Waimea residents held court for hours Thursday decrying a long-delayed plan to rezone a 5-acre Waimea parcel for commercial development.
For years, developer Ka‘upulehu Land LLC has requested a zoning change for a parcel of land on Mamalahoa Highway in Waimea, about one mile east of its intersection with Kawaihae Road.
That rezoning would allow Ka‘upulehu Land to subdivide the property into eight lots, three of which would be retail and commercial lots fronting the highway, and the remainder would be residential ag lots south of that commercial development.
According to a Hawaii County Planning Department report, those three commercial lots would feature three mixed retail and commercial buildings with a total leasable floor area of about 18,600 square feet, as well as parking spaces accessible by two driveways from the highway.
Ka‘upulehu Land first submitted a request for a similar rezoning plan in June 2021, but withdrew that request in early 2022 after concerns were raised by the Leeward Planning Commission. The request was subsequently resurrected, and the commission voted it through last year with a favorable recommendation.
Since then, the County Council Committee on Legislative Approvals and Acquisitions has repeatedly deferred any action on the proposal — and did so again on Thursday. But the committee’s discussion on the matter was once again punctuated by fervent opposition by residents concerned about the impact of further development within Waimea.
Former Kohala Councilwoman Cindy Evans said the proposed residential ag lots will likely not be affordable housing, and won’t address the island’s housing shortage. At the same time, the commercial side of the proposal could “change the ambience of Waimea,” she said, and the town already has a generally agreed-upon commercial zone that shouldn’t be expanded toward Honokaa for the time being.
“If you want to pave over and build commercial buildings, where are we going to have magic land like this? Because Hawaii has magic land,” said Waimea resident Sharon Olson. “I don’t understand. How many times do you need to hear ‘no’ before you get it? We don’t want this. We don’t want people outside our community deciding what happens to our magic land.”
Other testifiers suggested the proposed development would violate the policies of the South Kohala Community Development Plan — which requires that adequate infrastructure be in place before any commercial projects are developed — and that the traffic impacts of the project would overwhelm an already insufficient road network.
“I live directly across the street from said property … and I own a business … about 200 meters away from the property,” wrote KC Stallsmith. “It is already extremely hard to turn left out of the Kamuela Business Center. … There is so much traffic, I can’t see how more commercial space towards Honokaa side will be any benefit.”
For his part, John Metzler, manager of Ka‘upulehu Land, said he has attempted to meet the wishes of the community. Initial plans for the land would have subdivided the ag lots into much smaller parcels, but those were changed to larger parcels after concerns about density and traffic.
“Here we sit today, with nothing to show for it other than more opposition,” Metzler said.
Councilman James Hustace, whose district includes Waimea, said he is “of two minds” regarding the issue, acknowledging the concerns of the community regarding road and water infrastructure.
“But I see conversations about people moving away, affordability, cost of living, and this is because we are hindering some development in our community, whether that’s housing or business,” Hustace said.
Puna Councilwoman Ashley Kierkiewicz had similar comments.
“We cannot come and say ‘no’ to everything,” she said. “At some point, we need to figure out where development is going to go. Because we’re having babies, and our babies are having babies, and they need housing.”
But the proposal didn’t sit well with other council members. Kona Councilwoman Rebecca Villegas was vehement about the project, arguing that it is primarily a land speculation scheme aimed at driving up the value of the land for the benefit of non-locals.
“The only people we’ve heard testify in support of this project are real estate agents, real estate brokers — of which (Metzler’s family) has become very successful, very wealthy family — their employees, property managers,” Villegas said.
Villegas added that she had also needed 20 minutes to take a left turn at a gas station near the property earlier that day, which bodes ill for any additional commercial development at that location.
Hilo Councilwoman Jenn Kagiwada also said she has a hard time supporting a project that does little to provide either affordable housing or agricultural production. She added that Hilo faces problems of sprawl, with commercial space expanding further out even as existing commercial areas within the town fall into disrepair — something she doesn’t want to see happen elsewhere on the island.
While Metzler and the committee members were loath to postpone the matter any further, the committee ultimately voted unanimously to do so, on the grounds that any amendments they could propose to make the project more acceptable would be too involved to draft during Thursday’s meeting.
Any final vote by the committee will therefore take place at an undetermined future meeting.
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
