! In the EIS they make this claim about the need for this project yet fail to include in their assessment the hundreds of houses already approved or being built which do not require redistricting these agricultural lands or building Hokua Place, some of which are affordable housing projects.

As a resident, daily commuter and lifelong local I can tell you with certainty that the infrastructure in this area cannot accommodate this development. Our roads are already heavily overburdened with traffic and in poor condition. Adding 769 homes mauka of the Kapaʻa Bypass Road will turn the ‘Kapaʻa crawl’ into a parking lot. The solutions proposed in the EIS to address traffic concerns are unrealistic and inadequate.

There is limited wastewater capacity in Wailua. The Wailua Wastewater Treatment Plant and Transfer Station have already been fined multiple times by the State of Hawaiʻi for overflows and spill violations. This infrastructure is old and in need of repair before this additional project should even be considered.

The paving of roads and pouring of the concrete for Hokua Place will clearly add additional burden to an already overburdened overland flow drainage system.

Fresh water access to this area is also limited and the current proposed source would rely on Grove Farms Waiahi Surface Water Treatment Plant and there are already existing concerns with this facilities ability to provide water into the future including the absence of a NPDS wastewater permit with the State of Hawaiʻi since May 2016. There is also ongoing litigation relating to the un-permitted taking of water from streams within adjacent conservation areas that feed into the Waiahi Plant.  In addition, the water plant is already at or near capacity.

Personally, I really believe that Kauaʻi has reached a tipping point.  Our infrastructure is over capacity and failing and it simply cannot sustain this kind of overdevelopment in this area. 

Aging and overstressed infrastructure is present all around the area being considered and is evident as we sit in excessive traffic delays, drive on roads that are in disrepair, when sewage overflows into the ocean, when our school classrooms are overcrowded and our coral reefs and environment buckle under the stress of overdevelopment or development in which infrastructure needs and thoughtful planning aren’t considered first.

Furthermore, more than ever, we have recently realized that we need to be protecting and preserving agricultural lands in each ahupuaʻa. Now more than ever we should be seriously reconsidering changes to designation and developing in areas already marked for urban and where infrastructure is built to suit.

I strongly feel that this project will endanger my quality of life on the east side of Kauaʻi and our community’s future. Please oppose the re-designation of this area from agriculture to urban and reject the proposed Hokua Place development.

Sincere gratitude & kind regards,

--

Fern Anuenue Holland BSc

Hawai`i Alliance for Progressive Action

Community Organizer