Is the Third Time Really Charmed?
The proposed development of 730 acres near Waikoloa Village would seem to be sailing to approvals on greased skids. No EIS required: the bulk of the land is proposed for family farms and is already in the state Ag district. (Never mind that maybe the land, judged “poor” for agriculture, might not yield enough produce for a family, much less for sale at the “food hub” that’s part of the development.) No need to go before the Land Use Commission: the 400-some multifamily units are on a site that is just shy of the 15-acre trigger for LUC involvement.
Nope, none of that. To open the doors to what few permissions are still required, all one need do is say “housing” three times.
No one has yet thought about the water this will require. Not the county, which is comfortable with a “will serve” letter from the water utility. (Thanks to past well permits, it has banked lots of water.) Not the Water Commission, which acts as though the Water Code applies to some other agency. (It refused to answer our questions.)
But the water will have the final say, and if we ignore it long enough, and it gets to the point that the wells run dry when the inevitable fires come, we will all pay the price.
