Kona Three Goes Down: The long and fraught controversy over a housing development proposed more than 40 years ago just south of Kailua-Kona seems to have come to an end. On November 20, the Hawaiʻi County Council voted down a bill on first reading that would have given the landowner and developer, Kona Three, LLC, ten more years to finish the development. The vote was 7-1.
Had it been approved, the developer’s consultant, Daryn Arai, said it would have added 450 units of much-needed housing. Michelle Galimba was the only member of the council who seemed swayed by this promise. All other councilmembers seemed concerned by the lack of infrastructure, traffic, flooding concerns, and the presence of cultural and historic resources.
The bill will come up again for a second, final council vote. The outcome is unlikely to change, given the strong sentiment within the community and in the council against the project.
Meanwhile, the area proposed for development – around 70 acres – has been nominated for purchase by the county through the county’s Public Access, Open Space, and Natural Resources Preservation program.
Dick Cox: We note the passing of Richard Cox, a member of the very first Commission on Water Resource Management. He died at his home in Manoa on August 2, at the age of 103.
A civil engineer, he worked for both McBryde Sugar and Alexander & Baldwin, but he also had a keen interest in environmental issues. He was a charter subscriber of Environment Hawaiʻi and a generous supporter of our work over the years. He also served as president of the Conservation Council for Hawaiʻi. In the area of the arts, he and his brother Doak established the Award for Excellence in the Visual Arts at the Honolulu Museum of Art.
Seabird Suit: On November 19, the Conservation Council for Hawaiʻi and the American Bird Conservancy sued Maui County and Hawaiian Electric to protect endangered and threatened seabirds from being distracted or disoriented by streetlights on Maui and Lāna’i.
The lawsuit seeks to protect the endangered ‘ua‘u (Hawaiian Petrel), the threatened ‘a‘o (Newell’s Shearwater), and the endangered ‘akē‘akē (Hawaiʻi’s unique population of the Band-rumped Storm-petrel), according to a press release by Earthjustice, which represents the two groups.
“All three species leave their nests at night, using the moon and stars to navigate out to sea and back. They can become distracted and disoriented by artificial lights, causing them to circle and eventually fall to the ground from exhaustion (known as ‘fallout’) or strike other human-made structures. Once grounded, the birds cannot become airborne, and typically die of predation, starvation, dehydration, or vehicle strikes. The largest remaining ʻuaʻu colonies nest near the summit of Haleakalā on Maui and at Lānaʻihale on Lāna’i,” the release states.
The utility owns and operates the streetlights on the two islands, while the county “dictates the parameters for streetlight operation on county roads. Under the Endangered Species Act, both the county and Hawaiian Electric are liable for harm to these seabirds, and both must secure permits for unavoidable harm and develop habitat conservation plans for the species,” it continues.
The lawsuit comes just weeks after the groups reached a three-year agreement with the utility, under which it commits to several new measures (i.e., diverters to make the power lines more visible, $480,000 a year for monitoring and enhancement of ʻuaʻu habitat) to reduce the risk of harm to ‘ua‘u and ‘a‘o by power lines on Maui and Lāna’i.
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