Last month, the Hawai‘i County Leeward Planning Commission voted unanimously to approve the application of Kupunakane Ranch, LLC, dba Puakea Ranch, to run a hotel on 14.9 acres of land in the state Agricultural District in North Kohala. Plans call … Continued
Danny Julkowski threw himself on the mercy of the Leeward Planning Commission of Hawai‘i County last month. And as sympathetic as the commissioners were to his plight, their mercy was more limited. Julkowski was asking the commissioners to recommend that the … Continued
On August 13, the state Land Use Commission unanimously approved a petition from Hawaiʻi County for a declaratory order confirming that short-term vacation rentals (STVR) are not acceptable uses of farm dwellings in the Agricultural District. The commission also denied … Continued
On August 13, the state Land Use Commission voted to grant Hawaiʻi County’s petition for a declaratory ruling that short-term vacation rentals are not allowed for dwellings in the state Agricultural District. In so doing, it agreed with the county’s … Continued
Cell Tower Challenge: AT&T is suing Hawai‘i County in federal court over the denial of a permit to erect a cell phone tower in Puna. The complaint was filed July 2 in federal district court in Honolulu against the county … Continued
On May 20, the state Agribusiness Development Corporation’s board of directors approved a new water user agreement that will require anyone drawing from the agency’s Bott Well Pump Station to pay $0.89 per thousand gallons. The well, which has a … Continued
On the occasion of completing 30 years of continuous publication – a mile- stone that will be attained in June – Environment Hawai‘i will be reprinting from time to time articles that we believe display the breadth and the depth of the … Continued
For years, Wailuku Water Company (WWC) has been trying to get Maui County to take over its irrigation system. Maui mayors have repeatedly included in their proposed budgets $9.5 million to purchase the company’s lands and infrastructure, but the County … Continued
The state Agribusiness Development Corporation (ADC) is at crossroads. Is it going to be strict a landlord that terminates land licenses for repeated non-compliance, or is it going to do whatever it can to help those small farmers — who … Continued
More than a year after the Hawai`i Supreme Court heard oral arguments, it has issued its decision in Patrickson v. Dole, a case that revolves around harm to Central American workers exposed to DBCP, or dibromochloropropane. That chemical was widely … Continued