Keeping the Country Country: Last month, Ikaika Anderson, chair of the Honolulu City Council’s Zoning and Planning Committee, proposed gutting all references in the draft Ko`olau Loa Sustainable Communities Plan (KLSCP) to a new residential community in Malaekahana.
In his February 13 letter to committee clerk Gail Murayama, Anderson attached about two dozen proposed amendments to Bill 47, which recommends the adoption of a KLSCP revised by the city Department of Planning and Permitting in December 2012. The plan will serve as the city’s guide for development decisions for the district over the next 25 years.
The current version of the plan, conditionally approved by the Honolulu Planning Commission in 2013, includes controversial amendments to the urban growth boundary and the overall vision for the region to accommodate the building of an entirely new town on what is now agricultural land in Malaekahana. The amendments largely reflect the development plan known commonly as Envision La`ie, largely developed by Hawai`i Reserves, Inc., which manages property owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
Among other things, Anderson’s proposed amendments call for the removal of all references to Malaekahana in sections of the plan dealing with residential growth, and commercial and industrial centers. He also proposed deleting all references to a proposed mauka road intended to connect La`ie and Kahuku to the proposed new development in Malaekahana.
Also with regard to Malaekahana, Anderson recommends that the plan’s Land Use, Open Space, and Public Facilities maps retain the growth boundaries set in the October 1999 KLSCP.
An additional proposal to amend Bill 47 was expected from committee member Ernie Martin, who represents the Ko`olau Loa district, but it had not been posted as of press time.
The committee was tentatively scheduled to hear Bill 47 on March 5. (For background on the evolution of the KLSCP, see our May 2013 issue, available at www.environment-hawaii.org.)
More Trouble for `Aina Le`a: Developers of the stalled Villages of `Aina Le`a project in South Kohala are being sued yet again by the chief contractor on the project, Goodfellow Bros., Inc. The contractor first sued the developer in 2011, claiming it was owed more than $2 million for work it had performed at the site, including grading, site preparation, and construction.
The case went to arbitration, and `Aina Le`a was instructed to pay Goodfellow nearly $3 million. `Aina Le`a asked for a reconsideration of the arbitrator’s findings, and in late 2012, that resulted in an even greater award to the contractor as a result of increased attorney’s fees and costs. In early 2013, judgment against `Aina Le`a was entered in favor of Goodfellow.
To date, `Aina Le`a has paid off less than a third of the amount owed.
On January 15, Goodfellow Bros. sued for relief in 3rd Circuit Court. What sets this filing apart from earlier ones is the long recitation of the various name changes `Aina Le`a has undergone in recent years.
Named as defendants are `Aina Le`a, LLC; its manager, Robert Wessels; `Aina Le`a, Inc., a Nevada corporation; `Aina Le`a, Inc., a Delaware corporation; and `Aina Le`a Real Estate Investment Fund, LLC.
Never Say Die: Charles Barker III, whose efforts to revitalize a fuel pipeline at the port of Hilo were the subject of a recent article in these pages, has filed his “second motion for reconsideration of dismissal of plaintiff’s third amended complaint” in a federal lawsuit filed two years ago against former business partners.
The filing, made on February 6, asks for reconsideration on the basis of his having identified three new “Roe” defendants in the complicated case, which was dismissed in January.
For a brief description of Barker’s claims, see the article in the January issue of Environment Hawai`i.