{"id":15923,"date":"2024-05-01T06:21:55","date_gmt":"2024-05-01T16:21:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.environment-hawaii.org\/?p=15923"},"modified":"2024-05-01T07:54:26","modified_gmt":"2024-05-01T17:54:26","slug":"new-noteworthy-chabad-house-ka%ca%bbanapali-permits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/?p=15923","title":{"rendered":"New & Noteworthy: Chabad House, K\u0101\u02bbanapali Permits"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Chabad House:<\/strong> Hawai\u02bbi County\u2019s 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 Chabad Center and Rabbi Lei Gerlitzsky sued the county in federal court, alleging the county Planning Department\u2019s notices of violations of its rules amounted to a \u201csubstantial burden on Plaintiffs\u2019 free-exercise rights.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On March 29, the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice filed a \u201cStatement of Interest in Support of Plaintiffs\u2019 Motion for Preliminary Injunction.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Referencing the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), the government attorneys write that the plaintiffs \u201chave established a prima facie RLUIPA equal terms violation by identifying unequal zoning requirements in the language of the Zoning Code.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On April 9, the parties filed with the court a proposed order to grant temporary relief to the plaintiff pending settlement, under which the county agreed not to act on any notice of violation or enforce any requirement that religious meetings be permitted. An early settlement conference was scheduled to be held April 30.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(For background, see the article <\/a>in the March edition of Environment Hawai\u02bbi.<\/em>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ICA Boating Decision: <\/strong>On April 29, t<\/strong>he Intermediate Court of Appeals ruled\u00a0<\/strong>that the issuance or renewal of six K\u0101\u02bbanapali commercial use permits by the state Department of Land and Natural Resources constitutes an action under the Hawai\u02bbi Environmental Policy Act (Chapter 343 of Hawai\u02bbi Revised Statutes).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The decision did not address whether a permittee is exempt from preparing an environmental assessment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

N\u00e2 Papa\u02bbi W\u00e2wae \u02bbUla\u02bbUla, Randal Draper, and the non-profit West Maui Preservation Association appealed a 2019 2nd Circuit Court final judgment that the DLNR\u2019s permitting system was not subject to the state\u2019s environmental review process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to a press release by the plaintiffs\u2019 attorney, Lance Collins, \u201cIn 2017, West Maui shoreline and Native Hawaiian groups sued the [DLNR] over its permitting system of commercial tour boat operators that launch from K\u0101’anapali. Of particular concern to the groups was the discharge of wastewater into nearshore waters, the misuse of required public beach access parking at hotels by tour operator customers and the danger of thrillcraft and large vessels striking paddler, surfers and divers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ICA found that the permits “facilitated a deliberate and coordinated effort for each permittee to engage in commercial activity in Ka’anapali waters for profit through the use of authorized equipment such as thrill craft and other vessels, procedures and techniques.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The press release adds that victory \u201cis somewhat bittersweet as two of the community members who led the push to get comprehensive environmental review of Ka’anapali tour boat operators have since passed, Randy Draper of Na Papa’i Wawae ‘Ula’ula and Sharyn Matin of the West Maui Preservation Association.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ICA vacated the Circuit Court\u2019s decision and remanded the case for further proceedings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15924,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[338,17,524],"tags":[7,3],"class_list":["post-15923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-land-use","category-marine","category-may-2024","tag-patricia-tummons","tag-teresa-dawson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}