It is April 2022. A worker at the Salvation Army center in Lahaina receives a visit from a young woman living high in Kauaʻula Valley seeking entry for her family into the organization’s homeless shelter. The Salvation Army worker notifies … Continued
Kauaʻi Mosquito Control: In a desperate effort to stave off the extinction of Kauaʻi forest birds, the state Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Division of Forestry and Wildlife is resorting to aerial spraying of Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (Bti) as … Continued
“Lanakila Housing, it’s okay for a while.” — Ehukai The low-income project on around 29 acres in the center of Hilo Town may be one of the few ever immortalized — though hardly celebrated – in Hawaiian song. From the … Continued
The Hawaʻi Public Housing Authority has partnered with Highridge Costa to develop more than 10,000 new units of affordable housing statewide, including 250 on the Lanakila IV site. And it hopes to have all the issues regarding contamination resolved quickly. … Continued
The entire Lanakila Homes project in Hilo was developed on about 29 acres of land that, from the 1870s until the 1940s, was in active sugar cultivation. The use of the land for sugar explains the high levels of arsenic … Continued
Mauna Kea Access Road: The Hawaiʻi Supreme Court has overturned a Circuit Court ruling that had dismissed the challenge to the state’s claim that the Mauna Kea Access Road was a state highway, delivering a harsh rebuke to the lower … Continued
On May 8, the Land Use Commission met on Maui to receive an update on a project that first received LUC approval more than three decades ago. Initially, more than 1,700 homes were proposed for what was called Puʻukoliʻi Village, … 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