Make it Better
Make it Better
It could’ve been worse
In the late 1980s, Kohanaiki (aka “Pine Trees”) was threatened with resort development, including a marina. The Kohanaiki Ohana, with over 1,000 community members and Angel Pilago as president, won a decade of battles culminating in the precedent-setting PASH Supreme Court decision. The development was stopped, but the land remained resort zoned. The county wouldn’t foreclose on the tax-delinquent landowner, and a philanthropic buyer couldn’t be found.
Despite it’s successes, the community now agonizes over losses and daily transgressions wreaked upon it by Kohanaiki Shores LLC, which, according to latest online information, includes Discovery Land Company, owner/developer of Kukio. It remains unclear who partners of Kohanaiki Shores are, but a principal of an earlier owner appears to be.
The Kohanaiki Ohana remains a vigilant community watchdog, while self-proclaimed “Lewis and Clark-inspired” landowners create “product” adjacent to critical shoreline. Still, disturbing actions have occurred since the so-called Good Faith Agreement was hashed out between county, developer, and the community. Much of that agreement is difficult for the community to understand, partly because, in 2003, it was proclaimed to be such a great deal for the public. The worst part: instead of a 109-acre public space, the community got 38 acres – an even farther cry from the 500-acre recreational and cultural preserve for which the community tirelessly fought. And a touted 680-foot average shoreline setbacks turned into a private golf course encroaching up to 40 feet from the shoreline in some places, a large part of it road. The weirdest twist is that the golf course will become “public land” when the park is dedicated to the county. Yes, you’ll own it, but you’ll be shut out of it for the pleasure of those who can afford to buy Shores of Kohanaiki homes. But don’t despair, there will be that hard-won, one-day-a-week public play.
Constructing model homes and members-only restaurant before the community park was finished was one in a series of corporate stabs to the community heart; and being on view from the poke-in-the-eye berm adds to what’s starting to feel like a community “fishbowl”. Grateful that a little elevation was shaved off the barely legal berms? Kinda.
Though not self-motivated good neighbors, the landowners have choices that could make life more bearable for the people who’ve depended upon that single stretch of coastline for the health, recreation, safety, education, subsistence, and balance for generations. They can stop squeezing the community into the insufficient coastal strip. They could restore the golf course to its natural condition—give the public promised breathing room.
This would never have happened under Kona Community Development Plan, which requires minimum 1,000-foot development setbacks on coastal land.
Parking opportunities are severely limited. How about Kohanaiki Shores allows vehicles and parking south of the surfing bay for day and overnight use (not just six camping sites to the north) all the way to the south end, as it’s been for five decades? A dead-end turnaround discourages public use of another huge portion of “our” land. But, we’re told, there are sensitive sites over there. As one kanaka maoli told me, there are significant archeological sites everywhere at Kohanaiki. That south part is depended upon for camping, fishing, and other subsistence activities, and if access is denied there, then the whole development should be shut down.
Environmentally, it’s bogus to claim driving vehicles on the jeep road comes close to being as damaging as toxic runoff from an 18-hole golf course and 500 chemical-laden homescapes (and vehicles).
A Kohanaiki Shores representative said, “We have permits to do it this way.” Solution? Get a new permit. The landowners have been able to manipulate, revise, and do just about everything short of getting rid of the public completely. And compared to being allowed to use the purest water on the golf course — instead of wastewater as per original agreement — getting permission to leave the southern end of the jeep road open should be a piece of cake.
When the loss of the most cherished, embattled, and sadly sacrificed bit of perfectly unimproved shoreline is gone forever as the community knew and loved it, it’s hard not to be cynical.
But hope remains that the public, as well as the kamaina representatives of Discovery Land Company, will keep pushing the company to do better, especially since the time for doing that is perilously short.
Janice Palma-Glennie
Kailua-Kona