March 2008

A dispute over how to allocate affordable housing credits accumulated by Nansay when it owned the Puako was settled only last year after years of litigation involving Nansay, Bridge `Aina Le`a, and the County of Hawai`i. In the early 1990s, … Continued

Late last year, Bridge `Aina Le`a announced it would be preparing an environmental impact statement for a development planned for some 3,000 acres of land at Puako, on the western side of the island of Hawai`i. Yet for two years, … Continued

In the two decades since development was first proposed for some 3,000 acres inland of Puako Bay on the western Kohala coast of the Big Island, plans have changed frequently – and radically. Initial plans, put forward in the late … Continued

The critical need for parking in Kapahulu just couldn’t beat the need to replenish the coffers of the Department of Land and Natural Resources’ dwindling Land Development Special Fund, which is the sole source of funding for the Land Division, … Continued

Last November, in an effort to obtain hard information about the sponsorship of the puwalu by the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council, Environment Hawai`i submitted a formal Freedom of Information Act request to the council. The request did not ask … Continued

This article has been corrected. In the original story, Environment Hawai`i printed a misstatement that `aha kiole meetings had been held in O`ahu’s Ko`olaupoko district. For more than a year, environmental and native Hawaiian activists have accused the Ho`ohanohano I … Continued

The land proposed for development as the Villages of `Aina Le`a is covered for the most part with scrub. When botanist Evangeline Funk surveyed the area in 1991, she found fountain and buffel grass, mesquite trees, and koa haole – … Continued