After impassioned support from community members, a pair of Keaukaha restaurants have been spared eviction and won’t be replaced by a car dealership in two years.
In September, the Hawaii County Windward Planning Commission approved a request by Aloha Kia to rezone a property at 92 Kalanianaole St. to allow the dealership to move from its current location on Kanoelehua Avenue.
That property, however, is also the home of two restaurants, Millie’s Deli and Snack Shop and New Saigon Restaurant — as well as medical equipment wholesaler R&M Reyes Enterprise — none of whom were informed of the plans until a County Council meeting on the matter in November.
Following that revelation, the council voted in November to postpone the rezoning request until Wednesday’s meeting, during which scores of residents urged the council to deny the dealership’s request and allow the restaurants to stay on the property.
Millie’s owner Laurie Tavares said she opened her restaurant in 2005, pursuing a dream of “selling shave ice and hot dogs to kids across the street” at Reeds Bay. If the dealership was allowed to be built, she said, her business would close its doors permanently in November 2025.
Tavares repeated a verse from Joni Mitchell’s 1970 song “Big Yellow Taxi:” “They paved paradise to put up a parking lot.”
New Saigon owner Hoa To and her niece, Christine Nguyen, also appeared to urge the council to deny the dealership’s request, as did dozens of other community members.
Susan Champeny, president of the Leleiwi Community Association, said Millie’s and New Saigon are two of only a few restaurants in the area, which she referred to as a “food desert.” Allowing the restaurants to be replaced by a car dealership, she said, would be “actively hostile to the community.”
Many testifiers argued that a car dealership would detract from the natural beauty of the area, located across from Reeds Bay and near Banyan Drive.
“Local people depend on these two businesses for easy-to-reach food security and recreational water use,” wrote Charles Hutchinson. “Plus it is in one of the more beautiful parts of Hilo, which also serves as a new tourist introduction to our area. Nothing says ‘welcome to our beautiful area’ more than car lots.”
Aloha Kia representatives tried to argue that their presence on the property would comply with the county’s General Plan, and would include appropriate landscaping to create a clean and attractive presence at the site.
Land consultant John Pippin said Aloha Kia is in a similarly difficult position, because the dealership is also reaching the end of its current lease, with “virtually no other sites” in Hilo that can accommodate the business, and that the Kalanianaole property was decided upon after years of site surveys.
Aloha Kia Regional Vice President Russ Wong said the dealership has been in Hilo and has provided “a lot of community benefit” by supporting the local economy.
Pippin added that denying Aloha Kia’s request does not stop the landowner, Chris Tamm, from selling the property to another buyer in the future.
“Killing this bill does not ensure Millie’s remains,” Pippin said, urging the council to not vote to preserve one business over another.
But council members were unmoved by the dealership’s arguments. North Kona Councilman Holeka Inaba rebuked Pippin, telling him “Don’t caution us against making a decision it is within our power to make.”
Inaba went on to say the concept of “public benefit” means more than just filling the county’s coffers.
Hilo Councilwomen Sue Lee Loy and Jenn Kagiwada launched impassioned defenses of their communities. Lee Loy said Keaukaha is always forced to make concessions to industrial development — most recently including a planned expansion of Hilo Harbor — that often take place without the consent or notification of the community.
“This is homestead land,” Lee Loy said. “We can’t let it be gentrified like this.”
Kagiwada, choking back tears, told the Aloha Kia representatives that their situation could have been avoided if Hilo had any kind of community action group that would have told them years ago what they said Wednesday: “They don’t want it.”
All nine council members voted to deny the dealership’s request.
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
