Can a private entity’s petition to designate state lands as Important Agricultural Lands advance without the state’s permission? That question and many others arose last month, when the Land Use Commission met to consider a petition to designate 12,123 acres … Continued
The Water Commission’s June decision and order on water use permits for the Na Wai ‘Ehā surface water management area involved some very big last-minute changes. Mahi Pono, LLC, which a few years ago purchased Alexander & Baldwin’s former sugarcane … Continued
ADC Payout: Among the payments for settlements and judgments authorized by the state Legislature earlier this year was one for $131,849.52, identified as the settlement for a case brought in federal court in 2018. Early that year, the Agribusiness Development Corporation was sued by … Continued
Trying to help meet state food sustainability goals, while facing a lawsuit brought by a former tenant of its lands in North-Central O‘ahu, the state Agribusiness Development Corporation is being extra cautious about negotiating new land licenses for hundreds more … Continued
Big Island Dairy: The cows are gone and the site has been cleaned up, at least to the satisfaction of the state Department of Health. The Big Island Dairy near O‘okala, on the Hamakua Coast of the Big Island, has been … Continued
In April 2017, the state Commission on Water Resource Management voted to adopt the terms of a mediated agreement intended to end the years-long conflicts over the diversion and waste of stream water via the Kokeʻe and Kekaha ditch systems … Continued
It has been more than a year since the Big Island Dairy in Oʻokala, along the Hamakua Coast of the Big Island, shut down. The closure followed a series of disastrous spills of manure into streams that outraged residents and … Continued
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