“What happened to our spring?” asked a neighbor that Koko and I passed on our walk this morning, following a night of heavy rain that brought out the waterfalls on Makaleha, and beneath thick gray clouds that promised — and did indeed deliver — more showers before we returned home.
Hey, rain IS spring. It seems that people have become so accustomed to the drought conditions that now they whine when windward mauka Kauai gets a normal amount of precipitation. I’m so grateful we’re getting all this rain, as I can see it visibly replenishing the island, plus it always makes me happy and puts me in a good mood.
Still, I found myself feeling annoyed when I read today’s article on the Kalihiwai Ridge neighborhood association dropping its contested case hearing against the amphitheater and associated commercial uses on ag land in Kilauea.
Part of it stemmed from seeing attorney Roy Vitousek given extensive space to spout “gag me” platitudes like:
“I have never been part of a project where there has been as much heartfelt, widespread support in the community,” he said.
Perhaps that’s because he’s typically doing stuff like suing the state on behalf of landowners in the conservation district who want to vacation rental their houses — I won’t call them homes, because they’re commercial enterprises — even though they signed agreements when they were given permits to build saying they wouldn’t engage in such uses.
I don’t really have an opinion about the amphitheater, but the developer’s choice of Vitousek, who is always on the wrong side of land use issues, sure raises a red flag.
And part of it stemmed from reading Deputy County Attorney Mauna Kea Trask, who is supposed to be representing the county, and by extension, the public, taking an advocacy position on behalf of the developer:
Trask said the particular area approved for the project was not good for agricultural use, and it was used by the now-defunct Kilauea Sugar as a baseyard to store machinery.
“This was essentially the loudest place in Kilauea, up until Kilauea Sugar went under in the early 1970s,” Trask said.
How do you know that Mauna Kea, when you aren’t a farmer and you weren’t even alive in the early 1970s? And should you really be going public with your project-friendly opinion — or any opinion — when the Planning Commission has yet to make a decision?
Kinda makes it hard to believe that the folks who oppose the project will be given a fair shake at the April 12 meeting. This is the sort of thing that makes the public think, why should I even bother to participate when it sure looks like a done deal?
But then, that’s all par for the (putt putt) course at the Kauai County Attorney’s office and planning department.
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13 comments:
Right on, Joan, you're piecing it together.
If by "piecing it together" you mean finding a conspiracy linking together random, not investigated, fantasy thoughts, then, yes, I think she's got it.
County attorney Trask sounded like his client is the developer to me ? Todays article in TGI made no mention of the KNA Board that was stacked with employees of Bill Porter so he could gain approval for his Amusement park next to Banana Joe's. It also failed to mention that the ousting of the old KRCA Board was initiated by Porters surrugates and his hand picked new board immediately withdrew the intervention just as they planned it. There are so many crooked parties associated with this project whom are willing to stop at nothing to get this project approved. If this happens then the precedent will have been set for Ag & Open Zoned Lands to be developed island wide, just watch because it will happen.
This project does not conform to any of the ordinances as written in the County or the State codes that are supposed to be enforced and protected by the Planning Commission here on Kauai. They said it was zoned for a light industrial park and a strip mall which is only half true and they failed to mention how sucessful that project was either since it was never built. The Kilauea Town Plan and the Kauai General Plan both designeted this parcel, if ever developed, to be used for affordable housing ? Looks as if those two plans are about to be completely ignored if this gets approval somehow.
If that video isn't the work of Kahoon "Camera" Paik I'll eat my hard drive.
Who else could it even be? And who else fits the M.O. of annon. video?
Go ahead, eat your hard drive, Michael.
Yea. Still wondering who Trask works for but I do know he is really wet behind the ears and canʻt see through the big boys that are using and abusing his naivety. He plays right into their plans everytime.
But, he oughtta watch out cause one of these days theyʻre going to cost him his bar license.
So if he wants to keep up a facade heʻs swimming with the big corporates he needs to hope one of them will be there to bail his sissy ass out if he gets slapped with some serious ethics (or other) charges.
Weʻve seen how easy it is for competent attorneys to get tossed off this island so imagine how easy for the pretenders.
"Who else could it even be? And who else fits the M.O. of annon. video?"
anyone with skills and a sense of humor. It was quite amusing.
Here we go again with another County employee,this time Trask showing who he represents...it sure isn't the people of Kauai. Maybe he should take a lesson from Costa, that sooner than later being dumb catches up with you.
Sounds like one of the ousted KRCA board members making more false claims here. Ask some of the long term residents of KR about their past board and you will understand why they were given the boot. Settling the intervention was damage control because the previous board had done such a poor job that KR was going to lose it. Read the transcripts, these guys are ego maniac idiots.
Damage control?? The new board sounds like morons to me,uninformed and certainly not very read on what the the intervention was all about. I am a KR association member and not and never have been a board member but I support what the old board did to hold Porter and the County responsible for trying steam roll this permit through with no plan, building on AG and OPEN land no wonder Costa doesn't have his job any more. This project never should have been approved in the first place. What happened to affordable housing on this site??
What happened to preserving ag land? Shifting ground? Low cost housing or any high density housing has never been seriously considered for this site as it would promote population sprawl outside town limits, leap frogging open ag land. Ten years ago this site was ok'd for a shopping center/light industrial site and scraped to sub soil by the former developer.
It just seems to me that if the so called developer with community in mind would put his effort and money into REALLY doing something constructive...it would be affordable housing. Also you are wrong, this site has been proposed for affordable housing just as recent as six years ago just before the developer bought it. The old so called shopping center was just a few stores that would face Kuhio Hwy, the back portion was to be used for warehouses and other light industrial uses. However as we all know, the past developer had two years and he couldn't do it so it should have reverted back to AG/Open at that time. The downsizing fell through the cracks with the County and just recently was rezoned back to AG/ Open where it should stay. If anything, it should be affordable housing and not amusement on this site.
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