Developers of West Hawaii Business Park want to build just a small portion of Kamanu Street, rather than the entire roadway, prior to developing a 31-acre parcel of the 95-acre park for an undisclosed buyer.
The modifications to the rezoning ordinance for the business park, south of the Kaloko Light Industrial Park where Costco is located, is scheduled to be heard by the Leeward Planning Commission on Thursday. The Planning Department is recommending approval of the change, which also must go before the County Council for final action.
A single buyer who plans a single use for the entire parcel, rather than subdividing it into smaller lots, means there is no longer a need for the entire Kamanu Street extension be constructed prior to development, said Lanihau Properties president and CEO Riley Smith.
In addition, Smith said, a 2.6-acre site the developer is giving to the county for a regional sewer pump station could also trigger the need to build the road. The acceptance of the dedication deed is currently pending before the County Council.
“As both of these parcels are situated outside of the initial development area, no occupancy permits can be issued without triggering the completion of the entire Kamanu Street Extension across the rezone area, which would be cost prohibitive for these uses,” he said.
Instead, the developers would construct 450 feet of Kamanu Street’s planned 4,000 feet extension to dedicable standards, including the provision of curb, gutter and sidewalks. Once complete, this section of Kamanu Street will connect from the mauka end of the project, through the property to the southern terminus of the Kanalani Street Extension currently under construction at the makai portion of the property via a 20-foot wide, private internal driveway.
Smith said the business park developers aren’t asking to be relived of the responsibility to build Kamanu Street.
“We’re intending to build it. We have to build it before we can subdivide any more lots,” Smith said. “Before any of the other lots can be built we have to build all of Kamanu.”
In 2004, the State Land Use Commission reclassified the site of the West Hawaii Business Park from conservation to urban. That was followed months later by a County Council ordinance that rezoned the area for industrial use, according to documents filed at the Planning Department. But that ordinance included a condition that, other than a 10-acre portion of the property, the extension of Kamanu Street must be built before any lots can be subdivided.
The unfinished Kamanu Street currently extends about 300 feet beyond its intersection with Honokohau Street and picks up again about three quarters of a mile farther north, just above Costco. From there, it continues north to Hina Lani Street.
A 2018 amendment to the rezoning ordinance increased how much land — from 10 acres to 48.4 acres — could be developed before triggering the need to build Kamanu Street. The proposal didn’t change the actual footprint of the business park, just how much could be developed before triggering the road construction requirement. It also left in place the requirement to build Kamanu Street if anything beyond the 48.4-acre area is developed.
