On the morning of April 24, outside the courtroom of 1st Circuit Judge Jon Tonaki, the relief was palpable. Judge Tonaki had just granted Wayne and Tara Hu’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed against them six months earlier by … Continued
Above photo: Heavy earth-moving equipment is parked next to a posted notice that this is an albatross nesting area. CREDIT: DLNR. On April 26, the state Board of Land and Natural Resources heard presentations from the heads of the Department of Land … Continued
Chabad House: Hawaiʻi County’s efforts to force the Chabad Jewish Center of the Big Island to obtain a use permit in order to hold services at a home in Kailua are unlikely to succeed. As we reported in March, the … Continued
In all the hand-wringing over the lack of affordable housing in Hawaiʻi, the state Land Use Commission is often held out as the whipping boy. Obtaining approvals for redistricting land into the Urban District can be a long and involved … Continued
The term of Honolulu attorney Gary Okuda on the state Land Use Commission has ended. But even as his time on the commission was running out, his frustration with developers who do everything but develop seems to have increased, even … Continued
On April 1, the City & County of Honolulu filed in federal court a motion to dismiss claims by the Marconi Point Condominiums’ developer that the Department of Planning and Permitting improperly decided several years ago that a Special Management … Continued
Forefeiture: Six acres of Kona land acquired by disgraced former Hawaiʻi County housing staffer Alan Rudo and his three associates through the use of affordable housing credits acquired by deceit are now being offered for sale. The asking price is … Continued
After years of complaints from members of the public, the Honolulu Department of Planning and Permitting has begun to crack down on illegal farm dwelling and other development at the Marconi Point Condominiums on Oʻahu’s North Shore. In late March … Continued
FKW Trigger Lowered: The National Marine Fisheries Service has reduced the level of observer coverage in the deep-set longline fishery of Hawaiʻi. And as the level of observer coverage is lowered, so, too, is the number of false killer whales … Continued
Hawaiʻi County and its planning director, Zendo Kern, are being sued by a rabbi and the religious organization that employs him. The lawsuit alleges that the fines the county has imposed over the use of his Kona home for religious … Continued